OpenLayers 2.2 Release Announcement

The OpenLayers Development Team is proud to announce the release of OpenLayers 2.2 RC1. While the public API maintains backwards compatibility with previous 2.x releases, OpenLayers 2.2 introduces a number of internal changes that are important for developers working inside the OpenLayers library.

New Features include:

• Overview Map Control (Thanks Tim Schaub!)
• Mouse Position Control (Thanks Jeff Dege!)
• GeoRSS Atom support (Thanks Sean Gilles!)
• MapServer CGI Layer (Thanks Arnd Wipperman!)
• Support for displaying WMS on top of Google Maps

Other changes include:

• Refactoring the use of Prototype.js. Rather than using Prototype.js, OpenLayers has integrated the important pieces of the Prototype framework into OpenLayers, and removed offending functions like Object.extend(). This means that there should no longer be conflicts between OpenLayers and different versions of Prototype, or any other Javascript framework.
• Adding support for a 'lite' build of OpenLayers via 'build profiles', as described at http://trac.openlayers.org/wiki/Profiles
• Addition of a framework for customizing OpenLayers via CSS, e.g. Popups. (Not all aspects of the interface are customizable yet, e.g. pan/zoom chrome.)
• A number of other bug fixes, as described in the 2.2 release notes, at http://trac.openlayers.org/wiki/ReleaseNotes2.2

To test 2.2 in your applications, include the following tag in your OpenLayers-powered page:

<script src="http://openlayers.org/api/2.2-rc1/OpenLayers.js"></script>

Bug reports can be filed in Trac, under the 2.2 version and milestone.

We look forward to your feedback!

Regards,

The OpenLayers Team