Geocortex Blog

In my inbox today from ESRI:

“An issue has been found with some uses of non-English Unicode data within the personal geodatabase when upgrading to ArcGIS 10. In some cases, the use of non-English Unicode characters in object names in the geodatabase are corrupted when the personal geodatabase (access file) is upgraded to an ArcGIS 10 geodatabase. This error corrupts the source data and is nonrecoverable. Further details and workarounds are provided in knowledge base article 38149.

A software patch is available for this issue. Download now.”

The recent release of Geocortex Essentials includes a major new development called Workflow.  Using workflow, administrators model their business processes by chaining together small units of work called “activities”. Built on Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation, Geocortex Essentials workflow allows administrators and application developers to build smart, successful systems that reduce the cost of getting things done.

Last week we updated the Geocortex Resource Center (http://resources.geocortex.com) with a huge amount of documentation supporting this new technology.  If you are a developer working with Geocortex Essentials 3.0, you’ll definitely want to take a look at the new workflow samples included in each of the APIs (JavaScript, Flex and Silverlight).  The samples will teach you the concepts you need to build workflow-based features or applications.

The REST API documentation has also received an upgrade and includes information about how Workflows are published on the server.

Finally, we’ve also released the help system for the desktop Geocortex Workflow Designer application.  In the downloads section of our Support Center, you will find a ZIP file containing this documentation, and a README file which describes how to deploy it so it may be launched from within Geocortex Workflow Designer.

Well, after a decade in historic Market Square and months of renovations to our new space, Latitude Geographics is in the process of being dismantled and moved from our motley assortment of current offices (seven in total over two floors!) to a much larger, unified space (all in one office) a few blocks away. For us, it’s a functional upgrade… not a vanity upgrade. It also happens to be a lovely space that I anticipate will accommodate future growth nicely. And like Market Square, it’s historic; it’s built around the original Fort Victoria well from which everyone drew their water long ago.

The last time I moved Latitude it was into Market Square from the small apartment I was living in during university. In other words, last time I had to move a workstation and desk. This, time it’s a different sort of endeavor–thankfully I have a team of folks who’ve led the charge coordinating moving the 55 of us.

As I write this, there is a hurricane of activity around me as furniture is being dismantled and carted away by movers. I have the use of my office a little longer because my trusty (others have less fawning words for it) $35 government surplus desk isn’t making the move with me.

Anyway, before I get all nostalgic on you, we’ve got a new address. Here it is:

200–1117 Wharf Street
Victoria, BC Canada V8W 1T7

We’ll post some photos of the new space once we’re moved in!

Late last week, our viewer team released the second iteration of the Geocortex Sample Flex Viewer (“GSFV”).  Although there remains some formal productization work for the GSFV, at version 2.0 the viewer has evolved well beyond our original vision of a “stopgap” viewer.   There’s been lots of traction on the initial release, and this release incorporates to some great feedback.  GSFV 2.0 uses Flex 4, and works with the ArcGIS API for Flex 2.0, and the Geocortex Essentials Flex API 2.0.

Among the architectural changes for the future, we have also made a few styling updates including some polish to the look and feel and functionality.

We encourage you to build applications using the GSFV 2.0 in anticipation of shifting to the fully productized Geocortex Viewer for Flex when it is available later this year.

The latest drop of Geocortex Essentials contains some quality improvements on our 2.X line.  Consult the release notes (which can be found on our Support Center alongside the download) to determine if this release contains resolutions to issues you are experiencing.

Since it is a maintenance-only release, there are no new features in 2.3.3.  It is intended to target ArcGIS Server 9.3/9.3.1 installations – our upcoming, major 3.0 release will be announced in a few days and will support ArcGIS Server 10.0.

ArcGIS (Desktop, Engine, Server) 9.3.1 Service Pack 2

ArcSDE 9.3.1 Service Pack 2

ArcGIS Image Server 9.3.1 Service Pack 2

ArcIMS 9.3.1 Service Pack 2

Dave Bouwman had the humorous idea of organizing a wake for Web ADF at this year’s ESRI International User Conference following ESRI’s announcement that Web ADF will be deprecated following ArcGIS Server 10.1 next year.

