Running ArcGIS 9.4 alongside ArcGIS 9.3.1

November 10, 2009 37 Comments

So the news at the DevSummit was that you could install both ArcGIS 9.4 alongside ArcGIS 9.3.1.  I’m not part of the beta for 9.4, but reports are that ESRI has not enabled this yet for the latest 9.4 beta release.  If you want to install 9.4 on a computer running ArcGIS 9.3.1, you are being prompted to uninstall 9.3.1 before continuing.  Has anyone yet been able to run 9.4 and 9.3.1 at the same time?

Now this could be a limitation of the current beta and not actually any retreat by ESRI on being able to run two versions of ArcGIS on the same machine.  Either way it make it really hard to beta test the 9.4 release as you can’t compare it to older versions.

Your Mamma Don’t Dance and your ArcGIS won’t install…

Note: If you post any specific 9.4 Beta information (such as quoting forums posts on the Beta forums), expect ESRI to personally contact you. They appear to be monitoring this blog post. You’ve been warned.

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In defense of VBA

September 28, 2009 26 Comments

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

So the news that ESRI ArcGIS 9.4 will be the last version that includes VBA support has really stirred up some emotions.  So sum up a couple comments in that post, “I can’t believe they are dropping VBA, I use it all the time”.  Many of us have moved beyond VBA to other languages, but there seems to be a large percentage of ESRI developers that still rely on VBA to customize ArcGIS Desktop.  geoGraphika has even written a blog post outlining 7 reasons why ESRI shouldn’t drop VBA.

Now before VBA devs get all worried that they have no time to prepare for the change.  Take a look at the time between when ArcGIS 9.3 arrived and when 9.4 will come.  ArcGIS 9.3 shipped June 26, 2008 and ArcGIS 9.4 earliest possible release date would be right before the ESRI UC which is July 12, 2010.  That is almost 2 years between releases.  Lets assume 9.5 takes that long to arrive (let alone the mythical 10.x release) it will be summer 2012.  That is a lifetime to get ready to migrate off of VBA.  Plus if VBA is mission critical, you can stick on ArcGIS 9.4.

Hey, don’t worry about VBA being depreciated. The future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades.

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ESRI ArcGIS 9.4 Reports Updates

July 15, 2009 22 Comments

The Plenary the other day didn’t get too deep into new features of 9.4, but I was lucky enough to learn more about report creation in the ArcGIS 9.4 release:

1. There is no Crystal Report Wizard in ArcGIS, the only means for creating a report is based on our new reporting engine.
2. The Wizard is entirely new and includes options for the layout (default positioning of groups, summary stats, records, header, footer) and style of the report.
3. Styles (templates as you call them) are new at 9.4, and you have the ability to create custom styles.  Much easier to create a professional looking report.
4. There is a Report Designer, where you can easily and interactively design the look and feel of the report layout; easily place graphics and other elements on the report.
5. You can export the report out to more formats, including html, xls, pdf to name a few.
6. The new reporting tools are a complete upgrade in terms of performance and usability.  They are simply easy to work with; as one would expect.
7. The biggest improvement in functionality is the ability to load/run a report.  At 9.3.1 every report you created was static, you could not open it up to edit it or generate the same report with updated attributes or selections.  At 9.4, you can load or run an existing report to make changes or see the changes within your data without having to start from scratch.

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