Hi all,
there seems to be some confusion and frustration around Fusion and its
relationship to the MapGuide Open Source project that I would like to
try and clarify.
There are currently three versions of Fusion:
* version 1.0
* version 1.1
* the development version
Version 1.0 is the version that the MapGuide project is currently
using. It is the *stable* version. It has many acknowledged problems
and is not as polished as the AJAX Viewer in some respects, making it
a less desirable platform for MapGuide Open Source application
development.
Some of these problems have been addressed by upgrading to a new
version of the OpenLayers library that Fusion is dependent on.
Updating Fusion to use the newer version of OpenLayers caused some
necessary changes that were beyond the scope of what could be
considered a bug fix release. Therefore these changes could not be
incorporated into Fusion 1.0, and so we elected to release an official
1.1 version with these fixes in order that some MapGuide Open Source
developers would be able to get past at least some of the issues in 1.0.
Version 1.1 is currently being released and includes many bug fixes
related to updating to the new version of OpenLayers, as well as a few
other bug fixes. We hope to address a few more bug fixes before we
finalize the release, but many issues are being deferred to a future
release too.
One of the unfortunate side effects of updating to a new OpenLayers in
Version 1.1 is that the existing MapGuide Open Source templates
(Slate, Aqua, etc) do not work because the templates used an
unsupported OpenLayers API method that changed when OpenLayers was
released (this was entirely our fault when the templates where created).
MapGuide Open Source has included Fusion 1.0 since version 2.0.0.
Minor bug fixes to Fusion were included in the 2.0.1 release I think.
When the 2.0.2 build was prepared, it was decided by the MapGuide Open
Source Project Steering Committee that updating to Fusion 1.1 did not
meet the criteria of a bug fix release (partly because it included new
features and changes beyond bug fixes, and partly because it still
isn't a final release).
The development version of Fusion is where the developers are actively
working on Fusion, specifically on improving performance and
stability. This includes updating the version of OpenLayers to the
latest version and updating to the latest version of the Jx user
interface library. The update to OpenLayers didn't change anything
this time around, but the update to Jx has caused a significant
internal change in Fusion and in how templates are built. Because the
MapGuide Open Source templates are heavily dependent on Jx and were
completely customized, they will have to be rebuilt for the new
version of Jx in order to work at all (both the javascript and the CSS/
image skins).
When the Project Steering Committee decides to release MapGuide Open
Source 2.1.0, a new version of Fusion will (I hope) be included.
Given the timeframes of what is going on in both projects, I am
hopeful that we can complete the current round of development activity
in Fusion and release a new version (likely 2.0) in time to be
included in MapGuide Open Source 2.1.0.
This has left MapGuide Open Source users wanting to work with Fusion
in a tricky position. Version 1.0 is not really useable and Version
1.1 doesn't work without changes (albeit minor ones) to the MapGuide
Open Source templates. The development version is entirely unuseable
until the current round of development activity stabilizes.
I don't really have a solution for MapGuide Open Source users wanting
to work with Fusion beyond what has already been discussed on the
various mailing lists.
I would like to acknowledge and thank those folks who have taken the
time and effort to use Fusion and report issues to us. I know that we
haven't been able to satisfy everyone and are generally slow in
responding, this is something that I hope to improve on in the future.
Paul
__________________________________________
Paul Spencer
Chief Technology Officer
DM Solutions Group Inc
http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
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