ArcGIS Explorer Online Beta is Released
May 26, 2010 15 Comments
So hopefully not lost in the ArcGIS.com release is ESRI’s latest GIS tool, ArcGIS Explorer. The one sentence explanation from ESRI about what it is:
ArcGIS Explorer Online is similar in appearance to the desktop version of ArcGIS Explorer, and has some of the same capabilities, but it’s a lighter weight version that works in a browser, and is built using Microsoft Silverlight.
ArcGIS Explorer Online is a Silverlight based browser application
So what we have here is a cross platform GIS analysis platform. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from ArcGIS Explorer Online and I think it is a solid start to platform agnostic client applications. It requires Silverlight to run, but I’m able to use it flawlessly on my MacBook Pro laptop. It mimics the Microsoft UI standards with the ribbon, but I’ll be frank that I’m beginning to like the ribbon interface. Of course if you hate it, you’ll probably hate the app.
Presentations are important to ESRI and ArcGIS Explorer Online
When you start working with the app, the first thing that will catch your eye is what ESRI has stuck in the upper left of the toolbar. If I had never seen ArcGIS Explorer Online before, I’d assume that ESRI would have put “Add Data” or “Search” or even “Basemap” in that prime spot. But as you can see to the left, Presentation gets the first place everyone looks. I’m not sure if this is by design but ESRI thinks we’ll be making lots of presentations with ArcGIS Online. I had see Bernie Szukalski use the presentation mode with great success at the ESRI Developer and Business Partner conferences so I get the power. I’d just assume presentations would be a ribbon on its own and not on the primary one.
The basemap button doesn’t disappoint. If there is one thing ESRI has gotten right over the years, it is the freely available basemaps they’ve offered up through ArcGIS Online ArcGIS.com. These are all available here including the Bing layers, ESRI’s Imagery and Streets, the wonderful ESRI Topographic map and of course now the OpenStreetMap layer.
There are tons of basemaps available including OpenStreetMap
Adding content is where I think ArcGIS Explorer Online will eventually shine, but for right now it is limited to only web services that are available on ArcGIS.com or ArcGIS Server services. I’ve been told OGC support will be coming soon, but as of today you can only add ESRI web services or consume services from ArcGIS.com.
As you’d expect, you can save your maps to ArcGIS.com and choose to save them privately, share with a group or share with the world. There is no ability to share a permalink as you might with Google Maps, but saving to ArcGIS.com and then sharing that URL is probably the method for now. ESRI also has provided some “Featured Maps” (I’m assuming this comes from featured maps on ArcGIS.com) that you can get started with.
You can grab existing "Featured Maps" that ESRI provides to get started.
I like the start of ArcGIS Explorer Online. Building it on Silverlight seems like a smart move as it runs flawlessly on any computer I used. The biggest limitation I see right now is the lack of OGC support (WMS, WFS, CSW and of course KML) but ESRI has told me that is coming down the road. I also would have liked to see a permalink feature to share quickly with friends maps I create, but I’m guessing ArcGIS.com is the driving force here so I might as well get used to sharing ArcGIS.com links. I’m not sure how I could share my ArcGIS Server services with ArcGIS Explorer Online (embed or link that I can put in a blog post), but hopefully that part of the story will be set by the ESRI UC.
About James Fee
What do you mean when you ask how you can share your ArcGIS Server services with ArcGIS Explorer Online?
You can create maps using any ArcGIS Server rest end point that is accessible. If you want to have XO start up with a particular service, you can use this syntax:
http://explorer.arcgis.com/?url=http://atlas.resources.ca.gov/ArcGIS/rest/services/GeoScience/California_Fire_History/MapServer
That is somewhat what I’m looking for, but if I blend two services, I can’t share it any other way than via ArcGIS.com?
The best way to do that currently is by creating a map then using the url (like you point out in your post).
How is that different from a permalink? Just the fact that you need to create an item up front and store it on arcgis.com instead of having the map generated on-the-fly solely from parameters of the url?
We could do more with that notion – a series of services, a default extent, etc. But it would only go so far. You probably wouldn’t want to pass in parameters that created notes, presentations, bookmarks, etc.
That doesn’t save customization of the map though which is what I was thinking as you point out. I could have a map service that is the world, but I want someone to look at some small parcel.
hey jeff
it would be nice if you could include some other simple url query params like center lat/lng, zoom level and base layer (sortof what google maps provides with their permalink). also, if the url param is used, it should zoom to the initial extent of that mapserver
possible bug – when you add a tiled map from the url it doesn’t seem to treat it like a tiled cache, it assumes it must be projected and then calls export on the mapservice. when you add it via ArcGIS.com content or from Add GIS Server option, it works fine
my 2 cents
brian
Brian,
Good suggestions regarding the url query params. We do in fact zoom to the initial extent of the mapserver. Are you not seeing that?
