EAGLE News Feed

ArcPad 8 Service Pack 3 Released

Jithen Singh — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:37:36 GMT

Heads up for those ArcPad 8 users. ArcPad 8 Service Pack 3 is now available for download.

The ArcPad 8.0 Service Pack 3 addresses specific issues in the ArcPad 8.0 product release related to international language support in ArcPad Studio, Windows 7 compatibility, and drawing performance.

There are a bundle of new updates and fixes. SP3 addresses three specific areas:

Issues specific to Microsoft Windows 7/Vista Support
Foreign language support in ArcPad Studio
Performance improvements

A full listing of these updates and fixes can be found here: http://downloads2.esri.com/...

Note that ArcPad 8.0 Service Pack 3 is a full installation so please uninstall any previous versions of ArcPad prior to this installation.

Also please note that there is no update of the ArcGIS Server ArcPad Extension for Service Pack 3. The ArcGIS Server ArcPad Extension 8.0 Service Pack 1 works with ArcPad 8.0 Service Pack 3.

Full information including download links can be found here: http://support.esri.com/index.cfm...

VMware Publishes Deployment Guide For ArcGIS Server 9.3 With Performance Results

Jithen Singh — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:34:43 GMT

As the adoption of virtualisation becomes increasingly widespread within the IT industry, including by those of us with ArcGIS Server installations, more and more is learnt about how to achieve the best performance from the various platforms. To this end virtualisation software provider VMWare have published their own recommendations for using VMWare with ArcGIS Server.

The following document describes their recommended best practices for running ArcGIS Server deployments on VMware Infrastructure. It provides basic guidance on the architectural design of an ArcGIS deployment and promotes the value of utilizing the VMware platform to provide virtual infrastructure. It then discusses the results of recent testing conducted jointly by VMware and ESRI characterising the performance and functionality of ArcGIS Server 9.3 running on VMware infrastructure version 3.5i update 3. Finally, it outlines some best practices for utilizing the two products together.

This document can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/resources/...

Looking at the test and performance results and the comparison table between physical servers and virtual machines there are a few comments.

With these tests and results we can start to get a good understanding of how ArcGIS Server 9.3 performs under load when using VMware as a platform and from the tables you can see that in some instances physical performance is almost double that of running virtual machines. While VMware is a fully supported environment for the ArcGIS platform, and is used extensively by ESRI customers for development, training and testing, it may require more consideration when looking at the virtualisation of production environments. Also while the configuration that provided the best throughput gained noticeable performance improvements over the other configurations, the required eight separate virtual machines will be a limiting factor for a number of organisations.

In general, at EAGLE we make use of Virtualisation for development and testing as well as for many of our demonstration servers, we also make use of SAN devices for storage whenever possible since with testing we have seen significant performance increases using iSCSI over dual 1 Gbps.

For general information about ArcGIS Server and virtualization, there is also a document from ESRI covering the virtualisation topic: http://www.esri.com/library/...

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1 Released

Jithen Singh — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:10:12 GMT

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1 has been released. This release includes an enormous number of fixes and enhancements. The announcement along with the list of fixes can be found here: http://geo.geek.nz/esri/... Since the announcement this list has been updated.

The list of fixes that have been added to ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1 can be found here:

ArcGIS 9.3.1 (Desktop, Server, Engine) Service Pack 1
ArcGIS Image Server 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
ArcIMS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
ArcSDE 9.3.1 Service Pack 1

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1 download locations can be found here:

US
ArcGIS 9.3.1 (Desktop, Server, Engine) Service Pack 1
ArcGIS Image Server 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
ArcIMS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
ArcSDE 9.3.1 Service Pack 1

NZ
ArcGIS 9.3.1 (Desktop, Server, Engine) Service Pack 1
ArcGIS Image Server 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
ArcIMS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
ArcSDE 9.3.1 Service Pack 1

The New Zealand download links are only for users in New Zealand please. This mirror contains a subset (most popular) of the files that are on the ESS.

Start downloading!

ArcGIS API For Microsoft Silverlight/WPF 1.1 Now Available

Jithen Singh — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:42:30 GMT

As Microsoft PDC 2009 kicked off, the final build of the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF 1.1 was made available for download. This can now be downloaded from the ESRI Resource Centre for ArcGIS Server.

The API includes a set of feature, functionality, and integration enhancements.

This feature packed releases ships as a setup executable which you can quickly and easily use to install and configure the assemblies, components and templates with Microsoft Expression Blend 3 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

There have been a bundle of bug fixes as well as a number of new features, enhancements and changes. Updates/enhancements include:

Breaking Change: Silverlight 3 is now required to develop Silverlight applications. Silverlight 2 is no longer supported.

Silverlight 3 introduces major media enhancements, out of browser support allowing Web applications to work on the desktop; significant graphics improvements including perspective 3D graphics support, GPU acceleration and H.264 video support; and many features to improve RIA development productivity.

You will need to add a reference to the System.Runtime.Serialization library when migrating your ArcGIS Silverlight application to the Silverlight 3 platform.

Element binding was introduced in Silverlight 3 which enables developers to define property relationships to elements in XAML without requiring code-behind.

Product packaged as a setup executable

At version 1.0, the download on the ArcGIS API for Silverlight/WPF Resource Center consisted of a zip file containing a set of Silverlight and WPF assemblies. With version 1.1 the download is a setup executable. The installation enables the registration and integration of ArcGIS Silverlight and WPF assemblies, components, and templates with Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend 3.

Design time support in Microsoft Expression Blend 3

A set of integrated features have been added to Expression Blend 3 to enable an ArcGIS Silverlight or WPF developer to drag, drop, and interact with controls, actions and behaviors on an interactive design surface. A set of dialogs and property pages are included to design and configure components for Silverlight and WPF applications. See the Working in Expression Blend section for more details.

Silverlight application templates

Two Silverlight templates are available with Expression Blend 3 and Visual Studio 2008. The templates provide a set pre-configured components and styles to create production quality applications quickly and easily.

New library ESRI.ArcGIS.Client.Behaviors.dll adds support for interactive behaviors and actions

Microsoft Expression Blend 3 introduces behaviors, which are reusable pieces of packaged code that can be dragged onto any object, and then fine-tuned by changing their properties. Behaviors allow you to add interactivity to your applications without having to write any code. The Behavior API consists of three core classes: Trigger, Action and Behavior. The ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF includes a set of behaviors and actions to define interactive relationships between user input and Map behavior and content.

New FeatureDataGrid and MapProgressBar controls in the Toolkit

The ESRI ArcGIS Silverlight Toolkit includes two new controls to enhance the usability of Silverlight and WPF mapping applications. The FeatureDataGrid provides an interactive view of attributes for graphic features displayed in the map. The MapProgressBar provides visual feedback on the progress of a Map control when retrieving map data. The Toolkit library (ESRI.ArcGIS.Client.Toolkit.dll) is still included with the version 1.1 install.

Enabled Bing Maps components to work with a local edition of Bing Maps services.
Map images generated by ArcGISDynamicMapServiceLayer are returned as mime data. ArcGISDynamicMapServiceLayer uses the export operation to generate an image from a map service instead of exportImage, which returns a url and requires an additional request to retrieve the image.
If a layer fails to initialize successfully an error will be thrown. To avoid the error, handle the InitializationFailed event on the layer.
To display layers when they initialize, define the startup extent and spatial reference of the map. Otherwise all layers must initialize before any are displayed in the map.
ArcGISDynamicMapServiceLayer supports map image output in PNG8 and PNG32 format.
ArcGISImageServiceLayer supports map image output in PNG8 format.
Mouse wheel events supported in full screen mode.
Enabled the ability to change FlareClusterer properties programatically at runtime.
Added ability to delay hiding map tips on graphics layer. Use the attached property MapTipHideDelay on a GraphicsLayer or FeatureLayer to define a delay time span.
A Bing logo is now visible when Bing layers are displayed in a map.
Spatial reference used by Bing layers and components was changed to use WKID 102100. WKIDs 102113 and 3857 are considered equal to 102100.

To help developers and designers a new interactive Symbol Gallery has been added as well. This allows you to copy maker, line and fill symbols for use in your application.

The new interactive Symbol Gallery is a great new addition that will really save time for developers and designers when looking for symbols to use.

There has been ~ 16 bugs fixed. This list can be found here: http://resources.esri.com/help/... with a complete list of public API changes between version 1.0 and 1.1 here: http://resources.esri.com/help/... Concepts, samples and reference documentation has been updated as well and can be found here: http://resources.esri.com/help/...

As you can see the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF 1.1 is a packed release that offers a bundle of great new features, functionality and integration enhancements. You can downloaded this release here: http://resources.esri.com/gateway/...

Enjoy :)

ESRI MapIt 1.1 Now Available

Jithen Singh — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:42:16 GMT

ESRI MapIt was announced at the Microsoft Worldwide Business Partner Conference 2009 earlier this year. This latest product offering from ESRI is a combination of software and online services that enable you to create simple maps from your enterprise data.

I had a full write up on MapIt here: http://geo.geek.nz/esri/... With Microsoft PDC 2009 kicking off today, ESRI MapIt 1.1 was made available for download.

Over the last four months, the MapIt product has been refined and optimized, and includes a multitude of enhancements.

MapIt 1.1 comes packed with a bundle of new features. These new features include:

The Spatial Data Assistant supports working with SQL Azure databases; using custom ArcGIS Server locators for address matching; and viewing a subset of table data when selecting match fields.
The Spatial Data Service supports deployment into Windows Azure; use of GeoFields, which are fields that contain latitude and longitude values outside of the spatial geometry column type; and multiple spatial columns in a single table or view.
The ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF supports Silverlight 3, integrates with the Expression Blend 3 design experience, includes a set of pre-packaged Silverlight templates, and supports the use of the Expression Blend Behaviors API. Full release information on the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF can be found here: http://geo.geek.nz/development/...
ESRI Parts for Microsoft SharePoint includes an enhanced configuration experience for the Map Web Part and two new components, a Geolist Web Part and Location Map data type. The Geolist displays interactive attributes for SharePoint lists rendered in a Map Web Part. The Location Map data type provides an interactive map to define locations in a list item.

There has also been a bundle of bug fixes! You can download, install and evaluate all of these new features of MapIt now. MapIt 1.1 can be downloaded here: http://www.esri.com/software/...

ESRI Parts For Microsoft SharePoint 1.1 Now Available

Jithen Singh — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:42:00 GMT

With the release of the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF 1.1 and ESRI MapIt 1.1, ESRI Parts for Microsoft SharePoint 1.1 was made available for download. ESRI Parts for Microsoft SharePoint 1.1 is a new product offering for those that want to integrate rich mapping functionality into their SharePoint sites.

