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Thursday last week, we cut a maintenance release of Geocortex IMF. Version 5.2.1 contains a number of bug fixes and ensures compatibility with ArcIMS 9.2 SP4 and SP5.
If you're using Geocortex IMF with ArcMap Image Server based Map Services, you'll definitely want to get a hold of this release.
Geocortex IMF 5.2.1 is our second product release (following Geocortex Essentials 1.3) available on our new Geocortex Support Center (BETA). Send an email to software@latitudegeo.com with subject line "IMF Support Center Account Request" to request an account.
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Most developers, in their never-ending quest for order, seem to spend a lot of time refactoring code. Visual Studio 2008 has a number of functions that take care of common refactoring tasks but they cover only files that are included in projects and work best against source code. While working on the Optimizer project, I recently refactored some code and in the process, changed the name of some tags in our settings files. Some of these files are referenced by our projects but others are deployed elsewhere. I could hunt them all down and change them manually, or I could use a tool to do it for me. My first thought was to use Windows XP search but for whatever reason, it never seems to find all of the files I'm interested in and only has a search feature, not search and replace. In that regard, I thought the Windows 2000 search function was much better. It always seemed to find what I am looking for.
I ran across a useful utility that does search and replace really well called Windows Grep. It has the usual search options including search using regular expressions, whole word matching and interestingly, also has a Soundex search which will locate all the documents that contain words that sound like a given word. It also has a replace feature that will make a backup copy of changed files, saving you some grief if your global search and replace goes a little too global.
Admittedly, finding the tool took almost as long as manually changing all of my settings files, but looking for the tool and learning how to use it was a whole lot more fun.
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Though we announced it last month at our user conference, I want to post briefly about Geocortex Optimizer, our new product for ArcGIS Server we're timing for release around the ESRI International User Conference in San Diego this year.
Geocortex Optimizer is comprised of four distinct modules (think our ArcIMS-generation Geocortex Statistics and Geocortex Uptime products rolled into one, plus more) that will maximize the value and effectiveness of an investment in ESRI’s next-generation web-based GIS foundation. Initial versions will focus on maximizing ArcGIS Server performance and distributed system performance monitoring, with emphasis shifting to ease-of-management and the ROI calculation side of things.
This has been a challenging and exciting project that is really taking shape and that I think is going to appeal to single server organizations, large enterprises, and everyone in between. Now that the original design is coming to life and the team has some great momentum, we're getting really excited about this product.
Notwithstanding any unforeseen technical hurdles in the next couple iterations, we should be announcing a Beta program fairly soon. Let us know if you're interested in participating.
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With every release of Geocortex Essentials I compare and contrast to previous releases... Although only labelled version 1.3, this actually represents our 16th release of Geocortex Essentials! (1.0 Beta, 1.0, 1.1 Beta 1, 1.1 Beta 2, 1.1 Release, 1.1 Service Pack 1, 1.2 Alpha 1, 1.2 Beta 1, 1.2 Beta 2, 1.2 Release, 1.2.1 Release, 1.2.2 Beta 1, 1.2.2, 1.3 Beta 1, 1.3 Beta 2, 1.3 Release).
Taken together, I am amazed at how rapidly this product has evolved in just eighteen months.
Anyway, cut last night, Geocortex Essential 1.3 contains some major new features:
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Data Linking: Using ADO.NET, OLEDB and/or ODBC, administrators can define connections to a variety of data sources; including RDBMS, files, Web Services, GeoRSS feeds, and even live links to data sources like Excel spreadsheets. Data sources are abstracted from the administrator; they can be extended to connect to custom data types
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New Print Templates allow administrators to create printable maps with the WYSIWG interface provided by a new desktop tool, Geocortex Report Designer. Print Templates can include the map, overview map, north arrow, scale bar, scale, legend, projection, date/time, and any other configurable text or images. Print Templates can be exported at high resolutions to multiple formats including PDF, RTF, HTML, XLS, TIFF and text.
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The Reporting Engine allows configurable reports to be designed and deployed to Sites to include spatial data, map data, data from external data links, and other sources. Print ready reports can be exported to a variety of formats including PDF, RTF, HTML, XLS, TIFF and text
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We’ve restructured Geocortex Essentials to include a Workflow Engine, built on Windows Workflow Foundation in .NET 3.0. This streamlines application development and allows developers to focus on deploying quick solutions that solve business needs.
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Easy to use interfaces in Geocortex Essentials Manager for configuring security authorization, and adding users to roles
This was a major release because, after months of work, we had a whole bunch of functionality that was orchestrated for the Beta tossed over the wall a couple days before our user conference last month.
We're all pumped to have the final release out the door. For the next development iteration (3 weeks) our focus will be on ensuring compatibility with ArcGIS Server 9.3 (shipping in June) as well as ongoing JavaScript/REST API research and development.
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FYI, today is Victoria Day in Canada. For most Canadians, Victoria Day is just a day off that enables the "May Long Weekend" but here in Victoria I guess somebody decided to try to make a bigger deal out of it (complete with parade and fireworks). So... if your emails haven't been answered so far today (i.e. if someone here forgot to set their out-of-office response), now you know why.
For Canada-only holidays I generally come into the office (along with two or three other people, and then we take a corresponding US holiday off). Someone needs to be here since the phone keeps ringing, but an otherwise quiet office means we can get lots of work done. Answering some incoming phone calls means I get to chat with a random selection of customers (most of whom I don't get a chance to speak with day-to-day). I've already had some wonderful conversations with folks that've called in. So, if you want to catch-up or share some ideas with me, this afternoon is the perfect time.
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I'm sitting at Heathrow right now waiting for a connection after spending a week in the United Arab Emirates. I was at GISWORX (which is GISTEC's annual user conference). I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and was happy to have GISTEC programmers there when the Q&A session at the end of my presentation on our ArcGIS Server-generation solutions got into some in-depth technical questions.
I'm really impressed with the work people are doing in the region, and a few attendees have promised to send screenshots for my opening presentations of some cool projects (including an underwater inventory of coral reefs in Abu Dhabi--complete with video).
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We need to hire five or six computer programmers right now, and recruiting is constantly on my mind.
This morning I gave a presentation on mapping and GIS to a fourth grade class. They were a sharp group of kids, and during the Q&A section I found myself calculating the year in which they'll graduate from university so we can hire them.