Month: November 2007

Directions Magazine has a press release from ESRI about a new hire from outside the company. From the PR:

Says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president, “We are pleased that Dirk [Gorter] has joined our company and believe that he has much to offer with his extensive experience in product management in the commercial enterprise software industry. He will be helping us develop new markets as well as improving our products for the traditional user base.”

I’ll be honest here, I was thinking about blowing off the Developer Summit this year but maybe now I won’t. We’ll have to see how this plays out.

Brian Flood has a detailed post describing some of the new features of the latest Arc2Earth beta where it can embed Virtual Earth’s 3D globe in ArcMap. Now Arc2Earth has benefits beyond just creating web mapping from ArcGIS, but creating layouts that include 3D views (check out this screen shot to see what this means). I know a ton of my friends who do cartography with ArcMap are excited right now. We’ll have to see what folks start doing with this new ability to produce 3D maps with ArcMap.

I get a ton of emails asking me exactly how ESRI’s geodatabase replication works. It is pretty slick to be honest so I think everyone who has SDE should probably learn more about it. ESRI has posted a podcast titled “Geodatabase Replication: Working with Replication that explains in more detail what geodatabase replication is.

Geodatabase replication enables the distribution of datasets across several geodatabases, and provides a mechanism for keeping those datasets in synch by sending changes over the network or the Internet. This discussion contains suggestions for planning a replication strategy that will help you implement a comprehensive distributed data workflow. The mechanics of creating and synchronizing replicas are also discussed.

I just got this tidbit of information from a friend who talked to Ed Katibah (lead Program Manager for SQL Spatial).

Spatial datatype, methods and indexes will be supported equally on all SQL Server editions (Express, Workgroup, Standard and Enterprise) at no extra charge. That means anyone who wants to use the SQL Server 2008 Spatial can download the free Express version and start working with spatial databases. Express will still have its limitations as it does now but you have to believe that this puts a huge damper on middleware producers that are targeting .NET developers (ArcSDE cough).

Just think, download SQL Server 2008 Express and perform geospatial operations in Virtual Earth or OpenLayers.

SQL Server Mechagodzilla pushes other Spatial Databases aside with ease

All I wanted to do is let my son take the Jedi Training at Disneyland and Darth Vader shows up with Darth Maul and two Storm Troopers. He tried to convert Connor to the dark side, but Connor would have nothing of it and proceeded to battle Vader. Because of valor he took the Jedi oath and became a Jedi Knight Padawan. Never been prouder of my son! 🙂

The ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 4 is available for download on ESRI’s support site.

• ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 4
• ArcIMS 9.2 Service Pack 4
• ArcSDE 9.2 Service Pack 4

Most of you already know this is Geography Awareness Week. There are many ways to help promote geography this week, but I’ve come up with my own. I’m taking the family to Disneyland.

I’ll be back on Monday, have a great week guys.

I’m sure many of us on the MapDotNet email list got the news that full support for SQL Server 2008 Spatial is right around the corner.

MapDotNet Server 6.5 is currently undergoing beta testing and will be released in November 2007. In addition to support for SQL Server 2008, it will provide support for the new features in Microsoft Virtual Earth 6.0, and will include upgraded map rendering capabilities, support for Windows Communication Foundation, profiling, event logging, and improved diagnostics.

Was there some sort of planned “event” for SQL Server 2008 today because both Manifold and Safe Software also announced SQL Server 2008 Spatial support.

This is clear to me:

FeatureServer + ArcSDE Data Store = Holy Grail

Being able to store data in ArcSDE, but still access it freely across any and all platforms. ArcGIS clients can hit ArcSDE and everyone else can enjoy data served by FeatureServer. But deep down this is even bigger than FeatureServer because really what I’m talking about is GDAL/OGR ArcSDE Vector Write Support. That opens up loads of open source projects to ArcSDE users and gives them the best of all worlds. ArcGIS Desktop/Server users can continue using ArcSDE they way they always have and open source solutions can come right in the front door and coexist with existing workflows. The benefit will be realized by users who will be able to get products that work best for them.

If I have to sell Amway door to door, I will get this project funded.

The gatekeeper will no longer be able to stop users from writing to ArcSDE from OGR.

We knew about this back in July, but ESRI has posted an announcement about Service Pack 4. Nothing about ArcGIS Server yet and that should be a big list because ESRI puts new features in their Service Packs. What is missing is the Vista support that was promised. I’m not sure why that isn’t listed (at least I don’t see it). Does that mean we won’t be seeing Vista support for ArcGIS until 9.3?