We’ll definitely be there and, like many, we’re pumped about the considerable advantages in the development experience going from Web ADF to REST.

At the same time, I don’t want to be perceived as being too flippant about the matter of Web ADF being deprecated at 10.1… there are hundreds (if not thousands) of organizations out there that have invested heavily in Web ADF based on the notion that it was to be ESRI’s core platform for the future and that it represented the best (or only) available alternative at the time they selected it.

There are natural technology deprecations, and there are more forced technology deprecations. Given there are lots of folks for whom Web ADF is actually working quite nicely now, ESRI’s announcement (while defensible and not a surprise for most) will have a real impact on many organizations and necessitate a transition they’d just as soon not make. Which sucks.

We’ve spent the last eighteen months transitioning our Geocortex Essentials product from being Web ADF-centric to being REST-centric. I’ll be drinking a beer partly celebrating a shift away from the challenges people (including us) have experienced with Web ADF, while also thinking about the work that will be involved for lots of folks out there who will need to rewrite a lot of their relatively recent custom code in which they’ve made significant investments.

If you haven’t already flipped through the Tips and Shortcuts brochure for ArcGIS Desktop, you should check them out!  There are some great time-savers for things you do every day.

For ArcGIS 10

For 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3

Before the ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, Redlands posts a Q&A that is filled with insight on ESRI’s messaging, strategic direction, and lots of specific product/technology information. If I could only get one communication per year from ESRI, this would be it.

This year didn’t fail to disappoint, and there were a few very noteworthy announcements like this.

“The Web ADFs will be deprecated in the next release after ArcGIS Server 10.”

I like how it’s tacked on the end. Answer, answer, context, then… POW.

Though the writing has been on the wall for some time (it was actually a key theme during our recent Geocortex User Conference), this is nonetheless a significant announcement for many organizations now that it’s official. Note that my interpretation is that ArcGIS Server 10.1 will be the final release of ArcGIS Server containing Web ADF. But of course, there is the following:

“The next release of ArcGIS Server after 10 will run entirely as a 64-bit application.”

From this we infer no ArcObjects (based on our current assessment, anyway), and therefore no ArcGIS Server local connections via Web ADF as of 10.1. If we’re correct, though it appears Web ADF will be deprecated following 10.1, limitations will appear as of 10.1.

It’s for these reasons that we’ve been so aggressively developing REST technology, and encouraging people to deploy using REST whenever possible. We’ve been preparing for this announcement for the last eighteen months, and have been getting migration strategies in place.

From a development and technology perspective, we see REST emphasis as a step forward and we’re excited about it. We’ve spent thousands and thousands of hours building on both Web ADF and REST, and we welcome this shift; it will ultimately reduce development complexity and increase effectiveness of apps. We have some concerns around ESRI’s deprecation timelines, and we envision this prompting otherwise unnecessary migrations for folks that have invested in Web ADF and for whom it is a good fit and working well. That said, we recognize there are bigger issues at play; we’ll do everything we can to minimize impact for customers to ensure smooth transitions over time.

Be sure to check out their summary of pros and cons of various API choices. We have some additions/refinements to their points, but it’s nonetheless a good overview.

It’s great to see work happening on emerging technologies like HTML5:

“We plan on incorporating specific HTML5 functionality within the ArcGIS API for JavaScript this year.”

HTML5 is still a ways off, but it’ll have a big impact long-term. We can’t wait to start working with it.

What else? Because I just can’t get enough of human-like robots, the following jumped out at me:

“We plan to release both an API and an application for the Android operating system around the end of this year.”

Also, as if we don’t spend enough time already fidgeting with our iPhones and their ilk already, check this out:

“ArcGIS for iOS is the latest ESRI mobile product available at the ArcGIS 10 release that extends GIS to the popular Apple iOS platform. It includes a ready to deploy application which will be downloadable from the Apple App Store, and a native Objective C API that developers can use to build GIS applications that meet their business needs. By making ArcGIS available for iOS, existing customers can extend the reach of their GIS to a wider market.”

Definitely check out the Q&A section on the cloud as I expect it’ll be a major focus at the conference this year.

Anyway, loads more to discover in the Q&A, but I thought I’d roll-up a few items that jumped out at us right away.