New GiS for History site

[Stephen Woodbridge]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I am using FireFox, and it is still 
broken in that. EI loads ok.

-Steve

Ben Loh 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
> 
>