Clickable Map Of Walks In And Around Clackmannanshire / Zoomify Review
We're back from our summer hols. We stayed in the UK. We got wet, and not from bathing in the sea.
This post is a review of a tool called Zoomify and features a first-cut map of Clackmannanshire with clickable hotspots linking to walks both on and off TillyOchil - all put together using Zoomify Design.
Please note that Zoomify uses Flash. For those who can't make use of Flash I've duplicated the links on the map within the post text.
If you have any comments on the map, I'd be very happy to read them!
Probably the first thing about the map that will jump out at you is that the dots and labels marking the positions of the walks are tiny.
I'll come back to that later, but to see the map as it's meant to look, adjust the zoom level slightly by using the slider or one of the -/+ buttons directly below it.
To see a little more about a walk, let the mouse point hover stationary over the appropriate dot. Click it to go to the walk.
You can also select a walk from the pull-down menu of Hotspots at the top right of the map to locate and automatically zoom into it.
The walks on the map are:
Alva Glen (external site)
Dollar Glen (external site)
What Is Zoomify Design?
Zoomify Design is one of the family of Zoomify products.
In the words of Zoomify, the company, Zoomify makes high-quality images zoom and pan for fast, interactive viewing on the web using just JPEGs, HTML, and Flash.
The full range consists of
Zoomify Express: A free offering allowing web page viewers to zoom into and around an image. Like the rest of the family the amount of data being sent to the browser for this is kept to a minimum, allowing you to post large high resolution images that load quickly. If you don't believe that, try it - it's free.
Zoomify Design: This is the entry-level paid-for offering and the one reviewed here. It lets you specify lots of HTML and XML parameters for design control without the need for Flash editing, which Zoomify Design doesn't support. It currently costs $29.
Zoomify Flash: This, says Zoomify, includes all the access and tools you need to create custom zoom-and-pan applications or integrate high-resolution image viewing in any Flash project. It currently costs $129.
Zoomify Enterprise: At a current price of $795 this probably isn't something for most casual or small business users. Zoomify says Zoomify Enterprise delivers mission-critical functionality for high-resolution imaging applications involving multi-gigabyte images as well as integrated implementations requiring server-side automation.
Exactly What Does Zoomify Design Do For You?
In short, a lot, with eleven viewers, though some add only a little to others.
You first run your large image through a processor - simply a matter of dropping the image file onto an icon - which chops it up into compressed (JPEG) tiles at various zoom levels. You then upload the folder as-is to your web server.
This is at the heart of how Zoomify manages to perform well - operating like Google (and now other) maps and satellite images, loading only the tiles it needs to display the appropriate part of the image at the chosen zoom level, plus a pre-fetch of bits around it.
The viewers that display these seamlessly stitched tiles are:
Express: This is the one you can get for free.
Design: This provides the base on top of which the remaining viewers are built. The main things you can specify are the initial zoom level together with x,y co-ordinates, minimum and maximum zoom levels, the zoom speed, and some control over the navigator buttons and zoom slider.
Full Screen: This adds a Full Screen button so the image fills an entire screen. Zoomify say that it relies on Flash player functionality that may present issues and so is not something you would probably use where you have no control over the versions of Flash being used, such as on the open web.
Slideshow: Display a sequence of images with fade transitions. You can specify parameters such as the interval between and duration of image displays.
Gallery: Adds a scrolling gallery of thumbnails to the Slideshow Viewer.
Hotspot: Uses HTML and XML to place clickable icons in a zoomable image. Icons scale during zoom. This is the viewer of most interest for use on TillyOchil.
Watermark: Places a graphic over the zoomable image, repeated under parameter control.
Comparison: Automatically place two zoomable images side-by-side for synchronized zoom-and-pan. The end user can switch synchronisation on and off.
Tour: Place visible or invisible hotspots in a zoomable image and specify the sequence, zoom levels and timings so the image is automatically zoomed into and out of and panned around. The end user can stop the animation and interact with image as with the Hotspot viewer.
Rotation: Allows the image to be rotated.
Geo: Automatically calculates and displays the latitude and longitude of the current mouse position in a zoomable image.
What Do I think?
There are demos of each viewer on Zoomify's Zoomify Design page to check out as you read along here.
Zoomify chops up the images into tiles which it displays very efficiently.
