OSGeo Live and Roadmap

Hello geopublihing.org readers! In this blog we want to update you on two things: The OSGeo Live DVD and the general roadmap of Geopublisher and AtlasStyler for the next months.

OSGeo Live DVD

The OSGeo Live project creates ready-to-use DVDs with preconfigured, runnable and documented FOSSGIS (free and open source GIS software) applications. The next release will be version 4.0 and and it will be distributed at the FOSS4G conference in Barcelona in a few days.
Wikisquare (the company sponsoring geopublishing.org) has participated in the OSGeo Live project this year to get Geopublisher and AtlasStyler onto the DVD. During that involvement I learned that the project is a lot of work, as dozends of applications have to be made runnable on a live system, documented and tested. I want to thank Cameron Shorter, Hamish, Alex Mandel and all involved for their efforts in creating a quality product that has the power to convince FOSSGIS-newbees of all the great open-source alternatives: Thanks a lot and keep up your great work!

Sadly, I have to announce here, that in the OSGeo Live DVD 4.0 - which will be distributed at FOSS4G - Geopublisher and AtlasStyler suffer a bug and are hardly usable in that release. The bug is fully my fault and I am very sorry it got in there in the last minute. The geopublishing.org web-page will feature a link to fixed version 4.0.1 in a few days. The OSGeo Live DVD 4.0.1 (and any later version) can then also be used for Geopublisher or AtlasStyler trainings, as it contains not only the applications, but also tutorials and demo data.

Until this fixed version 4.0.1 is released: To use AtlasStyler and Geopublisher from the OSGeo Live DVD as handed out at the FOSS4G, you have to do the following steps to fix the bug:

1. Boot the DVD as usual.
2. Open a terminal by clicking on the little black icon in the top panel.
3. Enter the following command:

4. sudo chown -R user:user .AtlasStyler .Geopublisher

5. Press [Return] and enter user as password.
6. Done. Close the terminal window and start AS oder GP with the desktop icon.

Roadmap

Geopublisher and AtlasStyler started in 2007 out of a diploma-thesis by an open-source enthusiast. In 2008 the open-source GIS company wikisquare.de was founded, which funded further development and offered commercial support for Geopublisher and the AtlasStyler SLD editor since then.
So far 2010 has been a very prospering year for wikisquare, but sadly the projects where usually not directly Geopublisher or AtlasStyler related. Hence only limited resources were available for development and were mainly spend on bugfixing instead of exciting new features.

For the future of AtlasStyler and Geopublisher we are more eagerly looking for organizations to invest into these projects. If you need a powerful SLD editor embedded into your software (AtlasStyler) or you can use an easy-to-use end-user desktop GUI to create maps and publish them (Geopublisher) please contact us! We are happy to port parts of it to the web or adapt it to you needs.

For the rest of 2010, the roadmap is very modest: There will be a relase of version 1.6 in November, but don't expect amazing new features. In spring 2011 we are determined to completely rewrite the existing Export-to-Web feature in Geopublisher. Geopublisher 2.0 will be able to export any GP atlas project to an end-user WebGIS consisting of industry-standard open-source components like: PostGIS, Geoserver and Openlayers. Any existing atlas projects will automatically profit from this enhancement, as it will be 100% backward compatible.

Get more involved, you!

I want to finish this blog entry with a general appeal to Open-Source software users:

Every month or so I meet a GIS user in person that has someday before evaluated Geopublisher / AtlasStyler and tells me that something didn't work as expected or a feature was missing. When I hear that, I usually become a bit angry inside - not because the software has a bug - but because it has never been reported. I then imagine all the other users that might have experienced the same bug - a bug that could have been fixed months ago, if someone would have reported it! So in case you and me meet in person on day, don't you dare to tell me about a bug you have been too lazy to report! ;-)

Developing good and stable Open-Source software is a community efford! The developers invest time = money to write code, and the users have to invest time = money in providing feedback and testing. So, if you don't want to be an Open-Source Lurker, please always take the time to give feedback and report bugs when you see them. The final product, all the other users, and - most important - your karma will profit from it!

Greetings,

  Stefan A. Tzeggai