The new JPEG2000 transparency support, which is a feature only available to licensed users of MapImagery Lite and MapImagery Professional, provides the ability to recognise an alpha layer within a JPEG2000 image, and render this layer as transparent within MapInfo.  This feature is particularly useful for viewing a mosaic of images that overlap, as the alpha layer can be used to mask out those areas of an image that contain bad data.

A new image header file format .MIR (MapImagery Raster) has been created to facilitate support of JPEG2000 transparency and support for rendering of local JPEG2000 files.   This file format replaces the .URL files which were generated by previous releases of MapImagery (Note that URL files will continue to be supported by the raster handler, however .MIR files will be generated by the MapImagery GUI, rather than URL files). 

From the example .MIR file listing shown below you can see that the file contains a URL, and in additional other information specifying how the image should be rendered, in this case "Alpha" options on how the JPEG2000 alpha layer should be rendered.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<MapImageryRaster xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://www.mapimagery.com/schemas/1.0/MapImageryRaster.xsd">
     <Version>1.0</Version>
     <MapImageryVersion>7.2</MapImageryVersion>
     <CreatedDateTime>2007-04-25T17:29:00</CreatedDateTime>
     <Url>D:\images\alpha.jp2</Url>
     <AlphaOptions>
          <AlphaEnable>true</AlphaEnable>
          <AlphaMode>Binary</AlphaMode>
          <AlphaRed>003</AlphaRed>
          <AlphaGreen>002</AlphaGreen>
          <AlphaBlue>001</AlphaBlue>
     </AlphaOptions>
</MapImageryRaster>
 

This new image header format will form the basis of various future enhancements to MapImagery, enabling greater control over the display of ECW and JPEG2000 images within MapImagery.

A new MapImagery options dialog has been created for controlling JPEG2000 alpha transparency.  This dialog controls the transparency behaviour of both the raster handler and the MapImagery GUI.   It is possible to switch off transparency support temporarily via this dialog.   It is also possible to change the colour, used to communicate transparency between the MapImagery raster handler and MapInfo.   Usually this is not necessary, as the default is fine for the vast majority of images.

The MapImagery user interface has been changed to reflect the support for JP2000 files.  In places where the ECW extension appeared in the past, now both the ECW and JP2 extension appear.   For example the main menu entry that used to read 'Open ECW Image...' now reads 'Open ECW or JP2 Image...'.

A section has been added to the online help on JPEG2000 alpha transparency support.  This section can be found here:

http://www.mapimagery.com/help/ecwhelp/transparency.htm

This release also contains various minor bug fixes and reliability enhancements and also includes the most recent ECW and ER Mapper raster engine support libraries.

Note that support for local raw .JP2 images has not been included in this release, because MapInfo supports this format natively, and adding support within the ECW raster handler would create a conflict. However, that it is possible to load .JP2 images using MapImagery via creating an algorithm that has a .JP2 image as its image source.

This version also contains a  fix to a crash that occurred, for some users, with recent versions of MapInfo Professional, when they loaded ECW plus other image types into a single workspace.

Some improvements have been made to the InstallSheild scripting to better detect different versions of MapInfo Professional automatically.

The MapImagery install archive is now signed with a MapImagery code signing certificate so that Internet Explorer no longer warns that the content is not signed, when the archive is downloaded.

MapImagery HTML help documents have been stamped with a 'Mark of the Web' comment to stop the Windows XP SP2 security settings complaint about unsafe content.

The destination directory for the MapImagery system software should now default to an appropriate internationalised "Program Files" directory.

The MapImagery Options dialog has been widened on some of the pages, to support longer folder names.

The "MapInfo AutoLoad Options" menu has been removed, as this is no longer appropriate for modern versions of MapInfo Professional.

Also included in this version are several bug fixes to do with file choosers loosing track of the directory that they are supposed to be browsing in.  The LUT chooser was opening in the current directory, rather than in the LUT directory in the Windows XP environment.