The ESRI Parts leverage the framework SharePoint provides to offer interactive and configurable mapping components that give you a geospatial view of your organization's data. The ability to visualize data geographically can be extraordinarily beneficial, as it has the power to reveal larger patterns and trends.

ESRI Parts for SharePoint 1.1 can be deployed with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007.

Three main components are included with the ESRI Parts for SharePoint 1.1:

Map Web Part

A Web part that enables rich display of SharePoint lists, MapIt Spatial Data Services, and ArcGIS Server Services on an interactive map. With the Map Web Part you can:

Use ArcGIS Online, Bing Maps, or ArcGIS Server map services as base maps
Add data from MapIt Spatial Data Services (SQL Server), SharePoint lists, and ArcGIS Server on top of your base map
Map Microsoft InfoPath form libraries and Word, Excel, and PowerPoint document libraries
Address match (geocode) SharePoint lists and Microsoft Office data
Define the appearance of data sets using simple or value-based symbols
Display point features using clustering or heat maps
Configure pop-ups to show particular field values when hovering over map features

Geolist Web Part

A Web Part provides an interactive and multi-functional tabular view of SharePoint lists that have been added to an associated Map Web Part. With the Geolist Web Part you can:

Get tabular views for all the SharePoint lists in a Map Web Part
Select list items in the table and see them highlight in the map instantly
Mouse over items in the map and see them highlight in the table instantly
Zoom to an individual list item
Zoom to selected items
Zoom to all items
Find items within a specified distance of an item in the same list or in a different list
Export selected items to a CSV file

Location Map Field

The Location Map Field allows you to add a field to SharePoint lists that shows the location of each item in the list on an interactive map. The Location Map Field integrates directly with SharePoint's data entry workflow, allowing you to:

Instantly view the location of a list item as you create it
Find the geographic coordinates of a list item based on the item's address
Interactively adjust the location of a list item on the map
Update the address and coordinates of a list item based on the location defined in the map

Since the ESRI Parts package is built on the Microsoft Silverlight platform, it provides a rich and impressive user experience. It includes the following features\capabilities:

Simple administrative interface for configuring map content in a SharePoint web part or list Use of ArcGIS Online, Bing Maps, or ArcGIS Server base maps
Display of SharePoint lists, ArcGIS Server map services, ESRI MapIt Spatial Data Services, or Microsoft Office document libraries on an interactive map
Tabular display of and interaction with the data and results shown on a Map Web Part
Display of SharePoint list item location within a column that hosts an interactive map
Simple configuration of shared properties using SharePoint lists
Show map data using simple, value range, heat map, or clustered symbols

Taken together, the ESRI Parts for Microsoft SharePoint provide a robust set of geospatial tools that will empower you to better understand and extract meaning from your organization’s data.

A new resource centre has been setup as well providing downloads, help and a community. You can read about the ESRI Parts for SharePoint 1.1 as well as discover and download this version here: http://resources.esri.com/sharepoint/... Go download and have a play!

Free Online Seminar For Mobile GIS

Jithen Singh — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:43:57 GMT

Recently we have been getting many users asking the question on how to go about determining which mobile solution fits for their organisation? There are a number of mobile solutions available and it can hard to figure out which one to use and or which suits the best. To help with this, ESRI will be running a free online seminar focused on answering this question.

To help users evaluate ESRI’s mobile geographic information system (GIS) solutions, the company is conducting a free live training seminar this month that will demonstrate the technology’s versatility and power. Introduction to ESRI Mobile GIS Solutions will air at www.esri.com/lts on Thursday, November 19, at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m., Pacific standard time.

Mobile GIS is currently used by government, utility companies, public safety agencies, and commercial organizations to streamline business processes and collect up-to-date information about assets, infrastructure, and conditions in the field.

This seminar will explain the use of mobile GIS technology within an organisations workflow and provide methods to determine the correct product for a company’s needs and expectations. Some of the solutions that will be demonstrated include:

ArcPad and its extensive set of mapping tools for field data collection, inspections, and GPS integration
ArcGIS Mobile for the collection and sharing of enterprise information
ArcGIS Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) for building custom applications
ArcLogistics Navigator for optimizing routing and staying on schedule

This should be a very useful seminar for those wanting to get started with mobile GIS or wanting to get a understand of what ESRI has to offer in this space. Definitely check it out!

ArcGIS Explorer 900 Supported On Microsoft Windows 7

Jithen Singh — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:01:21 GMT

Since the release of Microsoft Windows 7, many users have been asking if ArcGIS Explorer 900 is supported on the latest and greatest operating system.

Late last week the system requirements for ArcGIS Explorer 900 was updated to support Windows 7. The latest list of supported operating systems is as follows:

The updated system requirements for ArcGIS Explorer 900 can be found here: http://wikis.esri.com/wiki/...

Also remember that you can check if your machine can run ArcGIS Explorer 900 by running an automated tool. Information on this can be found here: http://geo.geek.nz/esri/...

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Now Supported On Microsoft Windows 7

Jithen Singh — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:00:40 GMT

With Microsoft Windows 7 set to be launched on October 22nd, many users have been asking about ArcGIS support. Well some great news today is that ArcGIS 9.3.1 is now supported on Windows 7.

We are pleased to announce that the following ESRI products and versions are now supported on the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System:
ArcGIS Desktop 9.3 and 9.3.1
ArcReader 9.3 and 9.3.1
ArcINFO Workstation 9.3 and 9.3.1
ArcGIS Engine 9.3 and 9.3.1

I have been using Windows 7 since the beta release, then onto release candidate and now final and I have yet to find any showstoppers when running ArcGIS 9.3.1. Something to note however:

ESRI Server products (ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE and ArcIMS) are not supported on Windows 7 at this time due to some known issues with Internet Explorer 8. ESRI is planning to support ESRI Server products on Windows 7 with the 9.4 release of the software.

With regards to ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, I have been running this on my laptop with Windows 7 since the release candidate version as well. There are a few minor issues but no showstoppers. My post here talks about installing ArcGIS 9.3.1 on Windows 7: http://geo.geek.nz/esri/...

As mentioned above, full support is planned for ArcGIS 9.4, ArcGIS Server 9.4 on Windows 7.

This announcement was made as part of the post which can be found here: http://blogs.esri.com/support/...

Updated Geodatabase Toolset For ArcCatalog Is Now Available

Jithen Singh — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:03:09 GMT

An updated version of the Geodatabase Toolset (GDBT) for ArcCatalog is now available for download.

The Geodatabase Toolset (GDBT) for ArcCatalog provides the tools to assist you with monitoring, investigating, and reporting the performance of your multiuser geodatabase. With the GDBT, you can monitor the day-to-day health of your geodatabase and better investigate performance issues.

The GDBT works with geodatabases stored on SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, DB2, or PostgreSQL databases. It provides a wide variety of information including:

The total number of rows in the add and delete tables
Users connected to the geodatabase and locked schemas
A graphic of the state tree lineage
Detailed information of a features class spatial index
Parent-child relationships between versions for version management
Table and Index Statistics for geodatabase stored in an Oracle database

This updated Geodatabase Toolset can be found here: http://www.esri.com/software/... The Geodatabase Toolset for ArcMap is coming and scheduled for release in Q4 of 2009.

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1 Coming In December

Jithen Singh — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:09:35 GMT

Coming this December, ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Service Pack 1!

This is an announcement for ArcGIS 9.3.1 SP1, planned to be available in December 2009, and contains a list of issues targeted for this upcoming release.

SP1 will address a number of issues across ArcGIS 9.3.1. The current count of issues being addressed is as follows:

ArcGIS Desktop - ~86
ArcGIS Server - ~25
REST API In .NET - ~3
Java ADF - ~1
Image Server - ~36
ArcGIS Mobile - ~3
ArcSDE - ~31
ArcIMS - ~3

The list issues being address with SP1 is being periodically updated with additions and other changes so the numbers will change. This list of issues can be found here: http://downloads2.esri.com/support/...

If you have any feedback or questions regarding this list, you can now post them in a new forum. The Upcoming Release Announcement Forums allows users to share discuss, ask questions, suggest additions and provide feedback specific to the future of products.

Updated System Design Strategies, August 2009

Jithen Singh — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:21:57 GMT

The latest version of the System Design Strategies document from Dave Peters is now available. It has been a year since we saw an update to this document so as you can imagine there has been a considerable amount of changes. Information and charts have been updated to reflect the latest technologies available.

This latest update which is around 22 MB can be download from here: US: http://www.esri.com/library/... NZ: http://files.eaglegis.co.nz/...

Learn To Create Powerful Web Mapping Applications

Jithen Singh — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:10:39 GMT

Many users wonder how to go about creating web mapping applications. Powerful web mapping applications! Well now you will be able to tune into an ESRI Live Training Seminar and get started using the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF.

Public demand is increasing for Web maps that can tell interesting stories and communicate important information quickly. ESRI will host a live training seminar this month that will teach Web application developers the fundamentals of designing fast, rich, and interactive mapping applications using the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF.

As part of a press release which is about to go out details of this seminar is as follows:

Getting Started with the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF will air at www.esri.com/lts on Thursday, August 27, 2009, at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. (Pacific daylight time).

The live training seminar will give Web developers the tools and concepts they need to create their first Web map using the API. After installing Microsoft Silverlight, you can see several interactive samples at www.esri.com/silverlightsamples.

A number of key areas will be covered off in this seminar.

Developers can use the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF to integrate ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Online, and Bing Maps for enterprise services and capabilities in a Silverlight application. The presenters will demonstrate how to create powerful and expressive geographic information system (GIS) Web applications on top of ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Online services. Developers will see how they can create cross-browser and cross-platform interactive GIS Web applications using the API. Powerful and free, the API provides the ability to use any .NET Framework-supported language, such as C# and Visual Basic, to add GIS capabilities to their Web or desktop applications.

Attendees will learn

How to create an interactive Web application using the API in Microsoft Visual Studio
How to consume online maps and task services in Silverlight applications
What features and functionality they can use in the API

This is going to be a great seminar for those wanting to get started with not only creating powerful web mapping applications but also having a look and learning some of what the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF has to offer. Bookmark the date!

Full information can be found on here: www.esri.com/lts

Straight Talk About ESRI MapIt

Jithen Singh — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:43:43 GMT

Now that the MapIt blog is up and running we are starting to see some content flowing. In the first series of posts, Rex talks about MapIt and answers a number of questions that have been asked since it’s release. Questions ranging from functionality through to packaging through to price. I get asked a lot of the similar questions so this is a nice series of posts to answer these.

