Heron

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Heron QuickStart

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Core Concepts

Heron Workshop

Below are various notes and subjects from Heron workshops. This follows a more hands-on approach.

Intro Slides

We start with some high level overview.

See these slides here: http://www.slideshare.net/justb4/the-heron-mapping-client-15675598

Quickstart

Get our hands dirty right away: follow the steps in the Heron QuickStart, in short:

  1. Download Heron from the downloads page
  2. Install on a local webserver
  3. Hosted versions on http://lib.heron-mc.org of external libs GeoExt, ExtJS and OpenLayers
  4. Run Heron examples

Server Components

Though Heron is a client-only library mainly geared at OGC standard webservices (WMS, WFS) etc) standardized services and without any server-side storage.

But for several reasons and functions some small server-side scripts are required, also dependent on the widgets in your Heron App.

AJAX Proxy

WMS GetFeatureInfo and WFS use AJAX calls. When using server domains other then the one your Heron App is hosted from you need “A Proxy”. This is sometimes a misty subject. OpenLayers is catered for proxied services but we need:

  1. a proxy script
  2. install the proxy on your webserver
  3. configure the proxy in your Heron config

Ad 1) See an example script here http://geoext-viewer.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/heron/services/proxy.cgi

Ad 2) adapt proxy.cgi for your hosts put in dir e.g. /var/www/heron-mc.org/cgi-bin. This is server-dependent, e.g. on Apache something like

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /var/www/heron-mc.org/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/var/www/heron-mc.org/cgi-bin/">
     AllowOverride None
     Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
     Order allow,deny
     Allow from all
</Directory>

Ad 3) configure in Heron. See examples/DefaultOptionsWorld.js

OpenLayers.ProxyHost = "/cgi-bin/proxy.cgi?url=";

Printing

MapFish print module (Java .war). See http://www.mapfish.org

Up/download Services

The heron.cgi script is used for advanced services dealing with enforcing download (e.g. from FeatureInfoPanel and Editor) and upload (Editor) to/from local files.

The script: http://geoext-viewer.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/heron/services/heron.cgi

Pre-configured with default in Heron App.js but can be overridden

/** REST Services specific to Heron. */
Heron.globals = {
    serviceUrl: '/cgi-bin/heron.cgi',

Documentation

For Heron the site http://heron-mc.org is the main documentation site.

The reference docs are tended to be used the most:

Heron Configuration Concepts

Heron’s main asset is to build an app through configuration.

The configuration is build as a JavaScript (JSON) hierarchical structure. The to level is Heron.layout. See this most minimal config (example: minimal)

Heron.layout = {
        xtype: 'hr_mappanel',

        /* Optional MapPanel ExtJS Panel properties here, see ExtJS API docs */

        /** Below are Heron-specific settings for the MapPanel (xtype: 'hr_mappanel') */
        hropts: {
                layers: [
                        new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS( "World Map",
                          "http://www2.demis.nl/WMS/wms.asp?WMS=WorldMap", {layers: 'Coastlines', format: 'image/png' } )
                ]
        }
};

There is sometimes some confusion around file names like Config.js/Layout.js and Options.js . The filenames don't matter! It is just a convenience to split up a complex config and to reuse more or less static parts like an overall layout. This is also true for Heron.options. or Heron.*.scratch. names.

Study the example AppDemo.

How Heron Works

Understanding a framework === understanding its bootstrap (“the main”).

This is with Heron. The default “main” is in Launcher.js

/**
 * Autolaunches Heron as app.
 * To prevent this and control explicitly include NoLaunch.js before App.js
 */
Ext.onReady(function() {

        if (!Heron.noAutoLaunch) {
                Heron.App.create();
                Heron.App.show();
        }
}, Heron.App);

Ok and what about Heron.App? See App.js

Ext.namespace("Heron.App");
Heron.App = function() {

        return {
                create : function() {
                        Ext.QuickTips.init();

                        if (Heron.layout.renderTo || Heron.layout.xtype == 'window') {
                                // Render topComponent into a page div element or floating window
                                Heron.App.topComponent = Ext.create(Heron.layout);
                        } else {
                                // Default: render top component into an ExtJS ViewPort (full screen)
                                Heron.App.topComponent = new Ext.Viewport({
                                        id      :"hr-topComponent",
                                        layout: "fit",
                                        hideBorders: true,

                                        // This creates the entire layout from the config !
                                        items: [Heron.layout]
                                });
                        }
                },

                show : function() {
                        Heron.App.topComponent.show();
                },

                getMap : function() {
                        return Heron.App.map;
                },

                setMap : function(aMap) {
                        Heron.App.map = aMap;
                },

                getMapPanel : function() {
                        return Heron.App.mapPanel;
                },

                setMapPanel : function(aMapPanel) {
                        Heron.App.mapPanel = aMapPanel;
                }
        };
}();

What happens here is that Heron.App.create() will use your Heron.layout object to create a full widget tree with all your configured components. Next the entire app becomes visible by Heron.App.show(). That is all!

Some variants is where you can control auto-launching by including NoLaunch.js.

Theming

Basic ExtJS themes can be created using an online ExtJS theme-builder: http://extbuilder.dynalias.com.

To work with Heron and for some tweaks, each theme below will have a corresponding file “default-theme-<theme name>.css” e.g. default-theme-greenery.css under heron/resources/css.

Making a new theme is two steps:

  • create a theme using http://extbuilder.dynalias.com
  • put the generated directory with css and images dirs under this dir with the name of the theme
  • create a default-theme-<theme name>.css under heron/resources/css, starting with a copy of an existing theme

css like default-theme-gray.css

To include a theme in your app, see examples/theming/index.html Example online: http://lib.heron-mc.org/heron/latest/examples/theming

Example index.html head content.

<!-- 1) under ext CSS  -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://lib.heron-mc.org/ext/3.4.0/resources/css/ext-all.css"/>
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="....resources/themes/greenery/css/xtheme-greenery.css" media="all" />
        <!--[if IE 6]>
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="resources/themes/greenery/css/xtheme-greenery_ie6.css" />
         <![endif]-->
.
.
<!-- 1) under Heron default CSS  -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="resources/css/default.css"/>

        <!-- Need to override some Heron-CSS -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="resources/css/default-theme-greenery.css"/>