ESRI MapIt updates

In few last days ESRI has released several developers updates. Two of these updates are for MapIt product. The first one is release of version 1.1.

MapIt 1.1

Key new features are:

• Two new components for SharePoint
• Design time support in Expression Blend 3
• New Silverlight application templates
• Support for Microsoft Windows and SQL Azure

• 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.  
• 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.

More information is available on MapIt resource centre.

ESRI Parts for SharePoint 1.1

As part of MapIt 1.1 new web parts for SharePoint Services and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 are released. This is great news considering that SharePoint is becoming one of major technology pillars for Microsoft.

Main new features include:

example, you can map Microsoft Office forms and document libraries, use a custom ArcGIS Server base map or locator, and configure clustering symbology or render point data as heatmaps.

A new ESRI Geolist Web Part provides an interactive and multi-functional tabular view of SharePoint lists that have been added to an associated Map Web Part.

A new ESRI Location Map Field allows you to add a field to a SharePoint list that shows the location of each item in the list on an interactive map.  You can modify the address match properties, view the coordinates of match location, and interactively adjust the location.

Use the configuration utility included with the download to specify Bing Maps credentials and make it the default for entire site collections, web applications, or SharePoint farms; configure shared properties using administrative SharePoint lists created by the ESRI Parts; and upgrade from version 1.0 (ESRI Map Web Parts for Microsoft SharePoint) to 1.1.

but this is not all. For complete list of features check this list. There is a new resource centre for SharePoint.

 

Another release related to these technologies is update for Silverlight/WPF. Current version is 1.1 and this several new updates with most important about required version of Silverlight. Now, version 3 is required.

Other features of API 1.1:

Product packaged as a setup executable

Design time support in Microsoft Expression Blend 3

Silverlight application templates

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

New FeatureDataGrid and MapProgressBar controls in the Toolkit

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.

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.

Complete list is available here.

If you would like to see some samples here is a screenshot of georeferenced video.

For more interactive samples go here.

New ArcGIS Server Web Mapping application white paper

In July ESRI has released a new white paper for ArcGIS Server from it's "ArcGIS Server in Practice" series. This one discusses setup and performance of web application for a medium size local government/municipal site. By medium size they consider about 300,00 population and about 200km2.

Application is fairly simple with common tasks like geocoding an address, finding parcels, basic selections and identify of features.

Document also discusses required dataset for this use case and how to structure the map document used for map service and other required map services. Each of map services is described in detail with reasons for choosing selected options (e.g. why PNG8 was choosen over PNG32).

Really nice thing to see is the geoprocessing model used for selecting surrounding parcels.

Appendix D has all details about the model including the Python code if it would be exported.

An alternative to this approach is use of geometry service and it is also discussed in this white paper. It is also documented in Appendix E.

In short, this is a worthwhile reading if you want to implement similar web application. It covers all aspects of the process - requirements, design, data, processes, development and testing.

The document can be downloaded from ESRI site here.

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 9.3.1. SP 1 expected in December

ESRI has announced that service pack 1 for current release 9.3.1 is expected in December. As before it is very likely that list of included fixes will grow larger.
Current number of fixes included:

1. Desktop: 85
2. Server: 25
3. Rest API: 3
4. Image Server: 36
5. ArcSDE: 31
6. ArcIMS: 3

Here are some of the more interesting bugs fixed in SP 1 (my choice, not a complete list).

