Planning page

IrcMeeting19082009

Release schedule

• Monday 21 May: beta 2 release
• Monday 17 June: Release Candidate of GeoNetwork version 2.1
• Monday 2 July: Final release GN v2.1.0
• Monday 9 September: Release Candidate GN v2.2
• Thursday 20 September: Final release GN 2.2. This is just before the FOSS4G and the Intergeo conferences taking place in the week of 23 September
• Middle 2008: Version 3.0

Planned functionality for version 2.1

Version 2.1 will, beyond the functionality that has already been added, have the following new functionality:

• Privileges handling and metadata ownership (individual metadata ownership besides the group ownership)
• password encryption in database (including migration process update)
• Use of MEF format for data backup when deleting content
• Improve online help system (show help as tooltips)
• Improved search (filters for printable maps, raw data, reports, interactive maps)
• WEBDAV harvesting support (harvest metadata published on webdav folders) optionally:
• Improve workflow to allow review of content before it is published
• Add content review/ rating by users options to interface to allow users to rate content and search on these ratings.
• Integration of InterMap opensource 2.1, the web map client.
• A number of editor improvements
• Bug fixes
• Harvesting of GN 2.0 nodes content from a GN 2.1 node. This will be made available as an update to GeoNetwork 2.0.3 based nodes and will have the form of a single geonetwork.jar library to replace the current (v2.0.3) one.

Planned functionality for version 2.2

Version 2.2 will have the following added functionality:

• GUI improvements based on the outcome of two usability assessments
• Simple LDAP authentication to allow authentication against corporate authentication system
• Plain text version (for low bandwidth searching)
• CSW harvesting
• Open Archive Initiative (OAI) server and client (harvesting) support + administration interface
• Notification system for system administrators in GeoNetwork software:
  • A client thread to send a keep alive message to the server;
  • Using the keep alive messages, the server provides a list of users/ hosts currently active. An administrator service will be added to show the list of connected users;
  • The new administrative page that displays the active users provides the administrator the option to send a message to all or single users;
  • The text message will be presented on the client browser;
  • A maintenance password will be used to avoid logins before a scheduled reboot, or while testing the system. This prevents users to connect to an unstable system.

InterMap improvements:

• Export/print functionality to InterMap to export maps in pdf or geotiff format
• Export in GEOTIFF (image with internal geo-reference)
• Export in PDF format. Add a dialogue to set the title, north arrow, scale, page orientation, visible layer legends, copyright info
• “Email this map to” support, using Web Map Context support already available in InterMap The HTML based mail will provide:
  • Thumbnail of the map
  • A hyperlink that will open the embedded WMC context in the original InterMap instance.
• Updated documentation
• An updated DVD will be produced with this version of the GeoNetwork software.

Under discussion but not confirmed InterMap improvements:

• Integration of the OpenLayers API in the client part
• InterMap server part to act as a WMS-T cascading server
• Support for KML export of a project, including adding comments with pins etc...

Also under discussion, as a result of usability assessment:

To improve searchability

• Ability to refine search by searching ‘within’ search results
• Results to be classified/sorted by:
  • Date of publication
  • Date map refers to
  • Rating
  • Number of views (popularity)
• Highlight searched keywords (context) in results
• By default, search should:
  • Spell check
  • A search for synonyms and equivalents and yield the relevant results
• Metadata to show version number, which is revised each time metadata is updated

To improve admin and publishing

• Automate the registration process, with an email sent to site administrator who then approves the account
• Creation of a lost-password retrieval system
• Data managers have customised user pages which contain all “their” files, and can view usage statistics
• Automated email to data manager asking them to check that their metadata/data is still valid on an annual basis from creation/update (to help improve "housekeeping")

Planned functionality for version 3.0

Planning has started for GeoNetwork opensource 3.0. This section will be expanded over time. Version 3 is planned for release in 2008. The version should further enhance GeoNetwork opensource while remaining backward compatible with the earlier versions.

• Support for the ebRIM based OGC-Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) interface with the ISO and ISO-EO (Earth Observation) extension packages.