MapGuide Wishes

This page is should be used to capture ideas for MapGuide. Please provide comments in BOLD and your name in italic


 * 1) Include functions like reprojection, routing, network traces,geocoding, spatial overlays, proximity comparisons, reclassification, raster algebra, etc. All of the cool stuff that makes GIS GIS.
 * 2) Continue to place priority on exposing geoprocessing functions in the API
 * 3) In addition to the APIs, provide simple web service interfaces (REST, SOAP, OGC Mechanisms) to geoprocessing functions etc
 * 4) Emphasise the use of standards such as XML, GML, JPEG2000
 * 5) Where internal mechanisms are used, such as AGF, ensure that they are well documented
 * 6) Isolate the API from the web. Currently, to deploy a client-side app that communicates with the server, I need to load an entire web config file with paths that should not be required. Think of MapGuide as a geo-server, not as a web server.
 * 7) Support Python at least at the API level (if not at the web UI level)
 * 8) A layer between Layouts and Maps, allowing many maps to be integrated into a single layout, with a drop-down list allowing choice between them. This layout->map lookup layer should maintain for each map: Theme name, Map resource, Reset or maintain current extents, Active tools, etc.
 * 9) A cool "history" tool, with thumbnails of recent map states, allowing the user easy access to previous views.
 * 10) Enhanced server-to-server communication. Binary WFS???
 * 11) Projection of rasters on the fly, including WMS reprojection support
 * 12) Redlining/markup tools that allow markup sessions to be stored to the server, shared with other users (fine-grained authorization) and saved out as DWF and SDF.
 * 13) Integration with an open IM tool for spatial-enabled chat - benefits for disaster mitigation
 * 14) Sharing of current map state with other users
 * 15) Ability to define GeoRSS URLs as data sources
 * 16) Ability to publish data sources as GeoRSS feeds (would need date column, number of latest entries to publish, expression builder for title and contents, etc...)
 * 17) A full metadata storage and retreival service/front end that supports important relevant standards such as Z39.50 search, FGDC & ISO 19115 (TC211) metadata, and OGC Catalogue Services. Population of this should be integrated into the Studio load procedures, and the metadata for all of the layers in any specific map should be should be readily available from the map legend and from the API so that a custom metadata index listing could be developed. Addition of information around unmanaged data sets should also be permitted. Contact information, Locations, Departments, Organisations, etc should all be normalized in the metadata store rather than stored independantly for each dataset.  The OSGeo Geodata committee is currently working on a lightweight metadata access protocol which should also be supported.
 * 18) Full support for important OGC standards such as WFS-T, SLD, WCS, etc...
 * 19) Active Directory and LDAP integration
 * 20) Support for dynamic KML, including multi-scale representation, region-based views, and complexity cutoffs between feature delivery and image delivery.  Implementation as good or better than GeoServer.
 * 21) Better support for unmanaged data sets
 * 22) Create method to convert geometry from polygon to line (MG147)
 * 23) Create method similar to centroid, but guaranteed to return a point within the parent polygon (MG148)
 * 24) Allow specification of lines and polygon borders in map units/mapping space (MG158)
 * 25) Ability to change sort order of fields for a layer. Some sort of control character maybe? Like maybe put a \1 in front of the 1st field, \2, etc? ADeMerchant
 * 26) Enhance installation procedure as follows
 * 27) Allow installing server to alternate drive/directory
 * 28) Allow setting different paths for repositories, resources, logs, tile cache, temp dir, etc
 * 29) Fix Web Extensions installation to honour alternate install path.  Currently broken.  Some items installed to C drive, php.ini file not modified to reflect new location, IIS misconfigured, FCGI registry keys set incorrectly, paths not modified, etc, etc.
 * 30) Enhance WMS data source creation.  After picking a server, allow user to add multiple layers from that server, specify the draw order for those layers, and allow the selection of alternate styles for each layer.  This will allow for easier data management, and will also reduce server load on both the external WMS server and on the MapGuide server.
 * 31) Provide method to mark tile caches for specific layers invalid.  This could be accomplished through a property like DateModified that would force tile-replacement for tiles that are older than that date.  I'd prefer incremental tile replacement because of the huge file IO caused by a one-time delete, and because it would reduce fragmentation of the volume.  This function will allow external processes such as Oracle triggers and things like FME data updates to invalidate the cache programmatically.
 * 32) Reaffirm SDF as an open format, publish specifications.
 * 33) Create FDO handler for ArcGIS Desktop :)
 * 34) Provide a method for setting the JPG compression level for the Format= paramater of the URL.
 * 35) Have nightly, or even weekly builds that we can access - so that those who can't compile their own versions from the svn don't have to wait months for a new release.
 * 36) Add a built-in Measure Area tool - to supplement the Measure Distance tool.
 * 37) Symbology : I'd like to be able to associate a point symbol with polygons at small scale (where the limit scale could easily be set for the layer)