This presentation is co-financed by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic

Impact of implementation RIA & HTML5 elements for WebGIS application

Rostislav NÉTEK

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

WebGIS Maps: Analogue –> Digital -> Web The Internet platform provide more options and

becoming very popular Additional information or data linked to the map

background (text, attributes, tables, images, video, animation, hyperlink, etc)

Visualizing only x Interaction

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

Request/response Via http protocol Visualizing geographic data using a server application Server side x Client side Map server communicates with a web server and

processing data according to requirements New action = New request = Whole process Not sufficient nowadays

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

Rich Internet Application RIA The last trend in the publishing and working with geodata General concept, not concrete technology AJAX, Microsoft Silverlight, Openlaszlo, JavaFX, Adobe Flex Brings the tools, practices and conventions from desktop

platform into interactive web applications Esthetical features Independent requests, asynchronous generating part of the

results

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

RIA characteristics (+) Run in the Web browser (both online and offline) Combine properties from desktop applications into Web interface No installation process required Immediate feedback, refresh is not required Rich content (video, sound, animation, vectors, drag and drop,

keyboard navigation, ...) Platform independent Faster processing of requests Rich user interface Focus on esthetical impression Easy distribution and start-up Mobile applications are fully supported and available Open source Wide possibility of customization

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

RIA characteristics (-)

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

GIS Flex Runs in the same environment like Flash Flex is not Flash ! Allows to create highly interactive Web mapping

applications Emphasis on desing Fully web application brings features from both desktop

and robust server solutions

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

VIRTUS & BOTANGIS projects Virtual lab to access certain information about Litovelské

Pomoraví Regional Nature Conversation Area Basic characteristics, environment data, nature

conservation and many other topics Tabular, textual, graphic, multimedia and spatial form

Visualise and manage content of Botanical garden of Palacký University in Olomouc

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

VIRTUS & BOTANGIS projects Esri Flex client ArcGIS Viewer for Flex (API)

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

HTML 4.0/4.1 HTML5 HTML specification by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Final specification approved by the end of 2014

New tags Enables multimedia playing directly in web browser Without Flash support <canvas> Bitmap drawing container - rendering graphs, game,

graphics and other visual elements as well as maps

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

HTML5 vs. RIA Visualization methods Technological aspects Management aspects

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

Flex vs. HTML5: Visualisation methods (-) Complicated process of generating (+) Flash/Flex has focus on vector graphic by default (+) Support of 3D graphic (+) Drag and drop (+) Video: expansion by embed Flash/Flex = YouTube (+) Rounded borders, Transparency

(-) Previous HTML incompatible specs like SVG, VML (+) HTML5 introduces the canvas element & WebGL (+) Support of 3D graphic (+) Drag and drop (++) Rounded borders, Transparency, jQuery effects, … (++) Video: HTML5 & tag <video> = native browser support

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

Flex vs. HTML5: technological & management asp. Form: HTML5 adds many new input types

Offline mode Caching Cloud computing support Plugins & Widgets

Development, testing, compatibility (+++) HTML5

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

The aspect Standard solution Flex HTML5

Vector graphic No (natively) Yes Yes

3D graphic No Yes Yes

Transparency Partially Yes Yes

Rounded borders Partially Yes Yes

jQuery effects Yes No (Flex) Yes

Plugins & widgets Partially Yes Yes

Advanced editing No Yes Partially

Cache Yes Yes Yes

Cloud computing support No Yes Yes

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

Summary Both Flex & HTML5 provide great features into WebGIS Similar/same features = depends on the aim of application HTML5 provides designing Flex gives better opportunity of management aspects By both: The application should be extended by additional functions,

plugins & widgets, the content and framework should be edited “onscreen”

Flex just exists, while HTML5 is still more specification than real implementation

Flex is the best solution for interactive WebGIS application nowadays, but within some years HTML5 probably replace Flex

First InDOG Doctoral Conference, 29th October - 1st November 2012, Olomouc

Thank you for your attention Q & A?

Pamela Fox, Sydney 2009: Just use them both, and get the best of both worlds