[OpenLayers-Dev] UI Framework for OpenLayers

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 09:38:33PM -0600, Tim Schaub wrote:
> Hey-
> 
> mpriour wrote:
> > I have seen some inconsistent information in the mailing lists and blog posts
> > and I wanted to get the correct answer.
> > Is there a plan to include a UI framework into the OL library that would
> > make mapfish / mapbuilder style widgets part of OL?
> 
> No.  OpenLayers excels as a mapping library.  We provide a few basic 
> controls with UI components that help in building simple web 
> applications that use maps - but I don't think anybody would say that we 
> want to become a one-stop shop (a single library for all frontend web 
> application development).

Agreed.

> Ideally, I think OpenLayers would be integrated into a handful of other 
> libraries and easy to incorporate into many others.

Agreed.

> I would even be happy if OpenLayers were broken into smaller packages - 
> though I don't think there is real demand for that now.

To a certain extent, I feel this way, though I would feel this way more
so if Javascript had a useful 'external library import' story/model,
which I'm not convinced it does. (I understand there are ways to achieve
this: I'm not convinced that they're worth the effort for OpenLayers,
now or possibly ever.)

> > --Or--
> > Is the plan to get rid of any direct links with any UI Framework in the OL
> > library?
> 
> Are there links with any UI Frameworks in the OL library currently?  If 
> you're thinking of the Rico code, I would be happy to dispose of that - 
> assume that others (might) agree.

I agree in the long-term that the Rico rounded corners (currently
used only in LayerSwitcher and Popups) are not worth having in the
library. There are plenty of designs that don't need this code. I also
agree that there are not any direct links within OL taht I'm aware of to
any UI framework.

Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
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