[OpenLayers-Dev] Abusing OpenLayers for a non-geo application: plausible?

[Sean Gillies]

Hi Hendrik,

At NYU we're using OpenLayers to display and (soon) annotate scanned
papyri. I've also seen it used in prototypes of manuscript analysis
apps. In my experience, it's well suited to all sorts of image
annotation work.

OpenLayers gives you a lot of options for displaying imagery. You
might use single JPEGs or tiles. I've got some experience using (but
not deploying) the Djatoka JP2 server that I can share with you. There
are a lot of vector options too, though SVG as a interchange format is
not one of them, nor are vector formats from microscopy or medical
imaging domains. You'll be sending vectors back in forth in GML or
GeoJSON, I imagine, using OpenLayer's XHR capabilities. In non-GIS
work, I'd avoid the W*S protocols like the plague. The OpenLayers
website has links to tutorials and tools for making pared-down
OpenLayers.js files that contain only what your applications needs, so
don't be concerned about the size of the standard kitchen-sink
version.

Cheers,

On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 3:31 AM, Hendrik Fuß <hendrik.fuss at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I'm sorry if you receive this as a duplicate post -- I've had some
> problems subscribing to the list, so I'm not sure whether my initial
> post got through or not.
>
> I'd be interested in your opinions on the following: I am planning to
> develop a web application that is not exactly about geographical data,
> but on a technical level has a lot in common with OpenLayers, so I'm
> wondering whether I could 'abuse' OpenLayers for the task.
>
> The application is essentially about sharing and markup of large,
> microscopic images. It allow users to upload such images for others to
> view. Viewers should be able to zoom and pan through the image, mark
> objects and create vector drawings on top of the image, then save
> everything for others to view or download the vector data to
> specialized microscopic software.
>
> With all the UI control, support for tiled images and markup,
> OpenLayers looks very tempting to me, but I haven't had any exposure
> to the development side. So I was wondering what you think, does this
> sound feasible? What problems would you anticipate?
>
> many thanks
> Hendrik
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-- 
Sean Gillies
Programmer
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
New York University