MapServer History

This page will act as a sandbox for compiling notes on the history of MapServer, for publishing to the main MapServer website, as well as Wikipedia.

The project was born of necessity and frustration with commercial Web-based mapping offerings available in the mid-1990s. The initial interest was in developing spatially-enabled Web applications and not the software to make that possible.

1994

• initial effort to develop decision support system for recreational users of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern Minnesota, USA
  • initially basic configuaration to submit web requests to AML routines, rendered with ArcPlot
  • 30 seconds to render maps
  • licensing limitations
• UMN awarded with NASA/ForNet funding to support web-based delivery of forestry data
  • 2 output CGI processes
    • classified imagery output ("imgserv"); CGI process
    • context data output ("mapserv")
  • integration with Java applets

1995

• Shapelib released

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008