[postgis-users] CartoWeb4 and other alternatives

[Nicolas Ribot]

> This may not be the best list to ask this question, but thought I would try
> here first since presumably many people in this list are in the similar
> boats.
>
> I have a client who is using CartoWeb 3.3 and its heavily integrated in
> their emergency response app.  They are more or less happy with it (e.g. the
> ability to save views, draw widgets, print PDF maps and so forth is
> important for emergency response which Cartoweb seems to do nicely without
> having to install anything other than PHP and Mapserver), but they also want
> to overlay third party layers like Virtual Earth.
>
> I heard that upcoming CartoWeb 4 will be using OpenLayers which presumably
> will allow them to do just that without us having to rewrite a lot of their
> existing glue code or try to build in functionality from scratch that
> CartoWeb already does nicely. But I don't see any mention of it aside from
> Foss4G2007 docs.
> http://www.foss4g2007.org/presentations/view.php?abstract_id=216
>
> I thought MapFish was supposed to be CartoWeb4, but that seems to be a
> completely different animal or maybe its an animal in the fetal state at the
> moment and seems to have a lot more dependencies than CartoWeb3.  Anyrate I
> have staff experimenting with MapFish, but from the surface it looks like
> we'll have to rewrite a lot of code to swap out CartoWeb3 for Mapfish.
>
> Does anyone happen to know if my assumptions are correct?
>
> Also I would be curious if people are using other frameworks similar to this
> since I get asked this question a lot.  Mainly people are looking for
> functionality they can integrate fairly easily and seamlessly with their
> homegrown tracking applications.  By that functionality I mean
>
> 1) Print a map to PDF
> 2) Save named views
> 3) Markup Maps
> 4) Location short-cuts
> 5) Ajax map movement
> 6) Easy api for integrating map authentication with their main application
> (e.g. controlling what groups in their app can see what maps)
> 7) Ability to overlay non-standard OGC mapping services (e.g. google,
> virtual earth, mapquest with their custom layers)
> 8) Easy install on server - without having to install 20 dependencies.
> 9) Ideally can run on both Windows and Linux without too much fuss.
>

Hello Regina,

I will try to clarify a little bit the difference between Cartoweb and MapFish:

We, at camptocamp, had to think about an evolution of our Cartoweb
mapping framework, especially with the raise of lightweight, map-tiled
client Javascript API allowing to easily integrate map components into
web pages.

The Mapfish project (see mapfish.org for examples, wiki, etc.) aims at
providing this kind of mapping API based on the OpenLayers framework.
It adds some advanced GIS controls, thanks to the Ext/Js framework and
allows to overlay layers from several sources (OGC, MapServer, Google,
Yahoo, MS, etc).
It also allows to edit geographic objects with advanced features like
vertex and edge snapping.
The server part of MapFish adds some functionalities like attribute
searcher or PDF printing service. It is based on Pylons (python) but
also offers python, java and PHP librairies to help users implement
web services.
The printing service, for instance, offers a Python and Java API and
can also be called on a command line.

So yes indeed, MapFish is a different animal than Cartoweb, though not
in a fetal state. We already deployed it in several productive
projects, unfortunately not publicly available).

Currently, Mapfish is not functionally as rich as Cartoweb because
it's a young project. We aim at completing its list of features to
allow users to build their own web mapping application.

One big advantage of MapFish over Cartoweb is that it integrates much
easier in existing web applications.

To summarize some features:

> 1) Print a map to PDF
Yes, with a engine-independant printing service (both vector and
raster printing, multipage, page rotation, etc.). see demo here:
http://demo.mapfish.org/mapfishsample/1.0/examples/print/simple.html

> 2) Save named views
OpenLayers permalink could mimic some of these functionalities

> 3) Markup Maps
Yes for point, line, polygon markers.

> 4) Location short-cuts
yes

> 5) Ajax map movement
Yes full ajax, with tiled images.

> 6) Easy api for integrating map authentication with their main application
> (e.g. controlling what groups in their app can see what maps)
Yes, partially if using MapFish server

> 7) Ability to overlay non-standard OGC mapping services (e.g. google,
> virtual earth, mapquest with their custom layers)
Yes.

> 8) Easy install on server - without having to install 20 dependencies.
Hmm, some dependencies on the server, but into a virtual environment
dedicated to the application (not intrusive into your own OS).

> 9) Ideally can run on both Windows and Linux without too much fuss.
Yes, (also MacOS...). See wiki page for Windows as Python stuff does
not install as easilly as on Linux.

I hope thinks are clearer concerning these frameworks.

Cartoweb project is still alive, and the 3.5 maintenance release is available.

I also have to mention another OS project that uses mapfish a lot and
aims at providing a web-based geographic data management application.
It is called GeoAdminSuite (geoadminsuite.org) and allows to browse
geo data, to compose maps and to graphically publish and export
MapFish web sites.

Nicolas