So what do you get with MapIt? Well there are four key components that make up MapIt.

Spatial Data Assistant
Spatial Data Service
ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF
WebPart for Microsoft SharePoint

Rex has covered what each of these components do in detail here: http://blogs.esri.com/dev/...

On to answering a number of key questions. The answers below are only snippets from Rex’s full post.

Does MapIt replace ArcGIS Server?

No. From the server-side perspective they share one operation: query.

ArcGIS Server is a complete enterprise GIS solution built around the extensive capabilities of ArcObjects. MapIt features simply enable quick and easy access to spatial data in SQL Server and do not require ArcObjects in any way.

MapIt does not include a SOM or SOC, that functionality is handled by SQL Server.

MapIt does not include an administrative interface like ArcCatalog or Manager and does not use service configuration files like mxds, msds, tbxs, etc. As a result, MapIt does not include an application to create and modify configuration files such as ArcMap. Instead you organize and manage your data in SQL Server using standard database techniques and capabilities. You may use SQL Server Management Studio to do this, but again that's available completely outside of MapIt.

Does MapIt replace ArcIMS?

No. From the server-side perspective the comparison is similar to ArcGIS Server.

ArcIMS is a simple Web GIS solution composed of Java and C++ components, with limited ArcObjects support via the ArcMap Image Server. MapIt features are built as pure managed .NET solutions.

MapIt does not include a spatial server, monitor, or application server - again that functionality is handled by SQL Server.

MapIt does not include an administrative interface like ArcIMS Administrator and does not require configuration files like axls or mxds. As a result, MapIt does not need to include an application to create and modify configuration files such as ArcIMS Author.

Is MapIt the new MapObjects-Windows or MapObjects IMS?

As a whole, no. Keep in mind MO-Windows and MOIMS are no longer available - but this has not stopped the attempt at a comparison - which is why I mention it here. From the server-side perspective MOIMS provided a light-weight Web mapping solution but you still had to create the server-side application to work with directly with data (e.g. shapefiles, ArcSDE) - plus you generate map images on the server. The MapIt SDS correlates with the MOIMS esrimap dll but like with the ArcIMS servlet connector, the format is different. You also had to build the MOIMS client, usually a limited mish-mash of HTML, JavaScript, and ASP.

How do you compare MapIt to other products?

From what we can see by the ESRI product comparisons (above) and the features of MapIt, it is not a comprehensive enterprise GIS solution. It's designed to be a simple, straight-forward, non-intrusive set of features that build on the existing Microsoft stack of database, service, and client solutions.

As mentioned above, the answers here are only snippets covering the important points. Rex’s full answers to these questions can be found here: http://blogs.esri.com/dev/...

The important message here is to understand MapIt and how’s its being positioned in the market. Many users have been confused about MapIt and notion that it could be a replacement for ArcGIS Server. This is incorrect. Like Rex has mentioned, MapIt is NOT a comprehensive enterprise GIS solution but rather a simple set of features that leverage the Microsoft quite nicely.

The next bundle of questions will discuss pricing and who should be interested in MapIt. I’ll update this post once that has been published.

ArcGIS Explorer Build 900 Now Available!

Jithen Singh — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:06:41 GMT

We have been waiting for it for a long time now and it’s finally here! ArcGIS Explorer Build 900 has been released is now available for download.

ArcGIS Explorer is a free, downloadable GIS viewer that provides an easy way to explore, visualize, share, and present geographic information. The latest release of ArcGIS Explorer has many new features that make it ideal for providing wider access to your GIS data and capabilities, and for presenting information in a geographic context.

For those wanting to know about the new features in ArcGIS Explorer Build 900, a massive list can be found here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/...

The SDK along with the optional expansion packs can be found here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/...

Also note the system requirements here: http://wikis.esri.com/wiki/... The installation guide can be found here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/...

You can grab the download from here now:

ArcGIS Explorer Build 900 has been a while coming. It’s a totally new release from ESRI. The guys have been hard at work and it’s great to see this is finally out. Well done :)

ESRI Releases Web Mapping API’s At No Cost

Jithen Singh — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:03:30 GMT

With the release of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript almost a year ago, many users have been confused about licensing. Since then we have seen the introduction of the ArcGIS API for Flex and recently the ArcGIS API for Silverlight/WPF. It seems that many users are still confused about the licensing. So to clear this up.

Until now the API’s were FREE for development and testing purposes ONLY. You were required to have an licensed ArcGIS Server or a Web Map API Licence.

At the ESRI International User Conference 2009 a few weeks ago, ESRI decided to simplify this model and announced:

The API’s are now FREE to users who are building applications for use in internal and non-commercial environments.

ESRI has published a press release around this announcement with more information.

ESRI announces that its popular Web mapping APIs are available at no cost to users who are building applications for use in internal and noncommercial environments. ArcGIS Web mapping APIs have always been free for licensed ArcGIS Server users. Now government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and educational institutions can take full advantage of fast, high-quality mapping applications built on top of ArcGIS Server without additional costs or licensing. Private businesses can also deploy these API-based applications internally for free.

"Delivering rich Internet applications using Silverlight, Flex, and JavaScript is a new and exciting trend for Web application developers, and the demand for these types of applications is growing at a phenomenal rate," states Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI. "Making these tools widely available means that as GIS professionals across the globe continue to author geographic knowledge, application developers will use these APIs to easily access this information."

ArcGIS Web mapping APIs are part of ESRI's Web infrastructure. Developers will have access to ArcGIS Online map services for imagery, street maps, and topographic maps, as well as services for routing, geocoding, demographic analysis, and more. Organizations can spatially enable their databases easily without the need for maintaining an expensive infrastructure.

For example, a city government might deploy two different types of applications: an internal-facing executive dashboard that allows officials and managers to track capital improvement spending and an external-facing application for citizens to contribute their concerns and suggestions regarding those improvements. Both applications could be deployed at no cost.

"I see the geospatially enabled Web—the GeoWeb—as driving change that is beneficial for both users and creators of geospatial information," says Dangermond. "This means that we'll see a whole new creative group of people take these APIs and create new, interesting approaches to mapping. A powerful new generation of Web maps will proliferate and become commonplace to Web users."

ArcGIS Web mapping APIs include the ArcGIS API for Flex, the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. To access downloads and get more information about ArcGIS Web mapping APIs, visit www.esri.com/apis/...

ESRI MapIt Correlates Your Business Data With Maps

Jithen Singh — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:26:19 GMT

The latest product offering from ESRI, ESRI MapIt was launched at the Microsoft Worldwide Business Partner Conference 2009 yesterday morning. A soft launch of this was also done at the ESRI International User Conference 2009. In line with this launch, marketing collateral as well as the website for MapIt was made available. This talked about this new product, what it does and what it has to offer.

I posted full information on MapIt here: http://geo.geek.nz/esri/...

Added to the launch of MapIt was the press release which has gone out.

Businesses have an exciting new tool to gain insight into their business operations with ESRI MapIt. A new software product from ESRI, the market leader in geographic information systems (GIS), MapIt combines software with services to enable businesses to create maps displaying their enterprise data. MapIt software transforms the static spreadsheet and tabular data that managers typically view into dynamic information displayed on vibrant maps.

MapIt is designed to work on the Microsoft application platform, which enables organizations to create visually rich mapping applications using the skills and infrastructure they already possess. It includes all components needed to quickly begin mapping enterprise data from Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft Office Excel. Maps can be displayed in rich, interactive applications using Microsoft Silverlight or Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) or in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007.

Since MapIt is developed by ESRI, users have access to a wealth of online services to extend and enhance their maps. These services encompass street and imagery basemaps from Bing Maps for Enterprise and ArcGIS Online; geocoding and optimized routing services; demographic and customer segmentation data; and much more.

“MapIt is the result of a close collaboration with Microsoft,” says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. “It is a new mapping product for business intelligence that fits well with the IT infrastructure. We believe it will change the analytic environment for enterprise data by adding a spatial dimension in a highly visual framework.”

Organizations using MapIt can answer questions about their data to improve their business decisions, such as, Where are my most profitable customers located? and How can my salespeople maximize their efforts while in a targeted region? These are questions that can be quickly answered when analyzing the information on a map. The MapIt built-in geocoder transforms addresses, ZIP Codes, provinces, and any other information that refers to a place into geographic coordinates.

Microsoft business partners, like E•SPONDER, LLC, are already adopting and developing solutions with MapIt. E•SPONDER is a market leader in creating software solutions for managing emergency situations and is using MapIt to dynamically display this critical information on a map for its customers. “Using MapIt and Microsoft technology, we reduced our development costs and delivered a new product in record time,” says Mark Seward, vice president of software development, E•SPONDER.

ESRI and Microsoft presented MapIt during the keynote at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. In addition, E•SPONDER will be presenting its solution built using MapIt in another keynote on Wednesday, July 15, 2009.

This press release can be found here: http://www.esri.com/news/...

A New Zealand version of this press release has been prepared and should go out to the media tomorrow. This was done in conjunction with Microsoft New Zealand.

MapIt is now available for purchase. An evaluation version is also available as a free download. For more information or to evaluate MapIt, visit www.esri.com/mapit/...

ArcGIS API For Microsoft Silverlight/WPF Gives Developers Access To ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Online, Bing Maps For Enterprise

Jithen Singh — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:33:29 GMT

The ESRI International User Conference 2009 has kicked off and to go with this has been the official launch of the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF.

The ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverilght/WPF 1.0 was made available on the weekend. Information about this can be found here: http://geo.geek.nz/esri/...

With the official launch, a new press release has been published.

Developers of desktop and Web applications can now deliver rich mapping and geographic information system (GIS) content with the release of ESRI's ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF. They can combine GIS-based Web services from ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Online as well as use Bing Maps geocoding, routing, and map services.
The API enables developers to use the powerful geospatial capabilities of ArcGIS services. Developers can transform their data into an interactive map, search for and display GIS data features and attributes, locate addresses, identify features, and perform complex spatial analytics by simply clicking a button or a feature on the map. Web and desktop applications built using the API will offer compelling graphics, intuitive interfaces, and visually stunning user experiences with GIS functionality.
Developers can program with the API without installing any ArcGIS software on their machines as long as they have access to ArcGIS Server via a URL. Since the API is built on the Microsoft Silverlight framework, developers can take advantage of all the Silverlight components, such as data grids, sliders, panels, and text controls, when building custom applications.
Developers can download the API library at the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF Resource Center and access the source code for a variety of samples. The samples demonstrate displaying tiled and dynamic maps; switching between different kinds of maps and imagery; adding geocoding, routing, and geoprocessing tasks; and much more.

