Spatially Adjusted

Tag: esri

  • More demo software shows up in ArcScripts

    I know ESRI is working on getting this stuff out of ArcScripts, but demo software continues to show up. I can only guess that this stuff gets automatically updated, rather than reviewed. Maybe there should be some kind of flag users can activate to let ESRI know about these commercial products that they are hosting for companies (think about how many downloads ESRI has handled for XTools Pro and how much they are saving on their own hosting).

  • ESRI Looks to Revamp ArcScripts

    Link – James help me snap out of the blogging coma

    “When it comes to the ArcScripts site and removing demo products or other commercial goods – I couldn’t agree more; but I think that doing so is really only a Band-Aid at best. What we really need to do is ask ourselves; what do we really want in a collaborative code sharing environment? I’m sure that most of us have already used SourceForge, GotDotNet or perhaps the new O’Reilly CodeZoo. All of these have great facilities for establishing code sharing workspaces, providing infrastructure relating to enhancements, bugs and also rating and collaborative discussion.”

    Boy this is really nice to hear. Most of us have problems with the current layout of the ESRI support website and having them move off of a proprietary CMS to something like SourceForge or GotDotNet would be wonderful. There are many “scripts” loaded into the ArcScripts repository that have source code attached to them but almost no way to collaborate on development of them. A move to something like this and away from the traditional layout would do wonders to foster grassroots development of ArcGIS add ons (both for Desktop and Server). Personally I kind of like the GotDotNet option, but one of my programmers prefers CodeZoo (which I will say is growing on me). To just think that something like Walt’s PHP ArcWeb code could have a place where we could collaborate on it or Andrea’s demos could spark interest in Public ArcWeb. Even projects like TerraServer Image Download could be enhanced with this kind of collaboration.

    Everyone should let Brian know what you think about this and what features you’d want to see.

  • 3 of the last 10 uploaded ArcScripts are commercial products

    Link – ArcScripts Uploaded During the Last Week

    3 of the last 10 ArcScripts are commercial products with a limited demo period. The more you look at this, the more you see how bad ArcScripts has become.

    Arcscripts

    To be honest, ESRI ArcGIS users have paid quite a bit of money and they have no good framework to share just about everything they create. Currently Desktop users can’t share any good MXT templates they have created (or download any that others have created. Users can’t share any models created with the model builder. Users can’t share any Geodatabase schema’s or even UML. ArcScripts has some Python code and extensions/toolbars, but the search function is pretty bad and the interface is difficult to work with. ESRI should take this opportunity to fix the Desktop collaboration options available to ArcGIS users.

    As bad as it is for Desktop users, ESRI is never going to break into the developer community until the start doing things that developers looks for in a product. ArcScripts has never been friendly to developers and most of us don’t bother releasing are code into it for various reasons. Brian is right on with thinking of a code sharing environment added to EDN. As of right now unless you need the software EDN is of no value to programmers who already have access to Server/IMS/Engine. If EDN had a place where we could share code and collaborate on projects you’d see a huge upsurge in ESRI development. I had a Google Maps API developer email asking where he could get questions answered for ArcWeb Services and I pointed him to the ESRI forums. He laughed and told me no thanks, he’d rather not get involved if that is the only way to work with others (beyond blogging). EDN showed many of us that ESRI was serious about developers, but since its release months ago we really haven’t seen much. Too bad for us.

  • Where is the ESRI Sandbox?

    Link – TerraServer Download for ArcGIS 9.0 (Version2) via ArcScripts

    I was just thinking as I was using this extension that finding extensions, scripts, and other software created by ESRI is very difficult. Much of this gets lost in the ArcScripts and overlooked by many GIS users. Thomas Emge’s TerraServer Download toolbar is excellent and includes the source code if you want to use it for your own projects. I’m sure there is a ton of similar projects that exist both on ArcScripts and on many workstations at ESRI. It would be nice if there was a place ESRI developers could upload these projects in a sandbox were users could play with them (with the understanding that anything in the toolbox isn’t supported by ESRI). Anything from ArcGIS Desktop to the server and development products could be there for users to look and and implement in their own workflows and projects.

  • Walt Posts Great ArcWeb Starter Article

    Link – ArcWeb Mini-HOWTO

    “Creating mapping applications for the Web with ArcWeb Public Services can be daunting at first, so here are some helpers to get you started. Part of the code used here comes from Andrea Rosso’s fine example.”

    Kudos for Walt for posting a writeup on how to create a ArcWeb project via PHP.

  • Walt answers Sean about ArcWeb mashups

    Link – Mashups and Web Services

    “Don’t get me wrong, I love the Google API, and think that I’ve put together a pretty good application of it. But ArcWeb Public Services seems to be much more data rich and correct. Google maps (the service, not the API) can’t even find my house. ESRI can find it, show thematic data about the area, give me topographical data, display a much better satellite image, and in general is just better (from a data standpoint).”

  • ESRI EDN Begins Posting Video

    Link – Value of GIS

    I can’t bring myself to actually watch that video, but I hope this is the start of something similar to what Channel 9 is doing over at MSDN. I think video is a great method of showing what ESRI is doing behind the curtain. It is so hard to figure out what is going on over there that a behind the scenes view would be great.

    No more PR videos though on EDN, I’d guess most of us going there already know the “Value of GIS”.

  • Walt’s ArcWeb Mashup is Looking Great

    I just checked out Walt’s progress on his ArcWeb mashup and it is looking great. I like how he put buttons right on the map much like Google Maps does (but he added a “Topo” button that Google doesn’t offer). Considering where this was last week, I’m very impressed with his progress.

    Walt's_Mashup.jpg

    **Update – **Walt offers up his ArcWeb Zoom PHP code on his blog.

  • ESRI Updates Hurricane Katrina Data Resource Guide

    Link – Hurricane Katrina Data Resource Guide Updated

    ESRI’s guide shows you both free and fee based data resources with Hurrican Katrina information.

  • ESRI Hurricane Maps and Help

    Link – Hurricane Maps and Help

    ESRI has a nice page up where you can volunteer your services to help with the hurricane recovery. Right after disasters happen people always offer up overwhelming support, but months/years down the line their enthusiasm wanes as the story moves off the front page. If you can’t help right now because you don’t have the opportunity, remember that help will be needed for long in the future.