[Qgis-developer] Label and Symbology Improvements: how to proceed

[Martin Dobias]

Hi Andreas

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 5:13 PM, Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Now that we have the new symbology and label placemente in trunk I'd like
> to discuss how we can proceed adding in the missing features, mainly the
> ones that were present with the old symbology and label placement.
>
> It is mainly related to units (one should be able to choose between map
> units and pixels everywhere) and data driven properties, where the
> symbolization is taken from an attribute columen, e.g. (font-size,
> font-color, fill and stroke-color, etc.). It would even be great to have
> complex multi-layer lines based on several attributes.
>
> What I need most urgently is data-driven coloring (fill/stroke/font color)
> and unit support everywhere.
>
> I don't expect Martin to do all the work - we have a support contract with
> Jürgen (Norbit) and/or Marco, so maybe some of the work could be split up?

The support for different units (with correct output in composer),
data-driven symbol properties and transparency support are on top of
my to-do list. These ones are probably the missing pieces to get new
symbology in parity (feature-wise) with the original implementation.
(Or is there missing anything more I've forgotten?)

However after the merge I'd like to switch myself to bugfixing mode
and make sure the implementation is robust enough for daily usage. So
in case you want the above mentioned features in near future, it's a
good idea to contract some of the devs to do the work.

Soon I'd like to start a wiki page about new symbology that would
summarize its state - implemented, proposed, in-progress features and
anything more that's connected with implementation (example code,
design docs, ...)

> Thanks for discussing how we can organize the adding of the missing bits
> in the new symbology. Should I compile a list of what is missing for our
> use cases?

You can prepare such a list - to get a better view of what's missing.

Regards
Martin