This press release along with links to the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF can be found here: http://www.esri.com/news/...

ArcGIS API For Microsoft Silverlight/WPF 1.0 Now Available

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:36:46 GMT

The final build of the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF is now available for download from the ESRI Resource Centre for ArcGIS Server.

Build number are as follows:

Initial Release: 1.0.0.160
Updated Release: 1.0.0.209
Release Candidate: 1.0.0.255
Final Release: 1.0.0.269

There has been a few bugs, updates and enhancements since the release candidate.

Resolved bugs:

Update ArcGISImageServiceLayer when Url changes at runtime.
Map mouse click events not triggered in a WPF application.

Updates\Enhancements:

Implemented INotifyPropertyChanged on symbol classes (in ESRI.ArcGIS.Client.Symbols). This means you can bind symbol properties on a layer, change symbols properties at runtime and view the changes immediately.
WPF assemblies updated to use June 2009 release of the WPF toolkit (v3.5.40619.1).
Map has an IsLogoVisible property to show\hide the ESRI logo

The ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF 1.0 release comes a day after Microsoft released Microsoft Silverlight 3.0. If you have been using the release candidate version, it should be an easy change over to the final build and the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF will work nicely with Microsoft Silverlight 3.0.

The list of resolved bugs can be found here: http://resources.esri.com/help/...

Samples and reference documentation has also been updated. You can download this new build here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/...

ArcGIS Server Geoportal Extension, A Platform For Geospatial Collaboration

Jithen Singh — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:19:59 GMT

The latest extension to ArcGIS Server, the ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Geoportal Extension is now available. Formally known as the GIS Portal Toolkit, the ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Geoportal Extension allows users and organisation to share, discover and use geospatial resources of any type from anywhere.

ESRI has published a press release talking about this new ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Geoportal Extension.

The new 9.3.1 version of the ArcGIS Server Geoportal extension (formerly the GIS Portal Toolkit) is now available. Organizations can use this extension to create geoportals that allow them to manage geospatial data and publish the locations and descriptions of their geospatial resources to the Internet or an intranet. Visitors to a geoportal can easily search, discover, and connect to geographic information system (GIS) resources registered with the geoportal and integrate them into their own projects, regardless of the resource’s type or location.

At 9.3.1, the Geoportal extension improves efficiency and collaboration with enhancements for discovering and publishing GIS resources and integrating a geoportal with enterprise systems.

To discover more GIS resources, visitors can now search within a specific geoportal or published external geoportals. The Geoportal extension uses the ArcGIS API for JavaScript to preview resources such as ArcGIS Server, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), W*S; ArcIMS; and KML services, as well as GeoRSS feeds. These map services and feeds are previewed without loading a browser plug-in or launching a desktop GIS application.

Resource publishers will benefit from the many publishing enhancements. The simplified service registry allows services, including ArcGIS Server, OGC W*S, SOS, KML, and GeoRSS, to be registered quickly from the source URL. The Geoportal extension also adds support for the metadata standards that are required to participate in the North American and European National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) networks. Additionally, the Geoportal extension expands its use of external authentication with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Access to record-level metadata can be restricted with one of three access control policies. Publishers can be assured that their sensitive data remains behind the firewall and restricted to authorized employees and business units only.

The Geoportal extension can now integrate with many more aspects of the enterprise. The extension supports enhanced OpenSearch, which allows users to search the geoportal directly from their Web browser’s search box. It also supports many OGC standards, passing the OGC Compliance Test for Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) interfaces and using OGC CSW SOAP interfaces to integrate the geoportal into other enterprise systems that use SOAP services.

Full information on this new ArcGIS Server extension can be found here: http://www.esri.com/geoportal/... A demonstration of this ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Geoportal Extension can be found here: http://geoss.esri.com/geoportal/...

New Zealand Enlists GIS To Monitor Greenhouse Gas

Jithen Singh — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:11:19 GMT

A new press release is about to published by ESRI talking about a carbon accounting program using geospatial technology to meet Kyoto reporting requirements in New Zealand.

The New Zealand Ministry for the Environment is implementing geographic information system (GIS) software from ESRI to analyze, measure, and report greenhouse gas emissions and land-use change. GIS will be used to comply with the reporting requirements of the Kyoto Protocol in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to Earth's climate changes.

The Land Use and Carbon Analysis System (LUCAS) is built on a geospatial system developed by New Zealand-based ESRI business partner Explorer Graphics Ltd. (EGL). The system supports complex carbon sequestration calculations using validated and quantified land use and land-use change information.

Nations that are aligned with the Kyoto Protocol have agreed to take steps to reduce emission activities. The objective of the protocol is for industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels before 2012. In alliance with the agreement, New Zealand is required to report on greenhouse gas emissions and removals arising from land use, land-use change, and forestry activities. LUCAS will enable New Zealand to meet its Kyoto Protocol reporting requirements for carbon stock and carbon stock change including the annual National Inventory Report that can be used for reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

LUCAS manager Steve Botica said that the development of a geospatial solution was one of the key components of LUCAS, enabling the assessment of spatial data as part of the measurement and monitoring of the carbon stocks of New Zealand's forests and soils. "In particular, we needed to analyze mapped land use at the key reference points for the first Kyoto commitment period—1990, 2008, and 2012."

Built on ESRI's ArcGIS software, LUCAS combines carbon assessment calculations with core geospatial change analysis and forest plot sampling to produce the carbon-per-hectare report for Kyoto land-use classes. David Pimblott, EGL's managing director, said, "We have been working with ministry staff to develop various geospatial technology solutions. These will enable them to store and analyze satellite data and aerial photography to map changes in land use since 1990."

Forests break down carbon dioxide and store, or sequester, the carbon during the forest's natural processes of photosynthesis and respiration. This process is a natural means to counter increasing levels of carbon dioxide that affect climate change. ArcGIS supports scientific methods for calculating carbon sequestration by using validated and qualified land-use data. It then shows land-use change information from year to year.

The Explorer Graphics Ltd press release can be found here: http://www.esri.com/library/... This covers more details on EGL’s involvement with the Ministry for the Enviroment.

ArcGIS Online Public Beta Now Available!

Jithen Singh — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:54:32 GMT

Earlier this morning the new ArcGIS Online went into public beta. ArcGIS Online has been in a limited beta stage for quite a few months as the development teams have been adding new features and fixing issues.

The new ArcGIS Online opens a number of doors for GIS users allowing sharing and finding of GIS content across the web.

With ArcGIS Online, you can upload maps, register online map services, create and save Web maps as items for others to share, and discover and use maps published by ESRI and other ESRI users. You can organize and control access to the maps you share by making them public or private, and you can create and join groups.

The ArcGIS Online Team has great write up on how it works, along with a nice sharing demonstration. This write up can be found here: http://blogs.esri.com/support/...

If you are wanting to make use of ArcGIS Explorer with some of the shared layers on ArcGIS Online, remember this is intended only for use with ArcGIS Explorer 900. ArcGIS Explorer 900 is still in limited beta stage.

Go have a look at the new ArcGIS Online and start sharing some of your data! You can access this here: http://www.arcgisonline.com

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Seminar Series, “Creating Effective Web Maps” To Be Held In Auckland And Wellington. Register Now! Limited Spaces!

Jithen Singh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:16:37 GMT

Information on the upcoming ArcGIS 9.3.1 Seminar Series, “Creating Effective Web Maps” is now live.

Location: Eagle Technology Group Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand.
Date: Tuesday June 30, 2009

Location: Eagle Technology Group Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand
Date: Thursday July 2, 2009

There is going to be a morning session and an afternoon session at each venue making it four sessions in total. Spaces are limited. The agenda is as follows:

Morning session:
9:00-10:15: Design Strategies for Authoring and Publishing
10:15-10:30: Break
10:30-12:00: Building Web Applications

Afternoon session:
1:00-2:15: Design Strategies for Authoring and Publishing
2:15-2:30: Break
2:30-4:00: Building Web Applications

Who should attend this ArcGIS 9.3.1 Seminar Series?

ArcIMS users who want to make faster, more effective Web maps
ArcGIS Desktop users interested in learning how to share their maps via the Web
ArcGIS Server users who want to learn about best practices using new ArcGIS 9.3.1 tools

A full description on this ArcGIS 9.3.1 Seminar Series, “Creating Effective Web Maps”, along with registration information can be found here: http://www.eagle.co.nz/gis931/. As mentioned above, spaces are limited so get in quickly!

ArcGIS Server And Virtualisation

Jithen Singh — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:39:06 GMT

A new whitepaper has been published which talks about the common topic of ArcGIS Server and virtualisation.

Virtualization is becoming a standard IT practice. It is becoming increasingly popular among ArcGIS® customers as well. Virtualization solutions are being broadly used in test, development, and production environments, providing tremendous benefits to ArcGIS Server deployments. ESRI uses virtualization technologies for the development, quality assurance, and certification processes of ArcGIS Server. This document provides an overview of virtualization and addresses some of the most common questions regarding ArcGIS Server and virtualization.

This document provides an overview of virtualization and addresses some of the most common questions regarding ArcGIS Server and virtualization, including major decision factors for considering virtualization and the advantages of deploying ArcGIS Server in a virtualized environment.

You can have a read of this whitepaper here: http://www.esri.com/library/...

Learn To Use Map Templates, A New Resource From ESRI

Jithen Singh — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:17:07 GMT

With the recent addition of the ArcGIS Map Templates Resource Centre, ESRI now offers map templates as a new resource to help ArcGIS software users make great-looking, professional-quality maps for print, the Web and mobile applications. To complement this, ESRI will be hosting a live training seminar which will allow users to tune into a free live training seminar about using templates to improve mapmaking skills.

Getting Started with Map Templates, a live training seminar airing at www.esri.com/lts on Thursday, June 25, 2009, will walk geographic information system (GIS) professionals and cartographers through the process of working with the templates. The times will be 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. (Pacific daylight time).

The seminar's presenter will explain how to get started using the templates and how to adapt the cartographic and data designs to other maps.

Attendees will also learn about

How to download map templates from the ESRI Resource Center at http://resources.esri.com/maptemplates
What the map template kits contain
How to use data with a map template
Different kinds of map templates (e.g., street, topographic, and local government maps)
Publishing map templates as mapping services via ArcGIS Online

Mapmakers from any organization who want to create professional-grade maps will find this live training seminar interesting and useful. GIS professionals and cartographers who are familiar with ArcGIS Desktop software and make maps on a regular basis will benefit.

