Slashgeo

The official OpenLayers blog informs us OpenLayers 2.5 has been released. From the blog: "As of this final release, the OpenLayers 2.5 release closes 190 outstanding tickets, more than any other OpenLayers release to date! [...] Now on to new features! SLD, client side reprojection, improved documentation and examples, tile transitions… so many neat things that 2.6 will hopefully bring." See this previous post on what's new in OpenLayers 2.5. The Earth is Square adds a post on OpenLayers working on the iPod Touch. See related stories below, OpenLayers has been covered regularly.

The OSGeo mailing list tells us the OpenLayers project graduated from the OSGeo incubation process: "Graduating incubation includes requirements for open community operation, a responsible project governance model, code provenance and license verification and general good project operation. Graduating incubation is the OSGeo seal of approval for a project and gives potential users of the project added confidence in the viability and safety of the project." Here's the OpenLayers website, see also related stories below.

Here's a few recent geoblog entries that I found interesting on the topic of tools to share information. First is the ability to use OpenLayers as a data converter: " OpenLayers Data Conversion is a new service that allows easy conversion from any of the formats that OpenLayers supports to any of the formats that OpenLayers supports. Simply paste your data, choose your format, and hit convert." Next is the capacity of GDAL 1.5 to import spatial references from URLs using, as an example, the SpatialReference.org website. And finally, PerryGeo demonstrate a quick way to publish a point shapefile to html, using a single command.

The Mapping News Blog reports about OpenStreetMap new ability. It already supports a couple of different formats, including PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG and Postscript. For more info and the screenshots, please visit the Mapping News Blog. Update: 04/22 14:47 GMT by S : Here's the official announcement on the new export capabilities. In addition to lxnyce's story, I recently found out (via Kurt) about eWorld, an open source framework to import mapping data, including OSM data. From the eWorld page: "eWorld is a framework to import mapping data from providers, such as OpenStreetMap.org (OSM), visualize it, edit and enrich it with events or annotational attributes and pass it to traffic simulators, such as SUMO or VanetMobiSim."

France's GeoPortail, which added 3D buildings last December and licenses its data to Microsoft just announced an API in beta, based on OpenLayers. Both OE and BM informed me of the Geoportail API: "The Geoportail API, based on OpenLayers Technology allows to display the Geoportail visualisation in your own web site." There's some documentation already available: "The 2D API allows you to create a map in few lines of HTML into your web site. Designed and developped in Javascript on top of the OpenLayers library (open source software under BSD license), it acts as an overlay by adding new functionalities and widgets. All of these functionnalities are directly simply accessible through the Geoportal.Map interface. The latter provides few methods to do the job. Developers can also use OpenLayers API while using the Geoportal API. The following schema shows the overall architecture of the 2D API."

The Map Room blog informs us about this new Google API meant to embed Google Maps in flash applications. From their summary : "So, what do I like about the API for Flash? Smoothness and speed are a big part of it. We’ve designed it so that Flash graphics can be used for each tile layer, marker and info window — opening up possibilities like dynamic shading, shadowing, animation, and video. When the user zooms the map, magnification changes happen smoothly and place names fade in. After the user drags a marker, it gently bounces to a halt. Generally, Flash allows for much greater embellishment, and, well … “flashiness.” I get excited just thinking about the creative ways developers might take advantage of having a Flash API for Google Maps."

To check it out, please visit the Map Room blog.