ScribeUI v1.8

Summary of the update

Hello everyone! I am releasing today a third update for ScribeUI, for the 2015 edition of Google Summer of Code. This is the final feature update for the summer, which adds a new classifying feature.

Classify

Classify is a new plugin that adds a button to automatically create classes from a set of data. To use it, start by opening a map. On the left side of the screen, you will find a Classify button:

Clicking on it will make a new popup appear:

• Group/Layer specifies in which group the classes should be added
• Data source gives you a list of the data sources in the selected layer. Choose the one you want to use to make classes.
• Field is the field to classify. The fields available are those found in the selected data source.
• Class type is a choice between Qualitative, where all individual values have their own class, and Quantitative, where ranges of values have a class.
• Colors defines the colors to use for the classes, if any. When clicking on Choose, this menu will appear:

To add a single color, choose one by clicking on the black square (if you use Chrome or Firefox), or enter its hexadecimal value. Click on the Add button located on the right to add it to the selected colors.

To add a range of colors, choose the starting and last colors, as well as how many colors to generate, then click on Add.

To remove a selected color, press on it in the Selected colors area and click on Remove. To move it, click on Move left or Move right and to remove all the selected colors, click on Clear. When you're done, press on Confirm in the bottom right of the popup.

When you're done choosing colors, you will go back to the classify menu. To generate the classes, press on Confirm on the bottom right.

Here is an example of the kind of classes you can generate using this feature:

Updating

You can update ScribeUI to v1.8 by using these commands:

sudo chown -R youruser .
git pull
git checkout v1.8
sudo make perms

You will also need to install GDAL and create a path to it:

sudo apt-get install gdal-bin python-gdal
export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/include/gdal
export C_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/include/gdal

Changelog

• Add a new plugin: Classify
• Fix #138

ScribeUI v1.6

Summary of the update

I am releasing today version 1.6, the second update for Google Summer of Code 2015. The main objective of this update was to add map import and export.

Map export

To export a map, select a map in the manager tab and press on the Export Map button. This popup will open:

Pressing on Export will generate a .zip file containing the map files. You can use it as a way to backup your maps or to share them with other users.

Map import

To import a map, go in the manager tab and press the Import Map button. This popup will open:

You can choose a name for the map to be imported, select a .zip file and press import. While the file is uploading, the logs won't update and the status will stay on "In progress". It can take a long time if the map is large or if your connection is slow. Once the process is complete, you will see the map in the manager view.

Changelog

• Fix #33 - Add map import
• Fix #51 - Add a WMS Url for each map
• Fix #67 - Add map export
• Fix #107 - Fix some comment blocks not working in the Scribe syntax
• Fix #128 - Fix standard maps not being saved when there are accents in it
• Fix #129 - Fix includes not being removed when deleting a group on standard maps
• Fix #130 - Fix name tags having numbers appended to them in the Scribe syntax
• Fix #131 - Fix VOID keyword appearing with some comments with the Scribe syntax
• Fix #132 - Fix log files becoming very large
• Fix #134 - Fix french characters creating internal server errors
• Fix #135 - Fix import and export fields not emptying after the popup is closed
• Changed the map debug to use mapserv instead of shp2img

Updating

You will need to add a link to your server's cgi-bin location in the local.ini file, in the [app:main] section. It will probably be very similar to the mapserver.url parameter, so you could place it next to it. The format is

cgi.url = http://myserver.com/mypath/mycgi

For example, this is what I had to add to the demo's local.ini file:

cgi.url = http://demo.scribeui.org/cgi-bin

You can update ScribeUI to v1.6 by using these commands:

sudo chown -R youruser .
git pull
git checkout v1.6
sudo make perms

Plan for the rest of the summer

The last month of this summer will be spent on the data classifying feature. The goal is to provide a way to create a range of classes with different colors from a set of data. You can find more information about the summer's plan here.

ScribeUI v1.4

Summary of the update

I am releasing today the first update for ScribeUI for Google Summer of Code 2015. I had three main objectives planned for this summer, which you can see in this previous blog post. This update contains the first part of the project, improved error detection. You can try it here!

To give you an example, here's what happens when I try to use a comma instead of a dot for a decimal value:

When the map renders pink error tiles, an error message appears over it with a link to open the logs if they're not already open. In the logs, there are two links: one to the location of the error in the result mapfile, and one to the location of the error in the editor. These links are available only when the error returned by mapserver contains the line number.

Sometimes the error can't be located in the editor, often because of the differences between the Scribe syntax and the regular mapfile syntax. When that happens, you should still be able to find it in the result tab.

The Debug tab now contains the output of shp2img with debug level 5 using the generated mapfile as the input. The logs generated by shp2img are very useful for debugging. The Result tab was also upgraded to a read-only CodeMirror editor, allowing syntax highlighting, error widgets and line numbering.

