OpenLayers Report 2008

OpenLayers

Contact name: Erik Uzureau, Chris Schmidt, Tim Schaub

Key Accomplishments

Two Major Releases in 2008:

 * 2.6
   * Improved Popup Library
   * Animated Panning and Transitions
   * Internationalization Support
   * MapGuide Layer
   * Powerful new API for Styling data
 * 2.7
   * Vector Behavior API (Strategies, Protocols, Filters, etc)
   * Canvas support for Vectors
   * Z and Y ordering for Vector Layers
   * OGC Standard SLD support

New Case Studies Section - Detailed prose by different projects:

 * Decision to use OpenLayers
 * How OpenLayers was integrated
 * Analysis of strengths/weaknesses of OpenLayers

Areas for Improvement

* Documentation, as with any open source project, is always in need of expansion and improvement.
* Thorough API review. As we bend towards the 8th release of the 2nd OpenLayers API, there are many who long for a massive spring cleaning session to build a 3.0 version of the library.

Opportunities to Help

* The now-formalized Case Studies section needs more contributions. Help others to understand why/how you chose to use the OpenLayers library.
* Internationalization  - We currently have only 15 of the 7,000 living languages translated in the library. The translation process is simple (only 28 strings total).
* Ticket Review - As always, there are many more tickets with patches waiting review than available developer hours. 
* Documentation - Efforts continue to improve the library's documentation, but the *users* are really those who can best help with this mission.

Outlook for 2009

2009 brings new leadership to the project's Steering Committee as Tim Schaub takes over the reigns as the new PSC chair.

Efforts are already underway for a 2.8 release which will include long-awaited WFS Protocol functionality, as well as a massive improvement to OpenLayers's vector capabilities which increase performance and interactivity for maps integrating multiple vector layers.