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The iModel.js Roadmap

This roadmap provides the big picture view of the development path for the iModel.js platform, and the relative priorities along the path.

Themes

We will use the following themes (that may be adjusted from time-to-time according to your input) to drive the evolution of iModel.js:

  • Be the open platform for Infrastructure Digital Twins for melding data from iModels, GIS data,and reality data with the magnitude of other data sources of digital twins into a seamless user experience.
  • Be cloud provider, operating system, and browser neutral to the extent possible.
  • Performance, scalability, security, and stability are paramount concerns.
  • Make developing with iModel.js as easy, productive, predictable, and profitable as possible.
  • Adhere to open source standards and norms wherever possible.
  • Build an ecosystem of innovation and enterprise.

Release 2.0

We plan to release iModel.js 2.0 in 2Q20.

It will include necessary breaking API changes to:

  • remove some concepts and apis that were deprecated during 1.x
  • add new UI concepts to subsume/replace existing ones
  • formalize the Plugin API as the primary way to add functionality to web applications
  • enhance and refine the Briefcase APIs
  • enhance and refine the authorization APIs to
    • remove support for SAML tokens - all authorization will be done through JSON Web Tokens following the OAuth 2.0 protocol for authorization.
    • use Authorization Code flow instead of Implicit flow for Web Applications

We expect the transition from 1.x to 2.x to be trivial and uneventful for most users.

Additional Priorities for 1H2020

Visualization

  • Support for "hyper-modeling" (embedding section drawings and sheets segments in-situ in spatial views)
  • Additional support for large scale scene animations and actors (e.g. schedule simulations, pedestrian simulations, weather animations, disaster simulations, etc.)
  • Take advantage of WebGL 2.0, when present
  • Improve lighting system and make lighting more configurable
  • Support for compressed texture formats
  • Support anti-aliasing

Desktop Support

  • Improve support for building Windows native applications (MacOS and Linux to follow in future versions)
  • Support interactive iModel creation and editing

Mobile Device Support

  • Support both completely offline and occasionally connected in iOS
  • Synch with changesets from iModelHub
  • Minimize power consumption

Plugins

  • Finalize Plugin APIs
  • Streamline Plugin development and deployment processes
  • Create Plugin examples for broad set of scenarios

User Interface

  • Improvements to look and feel of 9 zone applications

Interfaces to external systems

  • Extend techniques to write bridges import data from foreign file formats

Developer experience

  • Add more samples and improve clarity of existing examples
  • Create interactive "jsfiddle-like" exploration examples

Feedback welcome! - Please let us know what you think should be on our priority list. File an issue on GitHub.

Last Updated: 08 January, 2020