[worldKit-dev] Firing in time changes through javascript

[Mikel Maron]

Hi Ian

> I'm casting my net out to find a developer to make the following
> improvements/extensions to worldKit - all of which I expect to submit
> to you on completion.  I'm building into the project whereby I have a
> copy of the developer's design document to review before they start
> work.  I intend placing this document on this list to get the
> "collective" opinion on the changes.

Excellent. You can also invite the developer to join the discussion group here.

> To start the developer off on the right track, I'd appreciate any tips
> you may have that relate to the ffollowing changes:
>
>    * My data-file contains points too "close-together" to be plotted
> correctly in WorldKit's normal plotting mode. WorldKit has an
> "accuplot" configuration option that allows more accurate plotting,
> but straight line plotting is broken in this mode. Repair straight
> line-plotting between the points so it works correctly when in
> "accuplot" mode

The problem is due to the maximum size of flash movie clip being set to 2880 x 2880
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14437&sliceId=1

In normal mode, zooming and panning occurs by scaling and positioning one movie clip. The movie clips containing point or lines for annotations are placed within this one main movie clip. When zooming increases the main clip beyond some dimension, the accuracy of the positioning of child movie clips declines. accuplot solves this by positioning each child movie clip independently, but only for points. Something similar would need to be implemented for lines.

Relevant code is in worldkitAnnotation.as .. drawpoly(), drawline(), drawbox(), setLoc() would need to be updated to draw and redraw the lines at each zoom level.

>    * when plottng time-data, allow provision of a "period" value, to
> indicate the time period for which past data should be plotted - as a
> "back-trace". So, a "period" of 10 minutes would indicate that the
> current point, plus the past 10 minutes of data be plotted. Value of
> period to be specified in Seconds

The "neartime" config option is undocumented, but may already do this. May need some fine tuning. On review by you or your engineer, I'll properly document it.

>     * provide a "fade to background" setting <showBackTrace>. When
> this is true, and when plotting time data, the "back-history" points
> fade from solid at time-now, to transparent at last-point in history.

Requires some tweaking in worldkitAnnotation, setVisible.

>     * provide a "set time now" interface (called JTimeComm) that
> allows the current displayed time to be controlled from JavaScript.

Model on the other JXComm functions in worldkitInteraction.as. It will calculate and change the position of the timenav component.

>    * a configuration option <hideEmptyTitle> that hides the tooltip
> box when the relevant datapoint does not include a text-descriprion.

new config option, and a check on that option in  worldkitAnnotation.as, plot()

Best,
Mikel