[mapserver-users] MapServer reference/demo mapfile and data

Wed Aug 13 07:00:30 PDT 2014

Natural Earth [1] may be a good dataset to pull from.  It is well maintained and has good attributes.  It is global, so  a little less US>MN focused, and the terms of use explicitly state Public Domain.

1.       http://www.naturalearthdata.com/

From: mapserver-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:mapserver-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Rahkonen Jukka (Tike)
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 3:56 AM
To: Lime, Steve D (MNIT); 'MapserverList OSGEO'
Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] MapServer reference/demo mapfile and data

Hi,

I also like a bunch of small demos better than one massive that covers everything. OSM vectors are one alternative but there are only string attributes in OSM data. Also all that would  be created from the demo layers should be marked with "Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors" and mixing with own data could make also the own data as ODbL licenced in some circumstances if the mix is presented for public. Personally I would prefer data who are in public domain.

I would like to still see the ”topp:states” from the Geoserver demos included so there would be one dataset that could be used for comparing  Mapserver and Geoserver.

http://demo.opengeo.org/geoserver/wms?REQUEST=GetMap&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&WIDTH=505&HEIGHT=346&LAYERS=topp%3Astates&TRANSPARENT=TRUE&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&BBOX=-125,16,-64,58&SRS=EPSG:4326&STYLES=

What is good is that the coverage of topp:states is big enough and it shows also in global BBOX
http://demo.opengeo.org/geoserver/wms?REQUEST=GetMap&SERVICE=WMS&VERSION=1.1.1&WIDTH=505&HEIGHT=346&LAYERS=topp%3Astates&TRANSPARENT=TRUE&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&BBOX=-180,-90,180,90&SRS=EPSG:4326&STYLES=

As a somewhat experienced bug hunter I would pay rather lot attention to  attributes. The topp:states does have many attributes to use for testing filters/expressions and styles but the schema is not rich at all, just strings and doubles

http://demo.opengeo.org/geoserver/wfs?SERVICE=WFS&VERSION=1.0.0&request=DescribeFeatureType&typename=topp:states

For my own demo server I have created some simple datasets for points, multipoints, lines, multilines, polygons and multipolygons.
http://hip.latuviitta.org/cgi-bin/tinyows?service=wfs&version=1.0.0&request=describefeaturetype&typename=lv:editable_multipolygons

All those layers have properties of type string, integer, double, date, and datatime. In addition they have one attribute which is a string but all the values are plain numbers and some of those with leading zeroes. Perhaps the layers could contain also some other common traps:
- tricky but still standard compliant attribute names
- non-ascii chararters in layer names and data – anybody tried to write OGC filters of http URLs for such beasts?
- lower and upper case characters in data – do you believe that case sensitive/insensitive filters always work as supposed?
- something that exceeds the limits of shapefiles: more than 10 characters in column names, longer the 255 character strings

The developers could do some brainstorming as well: what kind of questions and bug reports you would like to receive from Mapserver users and how to support that goal with the demo datasets. What is important is that it should be very easy for users and developers to use the same data and same layers should be possible to access also from live services. See for example this Geoserver issue https://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GEOS-6604?

The bit tricky vendor options which I was testing with local service can be tested also online with
http://demo.opengeo.org/geoserver/wms?BBOX=44.3115939344240175,-103.93616932504362182,44.55018319949628136,-103.57561215835877988&CRS=EPSG:4326&QUERY_LAYERS=topp:states,og:streams&SERVICE=WMS&HEIGHT=714&REQUEST=GetFeatureInfo&STYLES=&I=775&J=246&WIDTH=1079&FEATURE_COUNT=10&VERSION=1.3.0&FORMAT=image/png&LAYERS=topp:states,og:streams&propertyName=%28STATE_NAME%29%28cat%29

-Jukka Rahkonen-

Lime, Steve D wrote:

I think an updated demo is long overdue, something that could be branched at the same rate as the source itself. We have the basemap work that Thomas did but it’s probably too complex for the new user. Personally I’ve always been drawn to the OpenLayers approach with very targeted demos and code snippets that showcase functionality. I think the same could be done for MapServer. Simple examples like configuring a OGR layer, projecting a layer or drawing specialized symbology would seem very useful. Users could combine the techniques necessary to address more complex needs.

In terms of data the Itasca datasets would be fine as one source but the demo itself is very dated and doesn’t show off a typical use of the software any more. I’m ambivalent about leveraging outside datasets although doing so might make comparisons easier. Using OSM vectors might be a good option. Although with simple examples the data are not so important in most cases.

Maybe we start a mapserver.demo repo on github?

Steve

From: mapserver-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:mapserver-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> [mailto:mapserver-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Rahkonen Jukka (Tike)
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2014 9:13 AM
To: 'MapserverList OSGEO'
Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] MapServer reference/demo mapfile and data

Hi,

Great idea. How about trying to show that the “OSGeo umbrella” could mean something real? Geoserver has a set of vectors and rasters in the “data_dir” directory of the standard delivery and I believe that the IP rights of those have been checked. Deegree has also four demo workspaces and download links seem to be here http://download.deegree.org/documentation/3.2.2/html/lightly.html.  For my mind using the same demo datasets than at least one other project would be better than having our own. I volunteer to help with writing/testing the mapfiles.

-Jukka Rahkonen-

Tamas Szekeres wrote:

Hi All,

I'm about to extend my MapServer IIS installer with some optional mapfile/data to demonstrate that the installed application is working. Do we have some kind of official demo/data for MapServer which is expected to work with all mapserver versions? In my understanding that kind of data should also coexist in github (just like for msautotest) with the corresponding branches and the map configuration(s)/data should always be adjusted according to the recent changes in the MapServer codebase.

For example the itasca demo would be a good candidate, but it doesn't seem work with the current MapServer release due to the configured ANNOTATION layers.

Such kind of up to date demo should also go to osgeo4w which has already been supported with the latest stable/daily builds of MapServer.

Best regards,

Tamas

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