Set <scale> param for KML icons to 0.20
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Key: GEOS-1246
URL: http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GEOS-1246
Project: GeoServer
Issue Type: Improvement
Components: Google Earth KML Output
Affects Versions: 1.5.1
Reporter: Chris Holmes
Assignee: Justin Deoliveira
Priority: Blocker
Fix For: 1.5.2, 1.6.0-beta3
Ok, so I spent a ton of time experimenting with the default output formats for our lines and polygons. Tried transparent icons, all kinds of sizes, different labels, ect. ect.
My conclusion is the best thing we can do is make a really small point. This makes it so there's something you can see to click on, but when way zoomed out your screen isn't dominated by silly points. I think our current black point is actually fine, we just need it 1/5th the size, since with it at its current size if you're way zoomed out it looks like you've got a bunch of points, not a bunch of lines.
So the way we set this is just use a <scale> param in IconStyle. Like:
<Style id="F">
<IconStyle>
<scale>0.2</scale>
<Icon>
<href>http://kh.google.com:80/flatfile?lf-0-icons/bluedotmini_64_n.png</href>
</Icon>
</IconStyle>
Also, note that our current root:/palette3 with the size offsets and all can be replaced by a much simpler icon link:
http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pal4/icon25.png
This is the same one that we're using. And indeed if you look at our stuff and then right click and save it, it puts this on it, not the weird offset stuff. So I think this is the direction google's moving, and I'm sure they have a local cache that knows this location.
So yeah, put the scale for lines and polygons. For points nothing needs to be done, they're fine nice and big.
I believe this should get us the biggest win in default stylings for the least amount of work (and lord did I think about this and experiment, probably way too much, as I meant to actually write tutorials this weekend or write code, and ended up just QAing).
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