[Geoserver-devel] Improve the layer preview on trunk

GeoServer GeoServer Developer
1

Hi,
quick mail to propose a plan for a layer preview improvement on
trunk.

Atm the preview looks like attached. Pretty much... ugly!!!
I would like to replace it with something different.
The ideas are:
- merge it with the usual filterable/sortable style we have
   in the other tables, using the workspace and the layer
   name as the columns that can be used for filtering
   and sorting
- show only 3 previews directly: openlayers, kml, gml
   limited to 50 features
- show an extra dropdown with the full list of mime types,
   when you click on it you get redirected to a preview
   with the chosen type. It seems like a good idea, to me,
   to include in the mix both wms and wfs 1.0 outputs, and
   mark them accordingly, something like:

(wms) application/atom+xml
(wms) application/pdf
(wms) application/rss+xml
...
(wfs) gml2
(wfs) csv
...

As for having better looking names for the dropdown, we
may be able use the internationalization subsystem to
provide better looking labels starting from the mime types.
Or maybe we can just forget about that and fill the dropdown
with the mime types, it's supposed to be an advanced option
anyways.

Also, we may want to have two drodowns, one for wms
extras, and one for wfs extras. The end result
would be a table with xx columns:
- workspace
- layer name
- ol preview link
- kml preview link
- gml2 preview link
- other wms formats dropdown
- other wfs formats dropdown
(layers page also has 7 columns)

Maybe by clicking on the layer name one would get
to the layer description page that was made for
geosearch? Provided the page is available, that is.

Opinions?
Cheers
Andrea

--
Andrea Aime
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers.

(attachments)

gspreview.jpg

2

Andrea Aime ha scritto:

Also, we may want to have two drodowns, one for wms
extras, and one for wfs extras. The end result
would be a table with xx columns:

For those who are wondering, this XX was meant to
be a placeholder, "I'll write down the columns
and then I'll count them and replace" but... I forgot
to.

Cheers
Andrea

--
Andrea Aime
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers.

3

Thanks for bringing this up, Andrea.

Overall, I'm +1 (feedback below)

Rollie had pointed out that this page is currently hidden behind Demos in the UI. I'd love to move it to the sidebar (should all the links on the current demos page maybe be moved to the sidebar?). If we need to put it behind an extra page, I think we ought to try to come up with a better umbrella term than demos - it seems like they're actually focused on providing information about the currently-running geoserver instance than actual demos.

On Apr 3, 2009, at 6:18 AM, Andrea Aime wrote:

Hi,
quick mail to propose a plan for a layer preview improvement on
trunk.

Atm the preview looks like attached. Pretty much... ugly!!!
I would like to replace it with something different.
The ideas are:
- merge it with the usual filterable/sortable style we have
in the other tables, using the workspace and the layer
name as the columns that can be used for filtering
and sorting

Big +1 from me on this. In fact, I was just suggesting this in the design channel.

- show only 3 previews directly: openlayers, kml, gml
limited to 50 features

I don't know what subset makes sense to show, but I agree this makes sense

- show an extra dropdown with the full list of mime types,
when you click on it you get redirected to a preview
with the chosen type. It seems like a good idea, to me,
to include in the mix both wms and wfs 1.0 outputs, and
mark them accordingly, something like:

(wms) application/atom+xml
(wms) application/pdf
(wms) application/rss+xml
...
(wfs) gml2
(wfs) csv
...

Rather than prefixing each row with (wms) or (wfs), I'd suggest using <optgroup> tags to organize the options in that dropdown. (http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_optgroup is a simple demo for folks who are wondering what that tag does).

As for having better looking names for the dropdown, we
may be able use the internationalization subsystem to
provide better looking labels starting from the mime types.
Or maybe we can just forget about that and fill the dropdown
with the mime types, it's supposed to be an advanced option
anyways.

Also, we may want to have two drodowns, one for wms
extras, and one for wfs extras. The end result
would be a table with xx columns:
- workspace
- layer name
- ol preview link
- kml preview link
- gml2 preview link
- other wms formats dropdown
- other wfs formats dropdown
(layers page also has 7 columns)

Maybe by clicking on the layer name one would get
to the layer description page that was made for
geosearch? Provided the page is available, that is.

I think I'm +1 on this - where would the layer name link if there isn't a layer description page available?

Opinions?
Cheers
Andrea

--
Andrea Aime
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers.
<gspreview.jpg>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Geoserver-devel mailing list
Geoserver-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/geoserver-devel

4

Christopher Patterson ha scritto:

Thanks for bringing this up, Andrea.

