An Ordinary Geo Web Developer’s Blog

I have been quite busy with several projects and I can’t find time to write on my blog.

I have been working on a project to show different GIS services (incl. ArcGIS server, WMS and KML/GeoRSS) on iOS devices, especially on IPhone, which is named iExtMap.

iExtMap is a mobile GIS viewer for iOS (IPhone, IPod and IPad). It is a hybrid application, map part is based on Google Maps JS API v3 and other parts are native. This hybrid structure saves a lot of time during development phase. This first version is just a viewer, but I’ll add more features like identify or query in next releases.

There is also a new web site both for iExtMap and ExtMap Framework, which is www.extmap.com

iExtMap is a free application downloadable from App Store for now and I want this remains same if I’ll find sponsors or advertisers for iExtMap. If you or your company is interested in iExtMap, please do not hesitate to contact me via alper [(at)] mekansal (dot) com

iExtMap App Store link for ITunes : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iextmap/id386589406?mt=8

Some reviews or news about iExtMap : (thanks everyone for reviewing, but James need a special thanks 🙂 )

James Fee GIS Blog

All Point Blogs

SlashGeo

The Map Room

Some ScreenShots : (More can be seen at http://www.extmap.com/index.php?pid=5)

On June 14, there is an announcement about the new formation named Sencha. Sencha is a combination of Ext JS + jQTouch + Raphaël and Extjs.com becomes www.sencha.com

After the announcement of new formation, they explode the bomb : Sencha Touch : The First HTML5 Mobile App Framework. They prepare a good mobile javascript framework for IPhone, IPad and Android devices.

I reviewed the framework. At a glance, it seems superb even it’s in beta phase, but there are problems using with Google Maps JS API V3. There is a annoying behaviour when using map in tabs. I’m sure this kind of problems will be solved in the future and Sencha Touch will become a major mobile framework 🙂

Yesterday was the first day of Google IO and there are some news about the geo products. The main theme of the conference is about Web and HTML5. This conference makes me sure about the future is on the Web and HTML5.

I haven’t still watch the geo sessions but the blog posts gave us a good news.

The most important and surprising news is the depreciation of Google Maps JS API V2. Google Maps JS API V3 is the new KING 😀 V3 has been evolving day by day with the support of polylines, polygons, driving directions and KML. Today StreetView support is also added to V3, but this time it is fully based on HTML instead of Flash due to mobile accessibility. This is matching with the theme of conference.

V2 will be still supported by Google at least three years, but I should move to V3 as soon as possible to learn the new capabilities.

There is also announcements of Directions Web Service and Nearby Places Widget. There is still one more day and we are looking for the new announcements, especially the Android Update 2.2 aka Froyo 🙂

I have been waiting for the new version (V3) for a long time. This new version has a superb feature that called Cloud Services. This is the killer feature of Arc2Earth V3 due to decrease the need of ArcGIS Server. It uses Google App Engine for hosting and storage. This gives scalability to your GIS services.

Thanks to Brian, last year, I had a chance to try the clouding services for my presentation about Cloud Computing. I just changed my ArcGIS Server URLs to App Engine URLs and it was still working. There is no need to do extra things to work with Cloud Services, because it is fully compatible with ArcGIS APIs.

Anyway, I’ll write in details later when I finished reviewing the new version.

Today Google Geo Developers Blog announced KML support for Google Maps JS API v3.

There is a new class kmlLayer which supports both KML and GeoRSS. The examples are as follows :

GeoRSS Example :

var georssLayer = new google.maps.KmlLayer('http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/geo/?g=322338@N20〈=en-us&format=feed-georss');
georssLayer.setMap(map);

KML Example :

var ctaLayer = new google.maps.KmlLayer('http://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ggeoxml/cta.kml');
ctaLayer.setMap(map);

There is also support for traffic and bicycling layers added at this version.

These are good signs to use V3 as new playground both for web and mobile applications.

Dear All,

Last month, I submitted an abstract about the ExtMap to FOSS4G 2010. Now FOSS4G is calling for voting the abstracts. You can see 360 candidate abstracts and your votes will make the schedule.

