Thanks for the quick reply and thorough answers.
As far as what I had in mind for number six, I'll try to give an example.
Let's say I have a separate piece of software that reads records from a database and populates a table. For instance, let's say the data is the lat, lon positions of water towers in the US, and from that application I wanted to select the towers I want to see displayed geospatially, hit a button to send that information to uDig. I'm just wondering if it's possible. I think you may have already answered me with the opening a socket suggestion.
Thanks again for your time.
Regards,
Scott Brown
On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 1:49 PM, Jody Garnett <
jgarnett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Scott wrote:
Good morning all,
I have a few questions regarding uDig. If this is not the proper forum for these questions please point me in the right direction.
1. Is there functionality built into uDig to execute SQL-like commands on feature sets? (i.e., selecting all cites with population over n amount)
you create your filter using either:
- a factory
- from xml
- from "common query language" - similar to SQL WHERE clause
To try this open the table view, select CQL and start typing; examples in online help.
2. Is it possible to generate and view reports inside of uDig? (bar graphics, pie charts, etc.)
No; but someone has donated code around the BIRT engine (which handles this sort of thing). We have no mandiate / funding to integrate this work so the best
I can do is point you in that direction and let you know it works. You will also find the printing support much improved on trunk; people have been making
simple reports using custom "Box" implementations to display tables.
3. Is there a way to create and set custom symbols for point geometry? As opposed to selecting a square, or arrow, or any of the other predefined symbols.
Yes; the renderer is SLD 1.0 complient allowing you to do many things beyond what appears in the style editor - for details/documentation read the spec. We can assemble examples in the online help as well.
uDig 1.1.0: you need to go into your Style Layer Descriptor document (yes a mass of xml) and change the point symbolizers to point to an external graphic (PNG, SVG, whatever).
uDig 1.2.x: you can also now supply these symbols using a factory; if the factory recognizes a mark or external graphics reference it knows how to handle to can generate the symbol locally
4. The print option is almost always grayed out for me. Is there something special I have to do in order to be able to print the current view?
I hope you mean the current Map Editor?
uDig 1.1.0: open a map, select new page, choose the template, adjust the layout to suite your needs, print the page
uDig 1.2.0: print; choose the template, paper comes out -or- export pdf, choose the template, file comes out -or- new page, choose template, adjust layout, paper comes out
5. Is there a way to switch how lat, long is displayed? (hr, mins, secs, or degreees)
Not yet; it could be added as a preference option, but I think it actually is based on the current projection (so if your projection is in meters it should be in meters). I recall acuster mentioning that the units need to be displayed .. the unit information is available so this functionality can be implemented.
6. Is it possible to send information to uDig from another application? For example, if I'm running another application and I select some point (lat, lon) and hit a button to send it to uDig, how is that accomplished?
I would handle it as cut&paste right; or drag and drop right now. How to send information between applications changes from platform to platform. If you want to make a plugin that opens up a socket and allows another application to send commands you can; but this is the first time I have heard of such a request.
What did you have in mind? Note normally we try and embed other applications into eclipse; browers, pdf reader, media players for video etc...
7. Is there currently functionality to display great circle paths?
No; but you could add a renderer for that.
8. Can you perform a union of polygons?
Yes. Try the Axios advanced editing tools.
9. Is there a central repository of uDig plug-ins (descriptions + downloads)?
We tried to set that up with the "Community" space on the wiki; for udig iteself on the website is the svn information; other companies like Axios are maintaining their own compatible plug-ins.
I've been playing with uDig for a week or so now, I've done all the tutorials and I'm pretty pleased with what I've seen thus far.
We have many more tutorials as part of our training course :-) As you get into the advanced topics you may wish to review the source code (which is available in svn); or if you are associated with an Academic institution I can get you access to the training materials.
Though I will say that the website is difficult to navigate and near impossible to pull meaningful information from, which is why I'm sending this email. Thank you all for your time!
Feedback on the website is welcome; it is one of those stories where each person comes to the site trying to find different information.
Jody
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User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
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