New features of ArcGIS Explorer 1700 – Part I

 

This release of ArcGIS Explorer features two new important tools – Query and Spatial Query.

Query

Dialog for Query tool is very similar to one in ArcMap but there are subtle differences. For example you don’t have to double click on field name to select it. The same applies to unique values. Once query is completed you must `Test` it first as seen on screenshot below.

When query is executed results are added to your map as dynamic layer where query used is part of the title.

Spatial Query

For spatial queries one can create lines, polygons, circle, square or select any of existing map notes. If you remember any features can be converted to notes (http://blogs.esri.com/Info/blogs/arcgisexplorerblog/archive/2011/06/08/extracting-features-from-services-using-explorer-desktop.aspx) and then used for spatial query. Spatial relationships are basic: cross, contain and intersect. Here is an example of cross relationship spatial query.

Geotagging images

Now we have ability to geotag images in core Explorer. Previously, it was possible with an Add-In. Process of geotagging images is very simple. Add an image and if it’s not geotagged it will prompt you if you would like to do that.

 

Geotagged images will be displayed in the map at selected location and with thumbnail in table of content – nice touch. In addition you get a copy of image with name <original name> Geotagged.jpg so your original photos are untouched.

 

If you need to share your images easy option is to create a folder in TOC, move geotagged image layers in folder and then share it like a layer package. Once layer is added to ArcMap use HTML popup to display the images.

Displaying images and attributes simultaneously in ArcGIS

Displaying attributes is one of common tasks for all GIS users. Until release of 9.3 two ways were possible – display attribute table and use identify window. Map tips don’t really qualify for this case since they are based on a single attribute.

Release of 9.3 has introduced a new tool – HTML Popup. This tool is available in ArcMap , ArcGlobe and ArcScene and it is used primarily to prepare map layers for delivery using ArcGIS Server or KML. This does not mean you can’t (or you shouldn’t) use it Desktop applications. HTML popup enables display of the following content types:

• Attributes
• URL
• Custom popup

For this occasion I will discuss display of the shapefile attributes in ArcMap 9.3.1 and Explorer 900. I chose shapefile because it can’t store images like feature class can with use of raster attribute. Shapefile in this example contains very basic information about 8 tallest buildings of the World. In addition to basic information like name, height, latitude and longitude an additional attribute was created. This text attribute is storing location of image for a building.

To be most efficient for display using HTML popup the map layer has to be prepared. This is just a simple extension of the process you are already doing because everything is set on properties dialog of a layer. First step is to choose fields to be included in HTML Popup. Selection is made on Fields tab from Layer Properties dialog. While choosing fields check if would be better to use field alias instead of field name. In this case field names are quite suitable and only change I made was inclusion of ‘(m)’ text for height.

Next step is populating fields for image location. In this example most of the images are stored locally on hard disk while one is displayed directly from the internet. Since I am using HTML popup tool I have to provide location for images in proper HTML syntax. This is accomplished using basic form of the HTML img tag. Populating small number of records like in this case is fairly simple and quick. In edit session type the img tag elements for first record and then copy and paste to other records and then enter or correct image location path. For larger number I would use field calculator. This makes things a little bit more complicated because of use of speech marks for image path. Here is an example of simple expression:

Using expression above images will be displayed in their full resolution. Sometimes this can be inappropriate because large images will obscure large part of map display. In such situation use optional parameters for img tag – width and height. In this example I have used these with the only image referenced from internet. Ensure your URL points to the image directly (not to the page containing an image).

After all required records are populated on Layer Properties dialog go to HTML Popup tab and first thing to do is to enable HTML popup tool. To enable it check the ‘Show content for this layer using the HTML Popup tool’ checkbox.

 

On this tab choose one of three available options:

• As a table of the visible fields
• As a URL
• As a formatted page based on an XSL template

When using first option results are displayed as shown in screenshot below.

 For finer tuning and case when fields names can be omitted activate ‘Hide field column name’ checkbox.

 

At this point you are done if you will use ArcMap only. Just use HTML Popup instead of identify tool. If you want to share the data you can create a layer package or a layer file. Layer files (and layer packages) can be used in ArcGIS Explorer 900 (AGX). Here are examples of using this layer file in AGX. Remember, layer file is created for shapefile.

Last option for HTML Popup in ArcMap is using XSL template. This option provides great flexibility to create custom XSL code. On the other side one has to be familiar with stylesheet design.
In the case if you are not you can simply copy the content of popup.xsl file from default install location -
C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Styles\HTMLPopup directory (64bit installation). ESRI is recommending this option at the moment because stylesheet used in AGX is slightly different then one from ArcMap. This is logged as an enhancement request for next release of AGX.

Example of third option - XSL template

Another option to avoid copy/paste of xsl file is to export a layer from ArcMap to KML. There is a simple tool ‘Layer to KML’ available at all license levels. When exporting you have to specify output map scale. This is required because if layer is not visible at export scale it will not be included in KML file. In addition symbology for the layer is driven by this scale.

