Author: James

I just noticed that ESRI now has a REST API Lab over at the ArcWeb Services webpage. New features include turning vector layers on and off and the ability to request raster tile maps. Most people are probably better suited to use the ArcWeb Explorer JavaScript API over this, but those who want to interact with AWS directly might want to take a look. The previous web REST documentation was lacking so this is very welcomed.

OK so how does all this now ESRI server stuff fit into the big picture? Well lets take Declan Butler’s wonderful avian flu outbreak informationn map. Declan used ArcGIS to create his map and then Arc2Earth to export that map to KML. This works great when for Declan because he’s just using this as an example/demo, but if you really want to share up to the minute information with digital earth clients, this model breaks down because it only gets updated when Declan manually uses Arc2Earth. Now lets say Declan had a nice big server running ArcGIS Server, he could serve this data up in a couple ways.

First off he could use the new cartographic tools in 9.2 to make a very visually pleasing map and serve up the the ArcGIS Server service for ArcGIS (ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Explorer, Web ADF) clients (both desktop and web) to consume (because if anyone has ever seen an ArcGIS Server demo, “rich clients” consume). Anyway that covers your ESRI users, but what about the rest of the world? Well you can offer up a KML network link that Google Earth users (World Wind and others too) can connect to. This KML won’t be as visually pleasing or as full featured as the AGS service, but it will be usable by many more people. In addition to the normal AGS service and the KML service, you can also offer up a WMS service for other users who would like the WMS option. So from one server product, you can cover almost all the spectrum (except for those people who want WFS, you can talk to Jeremy). And because it is “live”, you don’t need to worry about exporting it out every time there is a change.

OK so that picture is a little idyllic. I have no idea how much hardware would be needed to accomplish such a task and of course Declan on his own could never afford the hardware/software requirements for such an endeavor. Still if you think about how many organizations will now have access to ArcGIS Server because of the changes to the licensing, you can only hope that users of this new technology will want to share their data via KML, WMS or AGS for the community to integrate into their digital earth clients.

The days of using the standard ArcIMS HTML client are over and I think even to just assume the community at large will be happy with the new web ADF on its own is shortsighted. Giving people a choice of how to consume your services is the best way to ensure people actually use them.

On Jack’s Presentation:

Jack Dangermond as usual did a great job. He actually admitted that ESRI makes mistakes and apologized for them. He really got into ArcGIS Server which seems to be the big push this year as well as some of the new cartographic tools in ArcGIS Desktop. ArcGIS Explorer got some play as well. The one part of Jack’s presentation that I noticed missing was ArcWeb. He mentioned it in passing, but nothing substantial about the new ArcWeb Explorer. In fact I can’t recall any demonstrations of ArcWeb Explorer on Monday at all. As I said, ArcGIS Server was really the focus, but I thought Nick Frunzi did a wonderful job explaining the new customer service options. Besides ArcWeb, the one missing feature was that there was no new “amazing demo”. From the wearable computer a couple years ago, to the touch table demonstrations from the past 2 years I think these were actually pretty cool. I guess there really wasn’t anything new this year besides what ESRI was showing.

###On the Software Demos:

This started out with the new performance and usability of ArcGIS Desktop at 9.2. There is a huge list here of things new in 9.2, but most of those little things that you say, “I wish ArcGIS Desktop could do this” are now taken care of. I can attest that the 9.2 beta pre-release of Desktop is running wonderful. Following on with Jack’s talk, ArcGIS Server was really pushed. From the new .NET and Java ADFs, ArcIMS getting pushed to the background (but still seeing big improvements at 9.2), the new quick and easy publish maps to ArcGIS Explorer, editing geodatabases from right inside your web browser, and replicating SDE instances across the Internet; ArcGIS Server really has seen a huge improvement in functionality. Of course demonstrations are one thing so we’ll get to see how this all works out in the wild very soon. At 9.2, ArcGIS Server seems to do much that most ESRI shops have been asking for so I assume we’ll see quick adoption.

