• grafica
• javascript
• SVG
• web

As innovation on web standards proceeds, web browsers have the option
of becoming the generic user interface for any computer application,
even those involving extensive user interaction.

This thesis is placed in the domain of web graphics, where we tried a
standard based approach, relying on the SVG standard for web vector
graphics. SVG is less supported than its propertary counterpart, Adobe
Flash, but we use a recent shim library to bring SVG support to all
browsers capable of running Flash content; this way, the advantages of
the two technologies can be combined. The library, called ``SVG Web'',
is unobtrusive with reference to the application code, simply
requiring a certain style for javascript handling of SVG elements and
sometimes simplifying the handling of the SVG tree and improving its
portability also among native renderers.

To investigate the our approach, we have developed a shared, web-based
whiteboard which allows different users to interact across the network
using standard web browsers and servers. The whiteboard is thought for
quick sketches, and built with the requirement of being lightweight
and portable both for the client and the server side.

The resulting application is capable of providing a good level of user
interaction, still remaining fairly simple and maintainable in its
code. The important achieved outcome is the possibility of developing
all client side logic with the same language (Javascript), with a
strong integration between the graphic environment and the rest of
client-side functions, including AJAX communications.