jez Fletcher and Luke Mahe Maps API applications are accessed on desktop and mobile devices of many shapes and sizes. Each application has unique goals for conveying information effectively and for facilitating user interactions
Create Indoor Shopping Mall Maps
For the Google I/O conference this year Google created a pretty cool Android App that included a number of features, including a schedule, details about the sessions, buzz about I/O via a real-time search stream and a conference map.
Google has now open-sourced the code for the app. If you want to create a similar app for a conference you can download the code and adapt it to suit your needs.
One of my favourite presentations from Google I/O this year was Map Your Business Inside Out by Brendan Kenny and Chris Broadfoot of Google. Essentially in the presentation Brendan and Chris demonstrated how the Google Maps API can be used to create indoor maps for large conference centers or shopping malls.
You can view the presentation in full in this video:
In the presentation Brendan and Chris explain how you can attach floor-plan overlays to a Google Map, how you can label the floor-plan and how you can develop custom Street Views for your map.
If you are interested in creating your own indoor map then you might find these resources useful:
Vaadin 6.6 Ships with GWT 2.3
Accompanying the GWT 2.3 release, Vaadin is happy to announce version 6.6 of the Vaadin Framework. Vaadin is a server-side UI component framework that uses GWT on the client-side for rich user experience. With origins in Finland (a “vaadin” is a reindeer), there is now a very active Vaadin community world-wide. The framework has become especially popular during the last two years, with nearly twenty thousand downloads monthly.
Vaadin UI components are similar to GWT widgets, but their state is stored at the server. Every component has a client-side peer widget responsible for the presentation, and the synchronization between the server and the browser is automatically handled by the framework.
This makes development with Vaadin fast. It is mainly used to develop business web applications where pure client-side web application development is not a feasible option, but the web browser as a platform provides unparalleled benefits. One can think of Vaadin as a simplified Swing for web applications.
Touch support and Eclipse plug-in
Vaadin 6.6 follows the latest trends in web application development and adds touch device support. With GWT’s new touch features, we were able to touch-enable all Vaadin components. Touch scrolling, selections, and drag and drop work out-of-the-box. Also thanks to GWT, we were able to add official support for Internet Explorer 9, which has been requested a few times already.
In addition to the new framework version there is a new version of the Vaadin plug-in for Eclipse available. The main addition is the visual editor for Vaadin that has now been included by default. With that you can visually design the user interface and then just continue editing the generated Java code to add some logic.
Summary
Over the years, we have seen the development team behind GWT doing an excellent job adding new functionality while keeping the framework as a solid platform for our development.
Today we are also actively contributing new widgets to the GWT community. You can find some of them hosted at Google Code and also available in the Vaadin Add-on Directory. Take a look at the GWT Graphics, SparkLines and SimpleGesture for some interesting examples.
Vaadin 6.6 is a big thing for us and to celebrate it, we decided to release it at Google I/O 2011. Find out more and download at vaadin.com.
SketchUp Pro Case Study: Dan Tyree
Dan Tyree is an extremely prolific home designer who uses Sketchup Pro with LayOut for his presentations and documentation. He’s designed homes throughout the world. Dan writes:
I started using CAD products when they were still running on a DOS platform; I spent many years using expensive programs, but still struggled to find a good way to present in 3D for my clients. I started using Sketchup Pro as a solution for presentations, and used the DWG exporters to continue the drawings in CAD. I quickly realized that LayOut would allow me to completely eliminate my CAD program—I could create construction documents directly from the presentation model.
The Reese Residence designed in SketchUp and presented in LayOutWe use Sketchup and LayOut to create amazing presentations for our clients. We are able to show the design in rendered views or immersive videos. Clients are able to picture what the final product will be in vivid detail. We provide the SketchUp file to clients so they can experiment with colors, or just browse through their new home design. We post images and videos of the design on the client’s page (on our website) for their review.
LayOut provides everything we need to create construction documents.Next, we take the SketchUp model and link it to a LayOut document in order to start developing the construction drawings. These drawings include full-color renderings and perspective views, as well as traditional black and white parallel projections. The interaction between the two products allows us to offer changes throughout the process, even right up to the moment of final printing.
“Skiatook”, presented in LayOutPDF and CAD files are exported from LayOut. These are made available for our clients to download from our website. SketchUp and LayOut have made presenting a design and creating construction drawings a streamlined process, and have allowed us to provide an affordable custom design product.
Geocoding in Papervision3D with Yahoo Maps
In this presentation, we demonstrate a Geocoding application build in Papervision3D using Yahoo Maps. This source code is available on Google Code at code.google.com This tutorial was created by Mike Lively of Northern Kentucky University.