New GiS for History site

[Ben Loh]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the note.

Ack.  How's that for an inauspicious debut...

That's what I get for adding a last minute shortcut.  It ought to work now.

In general, your load time ought to be less than 2 seconds.  Our 
server's connection also isn't quite optimized yet (it's sitting in 
an office right now), so load times might also vary depending on 
other traffic.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

B



At 1:52 p -0400 9/12/06, Stephen Woodbridge wrote:
>Hi Ben,
>
>I get a javascript error:
>
>doctopicsEl has no properties   gishistory.js (line 113)
>
>And the Loading...111.109  message continues far longer than I was 
>willing to wait. How far does it have to get on the initial load?
>
>-Steve
>
>
>Ben Loh wrote:
>>Hi folks,
>>
>>I just thought I'd share our new web site prototype for exploring 
>>historical census data intended for high school and college 
>>students. Obviously, it's based on mapserver.  We're using 
>>php-mapscript with AJAX for the interface.  I'd be very interested 
>>in any input that any of you have, as we're not GIS pros.
>>
>>The main url:   <http://www.gisforhistory.org/>
>>
>>A direct link to a map: 
>><http://www.gisforhistory.org/projects/greatmigration/?defaultView=map>
>>
>>
>>A few highlights:
>>
>>* We're using historically accurate county maps from NHGIS along 
>>with historical US census data from 1790 through 1970, and a few 
>>layers that we constructed ourselves.  (One big issue we have right 
>>now is that we aren't using simplified shape files for the 
>>counties, so the load time is rather slow.  My guess is that we can 
>>cut down the load time by about half with simpler shapes.).
>>
>>* To help students keep track of what they're doing, we implemented 
>>a "Query History" that records each click/setting they make ala 
>>Photoshop's history feature.
>>
>>* You can pan ala google maps by dragging the map.  (We're still 
>>troubleshooting a problem with Win IE where if you have the 
>>"Temporary Internet Files" setting set to "Every visit to the page" 
>>we run into caching issues while dragging).
>>
>>* We're using AJAX to try to minimize bandwidth issues, as many 
>>schools have a narrow pipe.  (We're still trying to optimize 
>>loading. The legend is generated dynamically via javascript and css 
>>to minimize the number of files that need to be downloaded from the 
>>server with any single call).
>>
>>* The site is intended for novices, so it is deliberately simple.
>>
>>We'd love to hear any suggestions or rants!
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Ben


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