[Geoserver-devel] Data Store Editor

GeoServer GeoServer Developer
1

Justin,

This is something I've wanted for a while. But, its probably a bit more
difficult to do in general that it first appear. For example, the
shapefile parameters only specifies one URL - when at least 3 are
required. In fact for shapefile, you probably want the .shp, .shx,
.dbf, .qnx (for indexed shapefile), .prj, and perhaps some of the
arcgis-generated indexes. I've also seen some metadata files
associated with shapefiles (.xml).

So, being able to create a decent GUI for an arbitrary parameter set
(ie. datastore) might not be possible since there's not enough
information available.

Perhaps what we should do is have an area where the administrator can
upload a bunch of files, then have a mini-file-viewer for just that
area? Could be a lot of work. Perhaps a file browser for the server's
file system?

Whatcha think?

dave

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2

Off the top of my head I cant think of an easy way to do the file browser from the server perspective. I think gabriel is right, this is part of a larger issue of modifyfing server configuration from the client.

I looked into how the style editor works when you specify an sld file using a file browser. It works as follows. It takes the the file name of the sld file (ignoring the path with repspect to the client) and looks in the config for a file with the same name, so this assumes the file is already located on the server.

We could make the same assumption with all files, however this isn't that intuitive, it assumes the client has already uploaded the file to
correct location on the server.

How about this idea, not sure how crazy it is. Along with the file browser we could have a checkbox labelled "Upload to server". If checked the file is uploaded to the approprate place on the server. If not checked we could default to the style behaviour mentioned above, or assume the path is relative to the server?

-Justin

dblasby@anonymised.com wrote:

Justin,

This is something I've wanted for a while. But, its probably a bit more
difficult to do in general that it first appear. For example, the
shapefile parameters only specifies one URL - when at least 3 are
required. In fact for shapefile, you probably want the .shp, .shx,
.dbf, .qnx (for indexed shapefile), .prj, and perhaps some of the
arcgis-generated indexes. I've also seen some metadata files
associated with shapefiles (.xml).

So, being able to create a decent GUI for an arbitrary parameter set
(ie. datastore) might not be possible since there's not enough
information available.

Perhaps what we should do is have an area where the administrator can
upload a bunch of files, then have a mini-file-viewer for just that
area? Could be a lot of work. Perhaps a file browser for the server's
file system?

Whatcha think?

dave

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--
Justin Deoliveira
The Open Planning Project
http://topp.openplans.org

3

Justin Deoliveira wrote:

Off the top of my head I cant think of an easy way to do the file browser from the server perspective. I think gabriel is right, this is part of a larger issue of modifyfing server configuration from the client.

I have to be quick, or you have to buy me a beer after work.
1. Make an applet (the evil the evil)
2. The Swing FileDialog is backed by a strong model (this is swing after all)
3. Make an implementation of the Model that hits a servlet on the server
4. Servlet on the server provides a browse on GeoServer Home

David Zwiers started looking into this, for exactly these reasons. Also cheat, chances are some one has made a Spring or Struts or some kind of Tile that can do this already ...

We could make the same assumption with all files, however this isn't that intuitive, it assumes the client has already uploaded the file to correct location on the server.

Quick and dirty:
- Make a webdev folder
- Make a config entry GEOTOOLS_HOME to specify the webdev folder
- Make your "file chooser" serve up a list of the files of the correct type from the folder ...

Jody

4

Quoting dblasby@anonymised.com:

Justin,

This is something I've wanted for a while. But, its probably a bit
more
difficult to do in general that it first appear. For example, the
shapefile parameters only specifies one URL - when at least 3 are
required. In fact for shapefile, you probably want the .shp, .shx,
.dbf, .qnx (for indexed shapefile), .prj, and perhaps some of the
arcgis-generated indexes. I've also seen some metadata files
associated with shapefiles (.xml).

So, being able to create a decent GUI for an arbitrary parameter set
(ie. datastore) might not be possible since there's not enough
information available.

Perhaps what we should do is have an area where the administrator can
upload a bunch of files, then have a mini-file-viewer for just that
area? Could be a lot of work. Perhaps a file browser for the
server's
file system?

Yeah, I looked into this a decent bit too, and hit the exact same walls
you did Justin. Gave up for now, to come back at a later point. I
think we should wait till after the 1.3.0 release, since it's more
involved than it should be.

Shapefile is harder than sld upload, since you have multiple files to
deal with, we'd have to use a zipped shape, or else have fields to
upload each of the individual files.

My thoughts are in line with the admin upload area. But we actually
could make it easier than a mini-file-viewer for that area. We can
make use of the DirectoryDataStore that DavidZ came up with. I think
he stopped on it, and I'm not sure why. Basically we define a
directory as the 'datastore', and the individual files in it are the
featureTypes. So from geoserver we already define a certain directory
as the DataStore, and then any shapefiles uploaded there will show up
in the 'new featureType' page. Can open it up with webdav and/or an
upload wizard. Users with access to the server can just copy the files
over there (or can go the old route as well of defining the location on
their server, if they don't want to move it - file browser for server
could help, I couldn't figure out how to do this in struts though, and
makes sense that you couldn't, as it's sorta opening a lot to the
outside world, being able to browse the whole system).

Also, Justin, did you come across my thoughts on this subject? See
http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GEOS-340 I think the workflow is much
more intuitive. Not sure I explained it super well - basically
geoserver should do more figuring out about the flow of what a user
would like to do next.

Chris

Whatcha think?

dave

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