[mapguide-internals] Re: TCPDF based plot solution

[Trevor Wekel]

Inline SVG support is slowing making its way into mainstream browsers http://caniuse.com/svg-html5.  However, only the newest mobile devices (IOS Safari 5, Android Browser 3) support inline SVG.  Inline SVG support is probably widespread enough to use it.

For reference, iPhone 3G and older phones do not support IOS 5.  iPad 1 and iPad 2 do support IOS 5.  Not sure about Android devices.

I haven't looked at Cairo myself, but I would be curious to know if it used <g> tags to represent the various layers on a map.  This would enable layers to be turned on/off client side with no server round trip.  SVG is pretty easy to generate manually for straightforward styles (lines, areas, etc).  Complex styles/symbolization would be a little more tricky.

Cairo may be able to help with complex stylization.  I'm just not sure what the generated SVG would look like.  Ideally we would want <g> tags for each layer and probably a separate set of <g> tags for text so it appears on top of the layers.  Creating a separate SVG tag for each displayed feature would also enable client-side selection, property display, and tooltips with no round tripping.

An SVG + json properties "map view" would fix many of the interaction issues with the existing model.  Round tripping is expensive, especially when it is done with every mouse move and every mouse click.

Regards,
Trevor

-----Original Message-----
From: mapguide-internals-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:mapguide-internals-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Jackie Ng
Sent: March 7, 2012 1:46 AM
To: mapguide-internals at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [mapguide-internals] Re: TCPDF based plot solution

The Cairo suggestion was due to the fact that it lets us render PDFs
*natively* without needing to go through web-tier middlemen to do it. And as
a bonus, we get SVG output for free.

I had a basic working prototype SE_Renderer based on Cairo in the previous
company I worked at, but my knowledge of that implementation has long since
disappeared from my memory.

- Jackie

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