this is basically what I expected to hear. it’s unfortunate that this is beyond the SLD spec.
I am glad to hear that you guys seem to support my ideas for using GeoServer for more data-intensive GIS/visualization efforts. I recognize that in my hacker-nature I may not be thinking about the most long-term sustainable route for delivering this functionality (i.e. I really shouldn’t be depending on colors/sizes/opacities/icon URL’s in the PostGIS table). Perhaps I should be writing code to generate SLD files for my visualizations. I think that would work ok for things like dot-sizes and polygon colors, but when you want a different icon/chart/graph for each feature it is really untenable.
Is there any thought towards adding what would essentially be a template/pre-processor for SLD files? so that you can directly template in feature attributes before the SLD/XML evaluation?
In terms of an immediate solution, that sounds like a series of hacks that might be a pain; what about a new VendorOption instead? how much does 1-2 days work cost? is it tax deductible?
-mike