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Group Layers in Cached ArcGIS Server Map Services

September 12th, 2008 by jade

Christian passed along a tip for when creating cached ArcGIS server map services that he picked up at this year’s ESRI International User Conference. When creating a cached map service, create an ArcMap “group layer” containing all the layers for each specific scale level.

By grouping layers by scale, you can quickly turn off and on the groups to define symbology and labels for each without concerning yourself with the other scale levels. You can also tell at a quick glance what information is available at each scale level.

Posted in ArcGIS Server, ESRI | No Comments »

Post-San Diego Commentary

August 11th, 2008 by Steven Myhill-Jones

I intended to blog once or twice during the ESRI International User Conference, but found my conference schedule and meetings all-consuming. This was our seventh time exhibiting at the conference, and I think it was the best one yet. ArcGIS Server 9.3 is what we hoped it would be, the new/emerging developer APIs are valuable, and I generally think ESRI is on the right track. I’m excited about the coming year.

Since it was first released, I’ve been very candid about my perspective on ArcGIS Server 9.2 (that it was the future but not quite ready for prime-time). This has caused consternation among some, but I always defended my position because our customers count on us for advice about technology and timing.

I’ve always contended that, regardless of new capabilities, the majority of ESRI customers will be reluctant to move from ArcIMS to ArcGIS Server until the shift doesn’t involve any significant steps backward from ArcIMS. There have been two main aspects to this; comparable performance and comparable functionality.

I think I can now see the tipping point. Aside from the general improvements in 9.3, during the plenary on Monday afternoon, ESRI announced that the new rendering engine for ArcGIS Server (which everyone was expecting as part of 9.4) would ship as part of ArcGIS Server 9.3 Service Pack 2 in January or February 2009. Even though you can actually do lots to improve performance (Mapservice/application tweaking and pre-rendering), this is big news for organizations that have been awaiting improved performance that doesn’t require much rearranging of the furniture.

As for the latter aspect (functional parity), the complementary use of Web ADF and the new developer API’s allow/will allow functionality, ease-of-development, and ease-of-use to be taken to the next level. We’ve been working hard over the last twenty months to be prepared with comparable and/or superior functionality (relative to ArcIMS-gen technology) in time for ESRI’s release of comparable performance. And we’re nearly there.

Bottom line… things are falling into place. Last year, we talked mostly with people who wanted to learn more about ArcGIS Server. This year, we talked mostly with people serious about getting going with ArcGIS Server. I predict 2009 will be remembered as being a significant year in the widespread transition from ArcIMS to ArcGIS Server.

Posted in ArcGIS Server, Conferences, ESRI | No Comments »

ArcGIS Server 9.3 APIs Part 1

March 28th, 2008 by David Stevenson

With the release of ArcGIS Server 9.3, you’ll have the following APIs available for building web applications with ESRI software:

Web ADF (.NET and Java)
REST (.NET and Java)
JavaScript
Google Maps Extender
Virtual Earth Extender

In addition to these APIs, ESRI is also working on a Flex API and Silverlight API that will be released post 9.3. No matter what the technical requirements are for your project, at least one of these APIs should help you get the job done. But which one? With choice comes confusion. There’s obvious strengths and weaknesses of choosing one over the other, as well as overlap in the functionalities they offer. Sometimes the choice is clear based on the technology stack and features you’re targeting. For example, if you require a secure solution and are standardized on .NET Framework then the .NET Web ADF is likely the best choice. Over the next few weeks I’ll discuss and compare these APIs in hopes of making your decision a little bit clearer, as well as share our experiences with them to date.

Posted in .NET, ESRI, Web ADF | No Comments »

ESRI Business Partner Conference and Dev Summit Recap

March 22nd, 2008 by David Stevenson

Wow, what a conference! I spent the last week in Palm Springs with various Latitude co-workers at the ESRI Business Partner Conference followed by the Developer Summit. Steve and the account management team were busy from Saturday to Tuesday meeting with existing and potential partners from around the world. I played mainly technical support for the first couple days, assisting where I could. Ryan Cooney flew down on Monday and we spent the rest of the week at the Developer Summit, which was the main reason I was there.

