OpenMap(TM) simple and nice mapping framework.
Yaiks, has been long seen writing any post for the passed weeks. Mainly busy with work on my gateway deployment. Today I like to introduce you to a simple and nice mapping development toolkit a.k.a OpenMap(TM). It is an open source project developed around JavaBean concept for building GIS application. If you are looking for some application to show map data or develop one that not only show data but also handle user events to manipulate data, you are in luck. [Go to OpenMap Home page]
OpenMap comes with its OpenMap Viewer that you can download for free. It supports reading of various map data format out of the box such as the Shape file, Esri File, DTED, VPF, etc. It also comes with tools like navigation, zooming, changing of projection, simple drawing tools, layering and distance calculation. There are other tools that you can enabled by tweaking its property file. This properties file let you add components available in OpenMap library into its viewer without any coding which I found very interesting and convenience. I get it running in less than 10 minutes, inclusive of reading the user guide. [Read the User Guide]
What amazing me most is the OpenMap Framework and architecture is relatively easy to understand, and also the short, simple yet concise documentation shorten the learning curve even more. (Of course you need to able to understand Java, especially in Swing and the basic of Mapping jargon). The core components of the framework the MapHandler, MapBeans, events like MapMouseMode, InformationDelegator, and the Layers that actually display the map. If you have developed Swing application before like me, you will be able to easily change or add new behaviour to the existing application. [Read the Architecture]
Also, what I like most is the examples provided. I like the SimpleBeanBox example where you can create and control the jet fighter. Each jet fighther is a Java Bean which can dynamically added at runtime. However, during my expedition, I found that the redraw of the map is slow when panning the map at the world view level. It also have quite an active mailing list community. I even read a post that there is a company that uses OpenMap and developed their own class file to manipulate the S57 navy map format.