###On the floor:

The event floor keeps getting bigger and bigger, but there wasn’t anything really amazing that caught me eye. Of course there was a huge crowd in front of the SketchUp booth most of the conference, but the must see touch tables didn’t get the same play (there there was at least one more company showing them this year). Sun Microsystems was back again this year and Adobe had a big booth as well. I heard one person mention that most of this technology is getting more mainstream and they weren’t as amazed at what they say anymore, maybe that is my problem too.

ESRI had refocused their islands (no more Doctor’s Office) and the Geodatabase really took up most of their space. I though the whole area was laid out in a way that make it feel very crowded, but that might have to do also with the 14,000 people that were there. I kinda liked the old way better. I was glad to see the ArcWeb team have a “Creating Mashups” talk that seemed to be very crowded. Maybe next year that will be a technical workshop huh? ArcGIS Explorer was in the center of it all probably because it seems to be the key to most of what ESRI is planning to do on the server side. ArcGIS Server was pretty crowded and the ArcIMS section seemed to be kinda tucked away off to the side (another message to us ArcIMS users I guess). I was very happy to see an island devoted to licensing as this gets confusing for most of us when ESRI revamps their product line.

###On the Technical Workshops:

These didn’t seem as crowded this year as years past. Maybe they just got lucky with scheduling (or I got lucky). There was one are I knew would be very crowded and I was right about it was Python Scripting and ArcGIS. Every session I walked by was standing room only and people standing out the door. These sessions, just like last year, need to be in a much larger room.

###On the paper presentations:

Boy I can pick these, the two I tried to go to were canceled. How disappointing.

###After hours:

I had a blast going to the Open Source GIS San Diego Gathering at SDSU (I always enjoy hanging out with people smarter than I am), the .NET SIG was pretty good, but seemed very rushed (though I did get a free .NET T-Shirt and all Brian Flood got was an XBox 360) and ending with the geoblogger meetup was great (though I did stay out later than the trolley’s ran so it was a little hard getting back to my brother’s condo.

###The bottom line?

OK, so what were the big things to take note from the user conference? Well ArcGIS Desktop is going to be great at 9.2. ESRI is going to have a hard time coming up with things to add at 9.3 (but then again is that all bad?). ArcGIS Server is finally the all in one server product ESRI and most of their user base has been wanting. Finally we can have quick and easy deployments of maps, models and SDE replication. Plus the new ADFs are the perfect way to migrate people from ArcIMS to ArcGIS Server (though as I said ArcIMS isn’t going anywhere). ArcGIS Explorer really has come together. When the next beta gets released to the testers, I think we’ll finally have the application we have been looking for. AGX has really come a long way since the Dev Summit and it will fit in very nice with most ESRI users workflows (especially those in the U.S. who will have great aerial photography to work with). ESRI Developer Network folks will be getting a new binder at 9.2 with DVDs instead of CDs. Remember you can pay an extra $500 and get an ArcView license (while this will help in creating maps to publish with AGS, it won’t help loading data into SDE. Guess you just have to keep using shape2sde for another year.

No, there wasn’t anything that just wowed me, but that is OK. 9.2 is looking good and that is what all those people paying maintenance are excited about. Keep an eye out for October as this looks like when 9.2 will go final (as well as ArcGIS Explorer).

I’ve gotten this question from a couple of people (mostly probably because they want to see me say Google Earth Killer).

Lets get this out there right now. ArcGIS Explorer (AGX) isn’t ESRI’s answer to Google Earth. The reasons for AGX are tied very closely with ArcGIS Server (AGS). AGS needed a client application and since you can have globe services, AGX needed to be a digital earth application. That said, Google Earth has influenced the direction of AGX since GE became a household name. To create a digital earth application and not have it compatible with GE is not a good idea and ESRI has done their best to accomplish this. They also seem to have learned from the community and are supplying maps for users to use even if they don’t have a AGS to connect to. Personally I think both tools will sit on most peoples desk (at least those who can run GE legally). From a aerial photo standpoint, nothing will compete with GE out of the box. But the hope is AGX can allow users who want to combine data layers beyond KML on their client a way to do so as WMS, ArcWeb, ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server, Shapefiles, Geodatabases, KML and rasters are all supported.

