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RIA for geographic systems - an interview with Isabelle Coulomb

di Daniele Galiffa
Pubblicato il 23 Luglio 2005

We interviewed Isabelle Coulomb to learn something more on the geoClip project.

Q - How long have you been using Macromedia Flash for Internet Mapping Applications ?
A - Eric Mauviere, Géoclip’s father, started making interactive maps with Flash, 7 years ago ; it was with Flash v3, and a “hand-made” method : geographic objects were given a name and converted into movie clips one by one. So the number of objects was very limited, unlike today.

Q - Which are the alternative solutions to Flash for GIS systems and Internet Mapping Applications ?
A - Webmapping is quite a young “science” and progresses every days. However, several solutions are available, and the main ones are even more widespread than Flash (until now…). Two are based on free products : SVG and Mapserver ; two are based on commercial products : ArcIMS (from Esri) and MapXtreme (from MapInfo).

Q - Why did you choose to use Flash as a Front-End for GeoClip ? Have you done some experiments with other techonologies before ?
A - Eric made some tests with SVG some times ago, but now, we definitely choose Flash. Because everybody has the reader (no need to download any heavy plug-in), so the result is immediatly visible by everyone, with a simple browser. Because Flash is fast and powerful. Because it is easy to connect the interface to a database, even with a huge number of fields and records. Because the vector format offers a high quality display, even for printing.

Q - List and describe the 3 most weakness and strong points in using Flash for Internet Mapping Application as Geoclip.
A - Strong points are already told above. Another one is a clean OOP, which is a major advantage for evolutivity. Weak points are very scarse, but we can say : text becomes difficult to read in small sizes, it is difficult to change programmatically stroke and fill attributes independantly.

Q - About the User Experience, which benefits did you get from using Flash in Geoclip ?
A - What we want to offer with Géoclip is a smooth, fast and intuitive interface, where the map takes up the major part, in a full-screen display. With Flash, you can make user-friendly interfaces, which are very attractive, even for non-GIS-specialist users. Requests are launched in background, so the user is as comfortable as with a powerful Windows application, he does not have to wait all the time for pages refreshing.

Q - Any news about your future works ?
A - We are working on a new Géoclip builder, with enhanced features and improved achievement. It wil be GIS-software independant and will read directly shape files and mapinfo files, the best-known formats for geographic data. So, keep an eye on www.geoclip.net !

Il futuro

Nei prossimi anni sicuramente questo settore di mercato crescerà; tra gli indizi, la nascita di prodotti come FlashMap, l’ormai noto restaurant Finder in Flex, etc..
Insomma… Flash si sta aprendo ad un nuovo mercato offrendo il meglio di sè; l’evoluzione di AS 2.0 e di strumenti di sviluppo adeguati, non potranno fare altro che accrescerne le potenzialità.