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| <title>NetBeans Interview - Johann Sorel, Developer of AlterSIG (Built on the NetBeans Platform)</title> |
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| <h1>Map Out Your World with AlterSIG (Built on the NetBeans Platform)</h1> |
| <span style="font-style: italic;">(December 2007)</span><br> |
| <br> |
| French developer Johann Sorel is the sole driver behind <a |
| href="http://altersig.developpez.com/">AlterSIG</a>, a |
| Geographic Information Systems application that is currently being |
| developed on the NetBeans Platform. AlterSIG will allow users to turn |
| geographic data into viewable maps and to run comlex queries on the |
| data. The 22-year-old Sorel, who has lived in Hong Kong and French |
| Polynesia, hopes his open source |
| project will find a place among other GIS tools. In the meantime, |
| the recent Computer Science graduatewhen he isn't busy working on |
| AlterSIGdevotes time to helping Java newbies on the French developer |
| site, |
| <a href="http://developpez.com">developpez.com</a>. In this interview, |
| he discusses his work on AlterSIG |
| and his introduction to the NetBeans Platform.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3><img alt="Johann Sorel" |
| src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/johann-sorel.jpg" |
| style="width: 174px; height: 196px;" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5">What |
| is AlterSIG?</h3> |
| AlterSIG is a GIS (Geographic Information System) modular application |
| that lets you open and edit geographic data such as shape files, |
| postGIS database or Oracle Spatial and see them as maps. (Just imagine |
| a rich GoogleMaps application.) But more than just for viewing |
| purposes, AlterSIG aims to become a tool for developers. For example, |
| to make an application to create maps of different locations such as |
| hospitals, schools, rivers, roads, anything, you will be able to add |
| your own module on top of AlterSIG, similar to a normal NetBeans module.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>How long have you worked on AlterSIG?</h3> |
| I started in November 2006 during my GIS studies. It was a personal |
| projecta GIS toolbox for my own use so I didn't have to depend on |
| expensive applications. At the start of 2007, a classmate and I were |
| asked to create an application to convert GIS formats. But the project |
| did not move forward until June when I launched it on developpez.com; |
| AlterSIG then became an open source application. But the project is |
| still very new; AlterSIG is not ready yet for professional use, but |
| there are preview versions available. I don't have a team, |
| but I work on the <a |
| href="http://geotools.codehaus.org/">GeoTools</a> |
| project (the GIS library of AlterSIG) with |
| about twenty developers.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>How is it different from or similar to popular GIS projects like |
| WorldWind, GoogleEarth, etc?</h3> |
| WorldWind, GoogleEarth are public tools that have a rich 3D viewer, but |
| that is not enough for professional use. We need to see more than a |
| nice mapwe need to analyze the data, make advance queries on |
| them to be able to see specific things. We also need editing tools, to |
| create new data with great accuracy.<br> |
| <br> |
| <div style="text-align: center;"><a |
| href="http://altersig.developpez.com/snapshots/altersig_root8.jpg"><img |
| alt="AlterSIG Screenshot1" src="../../../images_www/articles/altersig1.jpg" |
| style="border: 0px solid ; width: 314px; height: 205px;" hspace="5" |
| vspace="5"></a> <a |
| href="http://altersig.developpez.com/snapshots/altersig_root9.jpg"><img |
| alt="AlterSIG Screenshot2" src="../../../images_www/articles/altersig2.jpg" |
| style="border: 0px solid ; width: 314px; height: 205px;" hspace="5" |
| vspace="5"></a><br> |
| </div> |
| <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(Click |
| on images for magnified view)</span><br> |
| </div> |
| <h3>Who is the target audience for AlterSIG?</h3> |
| It's a really tiny oneGIS developers looking for a base application |
| that can be extended without paying thousands of dollars for |
| applications like ArcGIS or Geomedia. <br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>Why did you choose to develop AlterSIG with the NetBeans Platform? </h3> |
| Swing is the main reason. I wanted something more general, for all |
| users. SWT has a small community compared to Swing. Swing is also |
| simpler, richer and fast enough for all use. I never really understood |
| why people switched to SWT. Another reason I used NetBeans is |
| that it's made by Sun and is a secure choice.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>Did you encounter problems building AlterSIG with NetBeans? And how |
| did |
| you solve them?</h3> |
| Previewing and printing is a big part of GIS applications, and using |
| OpenOffice offers everything needed to make a nice presentation. But I |