Changelog

• Fix #65 - Update the Readme for the latest version of Apache
• Fix #87 - Make the map's viewport change when resizing the logs tab
• Fix #92 - Add an error message when something goes wrong while creating a map
• Fix #94 - Fix the issue where the log tab disapears when resizing the window
• Fix #112 - Add an option for the cgi-bin url in the local.ini file
• Fix #113 - Fix the issue with Scribe.py where links would be interpreted as comments
• Fix #114 - Remove the extra options in the map type when creating a new map
• Fix #117 - Make the debug logs always available
• Fix #118 - Fix the issue where a map's name stays visible after deleting it
• Fix #119 - Don't let the user create two maps with the same name
• Fix #120 - Escape characters in the description to prevent cross-site scripting
• Fix #121 - Add a maximum height to the log window
• Fix #122 - Refresh the log window when resized
• Updated CodeMirror to version 5.3
• Add error widgets in the result tab
• Add error widgets in the editor
• Add a notification when the map fails to renders

Updating

As with the previous release, you can update ScribeUI by using these commands:

sudo chown -R youruser .
git pull
git checkout v1.4
sudo make perms

You will also need mapserver-bin to use the new debugging feature. If you're updating, use this command:

sudo apt-get install mapserver-bin

Plan for the next weeks

The second feature planned is exporting and importing maps and workspaces. This would allow users to share their maps more easily, and it would make it possible to add backups.

ScribeUI v1.2

ScribeUI v1.2 is the final release for the Google Summer of Code 2014! The highlights for the v1.2 release are the refactoring of the javascript, the new plugin system and of course bugfixes!

What's new?

• The javascript got some major makeover
• The plugins are nicely working again, and even more flexible then before! A tutorial is available for anyone wanting to add new features to ScribeUI!
• Lots of bugfixes such as:
  • #100 Group reordering dialog now supports multiple selection
  • #69 The editor runs much smoother when working in large mapfiles
  • #21 The layer groups are not hard-coded anymore, the front-end now detects the map name and requests it instead of the previously used "default" group.
  • #27 You can now delete POIs!
  • #104 Fixed some annoying with the POIs and zoom levels that caused the map to crash.
  • And others! ( #10 #95 #105 #93 #64 )

Updating ScribeUI

If you are currently running ScribeUI v1.0, the simplest way to update is to change all the permission to you, pull, and then change them back:

sudo chown -R youruser .
git pull
git checkout v1.2
sudo make perms

If you loaded the demo data to have the default templates available, you may want to run the command again as the data structure was slightly modified to solve a small bug which caused pink tiles at some zoom levels.

sudo make load-demo-data   

Thanks to everyone who left feedback during this GSoC, ScribeUI is now even more enjoyable to use than before!

ScribeUI v1.0

This new version of ScribeUI brings one most important change, the backend switched from Flask to Pyramid. It is one of the most important update ScribeUI has seen.

Most important changes

• New pyramid backend
• New installation instructions
• Some refactoring of the python code. We now have a much better MVC structure.
• Some refactoring on the javascript side too.
• Bug fixes, such as:
  • #38 The map names are now truncated in the Manager tab if they are too long
  • #41 The separation between the editors is clearer
  • #37 You can now exit and open a different workspace
  • #22 You can now specify mapserver's path

Updating and Migrating the Workspaces

If you are updating your ScribeUI version, please refer to the updating instructions in the readme file. This is very important in order to keep your current maps working well!

Any bug can be reported on the issue list

ScribeUI Version 0.5

This new release doesn't bring any new features, but it solves a lot of annoying bugs. The app will now run much more smoothly than before.

Most important changes

• Workspaces with passwords are now deletable
• The add POI function works great with Scribe maps too.
• The variable button was put in the same dropdown as map, scales, projections, etc.
• No more multiple set extent buttons.
• The setextent function was polished a bit.
• Editors' history no longer overlap, you can now ctrl-z without fear.
• You can now resize your window freely without breaking the layout.
• It is now possible to delete files from the browse tab.
• Useless scrollbars in chrome are gone.
• Resizing the log panel now works in chrome.

These changes solve a lot of annoying quirks ScribeUI used to have. If there is still things you would like to see changed, feel free to open a ticket. We are very open to feature and enhancement suggestions, as well a bug reports.

v0.4

As September 16th is the soft pencils down for the Google Summer of Code 2013, the 0.4 release will be the last code release to be officially part of the GSoC.

What's New ?

• Plugin system! It is now easy to create a new component to ScribeUI, should it be client or server side.
• Included an example plugin called setextent. It is a fairly minimal example of how plugins should be structured.

What's Next ?

• Next step is proper documentation, for the user and also to help developers create plugins.

ScribeUI v0.3

The Google Summer of Code ending very soon, the goal of this new release is bugfixes, and the beginning of the new plugin system!

What's new ?

• Fixed issue #14, the browser tab is now much more comfortable to use.
• Fixed issue #11. This bug caused the client not to keep up with maps deleted in the backend.
• Added the current zoom level on the map! ( issue #12 ) This makes it much easier to define your Scribe scale ranges.

Work In Progress

Still in progress is a simple plugin system. Some functions were added on the client side to make it easy to add buttons and tabs to the interface. The back-end side of plugins is not supported yet.

ScribeUI v0.2.1

Fixed symbols bug and added some update instructions.

ScribeUI v0.2

New Release of ScribeUI

The Google Summer of Code is well advanced, and I am very pleased to announce this new release. The main goal of this release is to provide a better experience when editing scribe syntax.

What's New?

• A new scribe.py file was integrated. This allows for much better error messages in the logs when a scribe syntax error is done (mismatching brackets, missing colons etc.) This fixes issue #5.
• The group management (opening, adding, deleting and re-ordering) was redone for scribe maps, as to comply with the new scribe files.
• Version 0.1.1 and 0.1.2 were released in the meantime, as to fix some installation instructions ( issue #8 ) and a url/trailing slash problem.

Updating and Migrating the Workspaces

If you are updating your ScribeUI version, please refer to the updating instructions in the readme file. This is very important in order to keep your current scribe maps working well.