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<h2>Introduction</h2>
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<p>
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Mapbuilder is an open source project that implements a framework
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dynamic web page content from XML documents.
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The techniques used by this package are now being called
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<a href="http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php">AJAX</a>
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which is shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML.
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</p>
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<p>
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Mapbuilder consists of a JavaScript library that
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implements the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern.
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The model, view and controller objects to be used in the web page are configured
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in an XML configuration file.
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The schema of the configuration file is derived from RDF and is fully described
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in the <a href="?page=config/config">mapbuilder configuration documentation</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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This User Guide explains how to configure and link Mapbuilder components into a web page.
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Several different Mapbuilder configurations will be demonstrated along with some
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ideas for how to include it in the web page layout.
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The target audience for this tutorial is those tasked with implementing an
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application in HTML and have a basic understanding of HTML, XML and Javascript.
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Developer's seeking to extend or modify the code-base should consult
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the mapbuilder <a href="?page=reference#mapbuilder">design documentation.</a>
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</p>
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<p>
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One design goal of mapbuilder is to let page designers do page layout
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and design, and simply link in mapbuilder JavaScript code using HTML element IDs.
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Being a JavaScript implementation, CSS and DHTML techniques are then used for
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manipulating these elements.
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</p>
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<p>
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Mapbuilder was originally conceived to render
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<a href="?page=reference#ogc">Web Map Context documents</a>
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to create interactive mapping applications on the web.
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However the modular design framework
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allows mapbuilder to be extended to handle almost any XML document type.
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</p>
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<p>
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The tutorial starts with the common steps required to code a mapbuilder
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application.
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</p>
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