Support for internationalisation of additional modules of MapImagery have been completed in this version, including the MapImagery Encryption dialogs.

There is also a new version of the ECW dlls included in this version, which shouldn't have any effect on the product.

Some work has been done to make the ECW raster handler thread safe, for inclusion in the up coming MapInfo product releases.

MapImagery Encryption The test modes are available without a license, but a license is required to encrypt imagery and create keys, for non test modes. 

Note that no license is required to use encrypted imagery.
Please contact MapImagery to request a license for test or evaluation purposes.

Please contact MapImagery to request a license for test or evaluation purposes.

MapImagery Encryption allows imagery to be distributed publicly, for example on DVD, CDROM, intranet file system, or via the Internet. But only to be viewed by users with an appropriate key.

Optionally it is also possible to specify that the imagery can only be decrypted using a particular software product, or even by a user with a particular network address.

For more information on MapImagery Encryption, see the separate MapImagery Encryption Help included with the distribution, or available on the MapImagery web page.

Also included in this release are some bug fixes to the MapImagery licensing dialog, and some bug fixes to the MapImagery Hardcopy monitor user interface.
 

The main improvement in this version  is the introduction of tiled printing support which overcomes 4000x4000 view size limit for ECW images.   Tiled printing support also enables large ECW images to be printed with much smaller memory usage.  

With tiled printing the image is loaded as a series of 1000x1000 tiles are processed in succession.   In future versions more control may be introduced over tile / strip sizes.

Error handling in the ECW raster handler has been much improved in this release.  Much more helpful messages should be returned when printing fails.

Support for canceling a currently printing image was improved in this release.

This version includes the first implementation of  the MapImagery Hardcopy Monitor, which provides more control when printing remote ECW images across a LAN or the Internet.

The MapImagery Hardcopy Monitor is a feature of MapImagery Lite and MapImagery Professional that solves some of the problems of producing hardcopy from large ECW image web server sources.  The MapImagery Hardcopy  Monitor:

- Provides feedback during the process of producing hardcopy from large ECW image web server sources.

- Allows a degree of control over how long to wait for the ECW imagery required to produce a plot to be downloaded to a workstation.

- Allows a hardcopy taking an excessive amount of time to be canceled.

:The MapImagery Hardcopy Monitor can be enabled via a new MapImagery Options Page, which also allows control over when the monitor is invoked.

This version also includes a new license type, MapImagery Lite, which is a collection of enhancements to the free version of MapImagery that can be purchased as a low cost annual subscription.

The idea for MapImagery Lite has come from talking to users about what kind of features they think would enhance the usefulness of MapImagery.  

Often people said that very small features would make their workflow much more effective,  for example better hardcopy support, simple colorbar support, or better support for MapInfo transparency.

MapImagery Lite is licensed on the basis of a low cost annual subscription / year per user.  

As enhancements and new features are added to MapImagery Lite, these will be available to subscribers, at no additional cost. 

Volume discounts are available and also it is possible to purchase a multiple year subscription at a discount.

Some experimental language files, which were incorrectly shipped with the previous version, have been removed from this one.

The algorithm used in MapImagery, when a user chooses to display an image without contrast stretching, has been changed.   If a dataset consists of byte data, then the input limits are set to 0 and 255.  In previous versions, the input limits were set to the output limits for byte data.  For all other data types, the previous algorithm is used.

This change makes MapImagery produce similar results to ER Mapper and to ECW for MapInfo, for byte data.  The change has been in response to user feedback.

A bug was fixed whereby data files that weren't in a subdirectory, could not be edited properly with MapImagery Professional.   With this version, data files and algorithms in a root directory, such as E:\ can now be edited.

The ability to change the current Color Lookup Table (LUT) via the Surface dialog has been added in this version.

Support for loading algorithms from a read-only network drive has been added. In previous versions, CD-ROMs were supported, but read-only network drives were not.

