Luigi currently supports map services such as WMS, feature services such as WFS, catalogue services such as CS-W, geo-coding services and a coordinate transformation service. Luigi was developed using Adobe Flex, an open source environment for rich internet applications. The Flex platform lends itself well to the development of interactive internet GIS applications such as Luigi. The reason is that Adobe Flex applications will run in any web browser with an Adobe Flash player plugin, or on the desktop with the Adobe Air runtime software. This versatility will avoid tedious compliance testing with multiple browsers. It also reduces the maintenance costs for new browser releases. Flex also offers a rich set of user interface components and effects. Luigi development started in the Geo Portal Network project within the Dutch Space for Geo-Information (RGI) programme. It was developed to satisfy the need for a suitable platform-independent OGC-compliant internet GIS client. Luigi has been used in numerous projects to create both simple internet GIS applications for novice users and complex internet GIS applications for professional users. Responses so far have been very positive. Users like the user-friendliness of the Flash client environment and the consistent behaviour, regardless of the hardware and software platforms used. The dilemma now is whether to release the Luigi internet GIS framework as open source or not…

More information: http://luigi.wur.nl.
Bas Vanmeulebrouk, ICT developer, Alterra Centre for Geo-Information, Bas.Vanmeulebrouk@wur.nl
Jandirk Bulens, research team manager, Centre for Geo-Information, Alterra, Jandirk.Bulens@wur.nl