[Marble-devel] Earthquake plugin.

[v_2e at ukr.net]

  Hello!

On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:18:02 +0100
Torsten Rahn <tackat at t-online.de> wrote:
> I just felt that I should follow up on this a bit more:
> 
> Processing either the XML or KML are very different approaches:
> 
> 1.) For the XML case you'd basically instantiate the graphics items yourself as 
> part of your own specialized parsing. So in this case you'd just mostly work on 
> the plugin code.
> 
> 2.) For the KML case the plugin would not do any drawing but would just open the 
> current KML file. Opening the KML file will most likely already work to some 
> degree and would most likely paint something onto the map already.
> So this approach would only require little coding on the plugin itself.
> However in the KML case you'd probably need to improve Marble's KML code to:
> * be able to unpack kmz files
> * improve Marble's KML placemark rendering 
> So all the improvements made via this approach would have a more generic benefit 
> which could better get reused.
  Well. I think it would definitely be good, but I'm afraid I cannot do
such kind of work yet. I'll try to do something easier at first.

> For a broader understanding see
> http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Marble/GeoData
> and 
> http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Marble/GeoGraphicsViewOverview
> 
> In terms of a junior job approach 1.) will certainly lead to quicker results 
> that you can build on. Approach 2.) could be taken in the next step.
> 
> So I guess it would be better to start with 1.) (and you shouldn't forget 
> checking the terms of use for the data and the API). 
  I've found an earthquakes database on
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/form?t=101650&s=1&d=1
  Looks like that data is available in public domain. I've read the
terms of use and they say that all the government websites give their
data in public domain. So I guess, this is the case.
> 
> > http://www.geonames.org/export/ws-overview.html
> 
> If you look at this list and if you come across an Online-Plugin topic that 
> looks more interesting to you then don't hesitate to work on that instead (but 
> you should check back with us to get some input on your idea) 
> :-)
  I'm not sure about what database to use. They are different and
provide a bit different data. And in different formats actually. But I
would like to try the one I've mentioned above because one may request
some data from that database by simply passing some parameters to URL.
  Those parameters may be the longitude and latitude limits, earthquake
magnitude, time limits (in years only) and some others. 
  And now (if I am thinking in a right direction) I can use
the downloadDescriptionFile() function to get an HTML file containing
the information I need and then parse it with parseFile() function.
  I am working on the parser now. I've looked through the corresponding
files for Wikipedia and Flickr plugins and I think it would be enough
to take one of them and change a little bit just to make it work with
my website (I mean the website where I get the earthquakes data from).
  Will I reach success doing like this? What do you think?
> 
>  
> Best Regards,
> 
> Torsten
> 

  Vladimir.
----- 
 <v_2e at ukr.net>