Esri Geodatabase Archive Updated
Something I started in 2006 is still widely used. I created it originally as I was trying to create ArcGIS 9.1 Personal Geodatabases with ArcGIS 9.2. It wasn’t possible then to create older Geodatabases but Esri eventually added in functionality to create older versions. The reason we need these is that you can use older Geodatases in newer versions of ArcGIS but not the other way around. So if you are on ArcGIS 10.2 and your client is on ArcGIS 9.3, you’ll have a problem sharing data. But if you have a 9.3 version Geodatabase, then you can save your data to that version and share away.
I like this archive because each one of these Geodatabases was created with that version of the software. They will work perfectly since they are natively created. So next time you need to have a 8.3 Geodatabase (You totally know that day will come), you’ll have a native Geodatabase to work with. Bookmark and use!
Special thanks to @GIS_katie for providing the updated blank ArcGIS 10.3 File and Personal Geodatabases.
AAA’s TripTik Still a Thing
It’s always interesting to hear about the latest mobile mapping apps but I thought this was interesting.
Its signature TripTik is still going strong, the auto club says, even in the age of in-dash GPS and Google Maps. The TripTiks come free with AAA membership.
AAA is not only still making TripTiks but they are still giving them out free. Given the article doesn’t give ages but they sound from the older generation. TripTik is still around but it’s day is numbered.
AAA’s TripTik Still a Thing
It’s always interesting to hear about the latest mobile mapping apps but I thought this was interesting.
Its signature TripTik is still going strong, the auto club says, even in the age of in-dash GPS and Google Maps. The TripTiks come free with AAA membership.
AAA is not only still making TripTiks but they are still giving them out free. Given the article doesn’t give ages but they sound from the older generation. TripTik is still around but it’s day is numbered.
ArcGIS Server Revisited
Legacy GIS System
We were talking this weekend about how much serving up GIS data has changed in the past 3 years. GIS Server used to be so important to many of my friends companies to the point they spent tens of thousands of dollars on it a year. But no longer, each one said that they stopped paying for server because they all use other options. Now before I go on, I want to say this isn’t about sales data of Esri products. It’s more about changes in how people are sharing spatial data. Feel free to replace ArcGIS Server with your favorite GIS server package (Title is a bit of SEO, right? Heck I’m not even talking about ArcGIS Server in this post).
I gave a talk years ago about something we did at the GNOCDC mapping recovery from Hurricane Katrina. You can see the slide deck here and watch the video here. Basically it was the seeds of what we are going through right now. It wasn’t that what we were doing back there was very unique, it was just a realization that GIS can’t be hosting “enterprise” data in a “workgroup” environment. Just like Katrina basically broke the GNOCDC GIS servers, it has become clear that there is almost no way for an organization to use classic GIS servers without putting a lot of load balancing and networking decisions in front of them.
For most companies this is just way too much infrastructure and licensing costs. We’ve seen the rise of CartoDB, Mapbox and ArcGIS Online (or whatever it is called these days). Each has pluses and minuses and while there is overlap, they all do things unique to themselves. But what the big attraction for each is that you don’t have to manage the constellation yourself.
The biggest drawback each said was the unknown in licensing. Most hosted GIS plans are costed in ways that GIS people aren’t familiar with. Mapviews? Nobody has analytics on that until you put it in these services. 100,000 map views sounds huge doesn’t it? But how do you really know? Service credits? We’ve wondered what that even means for years. But I’d wager beers that even with the unknown, you’ll still save money over your ArcGIS Server license or other maintenance you pay for hosting your own GIS server.
We’re at a crossroads here. People have begun to start realizing standing up ArcGIS Server, Geoserver or other map servers makes little to no sense in the new marketplace. Paying for hosting maps is cheaper in the long run, has more availability and is easier to use that classic self hosted mapping solutions. ArcGIS Online for all it’s confusion is beginning to be leveraged by users and everyone I knew at the Esri UC knows what CartoDB and Mapbox do. Back in the old days of WeoGeo, we had to prove what we know now every day. The cost of “doing it yourself” is magnitudes higher than paying for hosting.
Tide is changing…
August 24, 2015 arcgis server cartodb esri geoserver gnocdc katrina mapbox Thoughts weogeo
ArcGIS Server Revisited
Legacy GIS System
We were talking this weekend about how much serving up GIS data has changed in the past 3 years. GIS Server used to be so important to many of my friends companies to the point they spent tens of thousands of dollars on it a year. But no longer, each one said that they stopped paying for server because they all use other options. Now before I go on, I want to say this isn’t about sales data of Esri products. It’s more about changes in how people are sharing spatial data. Feel free to replace ArcGIS Server with your favorite GIS server package (Title is a bit of SEO, right? Heck I’m not even talking about ArcGIS Server in this post).
