[OpenLayers-Users] OpenLayers over dialup

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 11:02:25AM -0500, Freeman, Aleda (EEA) wrote:
> Does anyone have experience with serving a simple OpenLayers map over a
> dialup connection? 
> My boss wants to make sure that our prospective users will be able to
> use the map. 

Some tips for low bandwidth OpenLayers usage.

1. singleTile, with a small ratio (~1.1 or so) will appoximate the
   behavior typical of most ArcIMS web interfaces -- single tile loading
   whenever the bounds don't match.
 
  or 
   
   If you expect users to come back to the application a lot, tiled +
   long caching headeres may be better.

2. Build a single file build with minimal JS file for a small OL lib. 
   http://docs.openlayers.org/library/deploying has more info.

3. Caching headers for pages and so on is useful.

4. mod_deflate can shrink your OL lib significantly.

5. Make sure your tiles are as small as possible -- I believe GeoServer
   (which I assume you're using) has support for 256 color paletted
   images, which are much smaller than full 32 bit pngs.

Regards,   
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta