UMN MapServer

MapServer User Meeting 2004 - Ottawa, Canada

UMN MapServer

Past, Present and Future


1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

MapServer 1.0

MapServer 1.0 is developed for use on the ForNet project. Written in C, it leverages the graphics library GD and the shapefile manipulation library shapelib.

19971995

BWCAW Interactive Mapping

GIS-based decision support system for canoe trip planning. Web-mapping component uses C programs to author custom Arc/Plot AMLs.

• ArcPlot generates ESRI plot file• convert .gra to .eps• convert .eps to .gif

All in about 45 seconds!

MapServer 2.0

First version MapServer shared outside the ForNet project: Australia’s Environmental Resource Information Network (ERIN). Cartographic projection support added using Proj.4 library from the USGS. ForNet project winds down, so does MapServer.

1998 2000

TerraSIP/MapServer 3.0

MapServer development continues at the DNR. UMN has new NASA funding for TerraSIP and begins supporting new MapServer development. MapServer 3.0 is the first public, OpenSource release of the software. Raster support added using libTiff, TrueType font support added using FreeType. Only 2 developers at this point.

2001

MapScript

MapScript version 1.0 is released with MapServer 3.2. Developed using a tool called SWIG, MapScript gets the attention of a group of Canadian developers (DMSolutions) who agree to produce a version for the popular web scripting environment PHP.

1996

NASA ForNet Project

UMN and Minnesota DNR partner in a project (funded by NASA) to deliver remote sensing-based products to field forestry staff. Inquiries with various GIS and image processing vendors yield no plans to develop web-based GIS capabilities. MapServer and a companion system called ImageView are on the drawing board.

2002

PostGIS/SDE/WMS

MapServer internals completely rewritten to accommodate RDBMS-based GIS data. MapServer 3.5 is released with native support for both ESRI SDE and Postgres/PostGIS. MapServer 3.6 is released with initial support for the OGC WMS specification.

2003

MUM/MapServer 4.0

The first MapServer User Meeting (MUM) takes place in June. More than 110 people attend. MapServer 4.0 is released shortly after MUM. This version adds 24-bit input/output support, and re-written output handling that allows for non-raster output as PDF or SWF files.

More than 800 people subscribe to mapserver-users mailing list and 10+ developers are working on MapServer 4.2.

MapServer TimelineXerox Parc Map Viewer

Web’s first interactivemapping application. Thelight bulb goes on!

Xerox decides not to share the code for the software,so we write our own.

1994


Themes• Community• Cartography• Performance/

Analysis• Data In…• …Information Out

• OGC Interoperabity• MapScript• Client-side

Development• Server-side

Management


Community• The present:

– June ‘03: ~800 users, June ‘04: ~1,200 users– 19 developers, 15 documenters– core of very experienced users– new users are inexperienced in GIS, web

application development, or both• The future:

– hopefully all those numbers go up– there is a niche to be filled in training and

documentation


Cartography• Recent work:

– new style objects– support for GD anti-aliased line drawing– cartographic lines– graticule objects

• Future work:– labeling enhancements: polygon label point

computation, MapText label engine support, label prioritization

– symbol set re-write


Performance/Analysis• Recent work:

– non-8bit classification support for rasters– buffered polygon queries– connection pooling for SDE– spatial/temporal tiling extension

• Future work:– integration of GEOS geometry engine– reworking query interface to eliminate unnecessary

passes through datasources– mapfile tokens, parse arbitrary chunks (or the whole

file) as strings


Data In…• Recent work:

– Support for SDE versioned databases– Simple MySQL feature support– (indirect) GDAL/OGR drivers for OpenNDAP

• Future work:– Oracle Spatial (the Brazilians are back!) support

brought to the same point as PostGIS and SDE– real-time relational joins– SDE joins (similar to PostGIS support)


…Information Out• Recent work:

– 24-bit image output– PDF and SWF output– [shpxy…] tag for query processing– join support for dbf, csv and MySQL

• Future work:– map rotation (CVS)– raster queries (CVS)– [shpxy …] support for dynamic feature

thinning


OGC Interoperability• Recent work:

– WFS client/server– OGC Filter support– WMS SLD support

• Future work:– WCS 1.0.0 server (CVS)– WMS/WCS compliance (darn square pixels)– integration work with complimentary packages

like GeoServer for WFS/WFS-T support


MapScript• Recent work:

– tons of “refactoring”– unification of Swig and PHP-based APIs– exposure of style and symbol objects

• Future work:– decent Java and .Net wrappers– exposing OWS interfaces– a thread-safe version of the C API– PHP5: to SWIG or not to SWIG


Client-side Development• Recent work:

– MapClient, jBox/dBox, ROSA– web mapping frameworks like DMS

Chameleon, ZMapServer and Moxi Media IMF (misclassified)

– mapserv CGI cookie support• Future work:

– (pet project) Eclipse plugin for authoring MapServer applications

– really slick UI’s from several small companies built on top of the MapServer engine


Server-side Management• Recent work:

– distributions: MS4W, Debian Linux and GIS-Knoppix

– application managers like MapDesk, MapLab and AveIN!

• Future work:– non-Windows installers


Challenges• Prioritizing all that future work - money

talks• Project governance• Competition from:

– other OpenSource GIS projects– commercial outfits

• Keeping pace as technology advances• Functional voids like routing and

geocoding


Thank You!

Documents

UMN MapServer