So, what did we learn? On the business side, there’s a real buzz about Geocortex Essentials and the work we’ve been up to, as Steve alluded to earlier. On the technical side, there’s a few points of particular interest:

The .NET Web ADF at 9.3 has a number of quality and performance improvements. A lot of work has been done to support a “hybrid” model of web application develoment where you get the ease of development using client-side (JavaScript) focused technologies coupled with the power of a server-side object model.
It will be relatively easy to port web applications built on 9.2 to 9.3. Of course, this applies directly to Geocortex Essentials which we plan to support on 9.3 out of the gates.
The .NET Web ADF at 9.3 supports the .NET Framework 3.5.
Significant documentation improvements.
The new ArcGIS Server JavaScript, REST, and connector APIs make ArcGIS Server a real contender in the consumer maps arena. Although, I predict a lot of confusion around which APIs to get started with, which I plan to address in the coming weeks.

Dave Bouwman did a great job of capturing the details of the .NET ADF session as well as the others he attended, as did James Fee in his conference recap. Bottom line on ArcGIS Server 9.3 is that it looks like a great upgrade that I’m looking forward to building on with Geocortex Essentials. Finally, the two conferences were a great time and I’m already looking forward to attending next year.

Posted in ESRI, Geocortex Essentials, Web ADF | No Comments »

The Internet will never take off because my 14.4 modem ties up my phone line

January 31st, 2008 by David Stevenson

I’m an avid reader of James Fee’s popular GIS blog, and I’m sometimes tempted to weigh in with a comment, but then I wonder if instead it is best left to people wanting to vent. There have been some good discussions lately, so I decided to comment.

This is all reminiscent of everyone kvetching about ArcIMS 3.0 in the summer of 2001, before ArcIMS went on to be such a phenomenal success (overwhelming its flaws). Technology improves over time, yet so many people are ready to pass judgment before a given technology comes into its own. Or maybe we all just need a place to vent with our buddies, then get back to it.

Posted in ESRI, Web ADF | 3 Comments »

Optimized Map Services

November 16th, 2007 by jade

Yesterday I attended a live training seminar offered by ESRI titled “Authoring and Publishing Optimized Map Services”. This seminar provided good information on things to consider when authoring an ArcMAP MXD file for web distribution.

If you missed out on yesterday’s live seminar, check the archives on the ESRI Training and Education website – training seminars are recorded and will be posted online a few weeks after the live presentation.

Posted in ESRI | 2 Comments »

CRD Natural Areas Atlas

October 9th, 2007 by Steven Myhill-Jones

Congratulations to the Capital Regional District on the Award of Excellence they recently received at ESRI Canada’s Regional User Conference in Victoria. This recognition is well deserved and is a long time coming.

hrh2001 Although we’ve helped build lots of applications, CRD’s popular Natural Areas Atlas is special to me. Unofficially launched in April 2001, the Natural Areas Atlas was the first public facing custom-built ArcIMS application developed by Latitude Geographics. At the time Latitude Geographics was about four people, and we volunteered to build the first version at virtually no cost so we’d have something to show HRH Prince of Wales (a.k.a. Prince Charles) during his official visit to Canada. We’d been selected to present our newfangled Internet mapping technology to him in Regina and needed a public facing app to actually demonstrate! If memory serves, the first version of the Natural Areas Atlas was completed about two days before the big demo. It may well be that the first member of the “public” who viewed the Natural Areas Atlas was the Prince of Wales.

The application has evolved considerably since then, and it got redeveloped from the original ASP code (modified and adapted by CRD over time) and migrated to Geocortex IMF two or three years ago.

Posted in Clients, ESRI, Events, IMF | 3 Comments »

Thinking about cartography and WMS layers

September 15th, 2007 by jade

Web Map Service (WMS) layers allow organizations to incorporate spatial data from other places, and clients are now routinely integrating WMS layers into their ESRI-centric applications. I’m going to discuss a couple of the cartographic issues that can crop up with this.

When a user switches on a WMS layer, the map viewer requests the data directly from the WMS which returns a map image back to the user’s web browser. The map viewer stacks the various image layers from the different data sources one on top of the other. Normally this would result in only the top image being visible to the user, but the map images can take advantage of the concept of transparency; that is, areas of the map image that contain no data can be made transparent, allowing the images lower in the stack to show through.
While the image stacking method mentioned above works is simple enough, there are situations where it yields unsuitable cartographic results. Annotation can be especially problematic, as a feature’s label may have been placed at exactly the same spot as the label for a different feature from a different WMS data source. Since the WMS layers are raster images, there is no way for different WMS servers to perform label collision detection and reconciliation, which is done for WMS layers drawn from the same data source. Multiple labels drawn at exactly the same location will be illegible.