I gave a talk years ago about something we did at the GNOCDC mapping recovery from Hurricane Katrina. You can see the slide deck here and watch the video here. Basically it was the seeds of what we are going through right now. It wasn’t that what we were doing back there was very unique, it was just a realization that GIS can’t be hosting “enterprise” data in a “workgroup” environment. Just like Katrina basically broke the GNOCDC GIS servers, it has become clear that there is almost no way for an organization to use classic GIS servers without putting a lot of load balancing and networking decisions in front of them.
For most companies this is just way too much infrastructure and licensing costs. We’ve seen the rise of CartoDB, Mapbox and ArcGIS Online (or whatever it is called these days). Each has pluses and minuses and while there is overlap, they all do things unique to themselves. But what the big attraction for each is that you don’t have to manage the constellation yourself.
The biggest drawback each said was the unknown in licensing. Most hosted GIS plans are costed in ways that GIS people aren’t familiar with. Mapviews? Nobody has analytics on that until you put it in these services. 100,000 map views sounds huge doesn’t it? But how do you really know? Service credits? We’ve wondered what that even means for years. But I’d wager beers that even with the unknown, you’ll still save money over your ArcGIS Server license or other maintenance you pay for hosting your own GIS server.
We’re at a crossroads here. People have begun to start realizing standing up ArcGIS Server, Geoserver or other map servers makes little to no sense in the new marketplace. Paying for hosting maps is cheaper in the long run, has more availability and is easier to use that classic self hosted mapping solutions. ArcGIS Online for all it’s confusion is beginning to be leveraged by users and everyone I knew at the Esri UC knows what CartoDB and Mapbox do. Back in the old days of WeoGeo, we had to prove what we know now every day. The cost of “doing it yourself” is magnitudes higher than paying for hosting.
Tide is changing…
August 24, 2015 arcgis server cartodb esri geoserver gnocdc katrina mapbox Thoughts weogeo
Is GIS Heavy?
The other day I posted about using Turf.js to perform some simple GIS processes. The venerable Brian Timoney made note of it.
https://twitter.com/briantimoney/status/634078615500517376
I hadn’t really thought of the article in that context, I was just looking at a quick way to turn a CSV into a GeoJSON file quickly. But let’s look at Brian’s point, is desktop GIS heavy?
Esri_logo.svg
I’ve maintained since Esri abandoned ArcInfo Workstation in the early 2000s, GIS has become difficult to use. Not in the sense that any idiot1 can click the next button, but the simple fact they have no idea what they’re doing. To accomplish this, Esri spent tons of R&D to make GIS as simple as drag a couple of layers to a dialog and just click next until you have an output. You don’t even need to understand the setting, they default pretty much out of the box. Setting fuzzy tolerance? Not a problem, it’s labeled as optional. The need to understand why you are performing analysis is not needed.
Now that isn’t to say Esri is doing something bad. They’re simplifying something that was very scientific and required understanding of FORTRAN or UNIX into something that almost anyone can do. I think at some level they should be commended for making GIS easier and not limited to a bunch of weirdos with Sun SPARCstation 20 workstations. But in doing so they turned something lightweight into something of a beast. Thus Brian’s heavy comment.
But that’s not the end to the story, at least from an Esri perspective. Esri at the same time they were throwing wizards in from of every tool in ArcGIS Desktop, created one of the most powerful GIS libraries ever created, ArcPy. It’s everything we wanted ArcInfo Workstation to become, a modern, no proprietary scripting language with tons of GIS analysis tools. But for some reason, Esri doesn’t highlight it as they should. Just go to Esri.com and search for ArcPy. Typical Esri results, it’s a mess. Brian is reading this now nodding, “GIS is heavy”.
My example using Turf.js could have as easily been done with a simple Python script as it could have been done with Turf.js. I just chose JavaScript because I was in a mood I suppose. But the process of creating a script in ArcPy isn’t much more complicated2. Is ArcPy “desktop GIS”? I would say so as you get it when you install ArcGIS Desktop. But it isn’t heavy, you can create Python in notepad.exe and run from the command line. Or as most are now preferring, use Visual Studio 2015.
Heavy GIS is starting up ArcMap, starting up ArcCatalog, dragging and dropping into a wizard, and fighting through the next screens. The process is similar in QGIS which seems to be adopting some of the same wizard dialogs as ArcGIS. They’re heavy because that’s what they need to be. Scott Morehouse years ago told me ArcGIS was complicated because it is “scientific software”. At the time I laughed but I do get it. It’s the long tail of long tails in GIS, solving GIS analysis in so many edge cases that it gets bloated.
Esri should3 have a section of their website devoted to Python scripting. Showing how much easier (and faster) it is to do your analysis with ArcPy over ArcGIS Toolbox4. There are pieces all over their website about Python and ArcGIS, but “Scripting” section. That would go a long way to making Desktop GIS not heavy. Searching Google for “Esri Scripting” gives you a dead-end to ArcScripts. That should change.