If you want to know if AGX will be a Google Earth killer, then you aren’t asking the right question. The question is how will any of these digital earth applications (Google Earth, NASA World Wind or ESRI ArcGIS Explorer) help me get my tasks done better. The answer to that question is probably different almost every time you ask it which is why you need to make sure you understand how all three will help you work smarter.

I’m sitting at the airport right now (the security checking wasn’t bad at all) waiting for my plane back to Phoenix. I had a great time hanging out with everyone and seeing people I hadn’t seen in quite some time. Back to work on Friday and then the weekend is here.

What a night, I started with the .NET SIG hosted by our favorite .NET lead Art Haddad (I’d like to his blog space, but…) and ended with Mai Tai’s. Its pretty late tonight (or early this morning) so I don’t really feel like getting into details, but lets just say Brian Flood won an Xbox. I guess these things really aren’t rigged. Then we headed over to the Geoblogger meetup sponsored by Google. There many of the GIS bloggers and GIS blog readers enjoyed drinks and talked about the price of tea in China. I ended up showing up late as I was busy discussing the Plenary video with Anne Reuland back at the .NET SIG. Anyway thanks to both Microsoft for sponsoring the .NET SIG and Google for sponsoring the blogger meetup. Somehow I feel very balanced tonight. Of course I stayed too long in the Gas Lamp and had to take a taxi cab to my brothers condo where I’m staying from the Old Town station because the Trolley’s had stopped running. Oh and of course Geomullah for getting this all organized. Give him a pat on the back or at least a comment of thanks if you see him on Thursday.

I still don’t believe Brian Food won that Xbox a the .NET SIG. Heck even Art could say his name when he saw it come up. Now we can all blame the lack of Arc2Earth updates on something concrete. Oh and it was great meeting everyone. I’m always happy to put a face with someone who reads this blog. 🙂

I had a blast. I made an effort not to bring anything but my mind and just absorb all the great information and things people are doing with open source GIS. Listening to people like Tim Foresman and John Graham talk about what they are doing to foster community GIS is really inspiring. It sounded like everyone wanted to do it again next year so I’m looking forward to that. Maybe I need to take a vacation next June to San Francisco next year for the Digital Earth Symposium.

Bernie Szukalski was nice enough to give me the keys to the latest beta of ArcGIS Explorer (AGX) today at the UC. Everyone who has Beta 2 won’t recognize the program very much. The progress since the last beta is huge. First off the “blue marble” is just beautiful, with cloud layer and atmosphere it really enhances the visuals. Next the AGX team has a new webpage with the new 3D and 2D maps on them (don’t get to excited about that download link just yet as it goes nowhere). Of special note is the world streets layer. This is the most beautiful layer I’ve seen on a digital globe yet. The attention to detail that the cartographers took to create that layer just amazes me. Beyond that you can see that they have some featured maps at the bottom of the page that will be updated as things happen (disasters etc).

It appears that you can now add just about any local dataset to your digital earth viewer; shapefile, personal geodatabase, raster or KML. Navigation tools are improved as well as a ton of keyboard controls. KML support at release will be KML 2.0 and sync up with ArcGIS Server. There are plans to add KML 2.1 support right after the release goes final so don’t get too up in arms about that. There was also some talk about connecting to the SketchUp 3D Warehouse as well. As SketchUp is at the ESRI UC, I’m sure there has been quite a bit of discussions about that.

The NMF file format that AGX saves out is documented and developers will be able to create and modify these NMF files. There is much more to why you’d use NMF that I’ll leave when I get my hands on the next beta. Of course you can add any ArcGIS Server or ArcIMS service besides all these other formats. The task framework will also be updated at the next beta.

The progress beyond the current beta that testers are using is amazing. The product looks almost totally different. It won’t replace Google Earth, but will augment it. Depending on how many people share their ArcGIS Globe Services around the world and if ESRI or someone else creates a clearinghouse for them, some great data views can be displayed on the digital earth. I can’t wait until that next beta gets out and we can start playing with it. That World Streets layer is such eye candy I want it.