This press release can be found here: http://www.esri.com/news/...

Dynamic Geocoding And Routing Services Now Available Through ArcGIS Online

Jithen Singh — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:30:27 GMT

A new press release is about to be published that talks about the new dynamic geocoding and routing services now offered through ArcGIS Online. ArcGIS Online is a fairly new platform, and ESRI has been working hard to add a number of new services and features to this platform.

ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Desktop users can now complement their GIS projects with geocoding, place-finding, and routing capabilities. Composed of World Geocoding and World Routing, these new professional ArcGIS Online location services use the most current and detailed Tele Atlas reference data and are hosted and maintained by ESRI.

ESRI is offering a set of standard no-cost service services that provides address, batch, and reverse geocoding for North America (US and Canada) and Europe as well as global place finding capabilities.

Users who need to batch geocode (save geocodes) for more than 1,000 addresses per year or use this service for commercial purposes can purchase annual subscriptions in blocks of 25,000 batch geocodes. The no-cost World Geocoding services can be accessed with ArcGIS 9.2 or higher. To access the subscription services, users must have ArcGIS 9.3.1.
World Routing supports point-to-point and optimized routing for North America and Europe. It is available as a standard, no-cost service with a limit of 5,000 routes per year and as a fee-based service for each additional block of 5,000 routes, which can be used for commercial purposes. World Routing requires ArcGIS 9.3.1.

To learn more about ArcGIS Online location services, visit http://www.esri.com/agoltasks/

ArcGIS API For JavaScript 1.4 Now Available

Jithen Singh — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:39:24 GMT

Over the weekend the ArcGIS API for JavaScript 1.4 was made available. This is currently live and can be referenced.

Concepts, samples and reference documentation for the ArcGIS API for JavaScript has been updated as well. There are a few bug fixes along with a number of new features and samples.

Some highlights of what’s new in this latest release mimics that of the ArcGIS API for Flex 1.2 which was released late last week. These highlights include:

Routing using ArcGIS Server 9.3.1. The REST endpoint was updated at ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 to support routing.

Microsoft Virtual Earth integration. This is similar to the Microsoft Virtual Earth integration that the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF and the ArcGIS API for Flex offers. The samples are using a server-side handler to retrieve the Microsoft Virtual Earth token. Slightly different to the samples in the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF.

Support for a bundle of new renderers. A rendered defines how you symbolize a set of graphics. In the past you had to symbolise each graphic separately as it was added to the map. Now you can choose to do the work with the renderers that automatically supply symbology based on attributes in your data.

Class Breaks Renderer

Unique Value Renderer

Multiple graphics layers in the map is now supported. This makes it much easier to organise different types of graphics. Layers can easily be removed or added as needed.

The ArcGIS API for JavaScript 1.4 comes packed with some great new enhancements along with a few bug fixes. You can start using this latest build by referencing the new version of the API as below.

Updated concepts, samples and reference documentation can be found on the ArcGIS API for JavaScript Resource Centre here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/...

ArcGIS Map Templates Resource Centre Added To The ESRI Resource Centres

Jithen Singh — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:28:09 GMT

A great new addition to the ESRI Resource Centres is the new ArcGIS Map Templates Resource Centre. Launched late last week, the new ArcGIS Map Templates Resource Centre contains resources for using ArcGIS to make great maps for the web, printing and for mobile applications.

Some of the maps already on the ArcGIS Map Template Resource Centre include:

Reference Map Template
Street Map Template
Geologic Map Template
Topographic Map Template For Large Scales
Topographic Map Template For Medium Scales
Topographic Map Template For Small Scales

Have a browse of the ArcGIS Map Template Resource Centre and see what you can use to create some nice looking maps. Check it out here: http://resources.esri.com/maptemplates/

ArcGIS API For Flex 1.2 Now Available

Jithen Singh — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:04:56 GMT

The ArcGIS API for Flex 1.2 is now available for download from the ESRI Resource Centre for ArcGIS Server.

Concepts, samples and reference documentation for the ArcGIS API for Flex has been updated as well. There are a few bug fixes along with a number of new features and samples.

Some highlights of what’s new in this latest release include:

Routing using ArcGIS Server 9.3.1. The REST endpoint was updated at ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 to support routing.

Microsoft Virtual Earth integration. This is similar to the Microsoft Virtual Earth integration that the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF offers. The samples are using a server-side handler to retrieve the Microsoft Virtual Earth token. Slightly different to the samples in the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF.

Using textAttribute on TextSymbol

As you can see there are some great additions to this latest release along with a few bug fixes. You can download this new build here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/...

ArcGIS Product Life Cycle Documentation Updated For ArcGIS 9.3.1

Jithen Singh — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:53:24 GMT

ArcGIS Product Life Cycle’s have been updated for the recent ArcGIS 9.3.1 release. No big changes.

ArcGIS 9.3.1 and ArcGIS 9.3 are in general availability with ArcGIS 9.2 in extended support. ArcGIS 9.1 is in mature support. Versions before ArcGIS 9.1 are retired and no longer supported.

The documentation can be found here:

Something new to note is that ArcGIS 9.1 will be moved to retired support with the release of ArcGIS 9.4.

ArcGIS Product Life Cycle Documentation Updated For ArcGIS 9.3.1

Jithen Singh — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:52:02 GMT

A number of the ArcGIS Product Life Cycle documentation has been updated for the recent ArcGIS 9.3.1 release. No big changes.

ArcGIS 9.3.1 and ArcGIS 9.3 are in general availability with ArcGIS 9.2 in extended support. ArcGIS 9.1 is in mature support. Versions before ArcGIS 9.1 are retired and no longer supported.

The documentation can be found here:

Something new to note is that ArcGIS 9.1 will be moved to retired support with the release of ArcGIS 9.4.

ArcPad 8.0 Extension For ArcGIS Server Is Not Compatible With ArcGIS Server 9.3.1

Jithen Singh — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:31:33 GMT

ArcPad 8.0 was released last month and came bundled with a number of new features and enhancements. One of the newest features added to ArcPad 8.0 is the ArcPad 8.0 Extension for ArcGIS Server. The extension allows users to connect to ArcGIS Server 9.3 services and synchronise data over the air.

Those that have tried to use the ArcPad 8.0 Extension for ArcGIS Server on ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 would have noticed a few problems with map services.

Starting a service or create a new service after upgrading to ArcGIS 9.3.1 when also using ArcGIS Server ArcPad 8 Extensions returns the following error:

"Unable to Start service.
Error (Server object instance creation failed on all SOC machines. Server Object instance creation failed on machine <machine_name>. CLSID for Type MapServer is not registered)."

However, map services with ArcPad 8 Server capabilities do operate without problems and without error. This behavior did not occur prior to installing the ArcGIS 9.3.1 upgrade.

Installing the ArcPad 8.0 Extension for ArcGIS Server on ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 results in corruption of existing ArcGIS Server map services.

All map services are stopped and are unable to be restarted. New map services cannot be published.

ESRI is aware of this issue and is working on a fix which will be made available as soon as possible.

ESRI is actively working on a fix for this issue. We recommend that customers using the ArcGIS Server ArcPad Extension 8.0 and its capabilities not upgrade to ArcGIS 9.3.1 at this time.
There are no known issues when using ArcGIS Server ArcPad Extension 8.0 with ArcGIS 9.3 or 9.3 Service Pack 1.

I will post an update when a fix has been released. In the meanwhile, keep an eye on the ESRI Support Centre article here: http://support.esri.com/index.cfm...

Ringing The Changes

Jithen Singh — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:10:10 GMT

From Monday May 18th 2009, when you contact Eagle Technology Group Ltd to log an GIS issue, you will notice a few changes.

The 0800-7-EAGLE (0800-732-453) number will now offer you some options for where your call should be directed. Option 1 will put you straight through to the Eagle Technology GIS Support team. One of 3 first line support GIS Consultants will answer your call, log the details of your problem and immediately help you if they can. Otherwise you will be given your call reference number and another member of the GIS team will call you back to start working on resolving your issue with you.

And there’s more! We are also introducing a new call logging email address for you to use. Emails to gissupport@eagle.co.nz will be directed to the Eagle GIS Support team. You will receive an acknowledgement from us and once your email has been logged into our system you will be provided with your call reference number. After that you should expect some communication from one of the GIS Support team who will assist in resolving your issue. This method of call logging also allows you to give us as much detail about your issue as you can, including any attachments you wish to provide that will help us with a resolution.

The final way of communicating with the Eagle GIS Support team is via the Eagle GIS website. You can complete the on-line form which can be found here: http://www.eaglegis.co.nz/forms/... which will pass your support request directly to the GIS Support Team. One of the Support team will be in touch with you as soon as they can with your call reference number and to begin working with you to resolve your issue.

These changes are all about making sure that your issue gets logged and resolved in the most efficient way possible. Overall this will allow us to give you the best level of service that we can.

If you have any questions or comments about this, or feedback for us after using any of our new call logging methods, please drop us an email to gissupport@eagle.co.nz.

Latest Software And Firmware Versions To Use With ArcPad 8

Jithen Singh — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:48:17 GMT

The ArcPad Development Team has posted a good list of software and firmware versions to use with ArcPad 8. Since the release of ArcPad 8, there has not been any major software and firmware changes from the common hardware vendors which is great!

Software that has received particular interest on the forum is GPS Correct and GPS Analyst. At this stage, Trimble confirms that there is not going to be a specific update to these products directly related to ArcPad 8. Existing users should continue to use 2.42 and 2.1 respectively. GPS Correct 3.0 has recently been released but does not have changes specifically related to ArcPad.

The release notes for the latest version of GPS Correct 3.0 can be found here: http://trl.trimble.com/docushare/...

Versions as follows:

Microsoft

Windows XP
- ActiveSync 4.5
Windows Vista, Windows 7
- Mobile Device Centre 6.1

TDS

Nomad Firmware 1.0.4

Trimble

GPS Correct 2.42, 3.0
GPS Analyst 2.1
GeoExplorer 2008 Series GPS Firmware 2.0.3
GeoExplorer 2005 Series GPS Firmware 1.82
GeoExplorer 2005 Series OS Firmware 5.1.16

Also note that the Nomad Firmware update is appropriate for all Nomads (TDS or Trimble) except for the Nomad 800X, 800XC or 800XE

If you device is not running these versions, it might be a good idea to update to ensure ArcPad 8 runs well. This post from the ArcPad Development Team can be found here: http://arcpadteam.blogspot.com/2009/...

