Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Which web mapping framework to use ?

The WhereGroup has just published a newsletter containing interesting information about OpenLayers, MapBender and MapFish. As you probably don't read german, I'll try to summarize a bit this document in order to highlights some points. My goal is not to say "this is good", "this is bad", but more to clarify the famous question "Which framework do I have to use for my web mapping application ?"
Here are some highlights:
- MapFish server can be characterized as a pure Web 2.0 development framework using REST technology. WhereGroup mentions its high code quality.
- In order to create RIA, MapFish is based on ExtJS / GeoExt / OpenLayers. Mapbender targets to use JQuery / JQuery UI / OpenLayers. I wish good luck to the team for the creation of the promising GeoJQuery library.
- MapBender, like MapGuide for example, can be seen as a product. MapFish is more a development framework used for the creation of web mapping products.
- On the security level, MapBender proposes nice tool for the user management. I have to say that we developped by Camptocamp a nice integrated Security Proxy Server in Java (based on Spring Security Framework / CAS). We'll need some discussion in the MapFish community to evaluate how can this be part of MapFish Framework.
- MapBender has a also nice administration tools. On the MapFish side, Studio is supposed to offer an administration solution.

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