add "load procedures"

[andrewd]

Autodesk's Mapguide Studio allows the user to quickly make layers and data connections for multiple source, using Load Proceedures. Basically, you select a bunch of shp files, etc - pick your coord system info and where to put the files. It works really really well for building a project from scratch. It would be great if you could add something like that to Maestro. Anything that would let you quickly make multiple data connections and layers...

[ksgeograf]

As I understand, the "Load Procedures" are there to facilitate the usage of files in the Autodesk proprietary formats (DWG and friends) in an otherwise open source environment.

I can see the use for SHP files, because they contain style information. However, I have to either find or build an SHP library that can extract the style information from SHP files. That is a rater large task, so I will not implement it right away, but keep it in mind.

Do you know of other spatial formats that carry style data within the spatial datafile?

[andrewd]

The load procedures work for any file type in Studio, not just dwg and dxf. They don't set up any style info in the layers, at least not that I've seen - rather, they make the data connections and the layers in bulk selections. They make basic styles....so a point shape file will simply come in as a black point, line shape file a black line, etc.

[ksgeograf]

I see. So you are interrested in load procedures, as a means to load an entire folder of filebased spatial data?

That seems like a good idea. I will look into it.

[andrewd]

Not necessarily an entire folder, as there may be some files you wouldn't want to import - but possibly...yes. It dramatically speeds up the map building process...

[andrewd]

It actually makes it easier to load even just 1 file this way - since it's just a single step, rather than having to make both a data connection and layer manually.

[ksgeograf]

Ok, that makes sense. I will see if I can add a simple method for selecting the layer template used when loading data.

[jbirch]

The other thing about load procedures is that they copy the file-based spatial data directly into the MapGuide repository, resulting in "managed" data sources that are included in any package creation.

I believe that all of the current Maestro operations are based on unmanaged data sources (raw path or alias-based)?

[ksgeograf]

It is always possible to upload files using the generic featuresource editor. Some of the editors (SDF, filebased-OGR, ODBC) also has an option to upload files, automatically setting the path correctly.

You can chose "Internal file (managed)" and upload SDF, SHP, TAB, etc. files. You can even upload a number of SHP files, and use the entire folder as a single datasource with multiple schemas (pending inclusion of a patch in OGR, should be in next version).

I did not add that feature to raster provider, because I find it ackward to have so large files in the server, and the upload itself will be huge, and probably hit numerous timeout problems.

[jng]

I've added experimental API (r4780) and UI (r4781) support for Load Procedures. I will be posting a 2.1 preview build soon, so you can try it out.

This only supports SDF and SHP load procedures and some features (eg. generalization of data) are disabled in the UI and ignored when executed.

[jng]

I have posted a 2.1 preview release containing basic support for SDF and SHP load procedures. There are a few caveats:

1. Opening any other load procedure type will default to the XML editor and these cannot be executed
2. SDF load procedures must have SDF3 files for input files (there's warning labels in the editor UI)
3. SHP input files in SHP load procedures cannot be converted to SDF3 (there's warning labels in the editor UI)
4. Generalization of data is not currently supported (there's warning labels in the editor UI)

Despite these apparent limitations, it should fulfill the requirements outlined in this ticket. If there are no issues with this implementation, I will mark this ticket as closed/fixed.

[jng]

Milestone Maestro-2.1 deleted