OSGeo4W is a special installer focused on the distribution of various free and open-source GIS software on Windows operating systems (XP, Vista, etc.). With OSGeo4W you can install GDAL/OGR, GRASS, MapServer, OpenEV, uDIG, QGIS and many other packages (see the full list).
Installing OSGeo4W requires only a few simple steps:
the selected packages and the required dependencies will be downloaded and installed automatically
After installation, desktop applications can be started from the “Start → Programs → OSGeo4W” menu. Command line utilities can be run from the OSGeo4W Shell, and web applications will be available at http://localhost/.
In this post, I will go through the main steps needed to prepare and add a new package to OSGeo4W, based on my experience of creating packages for matplotlib and TinyOWS, and information from the OSGeo4W Wiki.
TinyOWS is a lightweight and fast WFS-T server. OSGeo4W is an installer for various free GIS software. What do they have in common? Until today, the correct answer was “nothing”.
From today, OSGeo4W users can install and use the latest version of TinyOWS 1.0.0rc1. Previously, the only reasonably easy way to get the TinyOWS server running on Windows was to use MS4W installer, but it provides the old 0.9.0 version.
I have also written a guide on how to build TinyOWS on Windows.
Alessandro Furieri has announced the SpatiaLite Cookbook, an excellent guide to SpatiaLite with many practical examples, optimisation tips and information on using SpatiaLite with different programming languages. You can check it out here.
Frank Warmerdam has announced that OSGeo4W is moving to the recently released GDAL 1.8.0. Instead of GDAL 1.5.4, the default version will be 1.8.0, additional packages like gdal-python, gdal-autotest, gdal-ecw etc. will also be updated or removed if no longer needed.
For compatibility with some packages that still require GDAL 1.5.4, a new package gdal15dll (with the necessary libraries) will be added. This package will be automatically installed if needed.
Since the transition to a new version of GDAL is a rather laborious and time-consuming process, the update of some packages included in OSGeo4W is temporarily suspended. In particular, this affects QGIS nightly builds.
The maintainers of the QGIS OSGeo4W package have already announced that they will rebuild the package with GDAL 1.8.0 as soon as possible, GRASS will be rebuilt after GRASS 6.4.1 is released.
A new version of matplotlib 0.99 has been released recently, the list of changes can be found here. I have rebuilt the package for OSGeo4W, updated the corresponding wiki page and uploaded the new package to the server.
There is a Python extension called matplotlib. It is very convenient and functional, allowing you to easily create and display various graphs and charts. It generates high-quality images and supports adding captions, including various special characters. I used this extension when I needed to output a histogram in my plugin.
That’s why I decided to create a package for the OSGeo4W installer. I read the instructions, experimented on a virtual machine, and here is the result: matplotlib is now available via the OSGeo4W network installer.
It’s hot, although even during the day the temp doesn’t rise above +25°C. The heat is particularly noticeable when dancing: our classroom is very limited when it comes to ventilation and opening windows, so everyone is sweating within 5-10 minutes of starting the warm-up. On the other hand, it is the perfect time for stretching — muscles warm up quickly and lose heat more slowly. Ira is making the most of this: she has decided to devote the last month of this year’s course to stretching alone.
Earlier I wrote about work on translating the OSGeo4W network installer into Ukrainian. It’s time to report. Translations are done, new resource files are committed to SVN, installers are built, uploaded to the server and available for download. Download links can be found on the OSGeo4W home page.
After spending some time solving various issues, I have finally managed to build the OSGeo4W network installer from source. This is necessary to create a similar installer, but with resource files translated into Ukrainian (and possibly in Russian, if I have enough motivation and time). As for many people, English is still quite a serious obstacle, and besides, it is much more pleasant to communicate with the program in your native language.
Just half an hour ago, my patch for fTools was accepted. The changes are available as of revision f13f45e (SVN r10849). Yay!