Navigable SVG Workshop

The goal of this workshop is to gain some familarity with using SVG as a sketching tool to experiment with using zooming (and panning) in the construction of a (navigable) image.

Creating a drag + zoom-able SVG

The SVG pan library is a javascript file that can be added to any SVG format image to make it drag and zoomable when viewed in a web browse. It should work like g8gle maps where dragging the image pans it, and the mouses scroll wheel or your computers zoom gesture should trigger zooming in and out.

See the SVGPan Tiger Demo to test/see the code in action.

To try it yourself:

Create an SVG using Inkscape, or download one form a source like Open Clip Art.

Ensure that the "xlink" namespace is in the XML file
Add the script tag to the SVG
Make sure the main group/layer ("g") element has id "viewport". The SVGPan script defaults to using this as the (part) of the graphic to pan/zoom.

The script tag is just like the one's you find in HTML pages and are used to add some javascript. The only difference is that where HTML's script uses the "src" attribute, an SVG script tag uses "xlink:href". Note how the script tag is placed after the opening <svg> tag and before the first group element.

SVG Animation with CSS Transitions

CSS Transitions are an extension to the CSS language that allows animation to be added very simply in the form of automatically generated "tweening" to changes to other CSS properties. These rules work with SVG elements as well.

Link to example with buttons to navigate to specific control points
Link to example with transitions enabled (via stylesheet)
Link to example

Links

Examples

The Archipel website is an example of a hybrid HTML + SVG interface to a music collection. The SVG is generated based on a (changable) "backend" catalogue of music from the music lending library of Belgium.