[Live-demo] Online WhatIf for OSGeo

[Cameron Shorter]

Hi Robert,
We had a talk about WhatIf at our IRC weekly meeting today and while 
WhatIf has potential, we had a few concerns.

The primary concern raised was the 250 Meg disk space required. You'd 
need to work out some way to reduce this, possibly by making use of 
existing libraries already on OSGeo-Live.

Secondly, the case you present for the maturity of the WhatIf 
application is not very strong.
I'd be hoping to see more than just AURIN listed as a user to 
demonstrate a greater user base.
And the openhub metrics suggest a very short history. (I suspect the 
openhub metrics are not capturing to full development history).

You are welcome to create an install script within OSGeo Live, and then 
build your own version of OSGeo-Live if you wish.

And you might want to start working on addressing issues above, 
potentially to target a future OSGeo-Live release.

Feel free to ask any questions.
Warm regards, Cameron

On 27/05/2016 9:51 am, Robert Hutton wrote:
> On 27/05/16 07:11, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> Any progress getting your application together for WhatIf to join 
>> OSGeo-Live?
>> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc_Apply
>> We really should start working through an application within the next 
>> few days if we are going to
>> have time to get onto the next 10.0 release of OSGeo-Live.
>
> Hi Cameron,
>
> Here are my answers to the standard list of questions, an easy-to-read 
> version on google docs:
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XEh90Uf2Er1Cl3jE1r5Z2LAMokhcVybHc4z7tSe8O2k/edit?usp=sharing 
>
>
> And in plain text:
>
> Please describe your application.
>  * What is its name?
>     * Online WhatIf
>  * What is the home page URL?
>     * http://aurin.org.au/projects/portal-and-infrastructure/what-if/
>     * https://github.com/AURIN/online-whatif
>  * Which OSI approved Open Source Licence is used?
>     * MIT and GPLv3
>     * A list of dependencies and their licenses for each component:
>     * https://github.com/AURIN/online-whatif/blob/master/DEPENDENCIES.md
>     * 
> https://github.com/AURIN/online-whatif-ui/blob/master/DEPENDENCIES.md
>     * https://github.com/AURIN/workbenchauth/blob/master/DEPENDENCIES.md
>  * What does the application do and how does it add value to the 
> GeoSpatial stack of software?
>     * Online WhatIf uses existing GIS data to support some of the most 
> important and difficult aspects of the land planning process: 
> analyzing the suitability of land for different uses, projecting 
> future land use demands, and allocating the projected demands to the 
> most suitable locations. It can also be used to prepare long-term 
> projections for future land uses, population and housing, and 
> employment for a user-defined area.
>  * Does the application make use of OGC standards? Which versions of 
> the standards? Client or server? You may wish to add comments about 
> how standards are used.
>     * WMS and WFS
>  * What language is it written in?
>     * Backend: Java
>     * Front end: JavaScript with ExtJS
> WMS, WFS.
>  * Which version of the application should be included in the next 
> OSGeo-Live release?
>     * Version 1.0
>  * Stability is very important to us on OSGeo-Live. If a new user 
> finds a bug in one application, it will tarnish the reputation of all 
> other OSGeo-Live applications as well. (We pay most attention to the 
> following answers):
>     * If risk adverse organisations have deployed your application 
> into production, it would imply that these organisations have verified 
> the stability of your software. Has the application been rolled out to 
> production into risk (ideally risk adverse) organisations? Please 
> mention some of these organisations?
>       * AURIN (Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network)
>     * Open HUB provides metrics to help assess the health of a 
> project. Eg: 
> http://adhoc.osgeo.osuosl.org/livedvd/docs/en/metrics.html Could you 
> please ensure that your project is registered with Open HUB, and Open 
> HUB has been updated to reference the correct code repository(s) for 
> your project. What is the Open HUB URL for your project?
>       * https://www.openhub.net/p/online-whatif
>     * What is the size of the user community? You can often answer 
> this by mentioning downloads, or describing a healthy, busy email list?
>       * ~50
>     * What is the size of your developer community?
>       * 3, soon to be 4
>     * Do you have a bug free, stable release?
>       * Yes, version 1.0
>     * Please discuss the level of testing that your project has gone 
> through.
>       * There are many test units written in TestNG for all functions 
> of the tool.  Also the tool’s modules have been tested by AURIN's 
> domain expert in terms of the formulas and outputs. There is a sample 
> project which is copied into the account of each user after logging 
> in. This sample project is a completed project which contains all 
> modules like Suitability, Demand and Allocation.
>     * How long has the project has had mature code.
>       * 2 years
>     * OSGeo-Live is targeted at applications that people can use 
> rather than libraries. Does the application have a user interface 
> (possibly a command line interface) that a user can interact with? (We 
> do make an exception for Incubated OSGeo Libraries, and will include 
> Project Overviews for these libraries, even if they don't have a user 
> interface.)
>       * Online WhatIf has a web-based user interface.
>     * We give preference to OSGeo Incubated Projects, or Projects 
> which are presented at FOSS4G conferences. If your project is involved 
> in OSGeo Incubation, or has been selected to be presented at FOSS4G, 
> then please mention it.
>     * With around 50 applications installed on OSGeo-Live, us core 
> packagers do not have the time to liaise with every single project 
> email list for each OSGeo-Live release. So we require a volunteer (or 
> two) to take responsibility for liaising between OSGeo-Live and the 
> project's communities. This volunteer will be responsible for ensuring 
> the install scripts and English documentation are updated by someone 
> for each OSGeo-Live release. Also test that the installed application 
> and Quickstart documentation works as expected on release candidate 
> releases of OSGeo-Live. Who will act as the project's liaison person.
>       * Robert Hutton <rhutton at unimelb.edu.au>
>     * OSGeo-Live is Ubuntu Linux based. Our installation preference is:
>       * Install from UbuntuGIS or DebianGIS
>       * Install .deb files from a PPA
>       * Write a custom install script
>         * Online WhatIf has a custom install script for OSGeo
>     * Can you please discuss how your application will be installed.
>         * 3 WAR files installed in the local tomcat
>           * Front end
>           * Back end
>           * Authentication manager
>         * 1 PostGIS database
>         * 1 CouchDB database
>         * Layers hosted in the local geoserver
>         * Optional dependencies (not installed by default)
>           * Postfix and dovecot for emailing new user accounts
>     * OSGeo-Live is memory and disk constrained. Can the application 
> run in 512 Meg of RAM?
>       * No.  Minimum requirement of 1GB RAM.
>     * How much disk space will be required to install the application 
> and a suitable example application?
>       * 250MB
>     * We aim to reduce disk space by having all applications make use 
> of a common dataset. We encourage applications to make use of the 
> example datasets already installed: 
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Add_Project#Example_Datasets If 
> another dataset would be more appropriate, please discuss here. Is it 
> appropriate, to remove existing demo datasets which may already be 
> included in the standard release.
>       * A demo dataset is included pre-loaded into PostGIS
>     * Each OSGeo-Live application requires a Project Overview 
> available under a CC By and a Quickstart available under a CC By-SA 
> license. (You may release under a second license as well). Will you 
> produce this?
>       * Yes
>     * In past releases, we have included Windows and Mac installers 
> for some applications. It is likely we won't have space for these in 
> future releases. However, if there is room, would you be wishing to 
> include Windows and/or Mac installers?
>       * No
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Rob
>

-- 
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009

P +61 2 9009 5000,  W www.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099