All,
As interest in czml continues to rise, we need to make sure the barrier to entry is zero. As we discussed on github (apparently github doesn’t let us search pull request comments), I believe we need a command-line tool that converters from all supported formats, i.e., any format that a converter exists for, to czml. This could be used for scripting servers, and as a standalone tool. I suspect the implementation is trivial, and given Kristian’s commitment to supporting the widest possible content with the lowest barrier to entry, I’m sure he’d love to code it. 
As part of this effort, we should also host a REST web service that converts from supported formats to czml. Perhaps this can be built on the web service that converts czml to kml?
Comments?
Regards,
Patrick
I agree completely, but I just wanted to add that the conversion
process is not always as direct as you're making it sound. For
example, on one end of the spectrum is KML, which is very
straight-forward conversion with no user input needed other than the
KML file itself. On the other end of the spectrum is something like
shapefiles, which have a ton of data but don't necessarily contain any
visualization specific information. Instead, users would have to
provide additional configuration on how to map the shapefile meta-data
into graphics primitives. For example, you might have a shapefile of
points where each point represents a city with associated table entry
about that city. The user may want to make the pixel size of the
point depend on the "population" field in the shapefile, or maybe he
wants to use a star billboard if the shapefile is a capital or
something. We have no way of knowing this without additional
configuration from the user.
I definitely think this should be a high-priority for us, I just think
we need to be careful to do each format justice and provide the
highest quality, most versatile converters that we can. So maybe it's
not one web-service, but a group of web-services that provides people
the "one-stop shop" for CZML conversion.
Matt
So I think this is a great idea and we need top-quality converters for
all widely used formats, we just need to make sure we do each format
justice and
Totally agree with you. I created an issue -
https://github.com/AnalyticalGraphicsInc/czml-writer/issues/12. This is going to be awesome.
Patrick