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Re: [udig-devel] loading browser-based map sites in udig as base/background layer?
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jody,
On Jan 4, 2008, at 1:29 PM, Jody Garnett wrote:
Eric Jarvies wrote:
hello,
what would it take to be able to load sites like yahoo maps, et,
al, into udig and being able to use them as backgrounds?
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 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? 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. 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.
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.
For other things like google maps there is only a javascript api;
while you can reverse engineer things and use google maps as a
background they have a history of noticing and sending nice letters
when projects are found out.
The other alternative is nasa world wind servers; I made an example
community module as a proof of concept that is kind of fun. It has
better uptime that the jpl server used in the walkthrough and my
implementation tiles the background.
problem here is resolution when zoomed in close. it's bad :(
I am having to put together points/locations(POIs) that cover a
fair amount of geo-space, and i am always having to open my
browser(openmaps/yahoo maps/google maps/etc) to take a look at the
sat images for visual reference. it would be wonderful if i could
simply load the browser-based map sites into udig, easily set the
x, y, and zoom level, have my vector shapefiles auto-adapt the same
projection view/etc. as the base/background browser-based map, and
essentially be able to move around my vector shapefiles, whilst
also having the browser-based maps in the background move along/
generate new views/tiles as-well.
So what is the problem here? Access to the data used by the browser
based mapping solutions? Or access to a background the is slippy.
You can open an embedded browser up inside udig; but there is no
integration unless you want to write it?
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?
regards,
eric
the other option is loading 256x256 image tiles, but this would
then require a fair amount of conversion work i assume.
It is not much work; the nasa world wind tile example shows how. But
the problem is the data costs a lot of money.
If anyone has some good advice, i would appreciate it. thank you,
eric
Cheers,
Jody
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User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
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