Using SVG for an UI to a Digital Library

Harald Krottmaier TU Graz, Austria Agenda

• About the project... • About SVG... • About the UI... • About Problems and nice things... • About the future :) About the Project

• new interface • existing Digital Library – based on objectoriented DB – (D)HTML interface – API-access

• Christian Scherngell Main Question:

• Is SVG suitable for complex applications? SVG: Scalable Vector Graphics • Macromedia and Microsoft: – VML: Vector Markup Language • Adobe and Sun: – PGML: Precision Graphics Markup Language • W3C • History: – 1998: Working Group – 2001: SVG 1.0 Recommendation – 2003: SVG 1.1 Recommendation – 2003: SVG Tiny, SVG Basic: Recommendation How to use SVG? (1/2)

• Server side: – SVG and rastered versions – no animations – e.g. Batik, ImageMagick How to use SVG? (2/2) • Client side: – plugins • Adobe SVG Viewer: most of SVG 1.0/1.1 – native support: • Opera: SVG 1.1 Tiny / Basic • Gecko (Firefox, Camino): incomplete 1.1 • Safari • Konqueror: KSVG • Amaya: partial 1.1 • Batik SVG Toolkit, Gnome, SVG Salamander... Some Features...

• 2D • based on XML – CSS, XSL, Xinclude, XPointer, etc. – reusable elements • Text remains as text! • dynamic – SMIL • interactive – DOM Applications

• e-learning • games • design • cartographic applications and • GUI for Web Concept

Implementation

• GUI Component Framework: SPARK • Content stored in XML-files – no DB-access in SVG 1.1... • Eventhandling: – objects vs. SPARK • Styling of Documents: CSS Overall Navigation...

An Article... ACM-Classification... Nice Parts...

• Visualization of ACM-Tree • new technology • working with XML • ... Problems

• access to content: just getURL() – SVG 1.2: DB-interface available • no GUI-Builder available – everything must be developed using XML- editor... • almost no GUI-Libraries available – we’ve used SPARK / SVG Programmers Application Resource Kit Future of SVG

• SVG 1.2 almost out... – some new features (e.g. alignment of text :)) • more support in Browsers Future of this Project

• no future in the current implementation – we’ve used SVG 1.1 – too many problems regarding DB access – plugins • ACM-tree – will be implemented using SVG 1.2 Summary

• About the project... • About SVG... • About the UI... • About Problems and nice things... • About the future Contact

Dr. Harald Krottmaier Institut of Computer Graphics and Knowledge Visualization Inffeldgasse 16c A-8010 Graz [email protected] http://krottmaier.cgv.tugraz.at