I admire the simplicity openlayers offers as it doesn’t have any server side dependencies. There are occasions i wish i had more tools from openlayers. Of course it offers loads of classes , we need to know Javascripting in and out in order to customise the interface. Mapfish uses an external javascript library called extJS.
Here comes the advantage of mapfish , a comparitively new release in the world of open source tools for geospatial. Mapfish provides both client and server (java and python). Client is built up on openlayers and added more functionalities. I tried out their demos , quite impressive especially the examples on geostatistics. We can use mapfish client with almost all other servers, and offers everything which openlayers has and more customised tools.
It uses the Geojson format for the geostat examples. I really liked this one and it has other potential applications like dynamic symbology . The GeoJson format is light weight and simple to handle, so quite fast in the application.
An blog on this by Bjørn Sandvik in his thematic mapping blog
I will give an example in the next post.
I would say we can compare the functionalities with that of new ArcGIS server 9.3 Javascript API.
Geoserver can serve WFS service in GeoJson format , What more can you ask for, So get ready for more applications using Geoserver and Open layers/MApfish.
Enjoy the freedom.
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