[mapserver-users] GSoC 2014 - ScribeUI: MapServer Mapfile Development Made Easy

[Jessica Lapointe]

Hi all,

I am very pleased to announce that ScribeUI was accepted as a MapServer
Google Summer of Code 2014 project. Development started officially this
week, and I am very happy to be working on that project this summer for a
second year.


** What is ScribeUI ?*

ScribeUI is a web-based tool for mapfile creation and management that
allows editing and immediately previewing mapfiles in a single application.

Features like points of interests, map extent calculation, and an
alternative mapfile syntax, named Scribe[1], makes the creation of mapfiles
much faster.

It's a tool to make life easier for mapfile developers, created by
mapfile developers.

** Try ScribeUI Now on the New Demo*

The first goal of the summer is already accomplished, you can now easily
try out ScribeUI on the demo:


*http://demo.scribeui.org/ <http://demo.scribeui.org/>*

This is the pyramid version that I am working on making available for
installation as soon as possible.

All data, workspaces and maps are erased every day so you can play around
with the app and the Scribe syntax. Keep in mind the quirks and bugs are
going to be worked on this summer!


** ScribeUI's advancement since last year*

Development slowed down at the end of the GSoC 2013, but the project didn't
stop! A new MapCache plugin was added and bugs were fixed.

One of my colleagues at Mapgears, Charles-Éric Bourget, took on the
challenge of replacing the back-end from Flask[3] to Pyramid[4]. His work
is however not yet available for installation, merging this with the
current version of ScribeUI is part of this summer's goals.


** This Summer's Goals*

Three principal things were needed for ScribeUI to really shine, and these
are the main goals for this summer:

1. It needs an online *demo*, so that the community can feel it before
installing it.

2. It needs to be *easier to install*. At the end of last summer, ScribeUI
had a very tedious installation procedure. It’s gotten better since then,
but there is still some work to be done.

3. ScribeUI needs to be more *stable*. It still has a lot of bugs, which
are very unappealing.


** Conclusion*

Feel free to ask any questions about the project. This summer is about
getting ScribeUI to be a stable, pleasant, productivity enhancing
experience for Mapserver users. That is why suggestions and opinions are
highly valuable!


Important links:

ScribeUI website:
http://scribeui.org

ScribeUI Demo:
http://demo.scribeui.org/

ScribeUI repository:
https://github.com/mapgears/scribeui

[1] http://scribeui.org/scribe-syntax.html
[2] http://flask.pocoo.org/
[3] http://www.pylonsproject.org/


Thanks a lot,
Jessica Lapointe
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