At first sight this might appear to protect your image from being downloaded in its full form. It should certainly put many casual users off from trying but, if you are concerned about image theft, these probably aren't the people you'd be wanting to stop.
It is actually fairly easy to reconstruct the full image from its parts though that image will have been compressed by the tiling processor so won't be the full quality of the original.
Each viewer, apart from Express, supports various modes of mark-up: Straight HTML, and XML, each with an 'active content' version for Internet Explorer. (The non-active content version also works with Internet Explorer.)
Express Viewer
As you can get this for free, it is worth playing with before deciding to spend any money on Zoomify. You might find it good enough for your needs but, having paid for Zoomify Design, I doubt that I will ever make use of the Express Viewer again.
Design Viewer
I found this to do what it says on the packet and if you want to simply allow users to zoom in and out of and pan around an image it does a good job.
The only thing I don't like is the way that, as you pan, the newly-revealed part of the image doesn't become sharp until you stop.
I wanted to be able to use the controls to pan across a panorama, where most of it is out of view at any one time, but to see it properly you have to keep stopping. Hardly a show-stopper though.
Full Screen Viewer
I found this to work fine though the 'issues' with Adobe Flash that Zoomify point out would stop me using it for the public at large.
Slideshow Viewer
I have only played with this a bit. It looked fine.
(Hey, I'm not being paid to do this review and have concentrated on the bits I most want to use. And I've already spent much too much time on it.)
Gallery Viewer
Again I've only toyed with this and it seemed fine during that cursory look.
Hotspot Viewer
This is functionality I really wanted, to be able to do the type of thing I've done with the map on this page.
I was quickly able to work out how to use this with XML from the provided examples and documentation.
The drop down menu to move the image to a hotspot, at a zoom level you specify for that individual hotspot, works well.
I couldn't see how to change the title from Hotspots to, say, Pick A Walk. That would have been nice but is far from a show-stopper for me.
The hotspots can be presented in various ways - with or without captions which can contain some basic HTML, with or without a tooltip, which can also contain some basic HTML, and an icon along with its caption can be hidden until the mouse pointer rolls over it. You can define the characteristics you want on a hotspot-by-hotspot basis.
You can also define the minimum and maximum zoom level of the icons and captions on a global level across the image.
That all worked great.
But the thing that will prove to be a show-stopper for TillyOchil, without a suitable work-around, is the lack of control over the size of the icons and captions when they are initially displayed.
I could not find a way to get them to display at the right size prior to the end user jiggling the zoom and, as you will see if you follow the links from the above map and then use your browser back button to come back, you have to do that every time you return to or refresh the page.
It looks naff, presenting an initially poor impression, and I'm sure that many people would move on before touching the zoom controls.
Note that their own example suffers from the same problem, although in their case, because the image is initially zoomed out so far and the minimum zoom level of the icons and captions not set as in the map here, they jump down to a much smaller size when you first nudge the zoom.
Watermark Viewer
This is a basic watermark implementation that works OK. You might want to do something a little more sophisticated to your images before pumping them through the Zoomify tiler, rather than make use of this feature though.
Comparison Viewer
I love this and just had to think of a use for it on TillyOchil.
I've thought of two - photos of the same scene from exactly the same position but at different times of the year, and a spot-the-differences puzzle, as per Zoomify's online example. Shame about not being able to include (invisible) hotspots on the differences though!
Tour Viewer
This works fine but, though you can control the intervals and durations of display on a hotspot-by-hotspot basis, you can't modify the way the panning accelerates and decelerates between them.
I thought it might be possible to automatically pan around an image, for example, by sweeping slowly across a panorama, but two things make that not work:
The aforementioned acceleration/deceleration and
when moving from one hotspot to the next, the newly revealed part of the image doesn't become sharp until the new hotspot is reached.
Rotation Viewer
This appears to work fine.
Geo Viewer
This also appears to work fine.
We might use this on TillyOchil maps if the hotspot icon/caption-sizing issue can be sorted out. (The online Geo Viewer example suffers from the same problem.)
Summary: Zoomify Design great, but hotspots disappoint, pending a work-around
I so much want to use Zoomify Design on this site but unfortunately the unreadability of the hotspots prior to changing the zoom level means I will be looking for an alternative unless Zoomify support can provide a fix or work-around.
I am contacting Zoomify support again as I publish this. If they respond with a fix or decent work-around that I (rather than readers) can adopt, I'll very happily update this review.