ArcGIS Desktop

• N1M012474 - Add network flag with projection returns “Action could not be completed because the underlying feature is corrupt.”
• NIMO31 151 - Edits made in the Free Representation Editor do not draw correctly in the Data View when using Symbol Levels.
• N1M036336 - EPS, PDF, and Al exports do not clip data intersected by data frame when using cartographic representations, but do when using standard symbology.
• N1M038782 - Custom menus are lost from MXDs and MXTs when placed on ESRI toolbars in certain situations.
• N1M039061 - Multiple UlButtonControls added to the thisdocument.mxd disappear after closing and reopening ArcMap.
• N1M039086 - Customizations of standard toolbars in previous version’s MXD are not kept, when the MXD is saved in new version
• N1M040317 - If one feature class in the ArcMap document is empty and contains no features, and labels are converted to annotation, all annotation feature classes are empty.
• N1M040502 - Load Locations process time is significantly slower with a lower search tolerence through both the Network Analyst window and the Add Locations GP tool.
• N1M040510 - The eastern and southern sections of an output image are stripped after projecting a raster using a different datum.
• N1M041054 - Single Output Map Algebra Color Map functions fail after successive runs.
• NIMO41 537 - In ArcCatalog, the Project Raster tool cuts a portion of the west side of the output raster and adds an equal amount of Nodata in the eastern side.
• N1M041746 - Attempts to Extract a Distributed Geodatbase crashes ArcMap.
• N1M042209 - Cannot compress two file geodatabases at the same time.
• N1M042285 - Representations are covering donut holes in polygon feature class after upgrading from ArcGIS 9.3 to Service Pack 1.
• N1MO42552 - Annotating selected features in ArcMap performs slowly when other layers in the map document have a feature weight of something other than NONE.
• N1M042905 - Buffers created on a multi-feature shapefile or feature class will result in different sized buffers when specifying Dissolve Type as All compared to Dissolve Type as NONE.
• N1M043043 - Importing the XML to SDE using distributed geodatabase tool ‘Import Message’ fails and returns the following error message: “Import Changes failed The geometry has null Z values. Field is not editable,”
• N1M043076 - The create replica wizard is ignoring the definition query when going through advanced.
• N1M043109 - Improve visual feedback of selectable state for markers when using the Direct Select tool.
• N1M043127 - When shift-click operation is undertaken, Direct Select tool is not removing indicated vertices from a selected set.
• N1MO4357O - Exporting xml from Parent geodatabase crashes ArcMap if a relationship class has the same name as a feature dass.
• N1MO43927 - Importing an exception with a NULL origin globalid from a delta XML file is fataling the application.
• N1M044000 - ‘INTERSECT’, ‘UNION’ and ‘IDENTITY’ operations fail with the same error message “000520”, when the input feature class consists of Polygon M.
• NlM044506 - For some data models, comparing replica schema using the geodatabases directly can cause ArcCatalog to crash.
• N1M045128 - Representation rule domain values are not being persisted properly at the GDB level.
• NIM045189 - Viewing a Database server connection with a 9.3.1 client, where the Database server contains geodatabases with a release greater then 9.3 (a geodatabase release higher then 2.3.0), will not display the new geodatabases.
• N1M045263 - Following upgrade of ArcGIS Desktop to 9.3.1, the Append, Delete Rows, and Delete Features tools no longer will operate with versioned datasets.
• NlM045489 - ArcMap crashes when saving a MXD that references an inserted graphic whose folder path cannot be found. Will also crash when accessing the properties of an missing inserted image. This would not crash previous versions.
• N1M046171 - Cannot export topology exception changes if the owner of the replica is not the owner of the topology.
• NIM046267 - Importing an XML Map Document with a NULL representation crashes ArcCatalog.
• N1M046710 - Repair feedback of Select tool in Free Representation editor.
• N1M04671 1 - Repair feedback of Direct Select tool in Free Representation editor.
• NIM046712 - When separating symbol layers for a free rep which is composed of multiple symbol layers, the Direct Select tool is selecting the bottom layer first instead of the expected top layer.
• N1M046747 - GDI leak for display of representation marker symbols.
• N1M046748 - Application failure for the # of markers property on the Decorations marker placement style when specifying a negative value.
• N1M046749 - Application failure for the X step and/or V step properties on the Randomly Inside Polygon marker placement style when specifying a negative value.
• N1MO46818 - Angle property for Gradient Fill symbols are being ignored when converting a 9.x symbol into a representation symbol.
• N1M046819 - Buffer effect on point input geomtery needs to handle negative values for the Size property as absolute values.
• N1M046820 - Attribute inspector shows separate reps tab for each layer in the TOC even when each layer sources the same feature class.
• N1M046821 - Improve refresh of representation markers when using Direct Select tool to move.
• N1M046822 - Hatch pattern not displaying correctly for polygons.
• N1M047046 - The Overflow Annotation window may crash in some cases when there are no overflow labels left in the list.
• N1M047049 - ArcMap may crash in certain scenarios when constructing anno using the leader annotation method.
• N1MO47O8O - License for JTX Extension is not available from GP script.
• N1MO47298 - Text Callouts with empty text strings and margins set to 0 may crash ArcMap.
• N1M047725 - Improve the display output routines to better support PLTS Separated TIFF export

