Street View may have Street Slide as competitor

We all know and use Street View on almost daily basis. It is a very useful feature specially when friend's instructions are not quite clear.

Soon we may have an alternative for Street View. Of course it is coming from Microsoft and eventually we can expect to see it as part of Bing Maps. This alternative is called Street Slide View. When used for first time is resembles Street View (something to be expected - there are not too many different ways to look around in 3D) but the difference is obvious when you turn 90 degrees and zoom out. Then you see a side view of the street.

In this view user can pan up and down the street. By zooming in standard "bubble" view will be used again.
This is a basic view but it can be extended with display of locator map, street addresses and images representing stores for examples.

I find this way of navigation quite nice and easy. It would be nice to have this functionality right now but I guess we will have to wait a bit.

To get a more complete understanding of Street Slide have a look at this video.



For more details (including diagrams and formulas) check the Microsoft Research web site paper.  


I would like to see Street Slide for New Zealand but I won't hold my breath...

Displaying images and attributes in ArcGIS 10

In older article I wrote about the ways to show attributes and images simultaneously in ArcGIS 9.3.1. Now ArcGIS 10 is out I decided to test it again.

ArcGIS 10 has a new feature - Attachments that is designed for this or similar purpose. Here is what help system says about it:

Attachments provide a flexible way to manage additional information that is related to your features. Attachments allow you to add files to individual features and can be images, PDFs, text documents, or any other type of file.

This sounds very promising and I have set up a simple map document containing just a world countries and cities. For cities I want to display attributes and photos. First tool to try will be HTML popup like I did with 9.3.1.

Here is what you have to do. Firstly, you have to enable attachments for your feature class. This is done in ArcCatalog on case by case basis. By doing a simple right click on a feature class in context menu under 'Attachments' select 'Create Attachments' option.

By doing this ArcGIS will create a new table and relationship class. These will be used later when attaching documents to the features.

Now I have a map document with two layers, table and a relationship class.

Since we are adding records to the related table and editing features we have to start an edit session. In ArcGIS 10 you can do it from a context menu.

Now it is a matter of selecting feature you want to add attachments to, open the attribute table. Once attribute table is opened display the context menu and select 'Open Attachment Manager'.

Attachment manager is quite simple form where one can manage attachments. Here I have added first image.

If there are multiple documents/attachments you want to add they can be added at once. See example below for adding two images.

Final result for London is that there are three images stored as attachments.

After saving edits for few more cities I can specify HTML popup option in layer properties.

And now we are ready for testing. Here is the HTML popup tool result for London.

I want to point out that attachments feature is not the same as hyperlinks managed in a table. Once file is attached it is actually stored in *_ATTACH table in your geodatabase. As a test I have renamed my london1.jpg to london1xxxx.jpg and opened the same MXD. My result is still the same and click on london1.jpg brings up original image attached.

This is great improvement over 9.3.1 functionality. I haven't tested it yet with larg(er) number of attachments or different files but I could do that later on. Till then, good luck with experimenting in ArcGIS 10.

ESRI International User Conference 2010

Yet another international user conference starts today in San Diego. Unfortunately, I am not attending this one but four of my colleagues are so I will have good sources of news and opinions. 


Slogan for this conference is "Opening the world to everyone".

Conference has a nice home page on Esri's web site so take time to see the agenda, videos, twitter conversations, etc. If you would like to follow the conference on Facebook go here.


New Zealand will have high profile presence at this conference. Maurice Williamson is set to address ~ 400 senior executives at the upcoming ESRI Senior Executive Summit 2010. More about this can be found on my friend's blog here. 


This is all for now, more to come in a matter of hours...

ArcGIS 9.3.1 SP 2 released

While part of Esri team was busy developing ArcGIS 10 another part was busy working on issues in 9.3.1 version. Service pack 2 is fixing a number of issues. Exact counts are below.

• Desktop - 84
• Engine - 2
• Server (general) - 6
• REST - 5
• Web ADF - 3
• Java - 2

Here are my picks of important fixes for Desktop.

