[OpenLayers-Users] Large Vector Layer

[Scott Davis]

Hey All,

Answering Carlos' question about hovering tooltips over cities raised  
a couple of questions of my own.

Question #1:
--------------------
I have a datalayer that has ~10,000 bus stops (points). I need 'em as  
features, so WMS is out. Obviously pulling down the entire feature  
set is a showstopper. Browsing the 2.4 release notes indicates that a  
WFS layer will "do the right thing" -- only request a subset of the  
points:

<http://trac.openlayers.org/wiki/Release/2.4/Notes>
[quote]
The WFS layer is now Untiled. Instead of making many requests, it  
will only make one, and that single request will by default be for an  
area twice the size of the viewable map. You can adjust this with a  
'ratio' option on the layer.
[/quote]

Is this behavior the same for GeoRSS as well, or will I get an  
avalanche of XML? (GeoRSS is being served up by GeoServer 1.6.nightly)

Since I can't serve up a TextLayer from GeoServer, I assume that  
there is no way to spatially limit it. Yes?

Bottom line: I need features from a datalayer that has 10k points. Is  
WFS what you'd recommend at this point?


Question #2:
-------------------
Is there a good hyperlinked discussion anywhere of the (old?) Markers  
layer vs. the (new?) Vector layer? Benefits, drawbacks, use cases,  
code examples, etc.


Question #3:
-------------------
Any thoughts on when 2.5 will go live? For the above scenario, am I  
better served by 2.5 RC 1 or sticking with 2.4 stable?


Great work, guys! Working with OL is a real joy. Keep it up.

Thanks,
s

Scott Davis
scott at davisworld.org