ArcGIS Online Map Services Migrating To Microsoft Virtual Earth/Google Maps Tiling Scheme

Jithen Singh — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:47:47 GMT

At the ESRI Developer Summit 2009 earlier this year, ESRI announced that ArCGIS Online will migrate its map services to the Microsoft Virtual Earth/Google Maps tiling scheme. Not many attendees might have picked up on this news, but in the next update which will come through later this year, the tiling scheme will mimic those of Microsoft and Google.

This change is in response to feedback from many ArcGIS users who have requested that ESRI use a common map tiling scheme matching other popular online map providers. The new services will particularly enable ArcGIS web developers to more easily combine popular web map services with ArcGIS Online map services including those from Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google Maps, and other providers that use the same web map tiling scheme.

This major update of ArcGIS Online map services is planned for the third quarter of this year.

A few new map services will be released in advance of the full service migration, which will allow a preview of ArcGIS Online map services in this new tiling scheme. ESRI will continue to host the existing ArcGIS Online map services (e.g., World Street Map, World Imagery, etc.) in their existing ArcGIS Online tiling scheme through Q1 of 2010 in order to give users ample time to migrate their maps and applications to the new services.

With more and more users making use of Microsoft Virtual Earth/Google Maps, this is a good change for the map services on ArcGIS Online. This will make it a lot easier for developers and users to combine map services, not only using ArcGIS but also ArcGIS Server.

This follow up announcement can be found here: http://blogs.esri.com/support/...

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Arrives!

Jithen Singh — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:29:39 GMT

After a slight delay our office copies of ArcGIS 9.3.1 has arrived. We received the update media last week.

This was a four dvd set which included updates for ArcGIS 9.3., ArcGIS Server 9.3, ArcSDE 9.3 and ArcGIS Image Server 9.3.

I have been waiting for the standalone installation packages to arrive and just this afternoon they arrived.

ESRI is now shipping these out in new soft cover packages rather than boxes. Good for the environment. They include everything the boxed ArcGIS 9.3 version did.

Customers in New Zealand can expect ArcGIS 9.3.1 to arrive sometime in June. ESRI is currently shipping these at the moment. Once they arrive in New Zealand we will process them and get them out to customers as soon as possible. I’ll post any updates on this closer to the time.

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Unlocks The Potential Of Your GIS

Jithen Singh — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:30:14 GMT

ArcGIS 9.3.1 has officially been released and begins shipping today. A new press release about this has been post by ESRI.

ArcGIS 9.3.1, which began shipping today, helps you create and share modern Web maps that are relevant to your entire organization. This release of ESRI's integrated collection of geographic information system (GIS) software products focuses on improving the performance of dynamic map publishing and increasing the visibility of geographic information.

Some of the key highlights and areas that ESRI focused on with ArcGIS 9.3.1 where:

High-Performance Dynamic Map Publishing

ArcGIS 9.3.1 includes an optimized map service that allows you to produce high-performance dynamic maps. The improved map quality in these services includes sharper edges to features, clearer labels, and better color transparency.
Better Sharing of Geographic Information
Seamless Integration with Microsoft Virtual Earth

ArcGIS Desktop users are now able to directly connect to Microsoft Virtual Earth services and quickly start their GIS projects with ready-to-use content at no additional charge.
ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight

ArcGIS Server now supports Microsoft's Silverlight Web development platform for building fast, highly interactive Web applications.
Easy to Install
Changes to ArcGIS Server Licensing Provide More Flexibility

With the release of ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, some licensing changes have been made to allow users more flexibility in their ArcGIS Server deployments.
Resources to Help You Get Started

There are pretty neat features in ArcGIS 9.3.1, making it easier for users to do more! New Zealand users should expect ArcGIS 9.3.1 to arrive sometime in June. Stayed tuned for updates!

The full press release talking about all these latest features can be found here: http://www.esri.com/news/..

ESRI Developer Summit 2009 Code, Demonstrations And Presentations Are Now Available

Jithen Singh — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:36:37 GMT

This is just a quick heads up to let everyone know that the majority of the code, demonstrations and presentations from the ESRI Developer Summit 2009 is now available online.

The proceedings posted include material for the following:

Presummit Seminar
Technical Sessions
Developer Keynote Session
User Presentations
Special Interest Group Meeting
Demonstration Theatre Presentations

All of these proceedings can be found here: http://proceedings.esri.com/library/...

What’s Coming In ArcGIS 9.3.1?

Jithen Singh — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:45:06 GMT

ESRI has released a bundle of information on what’s coming in ArcGIS 9.3.1.

Firstly ArcGIS 9.3.1 should not be confused with a service pack release. ArcGIS 9.3.1 is a dot release which will include product enhancements and certain bug fixes.

ArcGIS 9.3.1 improves the performance of dynamic map publishing and increases the sharing of geographic information.

Being a dot release means that ArcGIS 9.3.1 will NOT be made available for users to downloaded. ESRI will automatically ship ArcGIS 9.3.1 to users current on maintenance. Service Pack’s will still be available for users to download from the ESRI Support Centre.

So what’s new? Well the focus has been on four main areas:

High-Performance Dynamic Map Publishing
Better Sharing of Geographic Information
Enhanced Support for Java Developers
Easy to Migrate

One of the key areas that I have really been looking forward to in ArcGIS 9.3.1 is the introduction of High-Performance Dynamic Map Publishing which will provide:

New faster drawing map service

Outperforms equivalent ArcIMS services.
Produces significantly better-looking maps.
Shortens map caching time.

This will be a major step up for ArcGIS Server. While performance of cached maps is extremely fast, the map caching process itself is very time consuming. The data also remains static. The new High-Performance Dynamic Map Publishing should bridge the gap between cached and dynamic map services making it very easy for users to publish live data in a much faster manner.

Continuing to focus on performance:

New Map Service Publishing toolbar in ArcMap helps you tune-up your map documents before publishing to ArcGIS Server.

Review and respond to errors, unsupported content, and warnings about items that will slow down your dynamic map services.
Preview your map document and estimated rendering time.
Save your map document to the new Map Service Definition format.

This new toolbar will really help users out there optimize their maps for the server. When working with dynamic map services, ArcGIS Server has to generate images on the demand and this can take a while depending on how complex the map is. If there are also errors, this can cause delays or other problems. The new map service publishing toolbar will be able to address these issues before the document is published to the ArcGIS Server.

A new file extension has also been introduced. .msd which stands for a Map Service Definition. At this stage not much is known as to what this document will contain.

One other note about ArcGIS 9.3.1:

Upgrading to ArcGIS 9.3.1 does not require uninstalling ArcGIS 9.3.

ArcGIS 9.3.1 is shaping up to be a very exciting release. Since geodatabases, map documents and API’s have not changed users will be compatible with ArcGIS 9.3. The introduction of these new features will really enhance ArcGIS 9.3 allowing users to take enterprise GIS to the next level.

The above information along with information on the other areas for ArcGIS 9.3.1 can be found here: http://www.esri.com/software/...

ArcPad 8 Features Improved Customisation And User Interface Is Now Available!

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:43:54 GMT

ESRI published a press release earlier this week talking about the latest version of ArcPad 8.

ArcPad 8, ESRI's latest mobile geographic information system (GIS) software for field mapping and data collection is now available. ArcPad 8 has new usability and performance enhancements to increase productivity and help users manage their GIS projects more efficiently

This major release includes the ability to synchronize edits with ArcGIS Server. Any device that can connect to the Internet (e.g., cradle, USB, Wi-Fi, or phone connection) can synchronize ArcPad edits directly with the enterprise geodatabase via ArcGIS Server. Field staff can now share data faster and save time by no longer needing to return to the office to update their GIS database.

ArcPad 8 also includes a new user interface. New icons and toolbars occupy less screen real estate than in previous versions. Toolbars can be docked, minimized, and maximized, and users can either modify the out-of-the-box toolbars or create their own with a new desktop tool called ArcPad Toolbar Manager.

To go with the new changes, ArcPad 8 will also include ArcPad customisation software. ArcPad Studio is now included with every ArcPad licence rather than being sold separately. With this release, ArcPad 8 will also become a maintenance-based product.

ArcPad customers may subscribe to annual maintenance to get updates and technical support. Technical support will be provided to customers who are current on maintenance

The fully functional evaluation copy is now available from http://www.esri.com/arcpad/... This evaluation copy includes all the features with a time-limit of 20 minutes per use. The full press release talking about the new features of ArcPad 8 can be found here: http://www.esri.com/news/...

Presentation Extension For ArcGIS Desktop

Jithen Singh — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:10:34 GMT

After the ESRI Developer Summit 2009 in Palm Springs last week, I spent Friday at the ESRI campus in Redlands. It was great catching up with the Application Prototype Team and seeing what they have been working.

One of the nice samples Richie has been working on is the Presentation Extension for ArcGIS Desktop.

What does it offer? Well it allows users to give presentations directly from ArcMap without the need for Microsoft Powerpoint.

The sample comes with a Presentation Manager and a Presentation Window. It’s built using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

The Presentation Manager allows users to create and manipulate “slides”. The notion of slides can be thought about as being similar to bookmarks. You can also set the behaviour of the presentation.

The default presentation view is shown above. In the bottom right is a expander. Clicking it will make available a number of familiar mapping tools. Users can active these and interact with the map.

This is very cool stuff! The same concept is coming to ArcGIS Explorer 900 which was heavily showcased at the ESRI Developer Summit 2009. In the meanwhile you can use it in ArcGIS. This sample works on ArcGIS 9.2, 9.3. You will need .NET .3.5 SP1 installed since it’s a WPF application.

Richie has made this sample available on the ArcGIS Desktop Code Gallery. You can download it here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/.... He has also included the source code, so you have the flexibility of extending it however you want.

Great work Richie! Richie’s full write up about this sample can be found here: http://mrrichie.spaces.live.com/blog/... There are a number of other cool samples that the Application Prototype Team will be releasing soon so keep an eye out!

Using Visual Basic For Applications And Visual Basic 6 With ArcGIS. What’s The Story?

Jithen Singh — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:09:12 GMT

This is a question that I have been getting ask a lot over the last few weeks. With ArcGIS 9.3.1 and ArcGIS 9.4 being showcased at the ESRI Developer Summit 2009, users have been wanting to know what the future support of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and Visual Basic 6 (VB6) in ArcGIS is.

The EDN Team has posted some information about the future of these.