ArcGIS Server

• NlM038570 - Unexpected results occur when multiple tool actions are performed (identify/zoom/pan) in quick succession without waiting for the previous one to complete.
• N1M039840 - Viewing a close extent of a large raster served through ArcGlS Server on Solaris fads to draw the map service.
• N1M042454 - Filters included in SLD styles are not applied to WMS layers from ArcGIS Server that are based on Event Layers.
• N1M043710 - Snap tool in ArcGlS Server Java Web application does not clean up when edits are saved.
• N1M044 189 - Add ability to generalize features for queries based on ArcGlS Server
• N1M04431 8- Viewing WMS based on a cache-on-demand optimized map service, does not generate cache tiles if it has a group layer structure.
• N1MO44578 - WebQuery::query() fails if the LayerDefinitions property is not set.
• N1MO449O3 - Allow WFS-T to apply changes to a feature class that has Z’s.
• N1MO45O52 - Adding additional SOC machines does not improve ArcGIS Server system performance when using REST services.
• N1MO45O54 - Update the Java Web ADF task framework to run in WebSphere 7 with JSF1.2.
• N1M045055 - Modify the faces-contig.xml file to be JSF 1.2 compatible for the Java Web ADF.
• N1M045126 - Add map service definition editing to the edipse MXD Editor solution for Windows, Solaris and Linux.
• N1M045127 - Drawing an annotation layer in an MSD file crashes the mxdeditor using Java 15 on Solaris.
• N1MO45221 - WFS-T should allow editing with standard ArcGIS Server.
• N1M045339 - WFS service does not support multipoint geometry with a spatial operator.
• N1M045470 - Network attribute name and network sources name is not returned in the json response for route description.
• N1M045974 - ArcGIS Server is unresponsive after a period of high volume requests.
• N1M045975 - When using Unix/Linux in ArcGIS Server 9.3 Service Pack 1 -exporting a map service to PDF format, the highway shield label text is not centered.
• N1M046086 - REST operations fail when the SOM service is installed on one machine and the Web services are installed on a separate machine.
• N1MO46427 - Project WebGeometry is using the SDE Shape Library instead of using SDE Projection Library.
• N1MO46457 - Default exception MIME type should be ‘apphcation/vnd.ogc.se_xml’ when parameter ‘EXCEPTIONS’ is not set or set to an invalid value.
• N1M046458 - The ‘propertyName’ in GetFeature operation does not work if the property name is prefixed with namespace prefix.
• N1MO46768 - Server Manager displays that it is drawing map service ‘dynamically’ even though it is using cache tiles to draw map service.
• N1MO46769 - Cache tiles schema does not get updated in the Caching properties tab of ArcGlS Server Manager.
• NIMO47 178 - Do not generate system-generated capabilities in output directory when external capabilities files are used.

REST API (.Net)

• N1M044410 - In ArcGIS Server REST API for the NET Platform, “View in Javascript” does not reflect the version of tundra,css specified in rest. config. It always defaults to serverapi arcgisonh ne .com.
• NlM044998 - In Network Analyst solve operation using ArcGIS Server REST API for the Microsoft .NET Framework, add the ability to pass in attribute parameters.
• N1M044999 - In REST API for the Microsoft NET Framework, attribute parameter values are not correctly shown in the JSON response for route layer description.

Java WebADF

• N1M0451 - Concurrent editing by two users in a standard Java Web ADF editing task produces an error message and does not allow second user edits to be saved.

Image server

• N1M009509 - Symbology for ISDEF files are not persisted in saved MXD’s.
• N1M013584 - 16-bit imagery appears black when served through Image Server.
• N1M036760 - Cannot add ISRef tiles into AutoCAD.
• N1M036928 - Add support for alpha channel bands to Image Server
• N1M039010 - Stretching process becomes non-responsive after an error message triggered by invalid settings is retuned.
• NIM040221 - Please include Aut0CAD 2009 as a supported client for ArcGIS Image Server 9.3
• NIM042382 - Document the official support status on A.TOC files with CADRG datasets for Image Server.
• N1M042605 - Unable to create an image service using a projection that has a unit of measurement in seconds.
• NIM042997 - Unable to add grid stacks to an image service when specifying its directory to load the data into the service.
• N1M043254 - Recompute Footprint by Related Geometry uses the geometry of features in the joined shapefile based on FID order.
• N1M044308 - 11-bit NITF does not display properly in an image service.
• N1M044912 - Pyramids created for YCrCb JPEG compressed TIFF file is not read properly
• NIM044913 - PNG format Image gets washed out when viewed in Internet Explorer,
• N1M045359 - When creating an Image Service using IKONOS data, only the first set of metadata is read.
• N1M04573O - NCDRD specified panchromatic NITF data is not properly supported.
• N1M045731 - JP2 compressed NITFs cannot be accessed with Image Server.
• N1M046056 - Recompute by Radiometry does not work for all rasters in a panchromatic service.
• N1MO47442 - The footprint for some GeoEye NITFs is 100x, which is the size of the actual data.
• N1MO4757O - Cannot add a raster catalog to an image service definition.
• NIM047571 - Metadata is incorrectly extracted for IKONOS files, wherein the _metadata.txt file references multiple component files.
• N1M047572 - Cannot add GRID Stack dataset.
• N1M047573 - ‘As View’ selection option selects more rasters than it should.
• N1M047574 - Select by view selects all rasters in view >MinPS but does not filter by MaxPS.
• N1MO47586 - Cannot read ISAT project files when a strip ID is not present.
• N1M047598 - IKONOS 4 band service cannot be created.
• N1M047629 - Bug in libtiff prevents reading scanline based JPEG compressed TIFF with component subsampling.
• N1M047630 - IKONOS NITF products not supported.
• N1M047631 - Recompute footprint by related geometry does not account for the user-specified join, but is defaulted to joining based on the FID.
• N1M047632 - Problem generating a 16-bit 4-band IKONOS service.
• N1M047633 - Problems adding USGS topo TIFF files.
• N1M047634 - Creation of a 3-band RGB service diisplays as a grayscale.
• N1M047635 - Editrasterdatasets ISCommand does not edit the RPDefs.
• N1M047854 - NITE IKONOS imagery containing embedded RPC’s (no external file) causes orthorectification to fail.

