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I’ve gotten a couple emails and comments from people who seem to be confused about two of ESRI’s mapping products. ArcWeb Explorer and Arc_GIS_ Explorer are two very different products. ArcGIS Explorer is a 2D/3D windows client, while ArcWeb Explorer is a Flash-based web client. Both are quite impressive though and both are due to be released in January 2006. I’ve always thought there are way too many products with the word “Arc” appended to the front of them, but we might be at the point where there are too many with the word “Explorer” in them too.

Link – Making Y! Maps with Flash (Series)

“So yahoo’s map api is available to help us make maps with flash. Strangely I see an awful lot of questions about the Flash-JS api. I don’t personally do a lot of flash javascript communication, so I’m not sure i really understand why there seems to be so much interest in this. Javascript is great, but if i’m using the flash plugin i feel like i might as well get my monies worth and do the work in Actionscript (saving JS for when flash just can/t handle something, or to communicate with things in strange ways that flash can’t).”

Most who have seen the Flash viewer for Yahoo! Maps are impressed (even I’m a convert now) so how easy is it to use the API? Well compared to Google’s API it seems that Yahoo!’s documentation is lacking. A good API documentation will do wonders for those wanting to get involved with Yahoo! maps and help with its adoption. As for Actionscript vs. JavaScript, I’ll just say I’ve been sticking with JavaScript on their API as I’m more comfortable with it. I guess Yahoo! should be commended for allowing both to be used with their flash maps.

ESRI should take this to heart and make sure their documentation is ready to go when ArcWeb Explorer is released.

Link – Imagery in ArcGIS Explorer

I’ve seen nothing to suggest that ArcGIS Explorer is going to make anything but a tiny ripple in the Google Earth ocean. Google are too good at providing free tools that lots of people want to use.

Tough words, but I’m think ESRI might want to get used to them as many will be seriously disappointed with the included imagery in ArcGIS Explorer. A simple look at the screen shots that ESRI has posted (specifically this one) shows pretty much wat to expect. There is the Katrina example but beyond that there isn’t much to suggest high quality imagery will be offered. My gut feeling is that they will use the Public ArcWeb Services to handle the imagery.

ArcGIS Explorer is much more than a satellite imagery viewer like Google Earth is and that is what ESRI is focusing on. I doubt even if they gave away the World Premium Imagery GlobeXplorer that Google Earth would be in deep trouble. When I say ArcGIS Explorer is the product that Google Earth should have been, I’m saying this as a GIS Professional, not Jack GoogleUser who wants to see where the first McDonald’s was located. The power of ArcGIS Explorer will be in the server side applications GIS Professionals develop, allowing ordinary users to have the power of a professional GIS system.

Google Earth has the market for sightseeing wrapped up, no sense fighting them on that.

Link – Issues addressed with ArcGIS 9.1 Service Pack 1

ESRI announced the ArcGIS 9.1 Service Pack 1 will be released December, 2005. You can read up on the maintenance fixes and performance improvements here. I wish this stuff would have an RSS feed, rather than waiting for the archaic “Online Support Center Notifications service”. Weekly emails just aren’t relevant enough these days.

I got an email from a reader telling me Robert Scoble is subscribed to this blog now. You wouldn’t want him to notice the complete lack of RSS from ESRI (beyond the news feed) now would you? 😉

Looks like “coming soon” finally has a date and that date is January 2006. I’m disappointed to see that date because ArcWeb Explorer is just so impressive I really want to get my hands on it. Oh well, probably all for the best as I think my wife would rather have me enjoying my holiday vacation, than sitting in from of my laptop playing with ArcWeb. 😉

Link – ESRI Geographical Explorer Screenshots Released

Just spottted on Digg…

Link – uiMSWheel for ArcGIS 9 (MouseWheel Support)

This small module will add Mouse-Wheel Zoom/Pan capabilities to ArcGIS 9. I also added small procedure to use any key as a hot key (in ArcGIS you have to use a combination of Alt, Ctrl or Shift with other keys). For the moment, only “ESC” key is implemented. Later I will make a separate config file to configure any key for any build-in/module command.

Mousewheel support in ArcGIS 9.2 is one of the most eagerly awaited features I witnessed at the 2005 UC. Most people were very excited to see they could finally take advantage of their mouse. Well users of ArGIS 9 can add support for the mousewheel with this ArcScript. I tried it and the only part I don’t like is the pointer moves to the center of the image (probably to make sure that the zoom is done in the middle of the view/layout). Kind of weird when you first use it, but I’ve gotten used to it. Saves time panning and zooming, I’ll tell you that.

Link – ArcGIS Explorer Brochure

ESRI has also posted a PDF brochure of ArcGIS Explorer. Not much really new here, but might help some better understand what the program is all about.

via MapServer Discussion E-mail List

Folks,

We’ll have to think about how to do this, but the bottom line is that we’ve heard you: the name doesn’t work. It took weeks to set it up, and it will take weeks to change it. Please give us time to sort this out.

Thanks,

Gary

Looks like the community works and Autodesk is listening.

Just to clarify some things for some people who are still confused.

Autodesk MapServer Enterprise is a rewrite of MapGuide, the only thing in common with (UMN) MapServer is the MapServer Foundation (well and the use of the MapServer name).