Created KML works very nicely in AGX but this introduces data redundancy and makes maintenance a bit more difficult since two datasets have to be maintained.

Here are examples of KML file in AGX.

KML file added to AGX

Image source location from local hard disk

Image source location from the Internet and resized

This shows you how to take advantage of HTML popup and maybe encourages you to start using HTML popup. I'll review this again when ArcGIS 9.4 or next release of ArcGIS Explorer are released.

AGX 900 SDK documentation update

ArcGIS Explorer 900 is proving to be an exiting product with many improvements over previous release. ESRI has now updated help documentation. This is quite nice because by default AGX uses on-line version of the help.

 

If you are an end user and IT department does not let AGX to access help over the internet local version can be downloaded  from ArcGIS Explorer Download Center (very bottom of the page). Once you download it unzip it to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Explorer. and then AGX will use local version of the help.

Updated SDK documentation includes:

• New How To guides on the common topics of How to work with symbols and How to work with GIS services.
• Corrections to the Mapping namespace diagram to add the missing classes GeoRSSLayer, Basemap, and MapItemFile.
• Additional component help for the Mapping namespace (for example, the undocumented members of the Popup, KmlLayer, MapItemFile, Symbol, and ImageOverlay classes).
• New example code sections for the Mapping and Geometry namespaces.
• And numerous additional corrections and additions throughout the remainder of the component and conceptual help.

 

 

ArcGIS Explorer 900 and ArcGIS Server issue resolved

In unlikely case of running a whole range of ESRI software (unless you are developer, tester or support staff) on single PC you may have had a problem with AGX and AGS. Not everybody got this problem even if they are running both applications. If ArcGIS Explorer was installed first and ArcGIS Server later, there is not issue. Anyway, ESRI has addressed this problem with a patch released few days ago.

The patch is available for download from here.

ArcGIS Explorer 900 and ArcGIS Image Server issue

ArcGIS Explorer is a brand new application with lots of new features. Now there is a problem if you are running Image Server and AGX on the same server. There may not be many cases but if you are planning to install AGX 900 be aware.

The issue is described on ESRI Support Center page and there are two bug reports looking like a possible solution(s):

• NIM046078: ArcGIS Image Server 9.3.1 conflicts with ArcGIS Explorer (900)
• NIM047684: Add Image Server Connection button in ArcMap 9.3/9.3.1 does not work after installing ArcGIS Explorer 900.

For news check my posts here or go to ESRI here.

ArcGIS Explorer 900, Part 2

Since my first post I was quite busy so this post is coming later then I wanted. In the meantime ESRI was busy writing about it on ArcGIS Explorer blog.
There are four new posts about release 900 after it was released. The posts are:

• Getting started: changing display options and the basemap
• Getting started: the ribbon
• Before you get started with the new release
• New version now available and what's new

There is one something I have noticed but I haven’t heard from other users. When I start AGX my Vista is changing colour scheme to Basic. This usually happens when application does not have enough resources. In addition to that when starting AGX  from home (using wireless network) for a short time I internet connection is gone. My guess is again maxing out resources of PC. By the way that is HP laptop with Core 2 Duo 2.3 GHz and 2 GB RAM.
Unfortunately, I still don’t have time to explore new options. The ones I am really interested are package layers, projections, presentation mode and customization. When I get more information I summarize them here.

ArcGIS Explorer 900 – first look, Part 1

Installation of ArcGIS Explorer (AGX) took about 3-4 minutes on my Vista laptop. During installation I have noticed it is doing something in addition to usual steps. It was scanning thru assemblies.
After installation there are two applications in ArcGIS Explorer program group:

• Application Configuration Manager
• ArcGIS Explorer

Application Configuration Manager
After start of Application Configuration Manager (ACM) first dialog requires you to create new configuration or add an existing one.


If new is selected it must be name and file location specified. Configuration is saved as *.ncfg file.



After configuration you have options to Preview or Modify the application. When modifying a configuration settings, there are 5 main areas –General, Display, Customizations, Add-ins and Custom Resources. More interesting group is the Customizations. Here one can enable or disable certain features on the UI including the context menus as well.



For use of the resources other than ESRI’s on Custom Resources group under Choose Service you can specify your own address locator, routing or place finding service.


After configuring AGX is now running. One of the big news for this release is new UI. This is the Ribbon implementation and I guess it will cause a lot of discussion. I know a several people how just can’t stand it but i think it’s inevitable and it is becoming standard UI feature, at least on PC.

Main new features of AGX 900 are:

• Presentation mode
• 2D display mode
• Bing base maps
• Support for all coordinate systems from ArcGIS

It is getting late, more to come very soon. In next post I’ll describe new features with more details.

ArcGIS Explorer 900 released

Today ESRI has released ArcGIS Explorer 900. This version offers quite significant changes compared to build 500. It was demonstrated at the ESRI User Conference in July.

I am still downloading it, so review is coming up soon. To download it go here.