ArcGIS Mobile

• NlM042415 - Wrong coordinates posted to Server after editing in ArcGIS Mobile project.
• N1M042625 - When running the Generate Mobile Service Cache tool, the following error is returned: “ERROR 999998, Failed to Execute”.
• NlM047451 - In an ArcGIS Mobile application, the vector layers rotate correctly but the annotation layers do not.

ArcSDE

• N1M039217 - Editing an archive enabled table with SQL through a multi-versioned view in the DEFAULT version does not maintain the table’s archive.
• N1M042121 - Encountering a large volume of warnings being written to the ArcSDE error log, specific to being in a transaction when writing to the ArcSDE loglile tables.
• N1M042709 - Edits on ST GEOMETRY produces shape area (shape.area) and shape length (shape.len) field with zero values if the ‘move edits to base’ option is selected to register the feature class as versioned.
• N1M042753 - Add support for SE_ROW_ID column for ST_GEOMETRY type to ensure that a users existing applications can continue to work after migrating from SDEBINARYISDELOB to ST_GEOMETRY.
• N1M043072 - Inserting a feature with out of bounds geometry changes the feature class extent.
• N1M043097 - Compressing a geodatabase can lead to blocking conditions in ArcGIS that impact editor user response time.
• N1M043242 - When applying a select by attribute query on a FeatureClass with geometry spatial type, it fails with a network I/O error.
• N1M044400 - Registering layers using sdelayer —o add that have a different shape column datatype than the chosen geometry storage, —k option could succeed in some cases leading to gsrvr fatals when performing selections.
• N1M044630 - Enabling archiving on a feature dataset that contains topology fails with Network I/O error.
• N1M045628 - ArcGIS editor stop editing/save operations can encounter database deadlocking situations if two users are saving and have modified the same versioned objectclass.
• N1M045726 - Improve performance of spatial queries with definition queries/attribute filters.
• N1M046027 - Identify returns “Nothing found” against features in a spatial view based upon ST_GEOMETRY point feature class.
• N1M046752 - When creating multiversioned view for feature class with nvarchar(n), n is doubled to 2n thus limiting the maximum nvarchar field length to 2000 if it needs to be incorporated in a multiversioned view.
• N1M046899 - With SDO_SRID paraeters set, invalid metadata is inserted into SDO metadata views
• N1M047207 - Compress fails with primary key violation on SDE_Geometry CAD side table when duplicate cad element is updated to state_id 0.
• N1M047285 - ORA-0923 error when attempting to select or identify with an st_geometry point feature class.
• N1MO47399 - The British National Grid scale factor was changed in version 9.2. While the software now considers both values equivalent, the check to determine that is inefficient. This change improves performance.
• N1M047400 - When making a direct connection to a schema (project) gdb using ST_Geometry, an error is returned when trying to access the ST_ functions from the project instance.
• N1MO47566 - The z-value envelope information is missing in the sde.sde_layers table.
• N1M047569 - Improve connection time for map documents with connections to a SQL Server Express geodatabase that is shut down by mapping the returned error code to SE_LOST_DBMS_CONNECTION.
• NIM047885 - <DB2/INF> implement a next_row_id stored procedure.

ArcIMS

• NIMO441O1 - A capabilities file created using the WES Connector contains an incorrect namespace for feature types.
• N1MO44352 - GetFeatures returns the wrong descriptions for fields with a coded value domain, if values for all fields are not requested.
• N1MO45565 - Java Connector adds multiple SPATIALQUERY tags in ArcXML for a dynamic layer if it has a filter.

This is it for now. Keep an eye on original announcement page or check back here for updates.

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.

