[OpenLayers-Dev] Independent UI Controls

[Volker Mische]

Dropping some code into the wild doesn't seem to be the right way to
start a discussion. But hopefully this mail will.

I've updated the example at [1] a bit. It now shows the usage of
jQuery and Dojo. Especially interesting is the code of the
OpenLayers.Control.ZoomSlider [2], it's an implementation that
resembles the GeoExt.ZoomSlider.

The question is: Is it a good idea to create OpenLayers controls that
are independent of the underlying JavaScript library? This would push
OpenLayers into the framework direction. You would embed functionality
from a JavaScript lib into Openlayers. Or would it be better to leave
OpenLayers (as it was meant to be) as a library and every JavaScript
lib creates its own widgets and embeds OpenLayers. If the library-way
is prefered, should devs even be discouraged from creating new
controls based on raw JavaScript/OpenLayers and not on a lib?

Creating JavaScript lib independent controls would be a chance to
collaborate accros libs (how great would it be to team up the GeoExt
ppl with the jQuerz fanboys). But I'm well aware that GeoExt is
already going down the other way, and based on the maturity it already
has, it seems almost impossible to change the direction.

Cheers,
  Volker

[1] http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vmx/ui/examples/jq-zoom.html
[2] http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vmx/ui/lib/geojq/olui.js

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 12:43 AM, Volker Mische <volker.mische at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> at the FOSS4G 2009 at the OpenLayers BoF we discussed a bit that it
> would be cool to have an easier way for integrating controls that are
> based on other JavaScript libraries like jQuery, Dojo or ExtJs. At the
> code sprint we (ahocevar, rdewit and I) got a bit more specific at the
> whiteboard. No I finally managed to get some code done.
>
> Please have a look at my sandbox at an example:
> http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vmx/ui/examples/jq-zoom.html
>
> The buttons at the top could be OpenLayers ones, the others below are
> jQuery UI ones. The important bits are at
> http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/vmx/ui/lib/geojq/olui.js
>
> It's only a rough cut, but you should get the basic idea. The idea is to
> separate the visualisation/representation of a control from the
> functionality.
>
> What do you think about it? BTW: There are no changes to OpenLayers code
> base.
>
> Cheers,
>  Volker
>