Visual Basic 6 Support

This development environment is fully tested, documented, and supported for use with ArcGIS through version 9.3.1.

The v9.3.1 release will include a version of the VB6 Software Developer Kit (SDK) for both ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Engine. For the past few years Microsoft has been phasing out support for VB6, finally considering it unsupported as of 2008. Due to this, ESRI will not be releasing a VB6 SDK nor supporting VB6 at the ArcGIS 9.4 release. We continue to encourage users and developers to migrate their projects and code to more recent versions of Microsoft Visual Studio which use the .NET Framework

So for ArcGIS through to ArcGIS 9.3.1, Visual Basic 6 is fully supported. For ArcGIS 9.4, Visual Basic 6 will now longer be supported. You code might work but the Visual Basic 6 SDK nor technical support services will be available.

Visual Basic for Applications Support

For about 12 years now since version 8.0, ArcGIS Desktop users have been able to take advantage of the embedded VBA Editor to write macros, code modules, etc. The status of VBA going forward is this. VBA is fully supported through ArcGIS Desktop version 9.3.1, however developers are encouraged to use supported versions of Microsoft Visual Studio when extending the ArcGIS Desktop applications. When ArcGIS 9.4 is released, VBA will no longer be recommended for use, however it will still be available in order to support legacy code and applications.

As above for ArcGIS through to ArcGIS 9.3.1, VBA is included and fully supported. For ArcGIS 9.4, Visual Basic for Applications will be available if needed. It will be fully supported BUT not recommended.

What about your using code? Have a read at the full post on the EDN Team Blog here: http://blogs.esri.com/dev/. This talks about the support for Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic for Applications and what you can do with your existing code.

I would encourage existing users to start migrating their projects and code to using the .NET framework. When ArcGIS 9.4 comes around, your code and projects will be better compatible.

ArcGIS API For Microsoft Silverlight/WPF Now Available!

Jithen Singh — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:40:12 GMT

The ESRI Developer Summit 2009 is only a few days away and we are already seeing some good material coming out! To add to this, the public beta for ArcGIS API For Microsoft Silverlight/WPF is now available.

The ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight™/WPF™ enables you to create rich internet and desktop applications that utilize the powerful mapping, geocoding, and geoprocessing capabilities provided by ArcGIS Server and Microsoft Virtual Earth™ services. The API is built on the Microsoft Silverlight/WPF platform which is integrated with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer Express 2008. The Microsoft Silverlight platform includes a lightweight version of the .NET Framework CLR (CoreCLR) and the Silverlight runtime - all hosted via a browser plug-in.

The Online SDK’s on the ESRI Resource Centre for ArcGIS Server has been updated to include the new ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF.

Full information including download links on the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF can be found here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/... Wahoo!

Download ArcGIS For AutoCAD Free!

Jithen Singh — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:11:25 GMT

ArcGIS for AutoCAD is a free downloadable tool that offers seamless interoperability between AutoCAD and the ArcGIS platform. ArcGIS for AutoCAD users are provided with quick and easy access, within the AutoCAD environment, to enterprise GIS data published by ArcGIS Server. In addition, ArcGIS for AutoCAD gives users the ability to prepare data for use in a GIS while working within existing CAD standards.

This download along with information on using ArcGIS for AutoCAD can be found here: http://www.esri.com/software/...

ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API 1.3 Now Available

Jithen Singh — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:32:24 GMT

ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API 1.2 was released late year. Since then the team has been hard at work on the next version. ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API 1.3 is now available for immediate use.

There are a bundle of new features. Some of these include:

Support for Dojo 1.2.3
Layer Extensibility
Error Handling
Enhanced Map Layer Management
Other Map Enhancements
I/O Enhancements
Other Enhancements
Bug Fixes

A full write up of all the new features can be found on the ESRI Resource Centre for the ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API here: http://resources.esri.com/help/...

The SDK examples have already been updated to use the new ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API 1.3.

ArcGIS Explorer Build 900 Showcased At The ESRI Federal User Conference 2009

Jithen Singh — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:22:29 GMT

The ESRI Federal User Conference 2009 is currently underway in Washington, D.C and as part of the opening plenary session, ArcGIS Explorer Build 900 was showcased.

ArcGIS Explorer 900, the forthcoming release of ArcGIS Explorer, was showcased a few hours ago during the opening plenary presentations at the 2009 ESRI Federal User Conference in Washington, D.C. ArcGIS Explorer was introduced by ESRI president Jack Dangermond with slides, and ArcGIS Explorer product manager Bern Szukalski showcased some of the new features and capabilities of Explorer, and how they're related to other new features that will be delivered with ArcGIS 9.3.1.

A bundle of new features were demonstrated including the new and improved ArcGIS Online.

Layer packages will be a new feature of ArcGIS 9.3.1.

One the layer package has been created this can be shared.

Jack Dangermond explained that layer packages can be shared in a variety of ways; they can be E-mailed, published onto CDs or DVDs, or placed on network drives. Bern showed another new way to share - via ArcGIS. He logged in to his ArcGIS Online account, then added his newly created layer package to other items he'd added previously. All ArcGIS users will have their own ArcGIS Online account, and have space available to share their data with others.

A few screenshots of ArcGIS Explorer 900 have been made available. This can be seen below with the layer package being consumed from ArcGIS Online.

The full demonstration and write up for this showcase at the Plenery Session can be found here: http://blogs.esri.com/info/.... Loads more screenshots, along with a explanation of some of the new features. Check it out!

ESRI’s New ArcGIS API For Microsoft Silverlight To Be Released At The ESRI Developer Summit 2009

Jithen Singh — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:56:53 GMT

A new press release has been published which talks about the new ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight. Information on the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight was first spotted on the agenda list of the ESRI Developer Summit 2009. Since then ESRI has released more information here: http://mandown.co.nz/esri/... and also released a sneak peek here: http://mandown.co.nz/esri/...

The beta release of the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight will coincide with the 2009 ESRI Developer Summit in Palm Springs, California, to be held March 23-26. This new API allows application developers to integrate ArcGIS Server and Microsoft Virtual Earth services and capabilities in a Silverlight application. ArcGIS Server delivers maps, geographic information system (GIS) services, and applications over the Web.

The full press release talking about what the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight offers can be found here: http://www.esri.com/news/...

ArcGIS Server 9.3 Standard Or Advanced Enterprise Supports New 64-Bit Platforms

Jithen Singh — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:10:13 GMT

For those that haven’t seen the announcement, ESRI has announced the availability of ArcSDE 9.3 with new native 64-bit support for a bundle of platforms.

ESRI is pleased to announce the availability of ArcSDE 9.3 with new native 64-bit support for Oracle® 10g & 11g, and Microsoft® SQL Server® on the following platforms: Windows, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 4 & 5, and SUSE® 10 Enterprise Linux from Novell®

These new platforms have been built on the ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 source code. How do you get a copy?

US based customers who are under maintenance can request a DVD from ESRI Customer Service. International Customers please contact your local distributor.

Many users have been asking for 64-bit support on these platforms it’s great that ArcSDE 9.3 is the first to offer this. I’ll be running some performance tests to see if there is much difference. This announcement was made available on the ESRI Support Centre: http://support.esri.com.

Eagle Technology Group Ltd Automates Maps For New Zealand Military

Jithen Singh — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:41:08 GMT

A great article has been posted in Defense News which talks about how Eagle Technology Group Ltd has been helping to automate maps for New Zealand Military.

“A military user wants one big button that just solves a problem, as a tool - a tool to help you make better, smarter decisions when you are cold, hungry and haven't slept for 72 hours.”
David Swann was talking about geographic information systems (GIS) for military purposes, one of his responsibilities as a business development director for Eagle Technology Group Ltd.

David Swann and Gerard Lelieveld have been hard at work with different parts of the New Zealand Military helping them with their GIS.

Ninety percent of decision-making is based around location," he said. "Data fusion is location, and GIS does that superbly.”

The full article of how New Zealand Military is using GIS from Eagle Technology Group Ltd can be found here: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php...

Top Ten Most Helpful ArcGIS Server Help Topics

Jithen Singh — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:39:47 GMT

This is a great and very useful post from Emeline who is a Support Analyst with ESRI.

Emeline polled the ArcGIS Server Usage Team and came up with a top ten most helpful ArcGIS Server help topics that are available from the ESRI Support Centre.

No matter how you use ArcGIS Server, whether you are an administrator, developer, or the analyst responsible for making the maps and models, these topics are worth adding to your Favorites folder!

The list counting down is as follows:

10. Performance Tips for Web Applications

9.5. Tuning and Configuring Services

9. Working with Configuration Files

8. Checklist for Authoring and Publishing Geoprocessing Services

7. Authoring Maps for Publishing as KML

6. Firewalls and ArcGIS Server

5. Java: Managing GIS Server User Accounts on Linux/Solaris

4. Tips and Best Practices for Map Caches

3. Common Problems and Solutions

2. Preparing Resources for Publishing

1. Configuring a Multiple Machine Deployment

Sometimes it can become a bit of a struggle to find help on certain parts of a particular software package. ArcGIS Server is a big product and hopefully some of these links help in addressing a problem or question you might have.

Emeline’s post including descriptions about each of these topics can be found here: http://blogs.esri.com/support/...

Map Caching Case Study Using New Zealand TopoOnline

Jithen Singh — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:36:56 GMT

ESRI has posted a nice map caching case study using New Zealand Topographic Maps. It talks about the New Zealand 1:50,000 Topographic Maps and the process involved in going about generating a cache.

Source data from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) was in Laserscan IFF format. This was massaged and made available in an .mxd which was then published up using ArcGIS Server. The caching exercise then began to generate a number of .jpegs for faster viewing.

More information about this case study can be found here: http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisserver/archive/2008/12/03/Map-caching-case-study_3A00_-New-Zealand-topo-maps.aspx

Jithen Singh has provided an extra write up on this map caching case study where the Technical Solutions Team at EAGLE cached New Zealand TopoOnline to illustrate the new faster viewing option of New Zealand TopoOnline using ArcGIS Server.

Information include demonstration links can be found here: http://mandown.co.nz/esri-new-zealand/map-caching-case-study-using-new-zealand-topographic-maps/

ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 Topology Validation Patch

Jithen Singh — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:37:32 GMT

ESRI released ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 earlier this month. SP1 included an enormous number of fixes and enhancements. Since the release an important issue has been discovered which ESRI has released a patch for.

