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Browse SpacePlease talk to us!
The geotools-users email list is a great place to start out; ask your questions - and if you get a helpful answer please be kind of update one of these wiki pages.
The users list is for questions regarding the installation or use of the GeoTools library. Users of GeoTools are usually Java developers building applications with spatial capabilities.
Sometimes, some small applications or server-side code will exist within the GeoTools code base (for example, a Web Map Service implementation or a conversion utility). If these have not yet found a project of their own, then questions about how to use them may be directed to this list.
For additional GeoTools mailing lists please consult this page:
Internet Relay Chat
The GeoTools community is avaialble on IRC for a little bit of Question and Answer. You can often find active developers, helpful users, and all manner of activity.
If you are new to IRC, you will need to find an IRC client. The later versions of Netscape and Mozilla have IRC built in, and you can connect to a GeoTools meeting simply by using the URL: irc://irc.freenode.net/geotools.
The information you need to configure your IRC client are:
- Server - Pick one from Freenode Servers
- Channel - #geotools
- Port - 6667
The GeoTools developers meet every Monday as described in their developers guide
Issue Tracker
GeoTools tracks tasks, issues and bugs with its JIRA tracker, generously provided by Atlassian and hosted by CodeHaus. This is where all bugs should be reported, in addition to requested features and improvements.
To create an issue:
- Create a new account
- Login.
- Once you are logged in you can create a new issue.
- be sure that GeoTools is selected as the project
- When logged in there will also be a "Create New Issue" link on the GeoTools JIRA home page.
- When creating a new issue be sure to fill out all the relevant fields.
- Filling out all fields is specially important for bug reports, including components, affected versions, and environment
- You may wish to attach log files, or screen snapshots to the Jira task
Besides a description of the problem, some additional information is also useful when reporting bugs. - The version of Geotools2 you are using (a release or code from CVS ?)
- A description of what caused the problem (example code that reproduces the problem) along with any stack traces
- The Java Version and the type of operating system you are using
- Tip: If you are reporting failed tests during the maven build, check the test reports in geotools/geotools-src/<module>/target/test-reports for further details
What Happens Next?
On creation a notification will automatically be sent to the geotools-devel list. JIRA sends notifications for everything done on the issue, to the reporter, the assignee, and to anyone who clicks on the link to 'watch' an issue.
This is why you must sign up for an account, so that JIRA can email you when updates are done. Your email will not be used for anything else. One nice little feature of JIRA is that if you reply to the email sent for notification, including jira@codehaus.org as a recipient, then the reply will show up as a comment on the issue.
What Happens After That?
Or rather will my bug be fixed?
Well for the above bug report David Zwiers (the module maintainer) will get assigned the bug by default, and will probably respond with a nice email explaining the problem.
Unfortantly Authorization and LockID are different!
The WFS DataStore needs to know the mapping from the Authorization given to the Transaction to the WFS LockID. I know this does not make a lot of sense, you need to imagine the same Transaction being used to Lock two DataStores - well Two WFS DataStores if that helps).
I have not thought of an elegent solution to this problem yet - if you have any suggestions let us know. For now please just have your client code keep the Authorization String used when making the Lock Opperation, rather than the WFS LockID.
I have modified the WFS Data Access tutorial to make this requirement more explicit
David Zwiers
And then the bug will be "Resolved and Closed", and Jira will tell you about that too.
Note the above bug report is entirely fanciful
For New Bugs
However for bug reports: usually the a Developer (or the Module Maintainer) will need to ask you for more information. Until they can reproduce you issue, or you volunteer to join them on IRC and test while they hack, not much is going to happen.
- If you are on some exotic hardware (like oracle) that we do not have public access to you will probably need to arrange to meet on IRC and test out different solutions with a developer.
- For hackers: you can attach a code patch to the Jira task and have the module maintainer include your fix in the next release.
- For improvements: you may be asked to attend a IRC chat to thrash out ideas on how best to include you great idea.
- For documentation: this is a wiki! Please go ahead and correct any mistakes you find
Why Volunteering to Test Makes a Difference
Remember that even volunteering to test makes a HUGE difference for developers .. it literally cuts down the work by two thirds!
- If you are available to test they do not have to spend time trying to reproduce the problem (heck you already have it!); and
- If you are available to test they they can focus on the code in front of them, you can verify the fixed worked
Even if you cannot test right away, swapping messages on email, or updating the documentation can make a difference.
Commercial Support
If you seriously have a deadline, or find you are spending too much time reading out of date documentation, please consider setting up a support contract with any of the following organizations.
Please consider this as an option, especially if you do not have a background in Geospatial Science or are up against a deadline. Remember that the documentation is constructed by volunteers, or people like you hiring someone to improve matters.