In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

One of the main open source competitors to OpenLayers, Leaflet 0.4.5 has been released and they share their plans for version 0.5.

From the announcement: "Highlights of things already implemented in the master branch include touch interaction support for IE10 touch devices and Metro apps and a more smooth and responsive panning inertia. Follow the full changelog for more details. We’re also in the process of a major refactoring of vector rendering code to allow much simpler extension of base functionality with custom shapes, additional rendering systems (like WebGL in addition to existing SVG/VML and Canvas renderers), easy switching between renderers, also making the code simpler and easier to understand. The same goes for projection-related code to make using Leaflet with non-standard projections easier, inluding plain projections for game and indoor maps."

We mentioned GeoNode quite a few times since 2010, and now the project released version 1.2 of the open source GeoNode.

From the announcement: "The new milestone is an iterative advance, with a number of new features and improvements. It is also the last release before 2.0, which is rapidly becoming feature complete and should move in to alpha releases soon. This 1.2 release adds a number of new features such as:

• comments and ratings on map and layers
• social features, to ‘like’ on facebook and ‘+1′ on google plus
• new find/add layers widget for the map composer
• inline legend for the map composer and layer/map pages
• better Feature Info tool
• use of MapQuest Open as the default base layer"

A quick reminder: "GeoNode is a platform for the management and publication of geospatial data. It brings together mature and stable open-source software projects under a consistent and easy-to-use interface allowing users, with little training, to quickly and easily share data and create interactive maps."

It's been a while since we mentioned Geomatica, via AQT, I learned about the launch of Geomatica 2013 from PCI Geomatics. Geomatica is primarily a satellite imagery processing and analysis tool, but can do much more.

Here's how they present the new version: "Geomatica 2013 is loaded with updates and refinements that allow you to complete larger projects in less time with fewer errors. Graphical snapshots clearly illustrate image overlap as well as Tie-point and Groundcontrol point identification. Potential issues with your data are flagged in the updated Project Overview Viewer to assess the quality and coverage of your mosaics before committing valuable person-hours to the job. Live updates now run globally across the software suite allowing you to track changes across multiple projects with a high level of confidence and the ability to achieve accuracy. Our fastest Geomatica yet will improve your workflows and allow you to manage mosaics containing 1,000s of images with ease. You’ll wonder how you ever got along without it."

3D Maps, WebGL, CSS3 ?

Consider funding OpenLayers in order to use these great new possibilities:

More info: http://openlayers.org/blog/2012/10/17/openlayers-3-call-for-funding/

OpenLayers 3 leverages the latest in browser advancements, with a full WebGL map renderer and a DOM/CSS based renderer where WebGL is not available. OpenLayers 3 will build on the vector rendering and editing functionality in the current version, supporting standards and community formats and protocols. The new version of the library will focus on performance, with a lightweight build optimized for mobile browsers, and usability, with an overhauled website and learning resource center. We’re excited to be giving OpenLayers a design and performance facelift while maintaining the breadth of functionality that OpenLayers users depend on.

Ok, I'm quite late on that one, TileMill 0.10.0 was released on September 19th. A reminder, TileMill is an open source map design studio by MapBox. We mentioned several times TileMill since early 2011. James goes to the point where TileMill 0.10.0 'changes everything' and Brian use it as an example in his interesting article on GIS vs cartography, saying TileMill brings simplicity and attainable elegance.

From the 0.10.0 announcement: "This release redefines the creative possibilities for web cartography with its new support for compositing layers and features, achieving photoshop-like clipping, masking, blurring, or highlighting. This powerful set of compositing operations can be used seamlessly across vector and raster layers all using pure CartoCSS. The compositing now possible in TileMill, in combination with image patterns or raster hillshades, can enable effects of uniqueness and beauty that go beyond what has previously been possible."

The project that initially emerged from Autodesk and became MapGuide Open Source just released its version 2.4.

I haven't found a summary of the changes so far. There seems to be numerous improvements to MapGuide OS's core, to Fusion Tools and FDO. Here's what looks like their list of major new items:

• A new service for profiling performance (RFC 110)
• Web Tier directories now include SVN metadata, allowing for the pulling of viewer updates and fixes instantly with a subversion client (RFC 111)
• Path scaling support in Symbol Definitions (RFC 113)
• New Feature Service API for save points RFC 114
• Improved Coordinate System conversion performance (RFC 116)
• IPv6 support (RFC 118)
• Support for enhanced URL information in Layer Definitions (RFC 119)
• Configurable Coordinate System dictonary paths via serverconfig.ini and webconfig.ini (RFC 122)
• Feature Join performance optimizations (RFC 123 and  http://themapguyde.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/improving-feature-join-experience-or.html)
• Toggle-able tooltips for AJAX and Fusion viewers (RFC 120)
• Lots of performance and usability improvements in Fusion (see  this link for an overview)
• Datum Transformation enhancements (RFC 94)
• WMS 1.3.0 support (RFC 95)
• QuickPlot? command for AJAX and Fusion viewers (RFC 96)
• EPSG/SRID code changes (RFC 98)
• WFS 1.1.0 support (RFC 106)
• Watermark support (RFC 108)

