System Requirements

System requirement:

Connection to the Internet and a Web browser. 

Is it that simple?  Yes and no.  Yes.  Because the Online Connecticut Urban Atlas is designed as a server-side application and most data and map services reside on the server side, no software or plug-in installation is need on the client side.  That means that you can use any modern Web browser to access the services provided by the OCUA via the Internet. No.  There are something more you need to know if you are using an old browser like Netscape 4.x. 

In order to achieve the capability of interacting with users during their mapping processes and to provide a better user interface of our services, the OCUA Website embedded some newly developed techniques such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Document Object Model (DOM).  For example, on the "Define Mapping Values" page, the field selection or expression specification section will change dynamically, according to the type of values you choose.  Another example is that on the "Classification and Color Scheme" page, the example color ramp will dynamically re-render if the color scheme is changed. 

Most modern Web browsers, such as the latest version of Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape, and Opera, etc., are Web standard compliant.  The best is that Web pages that are stadard compliant will be rendered identically, at least in theory, by any standard compliant Web browser.  However, some older Web browsers like Netscape 4.x only have partial support for some of the techniques.  They are not Web standard compliant, and thus cannot properly render some of the Web pages, especially those with dynamic contents. 

We have no future plan to make the Online Connecticut Urban Atlas compatitable with old browsers that do not (fully) support Web standards, including HTML 4.01, ECMAScript, CSS Level 1 and DOM Level 1.  Instead, updating your Web browser is highly recommended.