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MassGIS / morisoliver

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If user hits Print button and map has Google or Bing use File/Print dialog instead of going to special print workflow #183

Open GoogleCodeExporter opened 9 years ago

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago 
Paul gets a lot of complaints about Google and Bing not showing up in the 
printouts.  This is due to license reasons.  After Aleda talked with Saul we 
propose to have OLIVER check if there's a license-restricted basemap and if so, 
to open the File/Print dialog for the user.

We'll have to explain in the documentation why the print sometimes works one 
way and sometimes another, but at least there's one central print button, the 
user doesn't have to learn screenshot software and we don't break any license 
agreements.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by Aleda.Fr...@state.ma.us on 21 Nov 2012 at 2:27

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago 
Marc disagrees so maybe we should wait for cached, tiled older imagery:

Hi Aleda,

Hope you had wonderful Thanksgiving. If I understand you correctly, you're 
proposing to make OLIVER print based on the type of basemap the user has 
displayed. When a user clicks on the print/save button, OLIVER would check to 
see if the basemap displayed is license-restricted. If it is, then OLIVER would 
open the user's web browser print dialog. If it's not (i.e., custom basemap, as 
currently configured), then the OLIVER print/save dialog would open as it 
currently does. Is that right?

This is intriguing, but there are a couple of reasons why I'm against the 
change.

1) A browser's print option is not nearly as clean as the OLIVER print option. 
There wouldn't be any legend, title, north arrow, or scale bar. Moreover, 
OLIVER's toolbar will be included in the print output, which, in my opinion, 
really limits its use. 

2) Users will not be informed of the screenshot workaround when they click on 
the print/save button. If they want to save an electronic copy of their map, 
they'll need to have a print-to-file option in their settings. Maps saved to 
common formats, such as Microsoft XPS and PDF are not easily cropped in 
standard software packages, which is a problem since OLIVER's toolbar will be 
included in the saved image.

3) What if a user has essentially created a custom basemap over a 
license-restricted basemap. For example, I've added MassGIS orthophotos over a 
Bing basemap for printing/saving. Would OLIVER then detect a license-restricted 
basemap and prevent me from using the OLIVER print option with my MassGIS ortho 
map? I know that I would be able to switch to a custom basemap to avoid this, 
but that might not be obvious to other users. 

My guess is that the users complaining to Paul are not reading OLIVER's 
print/save dialog, which notes the problem and offers a couple of workarounds 
(further explained in the help document). It might be worth reminding users 
that OLIVER layers, such as various orthophotos, roads, etc., might help them 
create a custom basemap similar to the license-restricted basemap of interest. 
Then again, that would be a lot of info for a print/save dialog, and would 
require the user to actually read. Sorry, I don't have any solutions to offer 
right now.

Marc

Original comment by Aleda.Fr...@state.ma.us on 26 Nov 2012 at 5:27

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago

Original comment by Aleda.Fr...@state.ma.us on 5 Dec 2012 at 5:42