Beyond "press Ctrl-P" in web map printing Jan De Moerloose– co-creator of GeomajasFOSS4G 2009, Sydney

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The company:

Geosparc commercially supports Geomajas, the Open Source GIS application framework, coupling

the innovation of Open Source with the reliability of a true enterprise-class platform.

www.geosparc.com

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The product:

• Open Source GIS application framework• It is downloadable at http://www.geomajas.org/– Integrated client-server architecture– Geometry editing + validation– Custom attribute definitions– Advanced querying capabilities

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Are printed maps still relevant ?(they used to…)

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The world’s first map ?

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Soleto map or hoax ?

7 Artistic world map

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• Reprint of the historical atlas Ferraris• Weighs 12.5 kg• 14000 copies sold• All of them to male

individuals !

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Map printing hall of shame (1)

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Map printing hall of shame (2)

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Map printing hall of shame (3)

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What’s wrong with these ?

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Problems

• Use of Ctrl-P : the nature of HTML• Several other problems

• fixed page size/orientation • fixed component arrangements• fixed component sizes• fixed resolution• no storage or reuse

• These are inherent limitations of the form-based approach !

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Form-based approach

Title

Map Legend

size (A0, A1, …)

left/right

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Form-based approach

• What ?• small set of parameters in an HTML form• send to the server for interpretation

• Result• very limited impact on the outcome• fixed template• fixed component placement• no storage or reuse

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Can we do better ?

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Component-based approach

Title

Map Legend

Title

Map Legend

Viewport

Viewport

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Component-based approach

• What ?• client-side representation of the printed map• using SVG/VML (true vector graphics)• component model is sent to the server

• Advantages• possibility to drag/resize individual parts/components

of the map• possibility to add components• customizable templates/layouts• limitless storage/reuse• and so much more…

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Component zoölogy

• Map component• Legend component• Vector layer component• Raster layer component• Scalebar component• Label component• Image component• View port component

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Component layout

Left Right

Top

Bottom

marginX

marginY

Parent

Child

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Component Layout

North arrow

Legend

Title

map

scalebar

viewport

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User freedom: editing components

• Dragging• Resizing

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User freedom: panning modes

• Pan the map• Pan the print

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User freedom: view ports

• Zooms into interesting part of the map• Combination of 2 rectangular boxes:

• View port• Map region

• Resizing view port changes the zoom scale• Resizing map region changes the aspect ratio

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View port result

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User freedom: persistence and reuse

• Simple XML format • Based on annotated Java objects• Persisted in a PostGIS database

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Rendering technology: PDF with iText

• Why PDF ?• Html is not printable• most portable format• that supports raster and vector representations !

• Why iText ?• easy to use and performant• low-level pdf access• PdfGraphics component with great drawing support

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Real world project: Westtoer

• Tourism organisation (Flanders/Belgium)• Management of bicycle networks/hiking trails• System of voluntary maintainers• Need to produce printed maps for a large

number of routes on a weekly basis based on the latest route information

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What’s next ?

• Better usability• Editing colors, fonts and layout properties in

the browser• Uploading images• Batch processing• Multipage maps• Multilayer pdfs

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Conclusion

• Printed maps matter !• Component-based approach offers

• Power to the end user• Persistence and reuse• Desktop-like stuff: view ports• better prints !

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Thank you !

• http://www.geomajas.org