Appologies in advance for only giving partial answers (I'm time poor and writing this on a bus, so can't connect to web pages to get URLs).
Quick answer. I'd code this is MB over Openlayers as MB is good at XML translation from multiple sources. But I've used MB for years and am biased. You should be able to do it in Openlayers as well without much more effort (and you wouldn't need to learn XSL). For your WFS Query with specific functionality, I suggest extending the existing WFS Query widget to add your WFS Filters. If you want to be able to select different filters, you could write a widget to build the filters, or you could use a pick list to select filters (similar to the AtomFeed widget used in examples/catalog/ ), or you could reference the filter from your config.xml file. To access GeoRSS and GML you have a few options. Probably the easiest is to ask Geoserver to return GeoRSS instead of GML when a user clicks on a [download GeoRSS] button. Alternatively, you could write XSL to convert your GML to GeoRSS and call this XSL from the browser. There are some examples of XSL translation in the mapbuilder/tool/xsl directory and examples/catalog uses some of them. There is a tutorial on this in the tutorials page linked from http://communitymapbuilder.org Comments inline. ChrisWebster wrote: > I'm new to web mapping, and I'm working on a college project where I'm > thinking of using MapBuilder (and/or OpenLayers), but I'd like to get a > handle on whether MB can do what I want relatively easily. So can anybody > offer a few quick comments on the viability/ease of doing the following with > MB, or point me towards some examples or documentation that might be > relevant? > > My user will be querying some spatial data by drawing a search area polygon > on a simple (WMS) map, then asking GeoServer to run the query against a set > of pre-defined layers. Each query could be against a different layer-set. > > The slight wrinkle is that each layer in the set can also have a variety of > standard search conditions - buffer distance, attribute values etc. These > conditions may vary for a given layer, depending which layer-set is being > used, because a layer may be used in several different layer-sets. These > definitions are stored in a database, and can be modified from time to time, > so I'll need to re-build the filters for the relevant layers in the chosen > layer-set when I run the query to make sure I get the latest versions. > Right now there is no requirement for the user to enter extra query > conditions, but that might come along later. > > If I use OpenLayers, I would probably have to manage the individual WMS/WFS > requests myself, but I could generate the Javascript for each layer and > include the different filters as necessary. > > MapBuilder looks like it would take care of more of the low-level stuff, but > it also looks like you have to pre-define everything in your XML config > files. > > So: is it possible to build and execute dynamic WMS/WFS queries in this way > (pre-defined layers + variable pre-defined query conditions for each layer) > using MapBuilder, and if so, can anyone point me towards some > documentation/examples that might help? > > Also, if I want to trap the GML(?) that comes back from GeoServer and > produce a GeoRSS report in parallel to the display map, can I do this with > MapBuilder, or does it stop me getting at the GML between server and > map-client? > > Thanks for any tips you can offer! > > Chris > -- Cameron Shorter Geospatial Systems Architect Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050 Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 Think Globally, Fix Locally Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. Use priority code J8TL2D2. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/javaone _______________________________________________ Mapbuilder-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mapbuilder-users