The application has been fully tested on an 800 pixel wide screen and some of the dialogs (in particular the Layer Editor) have been reorganised so that they display properly on screens as small as 800 pixels wide.

The French help is now distributed with MapImagery. The French help translation is substantially complete in this version, and should be fully complete within the next few weeks.  When a help button is pressed, the appropriate language help (currently French or English) is used.

The install program has been modified so that desktop shortcuts point to help in a appropriate language (currently French or English).

The wording of the license dialog has been changed so that the word PERPETUAL is used to describe full MapImagery 6.5 licenses.  This may help remove any confusion over whether MapImagery is licensed annually or perpetually.

An updated GDT_DATA datum / projection database is included in this version. This includes the latest data from ER Mapper 5.2 + patches for the French projections provided by Digitech.

Better language support has been added for clients of a network install.  Clients should now pick up the language chosen during the install, rather than defaulting to English.  This feature is implemented by writing a configuration file called DefaultLang.txt to the MAPIMAGERY\lang directory during the install.  A new network client, then searches for this file, if it can't find a language setting in the normal registry entry.

A problem encountered on some W2000 configurations, whereby the Templates chooser failed to open with a message about a directory not existing was fixed.

Note when displaying NTF raster data using MapImagery, it is usually necessary to choose a MapInfo projection from the Systèmes Français Méridien de Greenwich group for example Lambert II Carto - Greenwich,

This is because the MapImagery projection database assumes that the projection is tied to Greenwich, rather than Paris.   (Although this may depend on which datum was used, when preparing your raster data).

Also in this version, a fix has been made to the InstallShield script, so that it should now correctly configure MapImagery under the MapInfo Professional 6.5 tool manager, so that MapImagery automatically starts.

The progress bar, which has caused some users drawing problems, under MapInfo Professional 6.5, is now disabled by the install program.  It can be re-enabled via the MapImagery options dialog, if you don't get drawing problems, and prefer to see the progress bar.

The default option (Original Algorithm Extents) saves  the original extents of the algorithm.  This is the same behaviour that the Save function has.

The 'Current Zoom Extents' option saves the extents of the current MapInfo mapper into the algorithm.  This allows the user to create an algorithm which shows a zoomed in subset of the original algorithm.

The 'All Dataset Extents' option saves a superset of the extents of all of the datasets contained within the algorithm.

The following warning is displayed if the SaveAs operation changed the algorithm extents:

You may have to open the Algorithm again (via the 'Open Algorithm' MapImagery menu option) to regenerate a new .tab file with the correct extents, before the image will display properly.

This version also cleans up some anomalies in the behaviour of the SaveAs function.

This resulted in a black square appearing in the place of the imagery, when the algorithm was viewed within MapInfo.

The fix should also fix a similar problem with the SaveAsTemplate function.

The InstallShield executable now has a MapImagery logo, rather than a GID one.

There is also a fix to the SaveAs Template dialog to fix a problem whereby two of the methods were swapped, because of alphabetically sorting of the methods.

In all other respects, this version is identical to the previous one.

Any feedback on the accuracy of the translation or suggestions for more appropriate words / terminology is welcomed.

The on-line help is currently being translated into French.  This is expected to be complete within 4 to 6 weeks.  When this is complete, a new version including this help will be released.

The InstallShield program now offers a choice of English or French.  The install program then works in the chosen language, and the MapImagery default language is set to the chosen language.  To change the language, either re-install or choose another language via the MapImagery Options dialog.

A incompatibility problem with ER Mapper 5.2 has been fixed in this release.   The problem was that a licensed raster handler erm_raster_jpg.dll, was shipped with an old version of MapImagery.  This file tried to attach to the licensed version of the ER Mapper run-time, and failed.  To solve the problem, the file is deleted during installation, if it is present.

Many small problems with dialogs, due to different length strings, in the French translations were resolved. In addition, many strings missed in the previous versions were included in the language support.

If anyone is interested in translating MapImagery to other languages, contact support@mapimagery.com for more details on what is involved.  Any contributions will be acknowledged in the software and on the MapImagery web page.

