Is it Monday Already?

September 13, 2010 7 Comments

Wait, what happened to 3 day weekends.  I guess you get one and then you expect them all the time.  Oh well…

Some interesting reading for a Monday morning:

ArcGISEditor for OSM – Randal looks at the ArcGIS Editor for OSM and concludes it is complicated, but powerful.  I all Esri tools (they are “scientific” mind you) nothing is ever simple, but if you can get your hands around it, powerful results happen.

FOSS4G 2010 Final Answer – Apparently there was a Geospatial conference going on somewhere.  They all kind of start blending in to each other, don’t they?

Making a Data Portal With WordPress – Content management is content management, right?  (bless his heart for trying to do this with WordPress)  Just goes to show that if you can hack your way around code, there isn’t anything you can’t accomplish (assuming your billable time isn’t an issue).

Gearing up for GIS in the Rockies – Time for the fall conference season to kick into high gear.  Front Range GIS is a unique community who do some really great things with both proprietary and open source tools (usually in combination).  Bummed I can’t go.

Why not GeoJSON? – Looks like France was good to Sean.  He’s got a great post up on ESRI’s use of JSON in their RESTful API.

Oh and way to represent SEC!

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Esri Releases Their GeoServices REST Specification

September 7, 2010 13 Comments

As was announced at the ESRI UC, the GeoServices REST Specification, Version 1.0 has hit the streets.

Services that follow the specification will “speak the same language” as the REST-ful Esri Web services. That means clients can consume them with the popular ArcGIS APIs for JavaScript, Flex, Silverlight, iOS, and Android; as well as other Esri client APIs. However, you don’t have to own or use any Esri software in order to implement the specification or to build a client that works with the services.

As you examine the specification, you’ll probably notice that it looks like the ArcGIS REST API. This is deliberate. The pattern we have used at Esri for exposing REST-ful GIS services has been embraced by thousands of developers who use the ArcGIS Web APIs. It is a simple and intuitive way of structuring and talking to GIS Web services. We wanted you to feel free to implement services that follow the same pattern.

Whether or not this is truly an open spec (and  not opening the debate as to how “RESTful” this spec really is), the rush begins for everyone to implement this spec on their own apps so they can be used with ESRI clients.

Jack opens his secret to getting RESTful with ArcGIS

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ESRI RESTful API 9.4

July 19, 2009 1 Comment

I didn’t get as much time to talk with ESRI about the RESTful API, but I did two things answered that were bothering me.

  • You will be able edit with the RESTful API.  Opens up the ability to edit ESRI Geodatabases with just about any client you can imagine.
  • You will be able to query and work with other tables in the geodatabase (tables don’t need to be joined to query them).  I always seem to have lots of related tables in my projects so this should lessen the need to roll my own ASP.NET connector to work with tables.

Bonus news is that the ESRI JavaScript API will support HTML 5 for some really slick web applications.  Of course this is all based on ArcGIS 9.4 which should roll into our hands the first half of 2010.

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The ESRI Web ADF 9.3

June 16, 2009 5 Comments

Remember this post?  Count that as the most popular post ever on my blog (so much for a positive post being my watermark).  Anyway Doron Yaacoby has followed up almost a year and a half later with another look at where ESRI has taken the Web ADF since then.

Almost none of the issues I addressed in my original post were fixed. The API is still overly complex. Resources, functionalities and all these so-called abstractions remain in place, emphasizing the strength of the JavaScript API’s simplicity. And yes, there are still about a billion classes that are named “Converter” in the API. It seems like ESRI insists that you write the entire namespace before every class you use.

Yea that was probably predictable, but I don’t think any of it matters.  We’ve all moved beyond the Web ADFs and on to the REST APIs (Flex, JavaScript and Silverlight).  Really though I’m amazed at how much our web development platform has changed in that time, we all can agree developing with ESRI is much more enjoyable than it was and I’m wagering most of us forget there is a Web ADF out there anymore.  I can’t wait until the ESRI UC to see what the future holds in store.

The killing of .NET and Java on the web continues unabated

The killing of .NET and Java on the web continues unabated.

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Summit ExtMap News

April 7, 2009 13 Comments

Alper Dinçer continues working on his Summit ExtMap framework.

The reason for this late post is “Summit ExtMap“, because I still working on framework to add some new features. The coming release will be separated to 3 different versions as

  • Summit ExtMap (for ArcGIS JS API Extension for Google Maps)
  • Summit ExtMapRest (without ArcGIS JS API, works only with ArcGIS REST API and Google Maps API)
  • ExtOL (Ext JS with OpenLayers supporting ArcGIS REST API)

Now that sounds great; ExtJS and ESRI REST API together.  There are reasons why you should not use Silverlight.  JavaScript APIs, coupled with JavaScript Frameworks really do give you everything you need to have a great web application.