Overall, I'm +1 (feedback below)

Rollie had pointed out that this page is currently hidden behind Demos in the UI. I'd love to move it to the sidebar (should all the links on the current demos page maybe be moved to the sidebar?). If we need to put it behind an extra page, I think we ought to try to come up with a better umbrella term than demos - it seems like they're actually focused on providing information about the currently-running geoserver instance than actual demos.

Yep, you have a point there, preview is no demo to me either.
Maybe we should add a "tools" section? Or just list preview
as a main element.
Also, mind, Justin suggested to add the capabilities into
the sidebar as well, this means 5 new links are getting into
the sidebar as well, with some extra ones incoming each
time we implement a new version of a standard (e.g., WMS 1.3
or WPS 1.0).
Doesn't this risks of making the sidebar too long?

Rather than prefixing each row with (wms) or (wfs), I'd suggest using <optgroup> tags to organize the options in that dropdown. (http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_optgroup is a simple demo for folks who are wondering what that tag does).

Sure, can do. The list would become a little long thought,
that's why I suggested two separate dropdowns below.

As for having better looking names for the dropdown, we
may be able use the internationalization subsystem to
provide better looking labels starting from the mime types.
Or maybe we can just forget about that and fill the dropdown
with the mime types, it's supposed to be an advanced option
anyways.

Also, we may want to have two drodowns, one for wms
extras, and one for wfs extras. The end result
would be a table with xx columns:
- workspace
- layer name
- ol preview link
- kml preview link
- gml2 preview link
- other wms formats dropdown
- other wfs formats dropdown
(layers page also has 7 columns)

Maybe by clicking on the layer name one would get
to the layer description page that was made for
geosearch? Provided the page is available, that is.

I think I'm +1 on this - where would the layer name link if there isn't a layer description page available?

Nowhere?
Cheers
Andrea

--
Andrea Aime
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers.

5

The improvements sound like a good idea to me. But one thing I would like to see is that the Map Preview page not be the only entry point to the preview functionality, but that this functionality be available from the layer page itself.

Andrea Aime wrote:

Hi,
quick mail to propose a plan for a layer preview improvement on
trunk.

Atm the preview looks like attached. Pretty much... ugly!!!
I would like to replace it with something different.
The ideas are:
- merge it with the usual filterable/sortable style we have
  in the other tables, using the workspace and the layer
  name as the columns that can be used for filtering
  and sorting
- show only 3 previews directly: openlayers, kml, gml
  limited to 50 features
- show an extra dropdown with the full list of mime types,
  when you click on it you get redirected to a preview
  with the chosen type. It seems like a good idea, to me,
  to include in the mix both wms and wfs 1.0 outputs, and
  mark them accordingly, something like:

(wms) application/atom+xml
(wms) application/pdf
(wms) application/rss+xml
...
(wfs) gml2
(wfs) csv
...

As for having better looking names for the dropdown, we
may be able use the internationalization subsystem to
provide better looking labels starting from the mime types.
Or maybe we can just forget about that and fill the dropdown
with the mime types, it's supposed to be an advanced option
anyways.

Also, we may want to have two drodowns, one for wms
extras, and one for wfs extras. The end result
would be a table with xx columns:
- workspace
- layer name
- ol preview link
- kml preview link
- gml2 preview link
- other wms formats dropdown
- other wfs formats dropdown
(layers page also has 7 columns)

Maybe by clicking on the layer name one would get
to the layer description page that was made for
geosearch? Provided the page is available, that is.

Opinions?
Cheers
Andrea

------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------

_______________________________________________
Geoserver-devel mailing list
Geoserver-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/geoserver-devel

--
Justin Deoliveira
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Enterprise support for open source geospatial.

6

Justin Deoliveira ha scritto:

The improvements sound like a good idea to me. But one thing I would like to see is that the Map Preview page not be the only entry point to the preview functionality, but that this functionality be available from the layer page itself.

Yeah, agreed. There are extra issues to handle in that case:
- presentation: we're working against a single layer, so the
   presentation of the available preview options would be
   different
- availability: the preview should be disabled as the layer
   is being configured for the first time, since we don't have
   it in the catalog. A simple workaround could be to have
   a "apply and continue" button that saves the config but
   allows you to stay in the layer config page (and unlock the
   preview). The same button would be needed as you change
   other options, the changes would be visible in the integrated
   preview only after you applied them (think, just to make an
   example, changing the max features limit for wfs).

Cheers
Andrea

--
Andrea Aime
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers.