Want to help?

Dear Contributor

Welcome to the project. We have several tasks that need to be accomplished to help get the project off the ground.

September 5, 2008

The main issue is getting Google, Yahoo, and MSVE to display at the correct zoom level and location when the map template loads. The Open Layers project has just released a new version that may help resolve this problem. The Open Layers 2.7 code needs to be tested with the Rich Map tag. The task essentially involved the modification of the RichMap.jspx file to include any new resource references that are loaded by either the Open Layers theme.css or directly from the JavaScript code.

When the modification are made the page should load with the selected internet map service using the following tag reference

“<rm:richmap id="rm3" 
serviceName="test" 
serviceType="YAHOO" 
centerX="-84.0" 
centerY="34.0" 
zoomLevel="6" 
mapKey="YOU WILL NEED TO OBATIN A MAP KEY FOR YOR SEVER. See note below for OGCWMS and MSVE exceptions." />” 

The base map should display GOOGLE, MSVE, or YAHOO depending on service type value. The use of OGCWMS requires a service URL value and ignores any map key value. The MSVE base map uses the API version. The current Open Layers code only works with a value of 3.

The main page contains a table of other typical map interface support components that we envision once the map component is more mature. Other tasks that need to be reseached and solutions proposed are in no particular order:

1. Write documentation, produce examples, find a good solution for hosting the project site (hey, we're just getting started)
2. Generate map and layer options values from the bean properties. This should be configurable so each developer can use the managed beans provided in our examples or use one of their own. This would also include digging into the Open Layer documentation (out of date) and fixes or undocumented features explained on the message boards.
3. Finish the design of the example bean and action classes. A service provider bean/action classes need to be added to factor these properties out of the map layer class. A map view and map layer action handlers need to be added such that the example is show a true MVC design.
4. Create a facelet example for both the Open Layers and Rich Map tags. Later on we will be creating examples incorporating Seam to show a more real world example.
5. Incorporate the use of predefined geographic map extend based upon a city, town, state, country, or event a zip code value. This would allow the map to be centered on or plot icons/vectors based upon extent equals some value.
6. Complete the design/implementation for the map controller javascript.
7. Create a facelet based loosely coupled map template page for developers who are not familiar with Geo-Spatial technologies or on a tight schedule
8. Add more capability/test the addition of adding data from other domains or formats.
9. Add support for common map functions such a select, add layers, layer control etc. This support should incoporate a cleaner mechanism for event handling between Open Layers and other components. The Rich Faces calander component event handling could be used as a starting point for the MapEvent/MapListener .
10. Research/Design/Incoporate a mechanism to reference the correct internet map service provider javascript code based upon the service type value. The idea here is to remove the if then else then logic from the RichMap.jspx tag template. This would allow developers to incorporate loading script code from other service providers such as MapQuest or even commercial vendor such as ESRI.
11. Fix the opacity setting not working inside Rich Faces.
12. Test against http://geowebcache.org/trac