OpenLayers 3.0 Takes Shape

Mid-Long Term isn’t around the corner, but there is much to like about OpenLayers 3.0.

Amongst the things we did discuss (and agree on) in the meeting are:

  1. Have the map be a central place for triggering events
  2. Streamlining the drag flow
  3. Maps are the leaders of all. They have the projection properties, and you can reproject maps
  4. Layers advertise their ability to render in a projection. If they can’t render in one, they turn off or something
  5. LonLat is a bad name. Location() is the future, and it is smart. Geometry comes from Location, and is also smart. They know about projections.
  6. Baselayers are a bad concept. Mutually exclusive visibility is the way of the future. Layer groups is a potential name for this type of thing
  7. Things which are called many times (which we now know/can examine) should be improved performance wise
  8. Create adapters for things like DOM manipulation but still have OpenLayers keep its own implementation. Just make it easier for people to roll in their favourite, be it jQuery, ext-core etc.
  9. Potentially pull out the geometry operations stuff into a separate library
  10. Keep a set of “widgets” but better separate them, so that people can more easily write their own “widgety things”
  11. Facilitating mobile support

We welcome your feedback.

OpenLayers 3.0 is like my own little Private Idaho!

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