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Using OpenLayers with ArcGIS Server REST API

March 25, 2009 25 Comments

Here is my user presentation from the 2009 ESRI Developer Summit.  Feel free to email me with questions or post below.  You can get the instructions and code (including a zip file with everything ready to work out of the box) online.  Many people have told me that they are very interested in working with ArcGIS Server and OpenLayers so some really great things should be happening soon.

Using Open Layers With Arc Gis Server Rest Api Dev Summithttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=usingopenlayerswitharcgisserverrestapi-devsummit-090325180805-phpapp02&stripped_title=using-open-layers-with-arc-gis-server-rest-api-dev-summit
View more presentations from James Fee.

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Sean Gillies on OGC WMTS

March 19, 2009 6 Comments

Sean is all over OGC’s Web Map Tiling Standard.

I have sent in a “public comment” advising the authors on how to better follow the REST style. To be honest, I’d rather the OGC stayed away from REST, but if it won’t, I’ll insist it’s done properly and doesn’t misinform mainstream GIS developers. I’ll even try to help as much as the OGC’s closed process will allow.

We talk about open standards quite a bit and when it comes to GIS software implementing them, OGC is usually what we see.  It would be a shame to see WMTS fail as much as WFS has in the marketplace because it is ill conceived.  Hopefully the OGC will take advantage of Sean’s comments to improve the spec.  The OGC comment process has to be better than this:

No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.

No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.

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The 2009 ESRI Developer Summit (and the 2009 Business Partner Conference) is upon us

March 18, 2009 6 Comments

I’ll be heading out from Tempe on Saturday for the annual ESRI Business Partner Conference and the ESRI Developer Summit. As many of you already know, I’ll be presenting a talk on using the ArcGIS Server REST API with OpenLayers.

Using OpenLayers with ArcGIS Server REST API

Should be a good time getting everyone who is working with OpenLayers and ArcGIS Server or those who want to start working with it.  OpenLayers support for ArcGIS is messy, but the pieces are coming together quickly so is a great time to get involved.  And I’m not the only talk that covers using ArcGIS with Open Source tools.  It isn’t about closed development environments anymore, it is about using the best tools to get the job done.

As I said above, I’ll be there all week so if you’d like to talk over an adult beverage GIS at either the Business Partner Conference or the Developer Summit, email me (james.fee@rsparch.com) or call me on my mobile phone (602-819-2142).

Oh and don’t forget to RSVP for the DTSAgile DevSummit Party!

James takes his lion OpenLayers out on the GIS Wall of Death at the Developer Summit.

James takes his lion "OpenLayers" out on the GIS Wall of Death at the Developer Summit.

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RESTful GeoServer 1.7.3

March 11, 2009 2 Comments

On the heels of the 1.7.2 release, GeoServer 1.7.3 is now out.   Improvements to ArcSDE Raster support, RESTful interface, Excel support and of course GeoWebCache.  You know you want to get some of this…

Horray GIS!

Horray GIS!

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Is FTP access the best we can do?

March 10, 2009 13 Comments

I can almost predict that every conversation about data sharing will have one person stand up and declare, “Just give me FTP access and I’ll be fine”.  I used to think that way and while I probably still would like file based access to datasets, I just can’t see FTP being a viable data transfer method anymore.  Just it makes it easy to grab a data dump, but there isn’t anything that allows users to know if the data has been updated (other than I suppose checking the metadata).  So many times I see people using old data because they have no idea data has been updated.  Personally I don’t like the idea that I’m offering up spatial data web services for data I don’t control and most others should be worried as well.  Users want to grab data from the source, not some middle man who probably knows less about the data than the creator.

There has been a huge jump into SDI since the pork bandwagon started up in Washington and I’ll be honest…  I haven’t paid much attention.  One thing I am sure of is I don’t want to see something introduced that has two choices, WxS and FTP.  Data needs to be both discoverable and usable and I’m not sure WxS and FTP get us there.  WxS no matter what defenders might say is not discoverable and FTP is not secure and has no method of tracking changes.

AtomPub to me looks like the best method of publishing and sharing datasets.  There is a huge risk here of inventing something new when a superb solution already exists.  Workflows change quickly and WxS/FTP can’t adjust sprightly enough.  Read “How to GET a Cup of Coffee” and think about how easier this could all be.

Gatekeepers want to limit you to FTP/WxS so that you cant change the world...

Gatekeepers want to limit you to FTP/WxS so that you can't change the world.

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