[Chameleon] Chameleon 2.0

[Paul Spencer]

Bart,

a simple request with a complex answer :)  Unfortunately, I am not yet 
in a position to answer it quickly.  But I am trying to put aside some 
time in the next two weeks to sort this out.

In general, however, the following things will be done:

1. Widget Packs - widgets are going to be organized into Packs that will 
be separately versioned and released, simplifying our QA tasks somewhat 
by limiting the scope of what needs to be done.  In conjunction with 
this, we have built a web-based installation system that will assist in 
maintaining a chameleon installation by providing in-place upgrades of 
widget packs, installing and uninstalling packs.  This is based on PEAR, 
the PHP Extension Archive Repository code that ships standard with PHP 
now.  Also included in this is the ability to have multiple versions of 
widgets installed for testing purposes ... more on that when we finish 
the docs

2. Widget Documentation - the original documentation system was pretty 
cool as it allowed you to generate widget documentation and reference 
guide directly from the code.  But our first cut at this was not very 
flexible and we quickly determined that it wasn't really serving our 
needs well.  It could not easily support multilingual documentation, and 
it couldn't easily be expanded to include documentation on new features 
or even some existing features.  We are in the process of rebuilding the 
documentation system to use XML files (one per widget now) that will 
combine all widget documentation into a single location.  The XML 
structure will support multiple languages.  It is the source for both an 
end-user online help system, an application developer's widget reference 
system, and a widget developer's reference.  There will be utilities to 
generate and maintain the XML structure from the widget code, but the 
documentation will still have to be written ;)

3. Javascript Enhancements - there is a fundamental design flaw in how 
Chameleon uses javascript, and the most noticeable effect of that is the 
  CPU useage when the user moves the mouse over the page but not on the 
map.  Other less noticeable effects relate to how some tools like the 
ruler, the pan map and zoom in are affected if the tool is activated and 
then the mouse leaves the map area.  There is also a lot of javascript 
code that gets embedded directly in the page rather than loaded as a 
separate js file (for browser caching performance).  Finally, there is 
really no way to avoid including javascript for lightweight clients. 
The Javascript Enhancements are focussed on addressing some or all of 
these issues.  Since performance is a big part of this work, we can't 
really say how much better it will get ... but I can say that it will 
improve substantially for most users.

4. QA - we have done quite a bit of work on defining QA processes at 
DMSG and we will be applying those processes (in part) to pieces of 
Chameleon as they get released.  There will be an automated test suite 
for testing individual widgets, and there will be a set of functional 
tests.  The automated tests will be available separately, and the 
functional tests will be released as part of a community QA program on 
the maptools site.  The intention is for us to release better quality 
stuff to the community, but also for the community to provide more 
structured feedback to us for quality purposes.  I think everyone 
recognizes the large number of variable factors in building 
applications, and Chameleon is no different.  Internal testing can only 
identify obvious problems on systems similar to ours.  By including the 
community, we hope to leverage their systems and configurations to make 
Chameleon more stable for everyone.

5. New widgets - there are a whole bunch of new widgets that have been 
added for clients such as yourself.  Some are extremely useful to a wide 
  variety of people, but most will be applicable only to a smaller 
subset.  More on this when we get closer.

Hope that helps answer your questions,

Paul

bartvde@xs4all.nl wrote:

> Hi Paul,
> 
> several times you have mentioned the release of Chameleon 2.0 in the first
> half of April 2004 if I am not mistaken. Also you have mentioned a
> Javascript redesign will take place before 2.0.
> 
> Is it possible for you to elaborate a bit on the things that will take
> place in Chameleon between now and release 2.0? I would be very interested
> to know what kind of functionality will be added or what changes in the
> design you are gonna implement.
> 
> Hope to get some info on this. Thanks in advance.
> 
> Best regards,
> Bart
> _______________________________________________
> Chameleon mailing list
> Chameleon@lists.maptools.org
> http://lists.maptools.org/mailman/listinfo/chameleon
> 

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|Paul Spencer                           spencer@dmsolutions.ca    |
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|Applications & Software Development                              |
|DM Solutions Group Inc                 http://www.dmsolutions.ca/|
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