Summit ExtMap News
Alper Dinçer continues working on his Summit ExtMap framework.
The reason for this late post is “Summit ExtMap“, because I still working on framework to add some new features. The coming release will be separated to 3 different versions as
- Summit ExtMap (for ArcGIS JS API Extension for Google Maps)
- Summit ExtMapRest (without ArcGIS JS API, works only with ArcGIS REST API and Google Maps API)
- ExtOL (Ext JS with OpenLayers supporting ArcGIS REST API)
Now that sounds great; ExtJS and ESRI REST API together. There are reasons why you should not use Silverlight. JavaScript APIs, coupled with JavaScript Frameworks really do give you everything you need to have a great web application.
The funny thing is that the new MLB site uses an extra plugin you have to install on top of Flash to get the HD Video stream. Something that SL already has built-in support for. http://team.silverlight.net/announcements/sports-powered-by-silverlight/
The problem isn’t capability, but the responsiveness of Microsoft on this one. If Silverlight is going to take off, it is up to Microsoft to make the install experience as easy as possible.
In fact, “requiring” the plugin to view media content is a great way to get users to load silverlight. But if they can’t address the needs of influential users such as MLB.TV, then they aren’t going to gain traction.
Until Windows 7 comes out and Silverlight is installed on everyone’s machine as part of the default install. Of course this isn’t the ideal way to get software onto someone’s machine.
Well we’ll have to see, Windows XP is still around and my company has zero plans to upgrade anytime soon to Windows 7.
ESRI ArcGIS Server rest API is not a real restful API, no cache… I believe Silverlight is a perfect development tool!
Thanks for post James,
I would like to say that anyone interested in ExtMap are welcome to develop project together
Alper
I believe there was more going on behind the scenes with Microsoft and MLB.TV deal, which lead them to dropping Silverlight.
Silverlight has the same restrictions that flash has when installing.
stackoverflow.com => Flash Install Rights
Javascript can only take you so far with very interactive and data heavy sites. I believe Silverlight is a better fit for GIS sites. But JSAPI sites do come in handy for putting together light and simple GIS “Web Maps”.
Behind the scenes or not, MSFT needs to get this right. If they get pushed around by Adobe, what does that say for the brand?
True, Flash might require admin rights, but not always. Flash’s difference is it is already installed on 115% of computers out there so you run a great chance of not requiring the user to install something.
A good JavaScript framework gets you 85% of the way there vs Flex/Silverlight. JSAPI vs. Flex/Silverlight is no different than .NET vs. Java. Any time I run into limitations with the JSAPI it is usually related to the REST API and that would affect Flex/Silverlight just as much. Limitations with the JSAPI itself usually point me to ask the question, “Is this really a good idea to do in a web app?”.
Microsoft is the one attacking Adobe’s market in RIA. So I don’t really see Microsoft getting “pushed around” by them. Plus they landed a huge triumph when Silverlight was used by the Olympics without any problems.
Many other sites such as Netflix, CBS’s March Madness Site, NBA.com , Microsoft.com and others are using it. Plus Micrsoft will be adding it to Windows Update, so everyone should be getting it.
Last time I checked the JSAPI doesn’t have a way to handle point clusters very well and I don’t think you can use video as symbology in JSAPI.
I guess the point is that you get a consistent user experience if you use Silverlight. The code you write is getting executed by the CLR no matter what browser your using. When you depend on JavaScript you really have no control on how its going to run. Is it going to run really fast like in Chrome or is going to choke and studer like when it runs in IE with 100 points.
You really want to give the user the best experience possible.
Not all enterprises will allow Silverlight to be installed. Our company blocks windows update and rolls them out themselves.
But your point is taken, as long as Microsoft remains committed, Silverlight will continue to grow. I just don’t think they take it seriously..
Huge triumph? More like the only popular non-Microsoft application of silverlight – apart from Netflix on-demand. Apart from Deep Zoom demos I’ve not seen many sites using Silverlight in an interesting way. SWF on the other hand is pretty much defacto standard.
In our enterprise, I echo James that we can’t deploy Silverlight internally. You’ll see this repeated in a lot of places. It’s simple risk vs reward; no real benefit to silverlight so it doesn’t get approved. This leaves us using Flash which does the job fine anyway.
I’m exaggerating a bit, but the point is that if you can easily list the sites using a technology – it’s just not that popular.
I agree with James about the restrictions of REST. You can eliminate the limitations of browser by user interface design or some additional programming like clustering, but there is a need for support of REST.
For example the most problematic part of ArcGIS REST is that there isn’t any paging support for queries. This makes taking all data to client without limitations and this may cause problems sometimes.
I hope HTML 5 and new technologies like Gears change the wars between these
After using the new iPhone/Android Gmail web app, I’m convinced that maybe Flex/Silverlight isn’t as clearcut a movement as I would have thought.
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/04/gmail-gets-new-engine-for-iphone-and.html
Of course this is only in WebKit/Safari and on platforms that have Gears already running. You still run into the problem of needed an admin to install.