[Qgis-developer] Future of OpenLayers plugin - time to deprecate?

[Pirmin Kalberer]

Hi Tim,

Am Donnerstag, 16. Juni 2016, 00.06:11 schrieb Tim Sutton:
> Hi Pirmin
> 
> > On 15 Jun 2016, at 18:58, Pirmin Kalberer <pi_ml at sourcepole.com> wrote:
> > 
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > Am Mittwoch, 15. Juni 2016, 08.20:13 schrieb Richard Duivenvoorde:
> >> Maybe first discuss with Author (in cc)?
> > 
> > Thanks Richard. Today was the 7th annual Swiss QGIS User meeting and
> > therefore no time to answer to this second shit storm wave earlier.
> > 
> > 
> > First some history for QGIS newbies:
> > The OpenLayers plugin was presented at the first QGIS User meeting six
> > years ago [1]. It was built to integrate Google Maps layers using the
> > Google API via OpenLayers. At this time only the illegal (but well known)
> > way using a GDAL VRT supported this functionality. In the meantime there
> > have been at least three plugins reimplementing this illegal TMS access
> > method, the latest (and best) is QuickMapServices. The OpenLayers plugin
> > got the first major breakage with the QGIS 2.0 API change. The
> > multithreaded rendering in QGIS 2.4 caused a complete rewrite of the
> > plugin. Between and after that other QGIS or Google Maps changes have
> > broken the OpenLayers plugin from time to time and it was a matter of
> > course that we "fix" it to adapt these (usually paid) changes.
> > 
> > I personally don't think that the name of this or another plugin is the
> > main reason for more than 700'000 downloads of the OpenLayers plugin. I
> > know of quite a few users staying with old QGIS version (even 1.x) just
> > to be able to display and print Google Maps base layers. For some of them
> > the plugin was important enough, to pay a few hundred Swiss Francs for
> > another "bug fix". Apart of this, OpenLayers was always done in my
> > limited spare time at home or at hackfests (travelling sponsored by
> > Sourcepole). Even when I pointed at a possible breakages of PluginLayers,
> > like before merging the map rotation feature, it seemed never to have any
> > priority to test a change with the OL plugin or even preventing to break
> > it. This attitude and the destructive Trump-syle tone with the +1 frency
> > in this community mailing list are definitely not the motivation I would
> > need for another bug fix. And regarding the reputation of QGIS, I find
> > promoting a plugin for doing  illegal things worse than not fixing
> > printing problems.
> > 
> > Enough of getting my frustration out - I have also a constructive
> > proposal:
> > Please pass a customRenderFlag during composer rendering to give
> > PluginLayers a chance to handle this case without adventurous workarounds
> > (and besides make it possible to fix WMTS printing with more than
> > 90dpi's). I would then at least turn off OL layers and display a message.
> 
> I’m wondering what the first storm was? The OpenLayers Plugin is a great
> tool for QGIS and I agree we could have approached this discussion more
> sensitively - e.g. by first approaching you and Maxim and other devs
> building similar tools to look for a way to reduce duplication of effort
> and solve the issues that users experience with printing etc. So please do
> accept our apologies.

The first wave started in December.
In the next days we have acceptance tests and training of our customized QGIS 
version demonstrated in Girona, before deploying it to 28'000 machines. So I 
appologize for not having the time for longer discussions now. I made a 
proposal for solving the technical problem in my answer.
And may I ask to continue the other disussions brought into this thread under 
a new subject. Just for the sake of Mathias', Luiz' and my mental health.

Regards
Pirmin

-- 
Pirmin Kalberer
Sourcepole  -  Linux & Open Source Solutions
http://www.sourcepole.com

[...]

> 
> ---
> 
> Tim Sutton
> QGIS Project Steering Committee Chair
> tim at qgis.org