New MapServer Demo (feedback requested)

[Steve Lime]

I wonder if a demo really becomes a series of how-to's, some of which already exist. Those
that require data would could be developed against a common dataset.

Steve

>>> On 1/3/2008 at 2:27 PM, in message <477D453C.2000101 at umn.edu>, "Pericles S.
Nacionales" <naci0002 at UMN.EDU> wrote:
> Steve,
> 
> My $0.02...  a good tutorial should provide installation 
> instructions--how to get MapServer working on different platforms.  But 
> this alone can be very complicated as there are various things to 
> consider within each platform.  In Windows, for example, you can write 
> something for MS4W (which is simple as MS4W itself is configured to work 
> right of the box), for Apache, and for IIS.  In Linux, there's FGS and 
> other packages to consider but there are also differences in different 
> distributions.  You can write a generic installation instructions but 
> that generally make sense only to people who are familiar with their 
> particular system.  Many new users might still have a hard time 
> following through that instructions.
> 
> I think what we've been doing in terms of examples (in workshops) is 
> good--separate map files, HTML templates, other client interface 
> examples, and related technologies.  Beyond that, I think we can provide 
> links to other tutorials/demo from these other packages.  You can also 
> provide examples of your strategies in optimizing MapServer performance, 
> how to use different data connection types (PostGIS/Oracle, WxS, etc.), 
> and the other supported OGC specifications supported in MapServer.
> 
> As for demo data, that's a tough one.  Maybe you can have different 
> levels of data quality--small scale vector and raster data (maybe 
> country boundaries and MODIS raster), medium scale (i.e. a 
> state/province or a small country) with good highways and political 
> boundaries, and large scale data (cadastral data, but where would you 
> get example you can make available publicly?).  Having these levels 
> should provide good coverage of MapServer's capabilities.  Or make it 
> simple enough so that anyone can plug in their own data and work with it.
> 
> I guess if you cover all these, you have yourself a book.  Let me know 
> how I can help.
> 
> -Perry
> 
> Steve Lime wrote:
>> Hi all: I've got some time to put together a new demo for MapServer and 
> would to get feedback from
>> the community on what it should look like. Currently there are a number of 
> options out there but none
>> of them are very comprehensive. Demos that I know about include:
>>
>>   - the Itasca demo application (came out of the MUM1 meeting): 
> http://maps.dnr.state.mn.us/mapserver_demos/workshop-5.0/ 
>>   - Perry Nacionales' MapServer tutorial: 
> http://biometry.gis.umn.edu/tutorial/ 
>>   - Mobile Geographics' MapServer Recipies: 
> http://www.mobilegeographics.com/mapserver/ 
>>   - MN DNR MapServer Test Suite: 
> http://maps.dnr.state.mn.us/mapserver_demos/tests46/ 
>>   - Various MS4W packages: http://www.maptools.org/ms4w/index.phtml 
>>
>> There are of course lots of questions:
>>
>>   - should a demo be installable, hosted or both
>>   - what data should it use
>>   - should it cover just MapServer configuration (e.g. mapfiles)
>>   - should it cover installation as well or should that be left to how-to's
>>   - what relationship to other packages (e.g. OpenLayers, TileCache, Ka-map) 
> should be demo'd
>>
>> Any feedback would be much appreciated. 
>>
>> Steve
>>   
>>