TravellerMap.com API Update

[jfetters]

Yeah... most of them are from the Undeveloped Sectors (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/elvwood/Traveller/Sectors/) project:

...

The TravMapper program floating around the 'net (which I used for the Solomani and Aslan Dotmap Reconstruction) will generate PBGs with : and ; in them since ASCII goes: 0123456789:;<=>? - I manually edited overflows to be "9"...

The overflow bug strikes again.

I can't find TravMapper out there. Not much seems to be on John's site anymore...

 

[inexorabletash]

The TravMapper code is pretty darned buggy through and through. Lots of scary code in there. But... it was faster than writing my own.

 

[inexorabletash]

On a lark, I whipped up:

http://www.travellermap.com/subsector.htm?sector=Spinward+Marches&subsector=C

Then, feeling that wasn't hacky enough, I added:

http://www.travellermap.com/sector.htm?sector=Spinward+Marches

These use the existing APIs - they grab the sector data down with SEC.aspx, munge it with Javascript, build an HTML page, and toss Poster.aspx references in for the images.

 

[aramis]

Wow! Nifty!

 

[jfetters]

On a lark, I whipped up:

http://www.travellermap.com/subsector.htm?sector=Spinward+Marches&subsector=C

Then, feeling that wasn't hacky enough, I added:

http://www.travellermap.com/sector.htm?sector=Spinward+Marches

These use the existing APIs - they grab the sector data down with SEC.aspx, munge it with Javascript, build an HTML page, and toss Poster.aspx references in for the images.

That's really cool. That prints out quite nice in landscape, too!

So the next obvious question - subsector names on the borders?

 

[jfetters]

Josh,

Has the POST feature changed? I tried to post a SEC file for rendering and received the following exception:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object. 
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. 

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source Error: 

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.  

Stack Trace: 


[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
   Maps.<get_Worlds>d__3.MoveNext() +66
   Maps.Render.RenderTile(ResourceManager resourceManager, Selector selector, Graphics graphics, RectangleF tileRect, Double scale, MapOptions options, Size tileSize) +14014
   Maps.Poster.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) +2926
   System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +99
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +47
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +1436

I'm not sure which item is missing here...

 

[inexorabletash]

So the next obvious question - subsector names on the borders?

Browsers other than IE don't support rotated text, which means I'd have to render them as part of the graphics. Which makes for lousy print quality. *sigh* I might have to follow Mickazoid's lead and dive into PDF rendering...

(Edit)

Um... well, I suppose I can cheat and do:

R
E
G
I
N
A

 

[jfetters]

Browsers other than IE don't support rotated text, which means I'd have to render them as part of the graphics. Which makes for lousy print quality. *sigh* I might have to follow Mickazoid's lead and dive into PDF rendering...

(Edit)

Um... well, I suppose I can cheat and do:

R
E
G
I
N
A

How about this for a compromise (for now, anyway, until you can work out the PDF kinks) - detect the browser type, then render based on that so IE users see rotated text, but non-IE at least sees something. (as an aside, I'm surprised other browsers don't have that capability, but that is another discussion altogether, I guess).

 

[inexorabletash]

I tried to post a SEC file for rendering and received the following exception:

Oops, I introduced a bug while fixing another bug. (Yes, I should have unit tests. *sigh*) Should be fixed, try now.

 

[inexorabletash]

(as an aside, I'm surprised other browsers don't have that capability, but that is another discussion altogether, I guess).

In the vein of that digression:

Microsoft tends to listen to its customers, which are primarily (1) corporations and (2) not just in the US. Among those, support for international features like text layout beyond simple left-to-right text (e.g. Ruby) is critical. This is often derided as "embrace and extend" - take a standard and then go beyond it to induce vendor lock-in, but in practical terms this is how standards evolve in the first place. If customers are clamboring for a feature, asking for them to wait years for a standards body to ratify a proposal is generally not a strategy for sucess. (On the other hand, working closely with the standards body and content developers to ensure adherence when the standard eventual does arrive is something MSFT could do far better at.)

Mozilla tends to listen to vocal web developers, which means standards compliance and performance trump feature needs. While this often gives them the moral high ground, it means innovation tends to lag as other organizations take the risks first. For example, XmlHttpRequest, the foundation of Web 2.0/AJAX behavior, first came out of Microsoft (to support Outlook Web Access); SVG support came out of a standards process years after Microsoft had already shipped VML (to support Office Graphics in HTML); the CANVAS element was pioneered by Safari. Most of the innovation around Mozilla has been using its stable core components (Gecko, XUL) to build other applications, not actually advancing the basic technologies of the web (HTML, HTTP, etc); I believe that this is in line with the Mozilla Foundation's goals.

But I digress.

 

[jfetters]

Oops, I introduced a bug while fixing another bug. (Yes, I should have unit tests. *sigh*) Should be fixed, try now.

D'Oh! I hate it when that happens...

A-OK now, though, thanks!

 

[jfetters]

Browsers other than IE don't support rotated text, which means I'd have to render them as part of the graphics. Which makes for lousy print quality. *sigh* I might have to follow Mickazoid's lead and dive into PDF rendering...

OK, so since the custom sector POST is working again, here is the million dollar question - Can you do a LBB rendering with the custom sector file?

Just call me the "scope creep"

 

[inexorabletash]

Neighbor subsectors are now labelled with sector.htm (I have to redo subsector.htm which is cruftier code at this point). I also tossed in a blurb at the bottom with world count/total population/max population. Comparing http://www.travellermap.com/sector.htm?sector=Solomani+Rim with Supplement 10, the PBG numbers are a bit off - whoever generated that data wasn't trying to match the book exactly.

Re: LBB of custom sector file - yeah, I was thinking about that. I'll have to ponder... requesting images via a POST may require some iframe trickery. But yeah, I'll do that somehow.

 

[jfetters]

Thanks!

And also let me say again publicly - thank you for setting this up and adding on so many useful features. Not only is TravellerMap.com a terrific resource for Traveller fans, it is also a fine example of how the internet can be used to realize the "software as a service" concept that provides a useful application without having to manage application installs or scripts locally.