Yea you read that right, the ESRI UC Geoblogger Meetup tonight is sponsored by Google. John Hanke, CEO of Keyhole will be there as well as many of the geobloggers that are part of Planet Geospatial. Heck even just to show up and let John know how much you appreciate his vision of Digital Earth applications and how Google Earth has totally changed the way everyone (including GIS professionals) collaborates.

Place: Mister Tiki Mai Tai Lounge
801 5th Ave, San Diego, CA
(619) 233-1183

Time: 8pm, 9 August

Mister Tiki Mai Tai Lounge is on the corner of 5 th and F Street in the Gas Lamp (just east of Horton Plaza). I hope I’ll see many of you there tonight.

I’m shifting my gears this morning and going to a session on ArcMap. I got a little ArcGIS Server overload yesterday so I’m going to see how much ArcGIS Desktop I can absorb today. You can always visit ESRI.com and view the “What’s Coming in ArcGIS 9.2” for more detailed info.

ArcMap 9.2 tries to improve the desktop platform (quality, documentation, productivity) and add some new things as well (graphing, animations, intelligent symbology). The team fixed over 600 “issues” and worked toward consistency to make sure that everything is the same among Map, Globe, Scene and Reader.

There are hundreds of new shortcuts for faster navigation. There is now a new “go to X/Y”, area and snapping measure tool as well as better scale control. As I said Monday you can now set the default relative/absolute pathing rather than per document. You can also set up something called “My Places”. You can pretty much figure out how something like that works. Unlike bookmarks, these are available in all map documents and you can share them with others.

Tables are almost totally different than before. As I said you can start working with attribute tables the same way you use Excel. The wrapping of fields is really nice and makes the tables so much more readable. You can now calculate area/length very easy on tables as well as hiding of fields and other Excel type functions (mimics how Excel handles spreadsheets). Plus you can finally add Excel tables to your layers. When you see Excel documents in ArcCatalog you can view the sheets inside the document much like you view datasets inside a geodatabase. Of course you need to have your Excel table structure set so ArcMap can read it, but you can set named range is complex Excel documents. So much like the sheet names, these named ranges show up in ArcCatalog.

New ArcPress drivers include HP Universal and EPSON Universal so you’ll have better result printing to the latest printers. Export PDF has been improved (the font embedding issues have been fixed) and there is now the ability to use layers within PDFs (big news for PDF exporters). Maplex has also been much improved with performance and adds leader line support.

Graphing support is almost totally redone. There are tons of new tools for creating graphs. There are better graph styles, the color can match your map documents, selections are synchronized for graphs and maps, pan and zoom on graphs and if you for some reason still want to use the old graph tools, they are still there. Graphs can also be used with time based animations. The graphs look very close to how Excel does them. There are wizards to help you create these graphs and the graph manager is much improved.

Animation has been brought over from ArcGlobe so you can now create animations in ArcMap. There is a new time layer animation type and NetCDF is supported. Just about anything in ArcMap can be animated (including graphs). Plus you only need an ArcView license to create animation (no 3D Analyst or ArcEditor/ArcInfo needed). And yes you can save out as an AVI.

Finally the Cartographic representations allow map makers to have more control and precision over their symbology. These are stored within the geodatabase and can even be published on the web with ArcGIS Server. These representations are a way to symbolize features carographically according to rules that you set. The simple fact that you no longer will have to export to Illustrator or Freehand to create high quality maps will save much time. The same data can be symbolized in different ways and map makers can choose which one they want to use for a particular map. Both versions are stored in the data and not in map documents and layers. They days of editing your features to improve the clarity of your map are over. The geometry stays the same and just the symbology changes. If you have specific ways you need your symbology to work, there is a SDK to create your own. You can even define any property in a cartographic representation from your attribute table (line width, color, rotation). The cartographic representation really changes workflows for ArcMap cartographers. Remember though you’ll need at least an ArcEditor license to create these representations. ArcView can read them though (similar to how ArcView can read SDE layers, but not create or edit them).