ArcGIS for iOS Release
July 6, 2010 30 Comments
Over the holiday weekend, ESRI’s new ArcGIS for iOS went live on the Apple iTunes Store.
ArcGIS for iOS (iPhone) Splash Screen
ESRI lists the following as “features”:
- Navigate map galleries in just a few taps
- Use maps authored in ArcGIS.com
- Access your own GIS data
- Display and zoom to current location
- Perform linear and area measurements based on your current location or by interacting with the map.
- Retrieve detailed map metadata
- View feature attribute information
- Perform keyword search and get access to relevant information
- Execute predefined searches
- Change the visibility of layers
- Access popular maps faster by adding them to your favorites list
- Share maps with other iPhone/iPad users
Now the app is quite impressive. The functionality and the ease of use stand out to me on my quick look this morning. The UI is simple and puts both the map and search functionality front and center. There is also a “Find Maps” button that takes you to what is essentially ArcGIS Online, where you can view many maps that are available in that service as well as add your own web mapping service. The only issue I have with this is that currently you can only add ArcGIS Server web services, not any OGC services. In an ESRI centric environment, that might not be an issue, but it does limit its use outside of an “ESRI shop”. You also can’t consume CSW services to discover web content, you can only use ArcGIS.com.
The simple UI for ArcGIS for iOS on the iPhone
ArcGIS for iOS Find Maps Screen
ArcGIS for iOS Browse Maps Screen
The ArcGIS for iOS OpenStreetMap Service
ArcGIS for iOS uses ESRI Web Services Only
The search works well in that you can find not only places, but companies and other useful points of interest.
Isn't it nice how the search for ESRI puts you right at the front door of the Q Building?
The Map Tools are accessible via the wrench in the upper right Map screen and give you Identify and Measure (Area and Distance). The Identify has a reverse geocoder to give you the address of a location as well as its coordinate and any features available.
The map tools available for ArcGIS for iOS
The identify function of ArcGIS for iOS
ArcGIS for iOS is a very impressive mobile mapping app. It really shows the attention to detail ESRI has put into their new ArcGIS Mobile apps. Compared to the old Windows CE and Windows Mobile crap they used to put out, this was easily used by my son without any direction. Having all those ESRI web services (from the wonderful Topological Map, to the Bing Maps) at your finger tips is great (plus adding in OSM is just icing on the cake).
ArcGIS Golf Oil Spill Forecast Map
As I said above, my biggest disappointment is lack of OGC standards support. WMS and CSW support is really needed to make this application valuable outside of ESRI centric workflows. That said, watching my 7 year old son move around the application with ease gives me new hope what we GIS folks can actually make usable GIS apps for public consumption. We’ll just have to see how open they can get.
About James Fee
So if it is not using WMS, is that OSM map comprised of OSM data that has been downloaded to an ESRI server?
I tried the app on an iPad this morning and it was the first “iPhone+” app I’ve used that felt like it was made for an iPad, not just an iPhone screen zoomed in and pixelated.
The OSM tiles are hosted and served by ESRI as ArcGIS Web Services.
I have several apps on my phone, a feature collection app, a OSM editor, an ap to view data when out of cell range, and a GPS with GPX and GML support (easy with GPSBABEL). I am not particularly impressed with ESRI’s app, I have more functionality then this already.
Show me a specific iPhone app that has a better UI than this one. I dare you.
I assume you mean an iPhone app that is a GIS or GPS one. (If not I would say WootWatch has one of the best UI’s). Depends on what you want to do. ESRI app is simplistic, so of course the interface is simple…. The ESRI app has a problem right from the start, the GPS locator hides the underlying data with nothing to turn it off that I can find.
Field Assets is well thought out, given that there is a lot of functionality, such as adding features and attributes.
MotionXGPS also is a decent UI given the complexity of options, including the ability to export and load your own data. (drain on battery life is another story).
You lost all credibility at WootWatch. Comparing a rss reader (that only reads a couple feeds) to a GIS application is laughable.
Plus, MotionXGPS is a horrible UI. I’m no big fan of ESRI, but the picts look very nice above.
I did say a non-gis app when I mentioned WootWatch, I threw it in for fun. However, ESRI’s app is not much more then a map render-er. Nothing really to see there. Just try and use the demographics map as a data viewer, good luck.
MotionX is actually doing work, the UI is not the best, but at least there is functionality.
At least with the built in Google map by default on an iPhone, I can get parcels, streets, satellite views, download KML, get directions, get Street views, business recommendations, reviews, and phone numbers. What does ESRI give me again?
UI on mobile devices is more important than features. Those apps that don’t have easy to use UIs fall to the side and those that have good UIs and add features as time moves forward succeed.
Apple is the king of this theory and the iPhone is clearly the poster child. Is ArcGIS for iOS feature complete? What do you think?
You’re all over the place.
You want MotionX’s GPS capabilities, you want Google Maps – parcel, building footprint basemaps, you want a clean UI, you want to query and get back extra information. Your wish list on a new app which never claimed to do all of this is pretty high.
If you compare the ESRI Viewer to other apps that do just that, view maps, its 1000x better. The app isn’t a GPS data collector, it isn’t trying to let you search for StarBucks and get their phone number. It seems you’re trolling just for the sake of trolling. Now unless you have some sort of internal memo saying the app was suppose to do all this, but somehow felt short, why do you think it has to give all this?
