Category Archives: iKatastr

iKatastr awarded in Mobile Application of the 2011 challange in Czech

 

This is a great unexpected surprise as judging panel of the Mobile Application of the 2011 year in Czech selected iKatastr. This is a great satisfaction as unlike previous idea “MapShake” that has been realized on www.mapshake.cz  generated no attraction, iKatastr is complete opposite. With MapShake, however, I have realized something important - simplicity. Although MapShake.cz and  the iPhone application “WhateverMap 1.0″ released in 2009  enabled to view cadastral maps , it was not straightforward, not explicit. With Jiri Kaminek working on Whatevermap 2.0 engine in the whole year 2010 we were about to do the same mistake for iPhone – release a universal map composition app. In fall 2010, Jirka was in Sweden and was finalizing Whatevermap 2.0 with some great demos. Fortunately MapShake failure warned me just in time and we agreed to make the iKatastr as pilot of the Whatevermap 2.0 engine. The idea was simple - let’s take the universal Whatevermap 2.0 engine and create single purpose map application of iOS. Jirka has done a great job. And another great thing is that Whatevermap 2.0 is working fine, is configurable remotely (all map definitions are stored on server so we can update them independently from the AppStore upgrade process) and moreover if you know how to define your own map composition – you can load into iKatastr literally whatever map :).

 


iKatastr rocks !

This is somehow very encouraging

#1 iKatastr is still on top in the category Navigation in Czech app store after 4 months ! on iPhone it keeps 2nd place right after Mapy CZ provided by largest internet search in CZ Seznam.  On iPad, however, iKatastr is still 1st in category Navigation.

#2 Users of iKatastr has reported quite lot positive feedbacks, see here : http://appcomments.com/app/id396352287/iKatastr_reviews?country=143489&show=show_all_comments&sort=sort_recent&sortorder=sort_ascend&page=1

#3 IKatastr has been mentioned in Czech magazine “Mobility” 1/2011, on page 85.

 Quoted from the magazine press:

“There are just few  high quality applications in the Czech App Store. Even fewer of them are for free.
 iKatastr developed at Mendel University in Brno belongs to this narrow group with functionality that is also unique in the international comparison. “

——————-
 Jiri Kaminek (developer of the iKatastr) will reveal more statistics about usage of iKatastr in his upcoming thesis.  I can tell here just the following interesting observation : iPhone usage of iKatastr is approximately 10x higher than of the web  (www.ikatastr.cz


Whatevermap engine v iKatastru

iKatastr pro iPad/iPhone je poháněn Whatevermap enginem, ten toho dokaze vic, nez  se na prvni pohled zda. Jirka Kaminek predvedl ‘kouzlo’ s Mapy.cz  http://mapserver.mendelu.cz/wordpress/?p=204 bezici v aplikaci iKatastr !

 


iKatastr ranks

 

iKatastr HD is reaching 1 month of #1 in Navigation category in Czech Republic store : http://www.appannie.com/ikatastr-hd/ranking/history/#store_id=143489

iKatastr is following:

http://www.appannie.com/ikatastr/ranking/history/#store_id=143489

both have been featured in “What is Hot” in Czech Republic store.

Jiri Kaminek will reveal more statistics details of iKatastr application as part of his upcoming PhD thesis.


OpenLayers or GoogleMap v3 for mobile web app ?

I have experimented with OpenLayers 2.9 using touch.js extension for capturing touch events from iPhone/iPad. Although stripped down version of OL is about 184KB, the performance is very bad. If you have iPhone/iPad check this experiment: http://www.sumbera.com/lab/iphone/katastr.htm (note it will not work from desktop browser)

 OL team is working on v3 of OL to be more lighter, faster even for mobile devices, see here: http://trac.osgeo.org/openlayers/wiki/three  or here : http://openlayers.org/blog/2010/06/30/openlayers-3-on-github/

 Meanwhile I have tested new GoogleMaps v3 how it works on iPhone/iPad. despite few problems (stability, problems with cached tiles or disconnected JavaScirpt  to load new tiles -iPad)  it works pretty well . Check yourself this page from your mobile touch device (iPhone.iPad,Android): http://www.ikatastr.cz/iKatastrM.htm

Conclusion : Google Maps v3 wins on mobile over the Openlayers 2.9

 

[2011 September] UPDATE : new Openlayers 2.11 works quite well on iPad/iPhone.


iKatastr

 iKatastr is a first example of the Whatevermap 2.0 framework developed by Jiri Kaminek at Mendel University. you can read more on his blog here: http://mapserver.mendelu.cz/wordpress/. iKatastr enables to view cadastral information in Czech Republic and view the owner of the parcel/building.  I would like to mention here few technical details – iKatastr is actually less programmed but more configured. iKatastr on mobile uses Universal Map Format that defines the data sources for map composition and the query request when tapping on-screen. iKatastr in web do the same thing, it uses JSON definition to read full map composition. Moreover web version is linked with MapShake where the configuration of the map can be authored, verified, shared with friends and even you can generate your own iKatastr map as HTML page. the map you see on www.ikatastr.cz is the same that is stored on Mapshake here : http://www.mapshake.cz/549-iKatastr . To generate map similar to www.ikatastr.cz you need to press the <html> button   in the lower left corner to get this page: http://www.mapshake.cz/mapjs.aspx?i=549 from where you can copy/paste the full JavaScript stack to regenerate map on your side.  In the generated map you can also find this linked JavaScript : http://www.mapshake.cz/mi/549.js that is used  by www.ikatastr.cz.

So the bottom line is : do not programme, rather  generate / configure your maps !


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.