dmMonocle

Download dmMonocle!

What is dmMonocle?

dmMonocle is a stand-alone image viewer for CONTENTdm® collections, intended as a replacement for the default image viewer provided with CONTENTdm®. The goal of the project is to make CONTENTdm® images, such as photos, maps, and scanned documents, easier to view and navigate. dmMonocle is written in JavaScript using jQuery, and provides patrons with the ability to zoom, pan, and rotate images on the fly without reloading the entire page. dmMonocle slices up large images into smaller square tiles, loading only the tiles in the visible area, much like Google Maps. In addition to the improved main viewing area, dmMonocle provides a thumbnail-sized navigator, showing patrons which part of the larger image they are viewing. The navigator may also be used to quickly move around an image. Finally, dmMonocle generates all tile images on the fly using software provided with CONTENTdm®, getimage.exe. dmMonocle is written by Brian Egan, Web/Multimedia Designer, UNLV Libraries.

Download dmMonocle

dmMonocle can be downloaded from the dmMonocle Google Code site.

Install dmMonocle

dmMonocle installation instructions and videos can be found at the installation page on the dmMonocle Google Code site.

Requirements

dmMonocle requires CONTENTdm®, and has been tested with CONTENTdm® 4.x. After reviewing the technical specifications, I anticipate that dmMonocle will also work with CONTENTdm® 5.x, but at this time no definitive testing has taken place.

dmMonocle does not require dmBridge at this time. However, planned additional features may require integration with dmBridge.

Supported Browsers

dmMonocle has been thoroughly tested and found working in the following browsers:

If you find an error with dmMonocle in any of these browsers, please contact brian.egan@unlv.edu.

Benefits

Easier Navigation of Large Images

dmMonocle makes it much easier to navigate around large CONTENTdm® images. It accomplishes this in several ways. First, it provides more intuitive "drag n drop" panning, as well as point-and-click movement, for both the main viewing area and the navigator. Second, users may zoom using plus (+) and minus (-) icons, or additionally, they can zoom to a specific percentage using a slider. Finally, dmMonocle stitches together "tiles" of a large image, rather than displaying each tile on its own individual page, giving a better sense of the image as a whole.

Customizable Interface

dmMonocle, written in JavaScript/XHTML/CSS, is easy to customize. Individuals can change the icons, colors, size, placement, and location of the viewer and all menu items. Furthermore, one may choose whether or not to display the navigator by default.

Dynamically Loaded Tiles

Unlike the default CONTENTdm® image viewer, which requires a page reload every time a pan, zoom, or rotation is performed, dmMonocle uses JavaScript to dynamically load in the necessary tiles. This provides for a quicker and more fluid viewing experience.

Tiles Generated on the fly with getimage.exe

Unlike Zoomify, which requires administrators to generate all tiles before an image can be viewed, dmMonocle generates all tiles on the fly using software distributed with CONTENTdm®. Specificially, getimage.exe. This means no additional hard drive space is necessary to use dmMonocle. Furthermore, dmMonocle eliminates the need for tech knowledge and maintainence work that would be necessary to set up a tile generation script.

Features

dmMonocle aims to provide all of the functionality of the default CONTENTdm® image viewer, including:

In the future, dmMonocle will also support the following features:

Demonstrations (Collections using dmMonocle)

dmMonocle is currently being used in two collections at UNLV Libraries:

Presentations

dmMonocle was presented with dmBridge in June 2009 at the CONTENTdm® Western Users Group Meeting at the University of Nevada, Reno. The following is an extended set of presentation slides for online viewing, dmMonocle is discussed on slides 23 & 24:

Copyright

dmMonocle is Copyright © 2009 Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education, on behalf, of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

dmMonocle is licensed under the MIT license, so do your worst!