A bug in the Open  ECW  function was fixed.   This bug manifested itself when the user chose to display a local ECW file directly via ECW for MapInfo with the Algorithm Generation Option set to Default Algorithm Directory.   The user then got an error message about it not being possible to open the file.

Several bugs related to inserting and deleting Transform and Filter objects have been fixed in this release.  Several other stability improvements have been implemented.

The language components of the product have been extracted out into text files for translation.   These files can be found in MAPIMAGERY/lang, with a .cfg extension, for example C:\Program Files\gid\MapImagery\lang\en.cfg.

A new language is chosen via a new page on the MapImagery Options dialog.   In this release the only languages are en.cfg (English language used by default), and upper.cfg (the en.cfg file wrapped to UPPER CASE) for demonstration purposes.

In future releases, an extensive set of language files will be supported, with at least French, German and Spanish planned, and others possible if these are contributed.    If you are interested in translating to your chosen language, then please feel free to do so, and submit for release in the central build.  Contributions will be acknowledged in the "About Dialog" and also on the MapImagery Web page.

This version also includes a more recent version of the ECW dlls, which should improve support for IWS authentication.

The geotiff handler has been updated to the latest from ER Mapper.  This includes improvements to handle several new IKONOS formats, support for GeoTIFF files with a negative Y dimension, correction for a half pixel offset problem and better error handling for non standard GeoTIFF files.

A feature to help diagnosis of licensing problems was added in this release.   When an expired license is returned, an error code, indicating the reason for expiry has been added to the return code.

The menu on the License Download Dialog was modified to exlude the MapImagery 7.0 option, as this was confusing some users.

Some broken links in the ECW for MapInfo help were fixed.  These broken links pointed to localhost, which does not work when the html is being browsed locally.

A problem with licensing, whereby a demonstration license appeared to activate, but then resulted in faded out menus has been fixed.

The licensing dialog has been extended to include the registration of serial numbers in addition to downloading and returning licenses.

This release contains updated raster handlers that should solve problems that some people were having loading some jpeg bil variant images.

Also some there have been some documentation changes to include some better dialog snapshots in some of the help documents.

If no serious problems are found, this release will become the release version around the end of the month.

Problems with the Software\MapInfo\MapInfo\Common\UseTrueColor registry entry were resolved in this release. 

In past releases a string value was written to this registry entry, instead of a DWORD value.   In this release a DWORD value is written

The text displayed by the license dialog has been improved to make it clearer.   Also a message which read 'The license expired -5 days ago'  has been changed to read 'The license expired 5 days ago.

The license client code has been modified to insure that https (secure http) is always used to connect to the license server.

The timeout on the beta version has been extended by another 30 days.

The Transform Dialog axis has been labelled with input and output since some users were confused about the orientation of this dialog.

An updated geotiff raster handler is included in this release.  This handler includes support for 16 bit geotiff such as those from Space Imaging.

The revert behaviour in some of the element editing dialogs, for example the filter editor, was improved.   Several of the buttons labelled Reload were changed to Revert for consistency.

The ECW for MapInfo help was fixed to make all of the image files lowercase.  Under UNIX the mixed case file names was causing some of the images to display incorrectly.

The InstallShield configuration was changed so as only to place one shortcut on the desktop for the MapImagery Help.  The ECW for MapInfo and MapImagery Professional Help can be reached via the MapImagery Help, so the extra entries were redundant.

All of the MapImagery Professional dialogs now have a functional Help button which evokes the appropriate section from the HTML help.   In addition pressing F1 on any of the dialogs also invokes the help.

The online help for MapImagery, MapImagery Professional, and ECW for MapInfo is also provided in a similar form on the MapImagery web page at http://www.mapimagery.com.

Several aspects of the installation were revised to fit in with the new help.

Ability to toggle the visibility of a whole surface added to the Surface / Layer dialog.