Deprecation plan for ArcGIS 9.3.1 and 9.4

ESRI has released an article on support site describing deprecation plans for both 9.3.1 and 9.4. This is an important document for all GIS managers, IT mangers, CIO and like. For any strategic planning of your GIS please make sure you read this document and inform other decision makers. The document can be downloaded from here.

Here are some of the key points for both releases.

9.3.1

• Last version to support Windows 2000 across the product board
• Last release with Crystal Reports Wizard
• Last release with Survey Editor and Survey Dataset in Survey Analyst extension
• Last version to support Visual Basic 6
• Last release to support CASE tools and Import Schema Wizard
• Last version to support Visual Studio 2005

9.4

• Last version to support VBA
• Separation of Arc/Info Workstation from ArcInfo Desktop
• Last release to support IE 6 (all products)

ESRI UC 2009 Day 2 update

Day two at the User Conference seems to be quiet or there aren’t many updates yet. A friend of mine, Jithen Singh,  already did a hard work of compiling a list of news for upcoming version of ArcGIS 9.4.
Here are some highlights for Desktop:

• Extension of layer packages to include tools, models, globes and diagrams
• Improved Table Of Content – allows rendering of cartographic representations
• Add models into toolbar
• Multiple page PDF export
• Support for Windows 7
• Run geoprocessing in the background

For full list of changes for Desktop, Server and Mobile go to Mandown.

ESRI UC 2009 Day 1 update

Here are most interesting bits from day 1 of the ESRI User Conference. Unfortunately these are not first hand news but compiled from number of blogs and news from the internet.

Plenary session
In first part Jack has described the vision of this conference – Maps and GIS are changing and there are new ways to take advantage of GIS.

ArcGIS Explorer 900 was showed and new features were demonstrated (more on that later).
Second part was about the next release – 9.4. Highlights of upcoming 9.4 version are:

• Run in parallel with 9.3 on same machine
• New dockable windows (attribute table, ArcCatalog, etc)
• Search integrated in ArcMap
• Search for symbol by name
• Predefined edit tasks
• Integration of Python in ArcMap
• New Base maps for continuous redraw and panning
• Improved 3D performance and SketchUp support
• Open geodatabase API

ArcGIS Explorer 900
Information about AGX 900 is know for a while but now the key features were shown and more details can be found on AGX blog. These include:

• Toggle between 3D and 2D
• Use of layer packages from ArcGIS 9.3.1
• Presentation mode
• Ribbon interface
• Bing data support
• Support for all ArcGIS projections and transformations
• Customization without programming

Other news

• ArcGIS API for Silverlight/WPF released
• ArcGIS API for Silverlight/WPF toolkit released on Codeplex
• MapIt product released

This is just a very quick pick of most interesting topics. More details coming soon.

ESRI 2009 User Conference starts tomorrow

Tomorrow is the start of User Conference for 2009. As expected there is an official page providing lot of information like featured sessions, on-line agenda, accommodation and other.



Collection of quick links include Facebook, Twitter and Flickr pages. As alternative you can simply subscribe to RSS feeds from this page.

If you haven’t been at the Conference you know it is really busy and spread across very large area. To help you find your way use UC Route Finder. This will show distance and time required to get to the destination and it is also viewable in 3D.



Very soon we are expecting a flood of news from the Conference. I am hoping that ArcGIS Explorer 900 will be released within next few days. AGX blog has plenty of information and photos from specialist events where it will be demonstrated (homeland security, education, etc).

It will be quite hard to keep up with all news but hopefully in next week or two I’ll be able to pick out most interesting news and videos.

Tips for faster caching of ArcGIS Server

ESRI Mapping Center has a post about improving performance of caching in ArcGIS Server (AGS). If you did any work in this area you know this is very demanding and time consuming process. We (Eagle Technology) created cache for several customers and this can easily take full 3 days to create the cache.

From list of recommendations there is one I didn’t really consider but it makes perfect sense - Relocate the server’s pagefile.sys file.

I like the note about checking of available memory:

This is especially important if you’ve got other services running on the server, because these services are taking up memory, too, and you want to make sure the caching process, which will be more demanding of memory usage, is not pushing out of your available physical RAM and into your pagefile.sys (which will result in catastrophically slower caching times!)

Q & A about 2009 ESRI International User Conference

2009 ESRI User Conference is near (13-17 July) and ESRI has published the results from survey. Make sure you have plenty of free time if you want to read the full Q & A document – there are 178 questions and answers!



Full list is available here. I will post my pick of most interesting questions from this list later this week.

ArcGIS 9.3.1 REST Services Patch

Another patch for ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 was released. This patch addresses cases where, under heavy load, adding additional SOC machines does not improve performance when using REST services.