| had problems integrating OpenOffice with AlterSIG. Chuk Munn Lee |
| explains this better than me in his <a |
| href="http://platform.netbeans.org/articles/nbm_interview_chuk.html">interview</a> |
| with Geertjan Wielenga. Eventually I used Lee's module to fix the |
| issue, but I'll have to find another |
| solution eventually because the technique he recommended is too much |
| work.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>What features of the Platform did you use for the project? </h3> |
| The usual ones only: the modular structure, actions, windows, and other |
| basic features. it's mainly the modular structure I appreciate. I |
| didn't even use the tree provided; I needed to be able to to add |
| columns, so I built my own tree on the JXTreeTable of SwingLabs. <br> |
| <a |
| href="http://docs.codehaus.org/download/attachments/10747962/widgetdemo.png"><img |
| alt="AlterSIG Screenshot3" src="../../../images_www/articles/altersig3.jpg" |
| style="border: 0px solid ; width: 177px; height: 327px;" hspace="5" |
| vspace="5"></a><br> |
| <h3>How long have you been using the NetBeans Platform? </h3> |
| I was introduced to the NetBeans Platform a year ago, and it was the |
| first time I had ever used a platform. It wasn't a very good experience |
| because I didn't understand the modular structure or how to work |
| between the xml files and persistance files. So I tried again a few |
| months later after using tutorials from NetBeans.org. Also, by the |
| second try, I had experience working on the GeoTools project. GeoTools |
| is a huge Maven project and I think working with Maven modules and pom |
| xml files helped me to better understand working on a modular project. |
| But overall, I am still a newbie to the NetBeans platform, and I'm |
| waiting for Adam Myatt's Pro NetBeans IDE 6, Rich Client Platform |
| Edition so I can really dive in.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>Based on your experience as a newbie, what advice would you give |
| others |
| also trying to use a platform for the first time?</h3> |
| The first thing I did was to remove all default modules of the |
| platform, to see what it is like without anything. The result was an |
| empty frame. This is important: starting from something you know, then |
| try to add a few <a href="http://bits.netbeans.org/6.0/javadoc/">modules |
| from Platform7</a> and see what each offers.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>What do you think of NetBeans IDE 6.0?</h3> |
| It's the best IDE I've worked with. At the beginning of my Java |
| experience, I was using Jbuilder, but Eclipse quickly replaced it. Over |
| time Eclipse was getting less and less friendly for me because of |
| module compatibility. So I gave NetBeans 5 a try and adopted it. I was |
| a bit frustrated at first because of some missing |
| functionalityhighlight, code completionbut since NetBeans 6 things |
| are perfect. I have everything I needexcellent SVN support, Maven, a |
| GUI editor, etc. And it's far less complicated than Eclipse.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>What is the next phase of your project?</h3> |
| I just started to embed OpenOffice for page preview and printing. And I |
| need to catch up on documentation. That's enough work for a few months |
| for a single developer.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>Are you looking for people to join the project? Where can people |
| get |
| more info about the project?</h3> |
| Yes, I would like help. Those who want to participate must have some |
| experience with <a href="http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOTOOLS/widgets-swing-pending">GeoTools Swing widgets</a> and GIS theory. Joining this project also |
| means joining the GeoTools projectthe two are very close. The |
| main part of the code hack is in GeoTools, and AlterSIG is the frame. <br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>What are the top issues you need help with?</h3> |
| The big work is creating all the Swing widgets. GeoTools is huge and |
| has plenty of functions in it, but nothing in Swing to see and |
| manipulate all of them. I've been working on it for four months and |
| only beginning to have enough to make a basic application. Making user |
| interfaces and getting feedback is the main work.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>Do participants have to speak French?</h3> |
| Not necessarily, GeoTools is already a world wide project. But nothing |
| is done yet for langague versions of AlterSIG. The web site will have |
| to be translated eventually.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h3>Thank you Johann for telling us about AlterSIG. Good luck with the |
| project!</h3> |
| <h4>More Information</h4> |
| <a href="http://altersig.developpez.com">AlterSIG</a><br> |
| <a href="http://geotools.codehaus.org">GeoTools</a><br> |
| <br> |
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