It is now possible to bring up the Colormap Edit dialog at any time. In the previous release, this was only possible if the current layer was a pseudocolor layer.

A bug with surfaces such that it was sometimes impossible to remove the last surface was fixed.

A set of Zoom and Pan controls have been added to all dialogs that support preview. In the previous version, it was not obvious to some users that the preview window could be zoomed and panned. This feature makes it much easier to operate the preview window in a useful manner.

Algorithms with long file names, for example some of the example algorithms on the ER Mapper cdrom were not recognized as MapImagery layers, and could not be edited, in the previous version. This problem has been fixed.

The error message shown when a user attempted to edit a raw ECW layer was improved.

The behavior of the Layer / Surface dialog when the transparency slider was manipulated was improved. In the previous version, sometimes the dialog would flick back and forward between the Surface and Layer page, in a confusing way.

The ability to change the background color of an algorithm was added to the Algorithm options dialog. This feature includes full preview of the results in the preview window.

The splash dialog / about dialog was updated to show the new MapImagery logo, rather than the GID one. The dialog now has a black background.

The licensing dialog sometimes showed a negative number of days remaining. This has been fixed.Various visual inconsistencies in some of the dialogs were fixed.

The www.mapimagery.com web page has been improved and given a consistent look and feel throughout.

There is still no online help for the MapImagery Professional dialogs, but this should be in the next beta in a few days.

Various stability / memory problems were resolved in this release, the release should be much more stable than the previous one.

The SAR filter directory, containing filters, which require a license to work, was removed from the distribution.

The length of the lease, handed out by the MapImagery license server, to beta testers was increased from 7 to 14 days. Several users didn't seem to understand that they could get additional leases by giving back the old license and requesting it again.

The version number has been upped to 6.500, to signify the big differences between this release and the previous ones.

In addition to the MapImagery Professional functionality, many other fixes and improvements have been made to MapImagery. More information and extensive documentation to follow.

This is a beta release, and will stop working after 30 days. There will several more releases during the beta period.

See the MapImagery web page http://www.mapimagery.com for more information on this release and the beta program.

The WWW links from the MapImagery menu were updated to point to www.gid.com.au rather than www.gid.com.

This suggestion was made by a MapInfo engineer testing ECW for MapInfo prior to its inclusion on the next MapInfo Pro CDROM.

This version is a candidate for release on the ER Mapper 6.1 CDROM.

Problem loading 'gidicon.dll' under some configurations has been fixed in this release.

Improved dialog for selecting Image Web Server ECW images. This includes a combo box, from which recently accessed images can be picked, and better validation.

Updated versions of the ECW dlls are now installed into the windows system directory. Old local copies of these dlls are deleted on install.

In all other ways, this version is identical to the 2 previous versions.

In other ways, this version is identical to the previous version.

The next release of MapImagery and ECW for MapInfo will contain a detailed help document with specific information on installing and using ECW for MapInfo.

The InstallSheild configuration has been modified to handle this occurrence.

This release is shipped with mfc42.dll version 6.00.8447.0. Note that InstallShield will only overwrite an older version of system dll's such as mfc42.dll, so if your system has a more recent version, then this will not get overwritten by MapImagery.

The second thing is that a test program, testgui.exe is shipped with MapImagery, installed into the MapInfo directory. This program can be used to diagnose dll loading problems. Just run the program, if there is a problem, and then send email to support@gid.com.au with a snapshot of any errors.

The initialization has been reworked to use less environment space and testing doesn't show up the problem.

This release has been tested against MapInfo 4.2, MapInfo 5.0 and MapInfo 5.5 on Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 and hasn't shown any stability problems opening MapInfo tables.

Also the beta jpeg raster handler had some debugging information enabled causing another popup.

It will also provide support for accessing ECW2 images across the net.

Support for MapInfo MapX Control based applications added and tested. At the moment there is only raster handler support for MapX applications. None of the GUI dialogs or Wizards are accessible from MapX applications, however, this is being considered.