Issue fixed with this patch is:

• NIM045052 - Adding additional SOC machines does not improve ArcGIS Server system performance when using REST services.

Even if this does not apply to Desktop or Engine but one of assemblies for Desktop and Engine is affected.

File is GIS931-Server-RestSvcs-Patch.msp and it is 2.1 MB. Full details are available here.

Creating effective web maps seminar

Eagle Technology is hosting a complimentary seminar about creation and deployment of modern web maps maps and make the most of your investment in GIS data and infrastructure.



Some spaces are still available in Wellington and Auckland.

Location: Auckland, Eagle Technology office
Date: Tuesday June 30, 2009

Location: Wellington, Eagle Technology office
Date: Thursday July 2, 2009

The same seminar will be held in the morning and repeated in the afternoon.
Please advise which session you would like to attend as places are limited.

AGENDA:

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

To register visit - www.eagle.co.nz/gis931

ArcGIS 9.3.1. TFRD metadata patch

The first patch for ArcGIS 9.3.1 is out. This patch is relevant only if you are using NITF data and ArcGIS NITF extension 1.1
Full description and download of patch is available on this ESRI’s support page.

ESRI® announces the ArcGIS 9.3.1 Desktop TFRD metadata Patch. This patch addresses a TFRD medata issue for ArcGIS NITF extension 1.1. We recommend that ArcGIS NITF extension 1.1 users, who work with TFRD data, download and install this patch.

ESRI DevSummit 2009 videos

Developer Summit is almost finished. There is plenty of news from the summit on blogs like Mandown,  Rise and Shout and many others.

If you would like to watch the videos of presentations then it is your lucky day. DevSummit site has posted videos for the following presentations:

• Welcome and platform
• Fast maps and Java
• Explorer and Online
• Resource centers and Silverlight
• ArcGIS Online
• Python
• Desktop 9.4
• Server and Mobile 9.4

Here are just a few screenshots of Resources & Silverlight, Python and Desktop 9.4 videos.

This is not the only place that is updated. Resource center is also updated with Silverlight/WPF API samples and documentation.

If this is not enough or you want to see how to work with ArcGIS have a look at ArcScripts. There are samples in Java and C# for building tasks in AGS, best practices, security, etc.

Of course ArcGIS Explorer blog is updated with lots of information and screenshots of upcoming release 900. This should be released with ArcGIS 9.3.1. It is shaping up to be a quite important part of ArcGIS system.

ESRI Developer Summit 2009

DevSummit started today at Palm Springs. This is conference for GIS developers but even if you are not one you can get a lot of interesting news, insights and product announcements.
My colleague Jithen is attending DevSummit and to get more details read his post on Mandown. Here are some details of upcoming release of ArcGIS 9.3.1 and ArcGIS 9.4.

ArcGIS Server has been improved to allow for faster mapping. Some of the other big changes include:

1. NEW ADF licensing. You are now allowed to deploy the ADF how you want without any restrictions.
2. NEW editing capabilities will be available in ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Standard Edition.
3. NEW analytics extensions will be available in ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Advanced Edition.

Faster mapping will provide for faster dynamic maps along with higher quality outputs and optimization tools built into ArcMap to help analyse errors and problems before they are published to ArcGIS Server.

There are some details about desktop part of ArcGIS in 9.4 but don’t expect that yet. ArcGIS 9.3.1 should be released around May this year. For New Zealand customers we should expect it around July.

ArcMap will sport a similar feel to Microsoft Visual Studio. Dockable windows and improved toolbars. New built in searching capabilities. One search for finding data on your system to finding geoprocessing models. ArcCatalog will be built into ArcMap and made available via a dockable window. Drag and drop will be supported as well. A whole new reporting engine has been written and will be included within ArcMap. Python will be integrated within ArcMap. A new Python window will be available directly from ArcMap which will allow you to run and debug Python scripts directly. Python scripts will also run asynchronously so you can continue working while your script is running in the background.

Another highlight of the conference so far is ArcGIS Explorer 900 (AGX).  Bernie Szukalski gave presentation of new features for new release. Details are posted on ArcGIS Explorer blog including plenty of screenshots.
 
One of the new features is revamped UI – ribbon style. I don’t know if you like ribbon in Office 2007 but here is what we’ll get in AGX 900.

More news to follow from DevSummit…

ArcGIS Server and Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 8 today. There are many new features in this release and one of many is better compliance with the standards. I don’t want to describe new features or discuss speed of IE 8 because there are plenty of sites with this type of information.
I want to test ArcGIS Server 9.3 applications in IE 8 and how to fix problems if I have any.

ArcGIS Server Manager

This is first test of compatibility – running AGS Manager application. Running IE 8 in default settings I was able to log in AGS Manager and work with a simple map service running on my laptop.
 