Regarding the potential bug, is the spatial reference of the map service that you are adding the same as that of the basemap? If not, then XO will use a dynamic service layer in order to get projection on the server side.
-Jeff
thanks jeff
extra qps – these would be helpful when you’re not loading an existing map but you want to generate a starting point or point something out to others. people use gmaps qps all the time for this purpose. I guess its not critical but it would be nice
url – hmm, that’s not what I’m seeing but maybe its an older build for the public. you can see the issue just by loading one of your other base maps using the url param, it uses export instead of the tiles directly.
http://explorer.arcgis.com/?url=http://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Terrain_Base/MapServer
zoom to loaded map – not seeing that either but maybe its related to the issue above. here’s a sample that should zoom to Portland
http://explorer.arcgis.com/?url=http://sampleserver1.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Portland/ESRI_LandBase_WebMercator/MapServer
btw, XO is really well done. I can see a lot of uses for it and ArcGIS.com as well.
cheers
brian
You’re right. The map not zooming is related to the issue of using export instead of directly accessing the tiles. I wasn’t seeing it at first because it’s something we have already fixed so it isn’t happening on my local build.
We are aiming to do an update of XO tomorrow so both of these issues should be addressed (along with a few others).
-Jeff
hello all
here’s a quick tutorial on getting your tile cache into ArcGIS.com with just Arc2Earth and an Amazon S3 account
http://bit.ly/cOVlwu
and the resulting Web Map:
http://bit.ly/cW6Rtu
cheers
brian
OK, so that works. I think though James’ point about a permalink feature is a good one. Unless I’m missing something, how would I know how to generate that url?
I played around with ArcGIS Explorer Online this morning after reading about it on my walk home from the grocery store last night. I am glad to see a shorter nickname has been applied, XO I like that! What I see so far I like.
A few thoughts from playing around (sorry testing) this morning:
1) Silverlight install experience sucks. I had to locate an installation location. I had to restart my browser (FireFox). All these are barriers to entry for the general consumer. Additionally I assume one must be an administrator on their box to install. If so this will be a significant barrier for enterprise deployment.
2) I was really hoping to see 3D support like with the desktop version of AGE (maybe I should start calling it AGX?). We are struggling to deploy AGE right now due to graphics cards that do not meet the minimum requirements of AGE in older PCs and no one has the budget to replace machines these days. I was hoping a lightweight web-based AGE, i.e. XO, could be our savior.
I am not an expert on these things but I wonder if the lack of 3D functionality is due to the use Silverlight? The older AJAX version of Bing had a wonderful 3D environment. The newer Silverlight version of Bing no longer has 3D support, only the wonky “Enhanced Bird’s Eye” mode. Rather unfortunately almost as soon as our organization got our 3D models loaded into Bing the 3D-less Silverlight version was moved from Beta to production.
3) The ability to connect to our organization’s data via our AGS services is very cool.
I will watch the development of XO with interest. Nice work ESRI!
Brian,
On #1, did you try to hit explorer.arcgis.com before you installed Silverlight? If so you should have seen a page with a link that directed you to the Sl-install.
Andy
Andy,
Yes I went to explorer.arcgis.com prior to installing Silverlight. I am pretty sure a pop up of some sort (not a separate window) informed me I needed Silverlight with a link to download. This may have launched a new tab in FireFox to download Silverlight.
Should I have experienced something different?
Do you really think the contract organization A signed with WeoGeo would make a difference? Methinks not. Being a native Californian I completely understand how screwed up our laws can be – I mean we have something like the 3rd largest Constitution in the world. That’s not a good think. However, I mcpd also don;t see why you would feel the need to paint a broad brush statement, in a headline no less, about how “Oracle Spatial Locks Your Data Away”. This is not true or fair relative to any other data or software in any other type or source.
First off, you commented on the wrong post. But since you hit the right blog I’ll respond.
The judge ruled that if you put data in a database, it becomes software.
Oracle is a database – thus Oracle according to the judge locks away public data.
WeoGeo is irrelevant because data in our system stays native and we don’t load it into a database. Thus data in our system isn’t affected by the ruling.
If it helps you sleep better at night, I’m sure the same ruling applies for SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL.