[ka-Map-users] Yet another ka-Map application

[David Badke]

I have been developing a ka-Map based application for the Humanities 
Computing and Media Center at the University of Victoria, BC, Canada. 
The application is now stable enough (?) to be demonstrated, though 
there is more work to be done.

The application, called IMaP (Image Markup and Presentation) is intended 
for non-technical, cartographically-challenged users who want to display 
maps and other large images on the web. Its initial purpose is the 
annotation and display of large historical maps, architectural plans, 
and other non-GIS items in an academic environment, so it is not a 
"normal" ka-Map/MapServer application.

IMaP has three components, the first of which is the ka-Map based image 
viewer. The demo site is at 
http://vihistory-dev.uvic.ca/maps/htdocs/index.php; check the help for 
special features, but the interface it should (I hope!) be clear enough. 
There is only a little data in the demo site as yet, and only the first 
map has annotations. The academic users IMaP is intended for need to be 
able to annotate the images; this is currently done with the second IMaP 
component, the Humanities Computing and Media Center Image Markup Tool 
(http://www.tapor.uvic.ca/~mholmes/image_markup/index.php), an open 
source application that allows large images to be annotated (note that 
the version on the site above is an early version; it is being updated 
with more features, and the file format has changed, so that version 
can't be used with IMaP). The markup tool saves the annotations in an 
XML file, a combination of TEI and SVG. The third IMaP component is an 
administration utility that allows the non-technical user to create the 
files needed by ka-Map/MapServer without knowing anything about .map 
files, shape files, world files, etc. The utility has functions that 
convert the Image Markup Tool XML file into forms that can be used in 
the image viewer, as well as functions that allow the user to create 
.map files. A demo of the administration utility is at 
http://vihistory-dev.uvic.ca/maps/htdocs/admin/admin.php (user name 
"guest", password "guest"). The utility has been restricted somewhat for 
guest access for security reasons; you can read about all of the 
features in the user manual available from the Documentation page. You 
are welcome to poke around in the utility; it will be reset once in a 
while so your changes won't persist long.

Comments and bug reports are always welcome!

My thanks to the ka-Map gurus for a great product and to the ka-Map list 
members for help with getting everything (mostly) working.

David

-- 

David Badke
Humanities Computing and Media Center
University of Victoria, BC, Canada