[ms4w-users] ms4w - with Mapbender and Mapstorer

[Jeff McKenna]

Hello Astrid and Sebastian!

Yes I had a blast at FOSS4G but we missed your gang there, bigtime.

Comments below:

Astrid Emde (WhereGroup) wrote:
> 
> Sebastian and I where thinking about an integration of Mapbender and 
> Mapstorer in the ms4w package.
> 
> We could send the configured code and some demo data and set everything 
> up, so it can run out of the box.

Excellent!  Please do send me (directly) the Mapbender and Mapstorer 
packages (in the same format as the other packages, so users just need 
to extract at their root).

> 
> Here a short summary of our concept:
> 
> For Mapbender
> /ms4w/apps/mapbender
> /ms4w/apps/mapbender/conf/mapbender.conf --> we configure mapbender.conf 
> so everything will work at once

great

> 
> 
> For Mapstorer:
> /ms4w/apps/mapstorer
> - pear we use ms4w\Apache\php\PEAR

About PEAR: having installed the necessary pear packages for mapstorer 
in ms4w on several machines I am very familiar with the pain of that 
task, which I would hope would not be required for an ms4w user.  Plus I 
see on the mapstorer-devel list that there is plans to no longer require 
that additional installation.  So...how do we handle this for ms4w now?

> 
> For both programms we need a database - we would prefer a postgresql 
> database:
> - we could write a batch so the sqls for the databses will be loaded on 
> klick
> - we need a database mapbender and mapstorer

I thought that sql script already exists?  Sure if you want to wrap it 
around a simple batch file great, just make sure you note that in your 
mapstorer/mapbender package instructions for users.

> 
> Installation of PostgreSQL
> - would it be possible to run the nstallation of postgresql / postgis 
> with a script? Did you think about this before?

Yes we used to have a PostgreSQL/PostGIS package (as noted at the bottom 
of the MS4W downloads page), but when postgres 8.0 came out with a nice 
installer for windows it's easier for users to just use that one (and 
now postgis has a nice installer too, which is again noted and pointed 
to on the ms4w downloads page).

If you want to include a script in your /apps/mapstorer directory that 
downloads those installers and runs them then sure, go for it.

> - if the databse would be there, we could create our dbs ( mapbender, 
> mapstorer) and maybe a world database for some demo data
> 
> 
> Add new directory for very basic sample data:
>  - could be: /ms4w/data/world/
>                                       world.map (mapbender, mapstorer 
> could use the map)
>                                     /data/ put some shapes /raster data  
> here

hmm.  I see that data package as a separate MS4W package (I would not 
want to include it in the default base installer, because of size).  So 
your package's readmes could say: 1) run this script to install 
postgres/postgis, 2) run this script to create necessary databases, 3) 
download the "MS4W sample data" package from the MS4W downloads page.

Or, your mapstorer and mapbender packages could both include that sample 
data.

Let me know what you prefer.

> 
> ALIAS in httpd.d
> - two file to add aliases for Mapbender and mapstorer
> 
> Add mapbender and Mapstorer link to /ms4w/Apache/htdocs/index.html

sure.

> 
> What do you think about the idea? For us the database is the 
> prerequisite. Without an easy installation of the database, people would 
> not use the software. But if there would be an easy way to install 
> postgresql/postgis it would be no problem for us.
> 

I think I answered this above.

--
jeff