MapGuide RFC 2 - Unmanaged Data APIs

This page contains an change request (RFC) for MapGuide Open Source. More MapGuide RFCs can be found on the MapGuide RFCs page.

Status

 * Submission Date: 21:26, 1 November 2006 (CET)
 * Last Modified Date: 01:07, 4 November 2006 (CET)
 * Author: Tony Fang Tonyfang
 * RFC Status: draft
 * Implementation Status: pending
 * Voting History:
 * Assigned PSC guide(s):

Overview
Managed data is data contained inside the server's data repository. Unmanaged data is any data outside of the server's data repository.

We want to add server/web functionality and APIs which will allow Studio to create feature sources from unmanaged data. To accomplish this, directories accessible by the server machine can be specified as unmanaged data directories. APIs will be added which will enumerate the available unmanaged data files from the specified unmanaged data directories.

WebStudio can also make use of these APIs to create unmanaged feature sources.

Motivation
When Studio is used to create a feature source (e.g. using Load Procedure), the data files (e.g. sdf, shp, raster, dwf, odbc) are uploaded to the server's repository (managed data). This is not an issue when the data files are small. If Studio and Server are on the same machine, this uploading is an unnecessary duplication of the data file. If the data file is really large, the copying is slow and it consumes unnecessary hard-drive space.

Currently, a feature source which references unmanaged data can be created. But it must be done manually. The exact path to the data file on the server machine must be known. Then the Feature Source XML must be manually edited and uploaded to the server via the web tier. This is a cumbersome process.

We want to automate this workaround in Studio. To do this, additional APIs and functionality will be added to the server/web. Directories accessible by the server machine can be specified as unmanaged data directories. APIs will be added which will enumerate the available unmanaged data files. Thus direct access to the server machine's file system will no longer be required. Creation of unmanaged data feature sources can now be created remotely.

The API will only enumerate data files contained in the directories and subdirectories specified by the server. For security reasons we do not want to allow the API to return data files in directories which are not specified. For windows, specified directories can be physical drives or network paths. For linux, it can be any accessible path.

Funding/Resources
Tony Fang will be the resource to implement the changes outlined in this RFC.

Proposed Changes
The proposed changes are open for discussion.

The server's unmanaged data directories will be specified using the serverconfig.ini. A new section defining directory mappings will be used to specify the unmanaged data directories.

For windows, it may look like this:

For linux, it may look like this:

Unicode characters are supported in the mapping names. Spaces in the mappings are also supported. Square brackets [ and ] are not allowed. They are reserved characters for the serverconfig.ini section titles.

We will add API methods to return the unmanaged data mappings, set the mappings, and also verify that the mappings are valid and accessible.

We will add an API to enumerate the unmanaged data files available on the server machine. The files will be prefaced with their mapping names. You may enumerate all files from all the available drive mappings, or you may select a single drive mapping.

A returned list from all available drive mappings may look like this:

Technical
TBD

Implications
TBD

Test Plan
TBD