My main question when MapGuide Open Source comes to my mind: what's the status of its adoption? I had a lot of hopes for it when Autodesk made MapGuide open source along with providing the financial support for OSGeo's birth, but it seems like MapGuide does not get much love nowadays, at least not as much as competing solutions like GeoServer and MapServer. Any comments?

Newest version of the OpenGeo Suite has just been released and it comes with the following goodies.

• Server-side processing
  • OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) provides a standard for inputs and outputs (requests and responses) for geospatial processing services such as polygon overlays, buffers, or custom processes.
  • Rendering transformations make processing operations easier in browser-based visualizations by enabling just-in-time use of any WPS process as part of any layer’s style.
  • Server-side scripting in Python and JavaScript allows users to easily deploy their own server-side processes using concise and straightforward APIs.
  • PostGIS 2.0 brings vector and raster analysis into the database.
• GeoServer security now supports user groups as well as a number of new authentication mechanisms including LDAP, digest and X.509 certificate authentication.
• Virtual services allow GeoServer to support multi-tenancy, enabling a single GeoServer instance to publish multiple service endpoints.
• A new caching configuration interface in GeoServer includes the ability to define new grid sets, specify which layers to cache, seed or truncate the cache, and more.
• OGC Web Feature Service 2.0 (WFS) adds some interesting new capabilities, including paging, stored queries, and extended operators.
• Upgraded components, including the adoption of GeoServer 2.2, PostGIS 2.0, and GeoWebCache 1.3

Almost a week ago, one of the most popular web mapping server engine has been updated, GeoServer 2.2 has been released. As they wrote: "The release of a new major version update is a big deal (the last one was over 16 months ago) [...]", here's some of the highlights, follow to link to get the full overview!

• NTv2 and NADCon Support allows for datum transformations with cm level precision
• Continued work for supporting high accuracy datum transformations
• A new reprojection console
• The image collection coverage store allows users to serve un-referenced data through WMS using image/pixel space as the coordinate system
• Support for WFS 2.0 adds some interesting new capabilities to the WFS protocol
• Support for additional dimensions brings time and elevation support to both vector and raster data. And, with support for time, comes support for animation in WMS.
• A GeoWebCache configuration GUI is now available directly from within the GeoServer web admin interface

And much much more...

A new version of Geopaparazzi is out in the market: 3.2.0 (or at least it should be soon, lately google play takes some time to get in sync)

The list of news is quite nice:

• huge enhancement of forms with support for multiple tabs, fragments for tablets, images and map screenshots, date widgets...
• integration of forms with kmz export
• style enhancements on kmz export
• send simple notes and bookmarks info via sms
• geocoding via google services
• osm routing via openrouteservice
• measure tool is back
• opening of geoSMS by geopaparazzi in offline mode
• editing mode for geonotes with forms
• support for rendering themes through style maps for offline maps
• battery level visible in map mode
• gps connection status visible in map mode

Read more about it here.

I had to investigate OGC's WCS standard and in the process I learned about Rasdaman, a geospatial radar data manager software which is apparently the only software that currently support WCS 2.0 both as a server and client. Rasdaman exists both in a commercial 'rasdaman enterprise' version and as open source with the 'rasdaman community' version. We never really mentioned rasdaman before.

The rasdaman community introduction: "Rasdaman extends standard relational database systems with the ability to store and retrieve multi-dimensional raster data ( arrays) of unlimited size through an  SQL-style query language. On such sensor, image, or statistics data appearing, e.g., in earth, space, and life science applications rasdaman allows to quickly set up array-intensive services which are distinguished by their flexibility, speed, and scalability.

Rasdaman is brought to you by the guys writing the geo raster standards, including  OGC WCS and  WCPS, the OGC raster query language. The petascope component of rasdaman provides service interfaces based on the  OGC  WCS,  WCPS,  WCS-T, and  WPS. For several of these, rasdaman will be reference implementation. Since April 2011, rasdaman is available on the  OSGeo Live DVD. Rasdaman embeds itself smoothly into  PostgreSQL; further, a  GDAL rasdaman driver is available, and likewise a  MapServer integration (beta). A  PostGIS query language integration is under work, see our planning. EarthLook is a demonstration site showcasing rasdaman in a variety of 1-D to 4-D geo use cases."