Slashgeo

I'd like your opinion on webmapping technology choice. The context is rather simple, my small team will produce a small prototype which must publish geospatial data on a website. The data is already processed and georeferenced. This is a tiny project but we want to choose the best long term webmapping solution possible. When I asked an internal (to the Canadian Government) mailing list about this, I surprisingly received numerous (and sometimes passionate) answers claiming either MapServer or MapGuide Open Source was best. I unexpectedly stumbled onto a sensible topic! From what I've been told, MapServer is fast, reliable, mature while MapGuide OS is easy to use and configure, modern (e.g. AJAX) and has higher scalability. Other opinions/facts for and against MapServer or MapGuide OS were shared along with several websites which demonstrate those technologies. Our webmapping server will run on Debian, therefore excluding ESRI's ArcIMS. Additionally, MapGuide is already operationally supported in my organization, this obviously favors MapGuide OS but does not exclude MapServer if it's really the best option! To be honest, I haven't took the time yet to do a complete assessment of the two avenues. That said, what's your opinion? Thanks!

GIS Monitor offers a long article on Autodesk's just announced MapGuide Enterprise 2008 and Topobase 2008 products. From the article's introduction: "According to the company, MapGuide Enterprise 2008, which uses the Internet to deliver data, builds on its support for open source software "to help public agencies, utilities and telecommunications customers extend the reach and value of geospatial information and knowledge through their organizations and beyond." Topobase 2008, which includes a new module for the gas industry, incorporates MapGuide Enterprise and AutoCAD Map 3D 2008 capabilities, as well as Oracle Spatial database technology." See also related stories below.

Random Nodes has a piece about the news that there will be a release of a new web mapping framework called "Fusion" for the MapGuide Open Source Project developed by DM Solutions Group. Although it is in the early stages and things may change, a demo shows Fusion in action. According to the email sent to the MapGuide-users list, Fusion provides tools and templates to speed development of web mapping applications.

The MapGuide mailing list announces the release of MapGuide Open Source 1.2.0. From the announcement: "The MapGuide Open Source developers and project steering committee are pleased to announce the release of MapGuide Open Source 1.2.0. This release contains many performance improvements, bug fixes and the following enhancements: - Support for Unmanaged Data Sources, - Cartographic Enhancements - Phase I: * Ability to define simple and composite symbols as XML resources, * Ability to use new symbols for Points and Labeling Linear Features (e.g. Highway Shields), - Pragmatic Load Balancing, - Feature Join Enhancements, - Support coordinate system overrides on feature sources, - Plus other enhancements detailed at http://trac.osgeo.org/mapguide/wiki/Release/1.2/Notes " See also related stories below.

Fernando Quadro writes "Who is initiating in the development of space solutions is very common the following questioning: Which server of maps is best? MapServer or GeoServer? Looking for to answer this question, I wrote an article showing some of the differences between MapServer and GeoServer." Fernando's points are interesting, I invite readers to see the previous story on choosing between MapServer and MapGuide Open Source and read the informative comments. I also copied a few related stories below.

The MapGuide-Announce mailing list announced the release of MapGuide Open Source 2.0.0. From the announcement: "Among the many enhancements, the main feature in this release is the integration of Fusion; a flexible, extensible templating system that provides the ability to separate application presentation from its functional components. We have also replaced the use of FastCGI with the more proven ISAPI and Apache mod technologies. The 2.0 milestone page contains the complete list of new features." See also numerous previous related stories below.

The Between the Poles blog informs us about this release. From their summary : "The MapGuide Open Source Project Team are pleased to announce the release of MapGuide Open Source 2.0.1. This release includes support for FDO 3.3.1 and bug fixes since 2.0.0. For the complete list please see MapGuide Open Source 2.0.1 Release Notes."

From their announcement mailing list, "The MapGuide Open Source project team is pleased to make MapGuide Open Source 2.0.2 available. This release contains support for Firefox 3, bug fixes, rendering fixes and updated FDO DLLs. For the complete list of fixes please see the release notes ". They also released a LiveCD: "Autodesk and Camptocamp have created this LiveCD to ease your first steps with MapGuide Open Source. When you boot your computer with this CD you get a working MapGuide Open Source server, complete with the MapGuide Maestro authoring tool, code samples, and demo datasets. To download the CD, go to the Related Links page." Recent coverage in the geoblogs includes Autodesk's Geoff Zeiss on MapGuide at Oracle Open World.