[OpenLayers-Dev] #1666 - One Single, Mother Of All Vector Layers

[Matthias Pohl]

@Eric

>It seems to me that your
>patch is about grouping features of the same vector layer.

This is right, in this first step the focus is on grouping.

>To me "One single mother of all
>vector layers" means having all geometries of all vector layers
>rendered in the same SVG/VML/Canvas layer.

This is for the reason, that we don't want to break the API and
structure of OpenLayers.

In our application we have a basemap and a couple of different and
independent vector data sets in WKT format. When they were rendered in
different layers it was not possible to select all data at the same
time. Only the layer on the top was accessible.

Using the patch, all geometries of our vector data sets are rendered in
the same SVG layer. They are independent, switchable, styleable and you
can raise each one to the top. Since we don't have an other vector layer
this one is our "One single mother of all vector _data_". Some controls
are still external and have to be integrated into the OpenLayers API.

If this approach of grouping data in one vector layer is ok with the
developers, it will be the next step to include and group vector data
from all other vector sources.

matt