ArcGIS Desktop

• NIM014000 - Converting EMF picture marker symbols to representations may result in unexpected jaggedness of outlines and missing interior fill elements.
• NIM031270 - Selecting cartographic representation with the cartographic representation select tool is significantly slower than selecting with the editor tool and the selection tool.
• NIM036834 - If you have an exception that has a dirty area crossing it and validate the topology the exception becomes an error.
• NIM037043 - When a feature is selected, and a reference scale is used, the selected point feature ignores the reference scale.
• NIM039914 - If a data frame contains one or more polygon layers symbolized with bar graphs, no attributes are included in the PDF export, even with the export option 'Export PDF Layers and Feature Attributes' selected.
• NIM041239 - Stopping the trace tool at the beginning of a true curve adds a circle to the sketch.
• NIM042869 - Using Near tool with default search tolerance gets incorrect results, as not all input features can find the distance to the near feature.
• NIM043178 - ArcMap crashes when reconciling and memory increases to almost 2GB (virtual bytes).
• NIM047109 - Spatial join in SDE geodatabase does not return any rows.
• NIM048174 - Reconciling an edited attributed relationship table, in favor of edit version, fails with error message when related feature has been deleted in the target version.
• NIM050124 - Intersecting Layers Mask GP tool fails to produce proper masking polygons in 9.3.1.
• NIM051339 - Conversion of character markers into representation markers results in the TOC display of the marker at 75-80% of expected size.
• NIM052264 - Feature Outline Masks tool crashes when running against lines or polygons symbolized without representations.
• NIM052349 - Joined attributes are no longer visible in the Identify window if one of the layers is using Representations.
• NIM052365 - Relationship classes created between double data types in a File Geodatabase return inconsistent results when performing queries.
• NIM053271 - ArcGIS Globe Memory Leakage when adding graphics. Memory never releases.
• NIM054377 - Hash line symbols have inconsistent spacing compared to cartographic line symbols.
• NIM054416 - Features in conflict do not draw in the Conflict Detection window if layer is drawn with representations and you are not the data owner.
• NIM055237 - Calculate Locations geoprocessing tool does not honor the parameter values for the location fields when run from a python script.
• NIM056157 - After exporting the shapefile to a personal geodatabase feature class, the value for the geometry's grid is not correctly calculated; this results in the features disappearing in random map scales.
• NIM056289 - Reconcile fails with the error, "Feature is deleted. The operation was attempted on an empty geometry."
• NIM056710 - Memory leak in the in-memory feature class.

ArcGIS Server general fixes

• NIM036787 - WMS enabled map service is a little shifted (a pixel or two) against the original data when both are added into ArcMap. The shift is not present if WMS capability is not enabled for the map service. - Informix Direct Connect does not work for Linux ArcGIS Server.
• NIM049389 - ArcGIS Server WMS Service layer in ArcMap does not render at the scale range set in the .mxd.
• NIM050650 - Python Object ARCSDESQLEXECUTE returns encoded output when used on Solaris with ArcGIS Server.
• NIM051258 - Java applications connecting to ArcGIS Server through local connections (DCOM) are disconnected from the server after a 10-minute time out period.
• NIM052700 - Korean fonts do not allow ArcGIS Server Services .Net to start on Windows 2003 Korean edition.
• NIM056870 - 9.3 Image service WMS doesn't support XML format for exceptions and will return an error if accessed using ArcGIS 10 as client.

REST API fixes

• NIM042583 - REST Query Layer and KML Server requests do not return valid KML if the layers in the map document used to create the service have a geometry field named something other than SHAPE.
• NIM052721 - Update Java REST API in 9.3.1 SP2 to not generate ETags by default for tiles fetched from cached map services.
• NIM052853 - Round-robin or failover does not work as expected in the Java REST handler.
• NIM053837 - In the .Net REST handler the REST URL response grows with every page refresh when using the Sitemap parameter.
• NIM054974 - In the .Net REST handler the MapService Query operation fails when SHAPE field is included in the list of outfields and returngeometry is also set to true.