The voting address is as follows :  http://2010.foss4g.org/review/ (deadline is May 14, 2010)

The title of my abstract is “Developing Desktop-like Web GIS Applications with HTML and JavaScript”, if you want to give a chance 🙂

By the way, I’m quite busy with a new project on IPhone which is a mapping application indeed 🙂

Today I read the twit of Dave and found the ESRI Mashup Challenge 2010 lists of nominees on Youtube. I watched almost all of the entries and I’m impressed about the evolution of mashups. It is very great to see different kind of APIs as : ESRI APIs, Google Maps APIs, Bing Maps APIs, Facebook API, Twitter API, Youtube API.

Also it is very surprising that Silverlight, a very new technology, is becoming more popular.  Mashups based on Silverlight are more showy than others, but it is still a plugin based technology which I didn’t like these kind of technologies even I have to use it in some of my projects.

And what about my candidate to win. I know there are different aspects of selecting the winner, but I will select the technology side to choose my candidate. It is using Silverlight technology and it has ability to add & edit data. Anyway, my candidate is “GIS Editor – Silverlight API“.

Good luck for all nominees.

PS : There is also a nominee using ExtMap Framework even though they erased my license 🙂

After 6 months of military service, I’m back to my normal life. Especially I came back a month ago, but it takes time to get used to normal life 🙂

Anyway, military service was a big burden on my shoulders and now it is over. What about the future plans?

For now I’m planning a trip to USA for a job interview and I may change my continent within next months.

I also started to refresh my brain to get new version of Ext JS to improve ExtMap. Yes, you read correctly, I’ll continue to develop ExtMap, but this time, I will try a different way.  During my military service period, I saw some geo web applications which partially/completely uses ExtMap Framework, but they deleted credits part and sold it to their customers. I can’t understand why people are doing such things. I don’t want any money from them, just credits page.  Anyway, I’m working on that problem.

I have also plans to work on Google App Engine both for the web and geoweb, but I need time to understand the new approach to write applications on No-SQL platform. This approach may shape the scalibility of future web applications.

As a result, I’ll make a fresh start in my life and this gonna be awe…. (wait for it)….someeeeee 😀

PS : Thanks to Barney Stinson for his great catchphrases

Last year, I wrote a blog entry about the wishes/predictions for 2009. Before doing the same thing for 2010, I want to check the results 🙂 Lets do it :

Wish list/Predictions For Web and Geoweb in 2009 :

• Google App Engine releases GIS extension for BigTable (NO)
• Google App Engine adds PHP/Ruby/Perl support for Apps (Partial YES -> Java added 🙂 )
• Google App Engine releases a desktop application to transfer data between data formats or servers (NO)
• Google Maps adds Street View for Turkey (Not yet)
• Google Maps adds Driving Directions for Turkey (a big YEEES)
• ESRI releases the Offline Maps for ArcGIS Server (NO)
• GMail adds Offline support (a big YEEES)
• Community/ESRI adds ArcGIS Server API/support for OpenLayers (there are some possibilities from community, but not a fully supported) (YES, support come from community)

Result 4 NO,  3 YES and a partial YES. As a result, I’m not a good fortune teller 😀

3-4 months ago  I applied for the “Google Qualified JavaScript Maps Developer” program and then joined the military. But a month ago, I got a message from Google to get qualified 🙂 The program is working on Moodle and there are 4 parts to get points.  The details are as follows : http://code.google.com/intl/tr-TR/qualify/faq.html

There are also other fields at “Qualified Developer Program” such as Geo 3D or KML.  The main idea of the program is to show your developer skills but not in ordinary way. Other programs usually need to take an exam and pass it, but Google follow a different way to qualify.  You get points from “Application Development” (1000 pt), “Community Participation” (1000 pt),  “References” (1000 pt) and “Qualification Exam” (2000 pt). As it is seen, there are 5000 points and you must get 3000 points at least to get qualified. So that, if you are an active developer you can get qualified without taking the exam.

Anyway, last week I took the exam, get my missing points and get qualified as a “JS Maps API Developer” 🙂 You can see all the qualified developers at http://code.google.com/intl/tr-TR/qualify/directory.html By the way, I’m the first “Google Qualified Javascript Maps Developer” in Turkey 😀 and hope to see other Turks as a Maps Developer.