[OpenLayers-Users] Google Summer of Code 2008

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 11:45:43PM -0700, Andrew de klerk wrote:
> 
> Hi all
> 
> I have had a look at the trac for this cited on the dev mailing list, and am
> not sure if this is the appropriate place for this suggestion, but here
> goes.
> 
> Linda Rawson suggested to include plugin development for openlayers as part
> of te summer of code. I was reminded of this when I saw the post by Jachym
> Cepicky about his customised layerswitcher. In many cases as users, we would
> like to use the most stable release eg 2.5, but sometimes need/want to use
> enhancements such as this layerswitcher, or a scalebar etc. Currently the
> only way is to download from trunk etc and essentially create your own
> custom version of openlayers. 

I'm not sure that this is true? Certainly, if code would work with 2.5,
you can simply include an additional script tag in your page (one for
OL, one for your extra code).

This is essentially the design of the 'Addins' program we've set up.
http://trac.openlayers.org/wiki/Addins tells more about this, and you
can see that there is already the ScaleBar addin.

> I forsee this being a problem when future
> release are released. 

I'm not sure I see the problem. Can you explain?

> I would like to see the development of a core base
> with the ability to "plugin" these great enhancements. As it stands I would
> already plugin the scalebar and the enhanced popups. 

The new popups belong in trunk, because in order to work, they need to
work at a lower level. In general, I believe that Controls are most
likely the case where 'Addins' is most appropriate, becasue they provide
functionality that is dependent, but not *inter-*depenednet, on the
core. (In other words: they depend on core, core doesn't depend on
them.) It's unfortunate that the new popups have taken so long, but
that doesn't mean that they're really a good fit for living outside of
trunk.

> I have resisted trying
> to create my own custom version in fear of breaking something.

Sure, understandably. That's part of the point of addins: you have a
clear 'line' between what is trunk and what isn't, and although you can
build a single file build with addins, it's not really neccesary.

http://dev.openlayers.org/addins/scalebar/trunk/examples/scalebar.html

is an example: clearly, it works with trunk, but that doesn't mean it
has to be *in* the build to work.  

Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
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