New GiS for History site

[P Kishor]

still not working well. Earlier, I gave up after about
"Loading...300...", but this time, even though the first screen is
quick, clicking the zoom button locked me into "Loading...199.207"

Looks nice, if it works... quick. My suggestion would be to work on
speed quite a bit, especially given you say --

"> >>* We're using AJAX to try to minimize bandwidth issues, as many
> >>schools have a narrow pipe.

One more thing, I wasn't even sure where to begin once I went to
gisforhistory.org. After poking around a bit, I gave up, came back to
your email, and found the direct link to the maps. Make the direct
link, well, more direct.

Hope this helps.


On 9/12/06, Ben Loh <benpub at inquirium.net> wrote:
> 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
>
>
> --
> b e n  l o h . . . i n q u i r i u m
> . design for learning .           mobile  773-220-8889 (primary line)
> . http://www.inquirium.net  . voice    773-947-0450
> . ben at inquirium.net .           fax      773-947-6764
>


-- 
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.ies.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation https://edu.osgeo.org/