[geojquery] Introducing a jquery + openlayers plugin

[Anne Blankert]

Hello Yves,

On 6/23/2010 5:35 PM, Yves Moisan wrote:
>> Please have a look at two examples:
>> http://research.geodan.nl/mapwidget/plugintest.html
>> http://research.geodan.nl/mapwidget/edugis.html
>
> Hi Anne,
>
> Thanx for sharing urls and code !  I must say that I find the maps to 
> be quite responsive.  I like that toggling baselayers acts quickly and 
> that legends are shown automatically for overlays.
>>
>> The current version of the code for the plugin is at: 
>> http://research.geodan.nl/mapwidget/jquery.mapwidget.js
>
> Just so I understand : is that all the JS code (plus OL js) that is 
> needed for the urls you provided us ?  How does that compare with 
> GeoExt and more importantly how much more JS code do you see will be 
> needed to match all of the current GeoExt offering, especially in 
> terms of look and feel ?
>
All the examples require openlayers, jquery and jquery.mapwidget. The 
Edugis example also uses jquery.ui and jquery.layout. (and layers from 
openstreetmap, and google maps and Bing maps). I must admit, I do not 
know GeoExt very well. I just had a look at the examples. I have also 
seen some projects based on GeoExt and the ones that I saw all look 
quite the same. Maybe I am wrong, but my first impression is that GeoExt 
is used as quite a high level map application tool: just copy the 
application, change the configuration and you'll have a custom map 
application. I believe the JQuery approach could probably be a bit more 
low level.  JQuery developers should use the map widgets, but define the 
look and feel of the application as they feel fit. For instance, in the 
EduGIS example, you might have noticed that the legend is sortable. This 
is not (yet) a property of the legend widget, but a standard JQuery 
sortable extension that is applied to the legend widget by a single 
jquery function call. However, because the the legend widget itself is 
not (yet) sortable, the jquery developer that applies the sortable() 
feature to the legend must also take care of resorting the corresponding 
layers in the map after the legend gets resorted by the user. In the 
example, that functionality is not yet taken care of.

> I don't want to start debates on which to use.  Just understand how 
> geoJquery could be used in combination (or replacement ?) of GeoExt.  
> You're touching the subject at http://research.geodan.nl/?p=148.  
> Would you mind elaborating on "it also seemed to be supporting most of 
> the basic functions required by EduGIS" ?  Don't mind the license 
> question : it's another issue altogether.  I'm interested in the 
> functional/efficiency point of view.
JQuery seems to be quite efficient at adding a lot of functionality with 
just a few lines of code. As said,  I do not know ExtJs very well, so it 
is possible this is also true for ExtJs.
I think it is quite difficult to decide at this moment if ExtJs or 
JQuery (or Prototype or some other libray) is the 'best' or most 
efficient for map applications in all circumstances. One way to find 
out, is trying some of the alternatives and see how things work out in 
practice. So... let's start creating some alternatives!

Anne