Systeme D

20 February 2005

Back to the Flash mapping

Now that I've largely finished the first generation of the dynamic PDF maps, I've gone back to working on Flash mapping.

A brief recap: I'm using the Ming library, PHP and/or Perl, a MySQL database, and Ordnance Survey raster maps to produce a pannable, zoomable waterway map. The map comprises an OS base map with waterways and point features superimposed. It's one of those projects which sort of straddles the dividing line between 'I'm doing this for work' and 'I'm doing it for myself at home because it's fun'. (A lot of what I do ends up like that.)

The end effect is a little like Google Maps (great minds think alike), but using Flash rather than HTML/JavaScript, and with much more flexibility for doing dynamic vector stuff.

It's not ready for prime time yet, but it's come on a long way this weekend. As you can see from the screenshot (excuse the nasty JPEG artefacts), all locks and bridges are present and correct. These are stored in the database and superimposed using an ActionScript-to-database mechanism. Note the tooltip showing the feature name (the pointer disappears when I take a screengrab, sadly). The blue square is an icon for a hotel, which works pretty much the same way.



You can pan in any of the four directions, zoom in or out, or turn off any of the layers (waterways, locks/bridges, or accommodation) just by clicking. The UI will be prettier in the final version, of course.

Our whizzy new Waterscape server has just been switched on, complete with Ming - though I've not tested it yet. So I may even be able to get a live version of this running in the next few weeks... if, that is, I can find where the remaining 1:50,000 raster CDs have got to.

(Incidentally, I note that this blog has just popped up on Granny Buttons, the most readable of the regularly-updated waterway enthusiasts' sites. So there you go, a little insight into what you'll be seeing on Waterscape before long.)

Comments

interesting stuff. we've just been doing a href="http://www.usology.com/maps"some similar work/a.

Are you doing anything with geowiki.com? It's not responding..

Posted by Ed on 1.3.05 14:33

Add a comment

Your name:

E-mail address: 

Comment:

your comment. (E-mail addresses will not be visible, but a server-based mail link will be provided.)