In addition to the annotation problem, there is a potentially more important issue whereby polygons (district boundaries, for example) that are symbolized with a solid fill color are completely opaque to WMS layers from data sources further down on the image stack. A common internet cartography technique is to symbolize a polygon with a partially transparent fill color, allowing features underneath the polygon to show through. For example, a floodplain feature may be symbolized with a partial transparent fill, allowing all of the land features to be seen through the feature. The end result is a tinge of color across the floodplain area with little effect on the visibility of the coincident features. However, output map images compiled from different sources don’t provide transparency options that are well suited for web environments.
So… when integrating WMS layers from various sources into your mapping application, it is important to consider how they will appear to end users. WMS layers can be a convenient way to enrich an ArcIMS/ArcGIS Server application, but are of diminished value if cartographic representation issues detract from the effectiveness of the final map.

Posted in ESRI, WMS | No Comments »

ArcMap MXD to ArcIMS AXL Conversion

August 15th, 2007 by jade

Once you delve into the ArcXML Programmer’s Reference Guide you notice that the cartographic capabilities of ArcIMS are increased, when compared with those offered in through ArcIMS Author – ArcMAP provides a solid UI to define your map service symbology, whereas to take advantage of the symbology options not available in ArcIMS Author, you must update the ArcXML code directly (using a program like TextPad).
As ArcIMS also supports raster marker symbols, which aren’t available in ArcIMS Author, I have found the following script to be infinitely useful:

http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=12766

This script outputs an AXL file based on an MXD. Note I have found that some of the symbology does not carry across entirely, so if using this utility you will likely have to do some tweaks (sometimes polygons receive polyline symbols…) – I find that this tool is especially great for theming different classes of polygons and symbolizing point layers with the ArcGIS symbols.
By the number of downloads recorded, I am not the only one who finds this script invaluable – thanks Jeroen!

Posted in ESRI | 3 Comments »

Some reasons I like ESRI technology

August 1st, 2007 by David Stevenson

We’ve been working with ESRI software for more than 7 years now. From a pure business perspective, there are many reasons Latitude has focused mostly on ESRI products. But it’s not the business side that excites me — it’s the technology. Here are a few reasons I like ESRI technology:

Web ADF – I recall last summer sitting down with Steve to discuss some of the technology I played with while down at Redlands participating in holistic testing. We started chatting about Web ADF and, as I always do, I tried to think of a meaningful analogy to communicate what I thought the signficance of Web ADF was – it went something like “ADF is to ESRI server technology what .NET is to Microsoft technology.” You could sit down and write all of the code necessary to incorporate ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server, OGC, and others and build a framework for map navigation, tools, querying, etc, or you could build on top of Web ADF, leap frog all the up front development and focus on your real business challenges. It’s relatively new technology and has some wrinkles to iron out, but I believe it will become a core asset for ESRI. And based on discusionss I’ve had with Redlands, they seem on top of emerging .NET technologies for the .NET verion of Web ADF. We’re putting our money on the .NET ADF.

ArcObjects – ArcObjects is perhaps the largest COM implementation in the world and has to be the most feature rich GIS library available. Put that into a server context and you’ve got the makings of a pretty powerful web GIS engine. Now, ArcObjects isn’t the easiest, most intuitive library to program with, and it wasn’t originally designed to run in a server context, but it is certainly stabilizing and we should see big performance jumps with the 9.3 release. Also, having ArcGIS Server powered by ArcObjects means that as the desktop GIS functionality matures due to technological and user driven innovations, so will ArcGIS Server.

Supporting Technology – It always amazes me how much effort ESRI goes to to support their products on so many different platforms. Windows, Solaris, Linux, Java, .NET, ColdFusion. Sometimes you get the feeling that they bite off more than they can chew – but I would rather have the option to run on my platform of choice than not run at all.

User Community – All it takes is one trip to the ESRI International User Conference or even the Developer Summit in Palm Springs to realize how many like-minded developers there are out there trying to build the same stuff you are. Or do a Google search for some Java or .NET technology only to find a bunch of hits pointing to GIS developer problems. Bottom line is that if you’re struggling with an ESRI programming challenge, someone has probably solved and posted about it.

Posted in ArcObjects, ESRI, Web ADF | No Comments »

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