AU-05 - More on “MapServer Enterprise” Clients

Update 12/8: While the developer toolkit for DWF is available, the source code for the plug-in is not open source.

After seeing the HTML (AJAX) client of “MapServer Enterprise” many times during the week, I finally asked to see the DWF plug-in version. They are as promised identical. Ok, there is one big difference: the HTML one has the blue scale/navigation tool (the blue exclamation point) and the plug-in version does not. However, you can hide the tool in the AJAX version by pushing it “off screen” if you like. (Apparently, many people like to do that since they find it ugly!)

I was not clear on is the status of the clients. They are “somewhat” open source. The core HTML viewer code is available but the DWF plug-in is not open source. (A developer toolkit is available.) Nor is the MapServer Enterprise Studio product which allows for the easy configuration of them. It basically “builds up” the XML that is fed into these apps to create the online page the user sees. In fact, I saw a demo of literally the same XML fed into each. They looked identical, save the blue exclamation point.

Why would a developer chose one over the other? DWF may be quicker with refreshes since the data is local, but has no extra functionality. It might be best used inside a company, where the download of a plug-in is no big deal. The HTML version requires no download and may be best used for consumer/citizen websites.

Both will in time be able to offer DWF files that can be taken into the field, though for now the HTML one does not have that functionality.