Geo 518 - Internet Mapping and GIS

CREATING AN SVG SITE

SVGMapper is an XML implementation that uses Adobe's Scalable Vector Graphics format.  Most web graphics are images (bitmaps, gifs, jpegs, etc.) and, once they are embedded in an html page, you cannot pan, zoom or change scale.  While it is possible - with some work - to link areas of these images to other information you cannot change the size of the image after doing that.  The invisible vectors you have drawn on the image do not scale with the image.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a format developed by the Adobe company and overcomes the problems.  First, the graphic is a vector item, e.g. the coordinates of the points, lines or polygons are part of the file not just a set of color values.  Secondly, it is scalable within the page, i.e. you can pan and zoom. This makes it a potential format for presenting geographic data.

There are several commercial SVG mapping options.  There is open source shareware at carto.net

MapViewSVG Professional Bundle for ArcGIS  $780 US - there are versions for both ArcView GIS 3.x and ArcGIS 8/9.  The system provides several templates for map publishing

SVGMapper - a $40 extension for ArcView GIS 3.x  http://svgmapper.com - the author has no current plans for updating to ArcGIS 8.x.  It is only modestly less functional than MapViewSVG. This is what we will use.

Start ArcView GIS 3.3 from the Programs menu/ESRI.  Bring some data into the view, symbolize it, put labels on.  From the File menu pull down to Extensions and click SVGMapper 2.3 on - click OK.  This brings in a button at the right end of the button bar.  Once you have the view looking the way you want it to click this button and this dialog box appears

You will find a template file at n:\int_gis\map\labs\svg_1 - use that one.  Click the properties button and click the Export Attributes box.  In the Select_Field_fot_Map_Tips box, pull down to State_Name.  Click OK and you get back to the SVGMapper 2.3 dialog box.  Save the project to your c:\localhost\website folder - create an SVG folder there.  Click start, wait a few minutes while it crunches and say yes when asked if you wish to open in browser.

Create three more basic SVG websites and create an html page with links to all of them.  Make sure the links use the domain name of your computer, e.g. cfd312005, so that I can view them from my office.

On the web page, make a list of things you would like to do to customize the site and what some of your dislikes are about the resulting product.