Partial implementation of a scheme to save some meta information such as the supersampling factor to the .tab file.

Problems with loading algorithms and images on a readonly file system, for example CDROM were fixed in this version.

Better error handling introduced to handle a problem where MapImagery exited when some .tab files generated by an old version of MapImagery was loaded.

This version is identical to the previous version, but linked with the previous version of the ER Mapper engine, to try and resolve the problems.

Problem with extra backslashes in table file names, when saved saved away as a workspace resolved. Mappers containing MapImagery layers should now save and load as a part of a workspace without any problems.

Improvements to the InstallSheild installation script to make the installation process simpler.

License installing program upgraded to a more recent version to overcome problems with the previous version.

Linked with the ER Mapper 6.0 Release candidate libraries and distributed with a matching engine and configuration files.

Timeout code removed, so that the software should keep working indefinitly.

Much improved installation InstallShield implemented using the commercial version of InstallShield. This includes a license agreement, automatic installation of licensing drivers, and improved detection of things like the location of MapInfo.

Smoothing toggle removed from the Super Sampling page of the preferences dialog, as it did not really belong there.

Default algorithm directory changed to blank, rather than a non-existent ER Mapper directory.

ER Mapper vector layer options tab removed from the program an documentation, as this is no longer relevant.

Handling of null cell values and white improved to solve the problem whereby holes were appearing in the image, rather than white.

ER Mapper 6.0 beta distribution files are now shipped with this version.

Minor corrections to some of the text in the on-line help.

Improvements to the InstallShield setup to simplify the prompts and other text.

Updates to the on-line help to reflect the latest information on the commercial version of MapImagery.

Addition of links to MapImagery download page and also to MapImagery FAQ on the GID Web page. Some more links may be added later.

InstallShield Wizard updated to install the latest versions of all the ER Mapper 6.0 engine and support files. Installation thoroughly tested.

Improved support for Latitude/Longitude coordinate system types. The corner points are now correctly translated into Decimal degrees rather than radians.

Changes to menu names, tooltips and dialog titles to reflect the new naming of the product.

None of the features of the commercial version of MapImagery have been included in this release. For information on this product, keep an eye on the GID Australia web page at http://www.gid.com.au

The install program has also been improved so that a copy of the Help file is added as a desktop shortcut.

Bug causing a crash when the copy button was pressed in the error dialog, was fixed. Now it is possible to copy error messages to the clipboard and hence print them out or email them to ER Mapper support.

Improvements were made to the way that the link locates ER Mapper. These improvement eliminate the need for any changes to the users environment to run the link.

The code was cleaned up and reorganized which should result in the link being more robust.

Ability to load algorithms that are on CDROM added.

Algorithms where the image coordinate system type is different to that of the algorithm supported.

On-line help document improved to incorporate feedback from beta testers.

Default for Default Algorithm Directory changed to C:\ERMAPPER\DATASET\SCRATCH rather than C:\TMP because this directory needs to be either in a child directory of an ERMDSDIR environment variable directory, or under $ERMAPPER\algorithm.

Problem whereby ER Mapper vector text had different aspect ratios in the X and Y directions when zoomed in fixed.

Problem where setup program hangs for 60 seconds under windows 95 fixed. The setup program still pauses for 30 seconds after decompressing the files.

Various minor changes to the text and layout of options dialogs was made to make these easier to use and understand.

Documentation substantially improved, particularly in the amount of detail provided on Options to the Link.

Problem where the left and top part of algorithm gets truncated when there are map composition items or more than one raster image fixed.

Problem where the red layer was swapped with the blue layer in default algorithms created from images, fixed.

Algorithms with only classification layers, and no other raster layers can now be viewed via the link.

Option window lut chooser starting in the wrong directory under Windows NT, fixed.

Choose Algorithm Style dialog improved so that it now remembers the option that you chose previously

Off white background color in algorithms containing map composition items is now converted to white.

Link now works with algorithms that include vectors

Documentation updated to reflect simplified setup.