= MapServer Toronto Code Sprint 2009 =

== Agenda ==

See http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Toronto_Code_Sprint_2009_Agenda#Mapserver

== Minutes, Actions, Decisions ==

=== 1. XML mapfiles ===

 * A draft RFC is at http://mapserver.org/development/rfc/ms-rfc-51.html
 * There are concerns about the use of the CWXML library and the benefits of a binary encoded format
 * The need we are trying to address is the ability to build MapFile Editors that would be facilitated by the existence of a XML mapfile format (since the current mapfile format makes it impossible to write a forward-compatible parser)
 * There are concerns about having to support another set of parsing functions. Just keeping the existing mapfile.x read/write functions in sync is already a challenge, so adding another set of reader/writer functions for XML will just make this worse.
 * Conclusion: After discussion, it was decided that for the time being we should '''develop a XML schema and a XSLT to convert from XML to text mapfile'''. If the new XML format takes off then we may consider implementing support for it directly in MapServer in a future release.

=== 2. Graphical rendering ===

 * Discussion of the approach of rendering plugins
 * Conclusions???

=== 3. Attribute type handling (for WFS) ===

 * Ticket: http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/ticket/462
 * An itemObj structure has already been added to mapprimitive.h. We agree that this is the way to go, the C code should be updated to use itemObj instead of the array of itemnames, etc.
 * A RFC would be required for this.

=== 4. Metadata and processing directives abuse ===

 * What can we do about this?
 * Conclusion: at least moving the OWS-related metadata to a separate OWS/END block (hashtable) would help.
 * We'll need to maintain backwards compatibility for existing mapfiles that have their ows_* metadata in the METADATA/END block. The way it would be handled is that if a OWS/END block is present that it takes priority and all lookups happen in that hashtable only, otherwise we fallback on the metadata hashtable for all lookups.
 * A RFC will be required for this.

=== 5. Mechanism to enable/hide/ignore layers in OGC Web Services ===

 * See the use cases page at [wiki:HidingLayersInOGCWebServices]
 * One suggestion was to use a set of OWS + SERVICE blocks in the layer definition, e.g.
{{{
  LAYER
    ...
    OWS
       SERVICE 
         TYPE WMS
         REQUESTS ALL # ALL, ONE, or specific request to accept for this layer
         "key1" "value1"
         "key2" "value2"
       END
       SERVICE
         TYPE WFS
         REQUESTS ...
         ...
       END
    END
  END

}}}

== Breakout Sections ==

  * [wiki:TorontoCodeSprint2009_Documentation Documentation]