BobSimons
commented
3 years ago Rich Signell has in the past suggested TerriaJS as a tool to make interesting/animated graphics. See https://terria.io/
Open BobSimons opened 3 years ago
BobSimons
commented
3 years ago Rich Signell has in the past suggested TerriaJS as a tool to make interesting/animated graphics. See https://terria.io/
ERDDAP's graphing capabilities are simple, plain, and functional (so say I) or stodgy (so say lots of others). ERDDAP current graphing capabilities were designed so that
ERDDAP's current graphics system isn't going away both for continuity and because this approach meets certain basic needs, but there is clearly room for adding a series of web pages with specialized, fancy (e.g., animated) graphics, A good example is the animated vectors that Adam Leadbetter is (and Rob Fuller was before he retired -- we miss you Rob!) working on: https://irishmarineinstitute.github.io/erddap-js/demo/02-leaflet-time-dimension-velocity/ The discussion about that particular animation is at https://groups.google.com/g/erddap/c/WWw042tLPTs I think Adam is still working to make this easier to reuse.
Your goal here would be make web pages for common types of animations. I don't know what's possible. You'll have to look around, figure out what is possible, and then make it work. We'll also have to find a way to point to these new web pages from ERDDAP. The system you make can be tightly or loosely connected to ERDDAP. Do what is best / makes sense. It is import that the animations be able to get data from ERDDAP's services directly. It is important that you keep the load on ERDDAP minimal. We don't want a system where one user can bog down ERDDAP (cough, like WMS, cough).
Skills required: Java and JavaScript programming. The ability to work independently.
Difficulty: Probably mostly very challenging. And I think this will suck up as much time as you care to put in it: 1 month (absolute minimum) to 3 months (more realistic).
Mentor: Bob Simons (main author of ERDDAP), but this is beyond my expertise. I'm only good with simple JavaScript. I haven't worked with any of the animation libraries. I can help with hooking things into ERDDAP and I (and others, e.g., the ERDDAP Google Group) can comment on the graphics while they are works in progress, but that's about it. You'll have to work pretty independently.
Bonus: lots of ERDDAP users will be very, very grateful to you for adding more interesting graphics to ERDDAP.
Please also read the Programmer's Guide at https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/download/setup.html#programmersGuide especially the "Judging Your Code Contributions" section.