Building MapServer & MapScript on Windows

Jul 242011

imageThere are already Windows packages available for MapServer ready for deployment. However if you need to make a modification to the source files, apply a patch, or just want to see how MapServer is made then you can build MapServer from its C source files. Thanks to the ready made build kits this process should only take 10-15 minutes from start to finish.

Prerequisites: Microsoft Visual Studio with C++

1. Download the MapServer SDK (Software Development Kit) from http://www.gisinternals.com/sdk/. I’m using Visual Studio 2010, and building on a 32-bit Windows machine (still using XP..), so I’m using release-1600-dev

These build kits, provided by one of MapServer’s developers Tamas Szekeres,  contain everything you need to compile both MapServer and GDAL. Checking out all the files from the MapServer SVN repository is not enough, as this does not contain the GDAL or RegEx dependencies (DLLs that MapServer depends on), or SWIG – a tool used to create MapScript files for each of the different scripting languages available in MapServer such as Python, Ruby, PHP, Perl etc.

Using ArcObjects and .NET in Python

Apr 172011

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This question was posed on the GIS Stack Exchange, and the replies include a number of interesting approaches. Below is another one.

Why not just use .NET?

I have several years worth of DLLs built using VB.NET and ArcObjects. Recently I’ve been using more and more open-source libraries, the majority of which can be manipulated using Python.

A major advantage of using a interpreted language (rather than one that needs to compile) like Python is that you can easily change paths and variables in a script.

You can deliver a folder of .NET ArcObjects DLLs, a sample Python script and an end user can automate their workflow themselves. This negates the requirement to build a UI on top of your code as a (Python familiar) user can script it themselves.

DLLs still have their place as ArcObjects includes many functions not available in the ESRI Python libraries. It is also easier to write and test ArcObjects code in Visual Studio with all the advantages of error checking and auto-completion. Continue reading »

A 10 Minute Intro on using BitBucket with Windows

Jun 092010

There are already a couple of official quick start guides to using Mercurial’s Window’s client program TortoiseHG, but below are the bare details of how to use it with a new account on the BitBucket service.

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Source Control using BitBucket

Jun 092010

Putting code under source control is on most checklists for modern software development. Even small side projects, scripts, and code snippets can benefit from being under source control. For example:

  • When you improve the code others can see the changes and get the benefits
  • If someone else improves the code those improvements can be passed back to you via an automated process

BitBucket is a hosting service for the code-source control system Mercurial. Mecurial is part of a new-wave of distributed source control systems that have the following advantages and disadvantages over regular non-distributed source control:

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Stack Overflow & OSGeo

May 192010

Stack Overflow, as most developers will already know, is a question and answer site for programmers. It’s perfect for mainstream development questions in any programming language, and has also become the support site of choice for some newer programming communities such as Android developers. image

It can also be used as a barometer to see which current open source GIS projects have gained traction in the mainstream programming world. I took the full list of OSGeo projects from http://www.osgeo.org/ and ran queries on the site to see how many questions there were for each project. The results are as follows (as of May 2010):

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Setting up Visual Studio 2008 for Compiling 64-bit DLLs

Apr 162010

This step should be simple. Run the Visual Studio 2008 SetUp program and check the “X64 Compilers and Tools” option under Visual C++

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Logging OpenLayers with Firebug

Apr 132010

imageI take it as given that anyone developing with Firefox and OpenLayers has Firebug installed. Firebug has a number of powerful tools that can make the previous nightmare of JavaScript debugging tolerable.

One feature I recently “discovered” are the logging options. It’s definitely a timesaver over my previous method of putting temporary alert(vals); throughout my code. As well as debugging the logging is very useful for automatically documenting formulae in JavaScript with worked examples that can then be pasted straight into the documentation.

An example of the logging capabilities can be seen on my sample OpenLayers page. If you already have Firebug installed you should be able to see the output similar to that below when the page loads.

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