[mapserver-users] Graticule and Map Frame strategies

[Brent Fraser]

Bob,

  My thought is to have a core set of generic functions to calculate the location of the graphic primitives (points lines, polygons) given the specification parameters for a surround object.   For example to get the graphics for a graticule, call:

graphicPrimatives *SurroundCreateGraticule( polygon *mapShape, srs *mapSRS, gratSpec *MyGratSpec);

These functions would do the hard work, and be portable (C? C++?), maybe even Swig-able.

These would likely be wrapped in a application-specific function to make the results consumable to the application (Mapserver, Scribus, etc).  For MapServer, this might be a loop in a msSurroundLayerNextShape function to iterate through the graphic primatives.  Hopefully the application would know what to do with the graphics (render to the page, etc).

And we'd likely need a set of functions to populate the parameter structures (containing tick length, font size, etc).  


Just some random architecture thoughts...

Brent Fraser


Bob Basques wrote:
> Brent,
> 
> We basically came to the same conclusions, although I think there is
> also the potential for combining seamless overlay with the surround
> method as well.  I still keep looking inside of MapServer too, but just
> can't seem to come up with a flexible method of building anything.
> 
> The surround method is on my list, but it's down a ways.  :c)
> 
> bobb
> 
> 
> 
>>>> Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> 12/11/08 1:00 PM >>>
> Roger,
> 
>   I asked a similar question last year
> (http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2007-September/002349.html).
> 
>   Landon Blake and I (and others) came to the conclusion that the answer
> was to create a "map surround" library suitable for wrapping as a
> plug-in to various generic publishing/compositing applications (such as
> Inkscape, Scribus, ReportLab, etc) and possibly some desktop GIS apps
> (uDig, Quantum, gvSig, OpenJump, etc).
> 
>   While I still believe that's the ultimate answer, I find myself going
> back to Mapserver's mappdf.c (and mapgraticule.c, etc), and speculating
> on enhancements to give Mapserver the capability right out of the box.
> 
> Brent Fraser
> GeoAnalytic Inc.
> 
> 
> Roger André wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I'm curious what options have been explored to create tick marks, 
>> graticules and outside-of-map symbology?  I'm currently investigating 
>> the use of Matplotlib as a compositer to draw on top of a 
>> Mapserver-generated image, and while I think this will give nice
> looking 
>> results, the speed of the process is quite slow, probably because 
>> Matplotlib deconstructs the Mapserver image with PIL and works with it
> 
>> as a numpy array. 
>>
>> I'm interested in hearing about any other tools that allow for the
> same 
>> sort of "drawing on top of" strategy, preferrably ones with API's.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Roger
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