Slashgeo

Does speed matters? Spatially Adjusted links and discuss a speed comparison of MapServer and ArcIMS. From the blog: "The bigger issue with the speed of both GIS server applications is how and where your data is installed. It is easy to get caught up on these speed claims with server software and they are fun for posting to Digg, but in the real world there are way too many variables to worry about 1/2 a second waiting for a map to be served." Don't miss Hobu's link to a MapServer vs ArcIMS comparison (from Spatially Adjusted comments).

Dave Bouwman not only discuss MapServer, but the installation process of OpenLayers and a WMS server. From the blog: "Again, this is not the least bit earth shattering, and it's a loooong way from a production application or an in-depth understanding, but the total time investment thus far (including this write up) has been a little over one hour. Thus, I think it's safe to say that the basic learning curve here is now in the realm of reasonable. Will your manager set this up? No. But this is no more complex (and may be simpler) than setting up ArcIMS or ArcGIS Server."

I'd like your opinion on webmapping technology choice. The context is rather simple, my small team will produce a small prototype which must publish geospatial data on a website. The data is already processed and georeferenced. This is a tiny project but we want to choose the best long term webmapping solution possible. When I asked an internal (to the Canadian Government) mailing list about this, I surprisingly received numerous (and sometimes passionate) answers claiming either MapServer or MapGuide Open Source was best. I unexpectedly stumbled onto a sensible topic! From what I've been told, MapServer is fast, reliable, mature while MapGuide OS is easy to use and configure, modern (e.g. AJAX) and has higher scalability. Other opinions/facts for and against MapServer or MapGuide OS were shared along with several websites which demonstrate those technologies. Our webmapping server will run on Debian, therefore excluding ESRI's ArcIMS. Additionally, MapGuide is already operationally supported in my organization, this obviously favors MapGuide OS but does not exclude MapServer if it's really the best option! To be honest, I haven't took the time yet to do a complete assessment of the two avenues. That said, what's your opinion? Thanks!

The MapGuide mailing list announces the release of MapGuide Open Source 1.2.0. From the announcement: "The MapGuide Open Source developers and project steering committee are pleased to announce the release of MapGuide Open Source 1.2.0. This release contains many performance improvements, bug fixes and the following enhancements: - Support for Unmanaged Data Sources, - Cartographic Enhancements - Phase I: * Ability to define simple and composite symbols as XML resources, * Ability to use new symbols for Points and Labeling Linear Features (e.g. Highway Shields), - Pragmatic Load Balancing, - Feature Join Enhancements, - Support coordinate system overrides on feature sources, - Plus other enhancements detailed at http://trac.osgeo.org/mapguide/wiki/Release/1.2/Notes " See also related stories below.

The MapServer Team announces the release of version 5.0.0 and lists some of the new features, "This new version also includes dozens of small bug fixes, enhancements and performance improvements. Among the new features are: style and label attribute attribute binding; lookup table-based raster color correction; dynamic charting (pie and bar); explicit label prioritizing; enhanced debugging and logging; dynamic allocation for layers, classes, styles and symbols; improved memory management and garbage collection for MapScript; numerous improvements to OGC specification support, and lots more." First I saw to blog the announcement was Tommy's Blog writing from UGC's Boulder, CO meetings this week.

The OSGeo-Announce mailing list informs us the GeoMoose open source webmapping project has released its version 1.2.0. From the GeoMoose website: "GeoMoose is a Web Client Javascript Framework for displaying distributed cartographic data. Among it's many strengths, it can handle large numbers of mapping layers, all mapping display is abstracted to separate layers. This allows for the abstraction of the maintenance and updating tasks as well. Since each display layer is abstracted in this fashion, it allows a site administrator to concentrate on running the overall system while leaving the data upkeep and publishing tasks to the respective data custodian. No more hand-off of the data to a "Publisher" is required, the data custodian can handle the publishing tasks on their own, including the frequency of updates." And on the extended page: "[...] GeoMoose is designed around the idea of using Web based URL services as an integration method. [...] GeoMoose is currently built as a front end to MapServer (CGI)." Main recent MapServer stories copied below.

cholmes writes "The GeoServer team is excited to announce that GeoServer 1.6.0 has been released. There are a host of advances from 1.5.x, and many GeoServer users have been testing the release candidates and giving us great feedback, so this final release should be very stable. Advances from 1.5.x include greatly increased performance for rendering maps, 'versioning' of feature data, WFS 1.1, a new security sub system, better google maps and earth integration, a WFS datatstore for Cascading WFS and Component WMS, and a number of other bug fixes and improvements." See also related stories below.

Late last December the Fuzzy Tolerance blog ran a nice demonstration of building a geoportal with open source software such as OpenLayers, TileCache, GeoServer, PostGIS, jQuery, REST and AJAX. Here's the resulting geospatial portal. From the blog: "From a developer’s perspective, the biggest advantages I’ve found with OpenLayers-Tilecache-jQuery-REST is speed and simplicity. The beta site went from an empty text file to release in only a few weeks of actual development time nestled in between other projects, with a lot of that taken up by a jQuery/OpenLayers/GeoServer/SLD learning curve, design, web service work, software setup, etc. It is also marvelously simple, being nothing more than Javascript and HTML. From an end-user perspective, you get a much more responsive application, a nicer map interface than I usually give people via OpenLayers, and everything is free and open source." I copied below some of the previous Slashgeo stories regarding the software used in the demonstration.

GISUser offers 10 reasons to migrate to MapGuide Enterprise. Very related to the MapGuide Open Source project. I copied below a few other previous related stories, including this entry on choosing between MapServer and MapGuide OS with pertinent comments. To be honest, my team tried MGOS last spring and we were confronted with serious challenges regarding Linux compilation. We finally chose another OSGeo webmapping project. GIS User's list (read the first link above to learn more): "Platform Flexibility, Single Authoring Tool, Programming Flexibility, Simpler Viewing, More Innovation, Lower Cost of Ownership, Server-Side Processing, The DWF Advantage, Prettier Maps, Easier Data Access and Remote Administration"

st_0x0ef writes "From GeoServer Blog: The GeoServer team is pleased to announce the availability of the latest stable release, 1.5.4. This bugfix release provides a bunch of KML and templates related fixes, support for Arabic labeling, propper Google projection
support, validating GML 2.1.2.1 schemas, and a lot more. Also to note, this is the release that finally is able to be deployed on Oracle Application Server. Full changelog is located here. This release is based off the brand new GeoTools 2.3.5 stable release."

The Between the Poles blog informs us about this release. From their summary : "The MapGuide Open Source Project Team are pleased to announce the release of MapGuide Open Source 2.0.1. This release includes support for FDO 3.3.1 and bug fixes since 2.0.0. For the complete list please see MapGuide Open Source 2.0.1 Release Notes."