Heck, I’ve used MotionX from v1 and it was pretty darn basic back then. Only in these newer versions has the sharing, better basemap, BETTER UI actually come into its own. Did I enjoy using it at the start? Not one bit, but today it’s one of my favorite apps. I’m glad I stuck with it.
I have a feeling this app in v2, v3, etc will become pretty substantial.
I disagree with the “all over the place” comment. If it wasn’t called “ArcGIS” I’d be saying the same thing, but it is more than just alluding to GIS. Yes it is a very polished interface, and they should be commended for that (maybe those design people should be released on the desktop), but given the massive resources they have, I would expect functionality better than ArcExplorer or what some start-up company might produce. Anything with GIS in the title has high functional expectations in my mind. On one hand they leverage the ArcGIS “branding”, on the other hand they might be harming it. What about calling it ArcPad? Just kidding.
I really think ESRI did a good job here, and I am very excited to tear into development with the ArcGIS API for iOS.
Is there any way to leverage this app without ArcGIS Server? It bothers me when ESRI shows all the cool things that can be done and its always followed by with ArcGIS Server. I almost feel like really what the GIS world needs is a simple shapefile editor mobile app that can push and pull content to a server, and you can customize forms with.
That aside, I was truly amazed how fast the tiled imagery moved. Good work on that ESRI!
Also, does there seem to be some strangeness in the fact that ESRI has a iPhone SDK on a OS that it doesn’t even support?
iOS != OS X
I’m not sure I understand this reply – ESRI doesn’t build ArcGIS for mac OSX so we can build ArcGIS for iPhone apps on the emulator on our macs but not run the actual desktop software.
Think of it as an emulator running only on Mac OS X. iOS and Mac OS X are pretty far apart.
iOS is just another client that ESRI delivers to support their ArcGIS suite. Author on Windows, server on Linux/Windows and consume anywhere.
I meant the only ArcGIS software besides like ArcExplorer (which I think is pretty lame) that I can run on my mac is when I have my iPhone emulator running with the SDK. So it’s not GISing in the sense of editing and geoprocessing.
My dissatisfaction with ESRI lies in two areas that are pretty sensitive to us younger GIS people out there, lack of mac, which we use for everything other than GIS (other than QGIS) and all of these online services that lack geoprocessing – which is where many of us see the power of GIS. Seeing content is great but a parcel viewer served up by ArcGIS Server on a mobile phone doesn’t quite revolutionize GIS in my mind. Now if a mobile app parcel viewer allowed for SQL querying and geoprocessing with other environmental layers so that GISers that geoprocess can do analysis right in the field now that would be cool.
ArcObjects is not going to be ported anywhere. It will take a full rewrite of ArcGIS to get it on Mac or other platforms (Linux) for desktop.
You can use ESRI’s ArcGIS for iOS API to create your own apps: http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/ios/develop.html
The ArcGIS for iOS app here can be looked as a proof of concept or just a simple tool to navigate ESRI ArcGIS.com services.
“lack of geoprocessing” / “so that geoprocess can do analysis right in the field”.
This is a comment I’ve heard a lot lately – people wanting geoprocessing on mobile devices. My question on this: what task, function or action is it people are looking for? I see lots of generic requests for geoprocessing, but no specific examples. Maybe if there are examples people will build them?
Anywho… the note on the ESRI iPhone site says that in another release it will support geoprocessing – to what degree?
Well it will support all geoprocessing that can be done on ArcGIS Server. Thus any server side geoprocessing should be game.
There are several apps that will let you edit data, such as the OSM Editor (remember its not super simple to edit positions on a mobile device).
However, you have to think outside the box: look at MotionX, Waze, GeoCacheing, etc. They all have background maps, some with satellite, some not. But the important point is you can make shapefiles from GPX, (GPS Babel), you can make shapefiles from KML (GPS Babel again), you can make Sqlitespatial from shapefiles easily enough and then you have a shareable database.
fwiw, here’s a simple map you can test on the iOS app that uses an Arc2Earth Cloud instance instead of an ArcGIS Server. It doesn’t have all the bells/whistles but its a good/cheap method for sharing maps and making simple edits
http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c5c04574662743a5a72274c9d0a66bbc
oh, and IMO, ArcGIS.com, the new REST API and all of the new clients are some of the best stuff I’ve seen from esri in while. and there’s no doubt in my mind that template based editing will make its way into the iOS app and sdk
cheers
brian
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The real power of ArcGIS for iOS is not necessarily in the App, it’s in the Map. ArcGIS 10 is very Map centric. The thin clients respond to the intelligence you publish in your Map, the Queries, Edit Temates etc. iOS is no different, you can publish an Attribute Query in the Map on arcgis.com and access it directly from the App, it executes against the REST endpoints and returns it’s results to your iPhone. There is only so much a phone can do, better to co-operate in this way with the server than try go it alone.
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What I would like to see is an app like “Layar – Augmented Reality” Where you can look down the street with the camera and the screen will show you points. Currently is will show restaurants, etc, but I want to be able to upload water/sewer and storm drain lines. Now that would be revolutionary! 3D with their location in the ground!
Tom, check out: http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/apl/archive/2010/04/15/Viewing-ArcGIS-data-in-Augmented-Reality-Application.aspx
I find the inclusion of the area calculation to be interesting given the projection of the base maps. Odd.
Can you tell me if this app allows me to create and export back a new layer of point and / or polygon data with attributes. I hope this will be something equivalent to Encom’s Discover Mobile that I use with the Mapinfo based GIS but on inferior pda devices.
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