GeoView

Work in progress. Be patient. All comments are welcomed. I'm not a native english writer, so I surely do mistakes.

All we need to understand and test GeoView.

Why GeoView ?

I would like to see my ancestors all around the world on a map. And if possible, I would like to see them moving during time periods. How to do this easily ? and with the minimum of software ! GeoView is one solution. You can always provide yours !

The html kits

We can use webkit or gtkmozembed to view html pages. If no one is installed, you'll never see GeoView. If the two kits are installed, webkit will be used.
For web browsing, we need to be connected to the network.
Even if you have a html kit installed, can can always say : I don't mind ! I don't want to see the HtmlView.
For this, you can disallow Geoview in the Internet Maps preferences tab.
I don't want to make a troll here. I use gnome and kde on my machine. I'm kde, my wife is gnome. So the war between gnome, kde or any WM doesn't need to start here.

WebKit

It's the future. Be aware, WebKit is always in development. I already test this with segmentation fault, ...

Proxies

I don't know how WebKit works at this level. I think it uses some configuration file or environment variable. I need help about this.

Gecko ( GtkMozEmbed )

There will be no more development for html 5 with gtkmozembed for the moment. What will gtkmozembed be in the future ?

Proxies

GtkMozEmbed is proxy aware. I implement this and I use the http_proxy environment variable. authentication is allowed. The http_proxy format used is :
http://[user:password@]proxy:port/

The maps providers

There are a lot of providers. Some are free. By default, the provider is OSM ( OpenStreetMap ). This provider depends on the community and the maps are very light depending on the country. Nevertheless, the community made an extraordinary job since a few month. We can say OpenStreetMap is and will be the map for gramps.

Openlayers is free too and uses by default OSM map. A lot of private or non free maps depends on OpenLayers.

The most interesting is the IGN ( Institut Géographique National Français ) which offers an old map of France ( about 1780 ) but this provider needs a key. I speek about keys later.

You have Googlemaps, Yahoo! maps, Microsoft maps, ...

mapstraction

Like you can see, it's impossible to implement all providers. For this, some people created an api over all these providers. With only a few modification, you can use the map you want. And better, you can switch between the maps keeping the zoom and the centered position.
It's also in the development phase and is buggy.

The provider Key

Gramps is not a web site. Keys are only for web site. In GeoView, I use a specific functionality : We are working on local file instead of url, so we don't need a key. some providers like IGN needs key even in this case. So I can't use them. Why ?

1. Too complex for final user's.
2. We need a key by provider

In these case, I hope you understand the choice is limited even is mapstraction can do more.

Constraint

We have no key, so we have a restricted access : About 10,000 to 15,000 request by IP per day depending on the provider. I think it is sufficient for the lambda genealogist.

The proxies

Everybody doesn't need a proxy. The majority in connected directly to internet. In this case, forget all this. You need a proxy only if you installed one or if you depend on some fai which provides one.

How to get the html kits ?

It depends on the distribution you're working on !