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I come from a background in IT, not geography. Over the last five years, the "Geographic" part GIS has intrigued me more and more. Writing software for many other types of "Information Systems" just doesn't seem as interesting.
Today I spent a couple hours building some search forms from the Configurable Search feature we're currently wrapping up for Geocortex Essentials 1.5. Building search forms is such a common IT operation. What web-based application doesn't have a search function? And what specific system implementation hasn't required custom functionality on top of that search. The cool thing about writing search tools for a GIS is that we can apply spatial filters and then "see" the results (here, seeing means more than squinting at rows and columns in a table).
For example: Find me all of the parcels within the zip code 28214 that have a land value greater than $450,000. The word "within" becomes a very powerful part of that sentence.
This search found me 119 parcels. I don't really want to sift through that data in a table... but seeing the results on the map empowers my results to "mean something".
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I had heard about elephants painting, but I would never imagine that an elephant could send a text message!
From the article: "So they placed a mobile phone SIM card in Kimani's collar, then set up a virtual "geofence" using a global positioning system that mirrored the conservatory's boundaries. Whenever Kimani approaches the virtual fence, his collar texts rangers."
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Wow. At the outset, we weren't really sure what kind of response we'd see for our first Geocortex User Group. I was hopeful we could get 10 enthusiastic users to sit around a table and talk about web-GIS, share their experiences and learn what we're working on for the future. Nope. Instead, we had 47 join us in Los Angeles last week! Even my own optimistic estimates (30) meant we ran out of feedback forms and refreshments far too early.
Bulging numbers aside, we had a productive meeting thanks to the generosity of Los Angeles County for hosting and managing the event. We spent some time having everyone introduce themselves, I spoke for close to an hour regarding company and technology direction, but most importantly, we had 3 user presentations, sharing diverse implementations of Geocortex IMF and Essentials.
Based on the feedback we received, the event was a success, and the user group is looking at scheduling the next meeting for spring of next year. User groups in Toronto, Seattle, Texas and Wisconsin are getting off the ground soon, so look for one in your area!
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In my last post I mentioned a way to get distinct values for a featureclass out of ArcIMS. This involved bending the rules 'creatively', but it got the job done which was the ultimate intent. Recently I was discussing with some colleagues another frustrating issue with ArcIMS; namely, that of stacking an ArcIMS image on top of (or below) a WMS image. Since ArcIMS has no native WMS client capabilities, we're always forced to stack the images in the browser. This can have some unfortunate side effects - partially transparent polygons become opaque, and antialiasing goes straight out the window. Observe:
This is the standard Geocortex IMF demonstration site, with the USGS Shaded Relief WMS dropped behind. Notice the absence of image behind the jurisdiction layer, the poor antialiasing of the roads over the shaded relief, and the barely legible "Gaston" label.
Now, we can't make ArcIMS become a WMS client, but we *can* work around these issues if absolutely necessary. What happens from the IMF perspective when we generate this image is that it requests the WMS image from USGS, and at the same time requests the ArcIMS image. It then drapes one over the other in the user's browser. If we changed the workflow a bit, we can do the following:
- Request the WMS image
- Save the WMS image somewhere the ArcIMS server can get it
- Add an acetate layer to the ArcIMS map with a single polygon. This polygon will cover the same area as the current map extent, which will also be the same area covered by the WMS image.
- Use a RASTERFILLSYMBOL to paint the polygon, and use the WMS image as the source.
Using this trick, our image now will look like this:
Ahhhh, much better!
Note that I did take the liberty of changing the symbology slightly for the jurisdictions layer to work well with the WMS, but you get the idea :)
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UPDATE: This message was originally posted for our customers on the Geocortex Support Center on October 6, 2008 and is posted here for folks who don't have access to the Geocortex Support Center. Also, here's the link to the Geocortex Essentials: The Road Ahead webinar.
I’m posting to provide some insight into current and upcoming Geocortex Essentials development, as it relates to ESRI’s new and emerging developer APIs.
It is clear to us that these APIs will have an integral role to play (alongside Web ADF) for many customers in the years to come and so we are actively engineering Geocortex Essentials 2.0 to encompass these developer technologies.
Agnostic support and integration for various ESRI developer technologies (as they come into existence) has always been part of the long-term vision for Geocortex Essentials and so our work has always been designed to be exposed in an agnostic way at some point in the future. With the intense demand for Web ADF features and the absence of other APIs, Geocortex Essentials development has been focused on the Web ADF realm for the 1.x product generation, while ensuring we we could make the core elements generic once warranted. And that’s what we’re doing right now.
We’re currently working on a Geocortex Essentials REST API to initially expose search, reporting, data linking and printing via a RESTful interface. This functionality can then be leveraged by either Javascript or Flex API applications—or any other application that connects RESTfully to our API. We decided to expose these particular core elements because they’re needed at the heart of many real-world ArcGIS Server implementations. Let us know if other features are a priority to your organization.
Before long, we’ll also get behind one or more lightweight viewer APIs by developing software to streamline and enhance the development and management of applications built on them. While we’re working with each and may provide sample Javascript and Flex API template applications on which to base development, we have yet to “pick a pony” regarding technological emphasis on the lightweight viewer/application development side. We don’t think all the information is available yet to ensure the correct decision, and we’re confident our customers won’t want us to risk going down the wrong path by making a premature choice.
We’re anticipating a Q1 2009 release of version 2.0. Finally, because Geocortex Essentials is about success with ArcGIS Server, everything we’re talking about here will be delivered to you as part of regular product updates.
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Recently there have been a few articles contrasting traditional paper maps and online maps.
A BBC article claims that online maps are “wiping out history”, while a Globe and Mail article, “Map-making mania”, explains how “amateur cartographers are going high-tech to make the most unexpected online maps – and ticking off old-school mapmakers along the way”.
With the changing mapping medium, my personal feeling is that the rules with online maps are changing - to be successful we must strive to give the users the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the fewest number of clicks…
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I just returned from the 2008 Latin American User Conference in Santiago, Chile. It was a great trip and an excellent event. ESRI Chile hosted a well-organized conference, the attendees were very focused and interested, and everyone was very welcoming. Most of the ESRI Distributors I met seemed very progressive, and there appears to be lots of good work going on in the region with ESRI technology.
My Spanish proved even less effective than anticipated. I quickly realized the most pragmatic way to manage expectations around my language abilities was to simply claim to have no knowledge whatsoever. This meant that having Fernando of ESIMEX there with me was of immense additional value, and aside from translating my presentation on Friday to a standing room only audience (which wouldn't have happened if I'd presented in English), he delivered numerous demos and was able to answer questions about who we are and what we do.
There seemed to be considerable interest in our technology. Unfortunately, for the first time ever at a conference, we ran out of both Spanish and English marketing materials on day three (despite having, as always, 50% more than we thought we’d require based on the number of attendees). We had a hard time getting more printed locally on short notice.
Prior to the conference, I took a few days to tour the region. This included a long, steep hike in a national park that left me limping and wincing through the first two days of the conference.