From Flash to SVG
The NCDB is required to maintain an annual census of all deaf-blind children in the United States and territories. Until 2009, the census was compiled and provided in table form. Then we moved to demographic maps using Excel to render the census data. By mid-2010, we wanted a better, more portable way to display the demographic maps on the NCDB website. So, the maps were rebuilt using Adobe Flex and a third party mapping solution for Flash. The census data was housed in a MySQL database and a Flash/AJAX JavaScript bridge was used to pull data from the server and render it within the Flash maps.
From the moment we launched the new Flash maps we realized that the iPad was going to be a really BIG deal and, of course, the iPad could not render our maps. We had to convert the maps to SVG. The Raphael JavaScript vector library proved to be exactly the thing we needed to make this work. A few hours of JavaScript tweaking later we had some maps that work beautifully on iOS tablets.
To play around with our census maps, please visit the NCDB website.
