Right then: the atlas.

First stab at how it's going to work.

The new feature will allow us to display a map of any part of the world for which we have map data. It is anticipated that we might acquire a variety of map datasets which cover different regions of the world at varying levels of detail. The user's view of the map will include links to scroll the map in any of eight directions, as well as zooming in or out (data permitting).

To allow integration of the atlas with as broad a range of data as possible, we will split handling of the graphical data from the gazetteer information. The latter will be processed through the standard RML / import route to give us a new volume. RML will acquire an extension which allows it to reference a map location. When the RML is rendered, that reference will be replaced by an image which highlights the specified location at a particular scale.

To distinguish this feature from the research mapper, I'll try to stick to the term Atlas for the new system we're building!

T
- posted by Tim Bruce @ 2:20 PM