Question

Are there Javascript libraries which provide for panning over an image like Google Maps does?

Asked by: HappyEngineer

I just implemented a basic Google Maps mashup and was impressed at how easy it was to do.

However, I was wondering if there were Javascript libraries available which would provide for panning over an image in the same way that one can pan over a map in Google Maps.

For instance, as a thought experiment imagine a huge family tree involving millions of people which, if viewed all at once, would be a 100000px by 100000px image. How would I implement a viewer which would show me a subset of that information? Obviously I'd need some sort of server side app which responded to requests from the interface for particular sections of the image. But what about the client side?

Are there Javascript libraries which have widgets which could be used to build something like that?

Keep in mind that I don't just want panning. I want to be able to click icons on the image and see popup information and other types of dynamic behavior beyond just panning around an image.

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Asked On
2009-02-26 at 12:41:10ID24181598
Topics

Web Frameworks

,

JavaScript Frameworks

,

WebApplications

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: sherriwebPosted on 2009-03-20 at 07:13:04ID: 23939442

Google Maps is not panning over a humongous image. It is feeding you tiles (like a puzzle) with AJAX it loads the tiles next to the current one as you drag the mouse around the screen.

 

by: HappyEngineerPosted on 2009-06-17 at 11:37:07ID: 24651186

I understand that. I assumed that if there was a javascript library that it would also require a server side component much like extjs does for paging tables.

 

by: sherriwebPosted on 2009-06-17 at 12:08:12ID: 24651416

Hm. I've never heard of any libraries which already do this google-maps style panning. There are however a number of library which already implement JS dragging as well as ajax such as:

http://jquery.com/
http://script.aculo.us/
http://qooxdoo.org

 

by: sherriwebPosted on 2009-06-17 at 12:11:16ID: 24651442

And many more.

So you may be able to combine some of the pre-written dragging libraries to do what you want. You would have a container within which the current tile is being dragged. As it is dragged, the tiles around it are moving with it and new ones are coming in as you pan over previously invisible sections of the family tree.

The container I assume would have kind of a limited peep-hole view of the image which- when the edge of the tile approaches the edge of the container, adjacent tiles are loaded in.

 

by: klokanczPosted on 2009-09-05 at 05:20:15ID: 25265942

There are several JavaScript libraries providing similar functionality like Google Maps.

For example: http://www.openlayers.org/ or more targeted to images are: PanoJS or MooViewer.

You can use my MapTiler open-source application (http://www.maptiler.org) to create the tiles from your input image and you will receive a running OpenLayers viewer directly - just choose the "raster" profile in the first step of the wizard.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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