Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Webble that just forwards data from slots with the proper names to differently
named slots, or it can be a fairly complex task.
We built an adapter Webble that made use of several different existing Web-
bles to handle visualization and interaction with geographical data. The adapter
Webble uses one existing Webble to display data on a map by simply transform-
ing the XML on the
DataInput
slot to a comma separated list and sending it to
the data slot of the existing Webble. It also takes user area selections on the map
from a different existing Webble, and matches the selection coordinates to coor-
dinates in the
DataInput
slot to create a mapping for the
LocalSelections
slot.
Adding an adapter like this is easy and it took about an hour for this adapter.
The Webble technology also allows wrapping of software that was not built us-
ing Webbles. The ArcGIS
2
software, not built using Webbles, has been wrapped
to run as a Webble and to work with the
Dashboard
. Depending on the soft-
ware, wrapping can be fairly easy or it can require a lot of work. Once wrapped,
software can be used in any Webble application.
Wrapping a new data source to work with the
Dashboard
is generally easy.
There are generic Webbles that access relational databases and web services and
output data in the expected format. For many data sources, adding them is as
easy as adding the URI, then specifying a table name and a login.
2.5 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Digital Dashboard System
Direct manipulation is intuitive and easy to understand for non-experts, so the
Dashboard
user interface is easy to use. Clicking and dragging the mouse to select
e.g. an area on a map is a familiar and easy to understand operation. Selections
and groupings in one component are reflected immediately in other components.
All visualization components allow direct interaction with the visualization re-
sults. Selecting the data you are interested in by interacting with the thing that
tells you it is interesting is powerful and convenient.
Setting up a new data exploration using already existing components is easy.
No programming is required, just select plugins and connect them to the system.
Changing what each component visualizes is easily done using drop-down lists.
The system is very generic, and data sources containing data types the system
has never seen before can be dropped in at any time. As long as there are visu-
alization components that know these data types, the system will start handling
everything automatically. The system also does not need to know what type of
visualization or interaction any visualization component does, and the individual
components do not need to know or care about other components. This means
any type of data storage, and any type of interaction, etc. is allowed.
Since the system is built using Webbles, it runs in a Web browser and no
special installation is necessary (though a Silverlight browser plugin is needed).
The Webble technology also means that components developed for the
Digital
Dashboard
can easily be reused in other systems and some components have
2
ESRI (2012) ArcGIS API for Silverlight (ver. 2.4)
http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapi/silverlight/
