| Re: [udig-devel] loading browser-based map sites in udig as base/background layer? |
Eric Jarvies wrote:
Cool; you want to try the Nasa World Wind servers? It may be exactly what you needed... Follow the walkthrough 1 instructions to add my community plugin to your eclipse and they will show up in the catalog.A license agreement.i just need a way to overlay my shapefile(s) atop sat images, so i can make visual references for the purpose of denoting whether or not there is construction/structures atop a given section of land, if certain elements/landmarks are indeed there, and tasks along these lines. purely for visual reference for the sake of aiding me in performing various overlay vector-based tasks.
I am not sure at this time; depends how well you can invoke javascript on a embeded mozilla browser. Some research is needed ... but honestly it sounds like you want a web application at this stage?I think you can get a yahoo id of some sort and armed with that we could grab images. I know that the open street map project managed to make arrangements along those lines.programmatically, what would it take(time and otherwise) to implement openlayers into udig, wherein the controls(zoom, pan, etc.) are moved off screen/map and onto/into their own buttons/controls.
In addition, adding an easy 'add map site' feature, affording the user the ability to enter the respective info for the respective site(openstreetmaps, yahoo, google, etc.). and finally, having it so that it is the bottom/back/background layer in the layer stack, allowing other layers to be loaded atop, like shapefiles, etc., wherein the top layers conform to the zoom(scale) and projection of the background map-site, thus allowing the user to easily pan and zoom in and out, whilst editing his/her top-side vector layers, and also being able to lock-down the site-map background, whilst being able to move the top-most layers around freely(for alignment, like scale, move, skew, etc. of any top vector layer, as to properly align with said web-map view ... we all know that our maps never line up with their maps ... like in google, roads can be several meters off).
udig is a browser(amongst other things), correct?Not really - uDig is an application. You can embed a browser widget into it - see the "Web" view as an example - what is being shown is a simple web page, clicks on this web page are listened for and if you click on a capabilities document udig will open it up.
google, yahoo, etc. have no restrictions as to the type of browser that can display those sites and their respective content/data//maps. everything would be served up the same way for all intents and purposes.I am afraid what they all want is the ability to track the user; hense the javascript api.
by implementing openlayers into udig, and moving the controls off-screen and onto their own buttons/menus, this would essentially empower the udig user, and again, would not serve to violate the rights of any mark or copy holder.I see what you are saying; sounds a bit shaky to me. On the technical side of things the embeded browser is a full widget; not sure if we can overlay a transparent window overtop of it.
it should be thought of as a means by which one can confirm his or her maps for easy export to kml, etc, for use on these 3rd party map sites. being able to load up one of the maps sites, and then load your content files atop, you can take a visual look around, make the adjustments/changes that are needed, and then export your content to the respective site/program format for use in a mashed-up environment.I was going to handle a similar problem to this using context documents (drive open layers and udig from the same context document - subst the google maps layer with something on sound legal footing, and then exporting the context document to the web, possibly publishing the shapefile to a geoserver or mapserver if needed).
The joy of free data; what application did you need to this result in? Yahoo is pretty lax about the restrictions. Also you can totally set up an image mosic with a pretty amazing level of detail if you have some disk space to burn.problem here is resolution when zoomed in close. it's bad :(
i would like to see this implemented in udig, but alas, i am a developer, not a programmer. so, if anyone else would be interested in performing the required work to make this feature-set a reality, i would indeed do my part in gui/button/etc. design, copy, and financial contribution. l see no heavy lifting here, and everything seems straight forward to one who is a competent programmer, familiar with udig's trunk/code-base. does anyone else see the value in this feature-set?I will bounce the idea off Paul, see if the idea is sound enough to send you a quote. Sorry to be hesitant on this one, I know the various data providers would love to sell you high quality background imagery; as such they are very careful about what they allow google and yahoo to "give away" for free.
Cheers, Jody