Web ADF

• NIM049896 - The ArcIMS TCPConnection crashes the IIS Application pool if the first initial connection fails.
• NIM051455 - Floating panel and task dialogs move unexpectedly when touching the left or right edge of the browser when using DIR=RTL mode applications in IE6 and IE7.
• NIM054547 - Transparency in a Web application is not honored for PNG32 image type when the service is an MXD-based dynamic map service.

ArcGIS Mobile

• NIM039695 - GPS cursor doesn't point correct direction after rotating map in ArcGIS Mobile application

Java manager

• NIM049466 - Exported WebService Handler throws error when accessing WSDL through URL on WebSphere v7.
• NIM052355 - SOAP requests returning non-English characters including map identify with Arabic characters do not work with some clients such as Microsoft Visual Studio.

For complete list of fixes in Service Pack check the Service Pack 2 page.

ArcPad 8 Service Pack 4 available

New Service Pack is here for ArcPad 8. It is a 101 Mb zip file containing full install of ArcPad.
There is no update of the ArcGIS Server ArcPad Extension for Service Pack 4. This Service Pack fixes the following issues:

• There is an increase in available memory whilst running ArcPad, particular noticeable on VGA Windows Mobile devices. A memory leak related to icons has been removed (CQ00312338)
• JPEG2000 images are now loaded incrementally avoiding critically low memory states (CQ00312346)
• (Layer) extension developers can set their layer to be dynamic or non-dynamic (missing in 8.0.0 – 8.0.3. CQ00311650)
• GPS on Windows XP rugged tablet PC’s can now be turned off successfully using the GPS Activate/Deactivate tool (CQ00311650)

ArcGIS product life cycle changes

As expected with release of ArcGIS 10 there is a shift of support levels. ArcGIS 9.3.1 and 9.3 are now in extended support. Extended support includes:

• Phone support
• Email/Fax
• Online Support Center
• Patches / Hot Fixes
• No certification

ArcGIS 9.2 is now in Mature Support and this means that fixes and patches will not be developed for this version.

Here is a summary of current status of support for Desktop products.

For ArcGIS Server, ArcIMS and Image Server the same applies - 9.3.1 and 9.3 are in Extended support.

ArcPad 7.1.1 and 7 have also moved to Extended support.

For details of other product visit Product Life Cycles page.

Where would oceans go when Earth stops spinning?

If you have ever wondered about this then read the article in latest issue of the ArcUser. Article elaborates on effects of the absence of centrifugal force and how it would affect distribution of the oceans.

This is an interesting article and includes maps of the world in different stages of ocean's migration to polar regions. Reasons for migration of oceans to polar regions are quite obvious. Poles are closer to the Earth's centre and centrifugal force creates a bulge of water at the equator.

To illustrate the difference between current and new water distribution have a look at maps below.

Article elaborates on assumption that rotation would stop in a matter of few decades even that would happen over very, very long time.

Here is the final map of the world when all water has moved to polar regions.

I am glad that in this case Auckland would be still on land...

Article is quite interesting to read but I would like to see similar article about more likely scenario - when Earth's rotation is synchronized with revolution. We know that will happen just like it did happen to the Moon. I find this a bit more interesting scenario because effects would be very similar to ones described in the article above - one day would last a year, rotation would be very slow. Additional effect is that only one side of the Earth would face the Sun. This would create a very interesting climate situation. My knowledge of climatology (last time I did a paper on this was at Uni about 20-ish years ago) is little bit faded and not up to the task so I won't even try to imagine.

If you find an article about that scenario please let me know.

ArcGIS 10 in high demand

ArcGIS 10 is available for all users and it seems that everybody is taking an opportunity to get it. Here is what Support Center has just posted.


We had an overwhelming demand for downloads of ArcGIS 10 today. This exceeded our initial estimate for the number of visits to the Esri Customer Care website (http://customers.esri.com ). Due to the increased traffic, our systems could not meet the expectations of our customers this morning. We acted swiftly to resolve the issue and have since increased the available capacity of the Web site to meet the demand. 


It is great to see ESRI responding quickly to theses issues. We will see if new capacity is sufficient for this demand.