ESRI® announces the ArcGIS 9.3 SP1 (Desktop, Engine, Server) Topology Validation Patch. This patch includes a fix to an issue that only occurs when validating a geodatabase topology. The geodatabase topology may incorrectly modify the shape of true curves in your data. We recommend that you download and install this patch at your earliest convenience to ensure the highest quality experience when working with ArcGIS 9.3 SP1.

Note that ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 must be installed before you can install this patch.

Some of the ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 setups have been replaced to address the following additional fix:

NIM040214 - Validating geodatabase topology containing overlapping curves may produce incorrect results. Please see Technical Article 35833 for more information.

NOTE: If you've installed ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 prior to November 24, 2008, simply install ArcGIS 9.3 SP1 (Desktop, Engine, Server) Topology Validation Patch to fix this issue. You do not need to re-install ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1.

NOTE: If you've already installed ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 and the ArcGIS 9.3 SP1 (Desktop, Engine, Server) Topology Validation Patch, you do not need to re-install Service Pack 1.

NOTE: To check for the presence of ArcGIS 9.3 SP1 (Desktop, Engine, Server) Topology Validation Patch or the updated 9.3 Service Pack 1 (9.3 SP1), right click, properties, version tab of the file GdbTopo.dll under the <installation folder>\ArcGIS\Bin folder. The File version should read:

GdbTopo.dll = 9.3.1.1851

Download information for this patch can be found on the ESRI Support Centre here: http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=downloads.patchesServicePacks.viewPatch&PID=17&MetaID=1468.

Master Time-Saving Tips And Tricks For Editing In ArcGIS Desktop

Jithen Singh — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:48:07 GMT

Online ESRI Seminar Will Cover Topics Such as Topology, Labels, and Tables

Editing and updating data in a spatial database can often be time-consuming. This month's ESRI live training seminar will offer several tips and tricks that will help ArcGIS Desktop software users save time when they edit data in a topology and work with labels, annotation, and tables in the ArcMap application.

Editing in ArcGIS 9: Tips and Tricks III will air November 20, 2008, at www.esri.com/lts. Attendees can tune in to the free seminar at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. (Pacific standard time).

The success and productivity of a geographic information system (GIS) depends on building and maintaining a high-quality spatial database. ArcGIS Desktop software includes a wide variety of tools and commands to edit, manipulate, and create spatial data.

During the seminar, the presenters will discuss and demonstrate tools and techniques that will be useful when working with topology, labels, and annotation. Attendees will learn tips about

Using topology editing tools, which maintain and update shared feature geometry
Editing annotation features
Working with tables

This seminar is designed for intermediate and experienced ArcGIS users, especially those who edit features in ArcMap and want to learn the techniques that will help them create more efficient workflows.

A broadband Internet connection and an ESRI Global Account are needed to watch the seminar. Creating a global account is easy and free: visit www.esri.com/lts, click Login, and register your name and address. A few weeks after the live presentation, the seminar will be archived and available for viewing on the ESRI Training and Education Web site.

For more information about this free live training seminar, as well as upcoming classes, visit www.esri.com/training.

Download ArcGIS For AutoCAD Build 110

Jithen Singh — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:47:19 GMT

New version of ArcGIS for AutoCAD offers support for AutoCAD 2009.

ArcGIS for AutoCAD is a simple and easy-to-use tool that gives AutoCAD users access to GIS information and the results of GIS analysis. This free, downloadable application provides access to ArcGIS Server map services and allows you to view and query GIS data from within the AutoCAD environment without transforming your CAD drawings or converting GIS data. As an AutoCAD user, you can work directly with ArcGIS map services to add full GIS context to your AutoCAD session.

Full information on using ArcGIS for AutoCAD including the plugin download can be found here: http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-autocad/index.html

ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 Released

Jithen Singh — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:28:00 GMT

ESRI has now released ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1.SP1 includes a enormous number of fixes and enhancements. If you missed the announcement along with the list of fixes, this can be found here: http://mandown.co.nz/esri/... This was later updated here: http://mandown.co.nz/esri/...

ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 download locations can be found here:

NZ
ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcGIS Image Server 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcIMS 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcSDE 9.3 Service Pack 1

This mirror contains a subset (most popular) of the files that are on the ESRI Support Centre. All of the files for ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 can be found here:

US
ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcGIS Image Server 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcIMS 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcSDE 9.3 Service Pack 1

The latest list of fixes that have been added to ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 can be found here:
ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcGIS Image Server 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcIMS 9.3 Service Pack 1
ArcSDE 9.3 Service Pack 1

Also have a read of What's New in ArcGIS 9.3 Service Packs for the latest on what has been added to this SP.

Start downloading!

Getting Started With ArcGIS API For Flex

Jithen Singh — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:25:28 GMT

Access everything you need to create visually rich Web mapping applications.

“The ArcGIS API for Flex enables you to add GIS functionality to your rich Internet applications (RIAs). With the ArcGIS API for Flex, you leverage ArcGIS Server resources, such as maps, locators, and geoprocessing models, in your applications by accessing back-end ArcGIS Web services.”

Full information on how you can create applications using this new API can be found here: http://www.esri.com/getting_started/developers/flex-development-tools.html.

New ESRI ArcGIS API for Flex Enhances Web Mapping

Jithen Singh — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:19:52 GMT

Shortly after the release of ArcGIS 9.3, ESRI released the first public beta version of the new ArcGIS Server 9.3 Flex API. The ArcGIS 9.3 Flex API is built on Adobe’s Flex technology.

The new web GIS tool aims to give developers direct access to ArcGIS Server 9.3. With the Flex API, developers can combine GIS-based Web services from ArcGIS Server with other Web content, which can be displayed in simple, dynamic mapping applications over the Web or on the desktop.

ESRI’s new ArcGIS 9.3 Flex API has now been publically released. The released version of the API can be downloaded from the ArcGIS Server Resource Centre.

ESRI has published a press release talking about the power and new features the ArcGIS Server 9.3 Flex API offers.

“The API exploits the powerful geospatial capabilities of ArcGIS services. Users can transform their local data into a visually rich interactive map, query and display GIS data features and attributes, locate addresses, identify features, and perform complex spatial analytics. Integrated with Adobe Flex Builder 3, Flex is a client-side technology that is rendered by Flash Player 9 or Adobe AIR. As long as developers have access to ArcGIS Server via a URL, they can program with ArcGIS API for Flex remotely. Since the API is built on the Adobe Flex framework, developers can put all Flex components, such as list boxes, data grids, landscapes, and text controls, into custom applications.”

This full press release can be found here: http://www.esri.com/news/releases/08_4qtr/new_arcgis_flexapi.html.

EAGLE Invitation To ITT Seminar

Jithen Singh — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:00:55 GMT

With the emergence of so much imagery in New Zealand, Eagle Technology Group Ltd is pleased to announce that we have become the New Zealand Distributor for ITT Visual Information Solutions. This includes the powerful ITT suite of Image processing, Visualisation and Analysis software.

You can read more about the capability of these products here: http://www.ittvis.com/ProductServices.aspx.

We are fortunate to have Eduardo Iturrate and Frances Kelly from ITT here in Wellington on Thursday October 30th. They will be giving a Seminar from 1.30 to 3.00 covering the different product capabilities and users cases. This seminar will be held in the EAGLE Wellington Office. Coffee and muffins will be supplied.

If you would like to attend this ITT Seminar, please contact your account manager as soon as possible. Full contact information can be found on our contact us page here: http://www.eaglegis.co.nz/company/contact.html.

ESRI New Zealand User Conference 2008 Kicks Off!

Jithen Singh — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:09:14 GMT

It’s been a hard packed few weeks preparing for the ESRI New Zealand User Conference 2008. The ESRI New Zealand User Conference 2008 officially kicks off tomorrow in a very sunny Rotorua!

Pre-conference sessions are under way with a good number of users attending. Conference staff are hard at work preparing the stands for the exhibitor areas and working out all the technical details for the main plenary stage.

Jithen (J) Singh has a write up of what’s been happening. You can read all about this here: http://mandown.co.nz/events/esri-new-zealand-user-conference-2008-kicks-off/.

Spatially Manage And Optimise Fleet Operations With ArcLogistics 9.3

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:46:30 GMT

Earlier this week ESRI published a new white paper which provides an insight into ArcLogistics. The write up for this white paper can be found here: http://mandown.co.nz/esri/... ESRI today published a new press release talking about ArcLogistics 9.3. Redlands, California—ArcLogistics 9.3, ESRI's routing

Source: http://mandown.co.nz/esri/spatially-manage-and-optimise-fleet-operations-with-arclogistics-9-3/

ArcGIS Server Live User Sites

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:45:37 GMT

Numerous users ask about examples of live user sites. ESRI has added a new section to the ArcGIS Server homepage called ArcGIS Server Live User Sites . Visit the ArcGIS Server Live User Sites to see how organisations are using ArcGIS Server to deliver maps and spatial analysis on the web. ArcGIS Server

Source: http://mandown.co.nz/esri/arcgis-server-live-user-sites/

ArcLogistics, The Routing And Scheduling Solution For Fleet Management

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:45:03 GMT

ESRI has released a new white paper which provides an insight into ArcLogistics. The white paper provides an introduction to ArcLogictics, talking about some of the key features and advanced solver functionality, street data options, application framework and system requirements. ESRI® ArcLogistics™

Source: http://mandown.co.nz/esri/arclogistics-the-routing-and-scheduling-solution-for-fleet-management/

New Version Of Free GIS Portal Toolkit Improves Data Access

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:51:35 GMT

GIS Portals have been a talking point for a while and ESRI has published a new press release which talks about the new GIS Portal Toolkit which is being offered free of charge. To further improve geographic information system (GIS) data access over the Web, ESRI has updated its GIS...

What's Coming In ArcPad 7.2?

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:51:09 GMT

Something that slipped past was the announcement of ArcPad 7.2 and the beta program which is now open. ArcPad 7.2 beta program is now accepting applications. So what's some of the new features coming in ArcPad 7.2? Well it sounds like the ArcPad Development Team has been very busy making some great changes...

ArcGIS 9.3 Error Reporting

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:50:55 GMT

One of the great new features of ArcGIS 9.3 is the error reporting system that has been introduced. Whenever a crash is encountered ArcGIS 9.3 will give you the ability to to send an error report to ESRI. We have seen this feature introduced in a number of other software products out there and it's nice...

Should I Be Making Direct Connections To An ArcSDE Geodatabase?

Jithen Singh — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:47:44 GMT

This is a very common question that a number users ask. The Geodatabase Development Team has an excellent post on this. There are two ways to go about connecting to ArcSDE. One is to connect via the application server connection and the other is to make a direct connection. Essentially these are the...