In this case this is simple service running of file geodatabase.
Rest of the functions of the AGS Manager did work without problems. Testing was simple and not comprehensive but it did show I can run AGS Manager without problems.

Web applications

Second and more intersting test to run AGS out-of-the-box application.  I have two applications based on the map service from first screenshot.



To my surprise the application run just fine. Why I am surprized? I tried some other out of the box applications in IE 8 and they didn’t work in native mode of IE 8. The other PC I tried it on was running Windows XP. On my laptop I am running Vista Ultimate SP 1 and here is a example of the web application.



Running the same style of application on XP didn’t render the map display and showed an error indication in lower left corner of IE 8.



More details can be provided by double clicking on the error icon. These details can be copied to the clipboard and details include the line number where application has failed.


Remedy for that situation was very simple – just activate the “compatibility view” and the problem is solved.

Compatibility view option


ArcGIS Server custom applications

Now I will test some of the custom applications that are available on Eagle’s demos page.
Here are screenshots of results (again, quick, simple tests)

Environment Canterbury (JavaScript API)

Water Quality in Canterbury
This page has some problems – loading image is always present and the map does not always shows up. This is fixed by small pan in any direction but “loading” is still on.

Solar Boston (Flex API)
This applications works fine. I was able to use navigation widget, select planimetric, terrain and aerial with no problems. One of the tools worked fine (for a single building) but drawing an area generates geoprocessing error.



Now I have tried the same application in Google Chrome 2 and I got the same error – so it is not IE 8.



This was quick test of IE 8. From this tests I have found majority of sites was working correctly in native IE 8 mode or it can work in compatibility view. I am sure we will find more AGS applications that may have problems. Of course we have to wait for ESRI to test and certify applications for IE 8. We may see a patch or two coming up but we have to wait and see.

ArcSDE 9.2 SP 6 update released

ESRI has released another update for ArcSDE. This time it is for ArcSDE 9.2 SP 6. The original service pack was released in July last year.

 

There is relatively small number of generic/common issues resolved in this update.

 

 

ArcSDE administration fixes:

• NIM010594 - Spatial views created by a non-owner using the sdetable -o create_view command are not displayed in ArcGIS if the columns specified using the -c option are qualified with the table name. For example, mytable.myfield.
• NIM013815 - The sdegroup command fails with ORA-00957: duplicate column name error. This is new at 9.2 SP4.
• NIM033768 - The -r option does not work with the ArcSDE shp2sde -o init command utility. This option does work in previous versions of ArcSDE.
• NIM035432 - The sdegdbrepair tool may hang if the number of errors found for a specific FeatureClass exceeds the currently defined buffer.

Full issues page contains full list of issuess addressed and  main patch page has download links.

ArcSDE 9.3 SP 1 update released

ESRI has released a Service Pack 1 update for ArcSDE 9.3. This service pack addresses a number of generic ArcSDE administration issues as well as database specific ones.

This is a full list of generic administration issues resolved:

• NIM008464 - ArcSDE C SDK client application crashes when making API function call, SE_connection_get_instance_users(), to list connected users.
• NIM036561 - ArcSDE for Oracle: memory leaks encountered when reconciling versions or performing a large number of update operations.
• NIM038152 - Unix only: The sdemon command crashes the ArcSDE service when trying to kill all active connections.
• NIM038013 - For every client request to the geodatabase, a query to detect the time_last_modified is executed against the sde.lineages_modified table impacting performance. (Please see technical article 35462 for more details.)
• NIM033557 - The sdedbtune command fails to accept an empty string for any of the parameter values.
• NIM036997 - Spatial Type for Oracle: Registration fails for tables with an ST_Geometry attribute and an SRID set to 0. (Please see technical article 35028 for a suggested workaround.)
• NIM035924 - Japanese character does not show up on AIX machine when running sdelayer -o describe command.
• NIM037200 - In specific cases where a feature has been updated many times and the D TABLE entry for SDE_STATE_ID=0 is missing, the problem will not be detected or fixed by sdegdbrepair.
• NIM036998 - Upgrading geodatabases on database servers fails if the user is connected to the geodatabase when upgrading. (Please see technical article 35184 for more details.)
• NIM035444 - Need to identify corruption on states that are not pointed to by a version.
• NIM035432 - The sdegdbrepair tool may hang if the number of errors found for a specific FeatureClass exceeds the currently defined buffer.
• NIM037688 - When creating a PostGIS feature class in ArcCatalog, the xy offset is correctly created in respect to the spatial reference. When creating a PostGIS layer with command line and registering the feature class with sdelayer -o register, the xy offset is not calucated, preventing the feature class from being correctly displayed in ArcCatalog. The fix allows for a PostGIS layer to be displayed in ArcCatalog by calculating the xy offset regardless of how the feature class is created.
• NIM037241 - The sdegdbrepair command does not recognize ORACLE11G as a database type when using -o diagnose_tables option.
• NIM033768 - The '-r' option does not work for the ArcSDE 'shp2sde -o init' command utility. The option works fine in previous versions of ArcSDE.

