MapInfo and Styled Layer Descriptors (SLD)
Mats Elfström
I would just like to ask the group if anyone is aware of any work concerning OGC SLD files in connection with MapInfo Pro.
It seems to me as if it would be possible to use SLD files as templates for either thematic mapping or for permanent cartography.
See http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/sld
You who are working in Open Source environments like MapServer or GeoServer should know.
Or maybe I am wrong, perhaps the SLD can be used only for web mapping?
Regards, Mats.E
Bill Thoen
I haven't heard of any project under weigh involving MapInfo and the
Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) standard yet. Most of the email I've seen
that talks about SLD at all is your standard Internet forum plea for
help with it for use with MapServer, GeoServer, and map presentation
libraries like OpenLayers. But aside from the fact that it's yet another
large stack of XML to master, I don't see why you couldn't adapt a
subset of it at least to MapInfo to try out the idea. XML is just text
with a code page attached, and there's nothing intrinsic that says it's
use has to be web-oriented. However, it might be easier to start
experimenting with MapXtreme first since I believe that uses an XML
workspace already. You could probably implement something like this with
just XSLT and transform feature styling descriptions directly between
SLD and a MapXtreme workspace.
It's an interesting idea. I've often thought that having a collection of
standardized, interchangeable, cross-platform map "skins" for feature
styling would be a useful addition to the toolbox. I've explored some
ideas using workspace code in non-standard ways, but that approach still
involves more work than I want to put into it. Are you going to give it
a try, or are you just speculating for now?
cheers,
- Bill Thoen