The important one from this list would be the last one. A lot of people are still loading/importing data from shapefiles and actually may have incorporated that functionality (rejects) into the workflow.

Non-database specific fixes:

• NIM031030 - When using a Definition Query longer than 4095 characters against a 9.0 ArcSDE Server, the data fails to draw and the following error is returned: "One or more layers failed to draw."
• NIM034862 - When executing the ArcSDE CAPI SE_shape_find_along() function a memory leak occurs, and if executed a very large amount of times it may cause an out of memory (-13) error.
• NIM038061 - Projection engine libraries on Linux will now be created using gcc rather than g++. Using g++ adds an unnecessary dependency on the libstdc++.so library.
• NIM038273 - British National Grid (BNG) scale factor was changed between versions 9.2 SP5 and 9.3. Although the change does not affect data values, mixing the two coordinate system versions will cause data to be reprojected. This fix will cause the two versions to be treated as equal.
• NIM008494 - When revoking select privileges on a versioned feature class, the select privileges are not revoked from the versioned table's adds and deletes tables. (Please see technical article 35464 for more details.)
• NIM037942 - Improved the error message displayed in Desktop when trying to make a direct connection without the appropriate drivers installed.
• NIM035810 - Mosaic tool is very slow when trying to mosaic to large SDE raster dataset that has a pyramid.
• NIM037698 - When building address locators with reference feature classes in SDC format, the content of the RD.Lox1.Restrict expression, specified in the address locator style, should not be ignored.
• NIM035803 - Creating a local or client locator from SDE reference data with an optional field set to fails with the error message: “Column not found:”_SurrogateTable_.Table1_PreDir””.
• NIM036857 - Creating address locators fails in ArcSDE if numeric fields in the SDE reference feature class contain null values.

There is a nuber of database specific fixes and most of them are for Oracle. Smaller nuber of issues is fixed for PostgreSQL (4) and SQL Server (7). For full details check the support page and for download check the main patch page.

New version of ArcGIS Server JavaScript API released

ESRI has released a new version of JavaScript API for ArcGIS Server. This is version 1.3 and in this version notable changes are:

• Support for Dojo 1.2.3 - Check out the details closely if you are using externally hosted Dojo v1.2.3.
• Layer Extensibility - You can now create custom layer types for both tiled and dynamic services. And, you can also extend the associated based classes to support other layer types such as OGC WMS, and any tiled map service including ArcGIS Server 9.2 cached map services.
• Error Handling - Now every layer and task has an onError event that returns more detail about the error in the callback function. For example now you you can get an error any time a graphics layer is unable to draw a graphic.
• Enhanced Map Layer Management - You can add layers at specific indices in a map, and also remove layers from a map.

 

Other changes are listed on resource page for JavaScript API.

Some of the other changes include:

• Map.setExtent(extent, fit?): The second optional parameter "fit" (Boolean) forces the map to fit the specified extent.
• A FeatureSet constructor has been added for using JSON.
• The Map's extent and spatial reference do not change even after all its layers have been removed. When the next layer is added, the layer is displayed at the same extent and spatial reference.

The following bugs are fixed:

• NIM036432: [JSAPI] Need to support functionality to add custom resources to JS API
• NIM035978: Graphic markers change position when panning the map in IE7
• NIM037245: Calling map.resize() after map has been panned causes the drawing toolbar to draw graphics incorrectly. Graphics are offset based on the distance and direction of the pan
• NIM039269: Need a way to trap errors from JS API that occur during the execution of a geoprocessing task in synchronous mode
• NIM039287: onMouseMove event not firing for "older" graphics in IE when PictureMarkerSymbol is used for rendering
• NIM039419: After adding a marker element to an ArcGIS Server JavaScript API map, the marker symbol moves when panning in Internet Explorer 6 and 7
• NIM040669: When identifying a multipart point layer in Internet Explorer 7, the graphic selection is displaced visually after zoom operation.
• NIM040840: Rubberband zoom graphic displays improperly in Internet Explorer 6 or Internet Explorer 7 after calling map.Resize
• NIM041273: In JavaScript API v1.2, the graphics layer does not work properly in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 
• NIM041482: Map applications keep downloading a non-existant picture/file when some action, e.g., toggling map layers, is done on the map (using IE)