Post Your Favorite ESRI Web Mapping Sites

1 Kevin // Apr 26, 2007 at 9:59 am

James -
that site doesnt hardly work and is slower then molassess on a cold winter day… It worked ‘OK’ in IE though still really, really slow…

2 James Fee // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:01 am

Well don’t let a slow ArcIMS server take away from the impressive coding. I think there is much at that site to inspire anyone.

3 Kevin // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:04 am

fair enough - but it has to at least work in IE & FireFox for me to label it as “impressive coding”….

There is a lot of information available on that site though… if you have patience to wait…

4 James Fee // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:08 am

I’ll give you the FF/IE issue. That is a huge drawback to any site that doesn’t allow 100% compatibility for both browsers.

5 Lefty // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:25 am

@Kevin: So what is a good ESRI mapping site you’ve seen or created?

6 carlos // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:25 am

This has also been a favorite of mine. Kicks ass over the other local municipal web mapping applications here in the Greater Vancouver area.

District of North Vancouver’s Geoweb
http://www.geoweb.dnv.org/interactive/index.html

The Property Information Explorer shows how the tax assessment has changed over time!

7 Mark // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:43 am

Carlos, what’s the big deal about this site?? I bet even Dimitri & the Manifold guys could make a better one!

8 whowho // Apr 26, 2007 at 10:56 am

wow. terribly slow. But, a great look.

Any guesses on what it cost (software + consulting to build it).

9 Righty // Apr 26, 2007 at 11:04 am

http://shiptracker.noaa.gov

This is a nice site.

Looks like it uses a modified IMS .NET Blue Viewer template and pulls in different map services. Simple, but effective.

10 tkurk // Apr 26, 2007 at 11:13 am

Hey guys, we’re getting ready to release our site to the public and I was wondering if anyone has any comments on it, since most of you have seen many mapping sites. I work in Forestry, so that’s the general theme of the site.

tkurk

11 scotso // Apr 26, 2007 at 11:21 am

Here is a nice one:

http://www.portailcarteq.com

the queries on the left are pretty cool!

its in French, but you’ll get the idea…

12 Chris C. // Apr 26, 2007 at 11:31 am

@scotso

LOL

13 tkurk // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:08 pm

here’s the site…
http://katmai.dnr.state.ak.us/mox5/fairbanks2.cfm

14 Hennepin County GIS // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:28 pm

Fastest I’ve seen in Minnesota…

15 scotso // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:41 pm

@Chris,

here is another good one:

http://gis.welland.ca/wims/default.asp

16 Morten // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:43 pm

I’m wondering why none of the mentioned sites are loading neighbouring tiles when panning. It’s so web 1.0 when they don’t do that

17 Kevin // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:43 pm

@Chris,

that one, in addition to most of the sites listed here - do not support FireFox, FireBird, or Netscape…

18 Jason // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:43 pm

Here’s a really focused that we recently launched… would love to hear some feeback.

http://gis.ashevillenc.gov/mapAsheville/developmentmapper

19 Kevin // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:46 pm

@Jason -

Nice work - thanks for the FireFox support - guess your not trying to eliminate 25% of the web “public”…

cheers….

20 Sean Gillies // Apr 26, 2007 at 12:50 pm

My hometown has an awesome ArcIMS site: http://gisims.fcgov.com/website/genmap/viewer.htm.

21 Durnin // Apr 26, 2007 at 1:42 pm

@Carl0s - thanks for the props! P.I.E. draws a lot of traffic, it’s used widely by DNV staff and the public - realtors especially love it.

We’re in the pr0cess of migrating all our client apps (public IMS apps included) to ArcGIS Server/Web ADF. Should be an interesting year.

22 JC // Apr 26, 2007 at 1:58 pm

@tkurk -
You like MapOptix so far?

23 David E. Wright // Apr 26, 2007 at 2:06 pm

How about E-MapIt for Sacramento County CA?

http://generalmap.gis.saccounty.net/pv_blank.aspx?g=1&

24 tkurk // Apr 26, 2007 at 2:33 pm

@JC-

Well, we didn’t have any programming resources here to help develop the site, so MapOptics was chosen to allow easier customizations. GeoNorth is also based right here in AK, so that was also attractive. It’s been a bit cumbersome, but the support has been great and it seems to have all the tools we’ve been asking for. We are also slowing switching over to Server, so MapOptics may fall along the wayside if it’s not needed with the new capabilities of ArcGIS Server.

25 Jesse // Apr 26, 2007 at 2:37 pm

Personally, the problem I see in general with comments about web-mapping applications (IMS or otherwise), is that the focus is on the technology behind the site (cool programming!) as opposed to whether or not the site is actually useful for the intended users.

The site listed here are fun for me as a GIS geek to go poke around in, but I already have GIS skills, and I like geeking on the technology. But what about the other 95% of the population who doesn’t get excited about queries or tiling or label halos?

How many of these sites have really focused on a very specific application or user, and how many have just been an effort to “put all our spatial data out there for the public”?

Personally, I think the best web-mapping sites out there have very simple, direct focuses… i.e. http://www.housingmaps.com or the EPAs “Surf your Watershed” (http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/locate/index.cfm).
Neither of these sites use IMS technology, but they get the job done, and they’re both USED frequently!

26 KoS // Apr 26, 2007 at 4:21 pm

http://129.79.145.7/arcims/statewide_mxd/viewer.htm

not favorite….first one which came to mind.

KoS

27 Canuck // Apr 26, 2007 at 4:26 pm

@James - the SC website you listed wasn’t slow at all - the fading in was cool and the property search was VERY fast.

28 Aaron B. // Apr 26, 2007 at 5:19 pm

What a great thread! Some great ideas out there.

ESRI should hire James to do product evangelism. This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to get to work tomorrow and start coding.

29 Lefty // Apr 26, 2007 at 5:24 pm

@ Aaron B.: I was told by some ESRI folks at the UC last year that they did try and hire James but they couldn’t come to an agreement.

Honestly probably for the best, this blog is great because it is independent.

30 Catt // Apr 26, 2007 at 6:36 pm

Here is one of my favorites interms of functionality has more than a few map services, they load fast and works in Firefox, Safari and IE.
The scenic resources one has lots of pictures of the area and the general map service has link to Pictometry images on the parcel SWISPRINTK…
(Sorry you need IE to view the Pictometry images)
http://gisweb.tompkins-co.org/tcimap/

31 Xtopolopoquetl // Apr 26, 2007 at 7:55 pm

Well, I’ll throw mine on here since it’s my favorite, as I wrote the dang thing; http://gis.co.arapahoe.co.us/website/staging/webmappub It’s become a light ArcView replacement for our users who don’t need the full suite of ArcMap functionality. Compared to the new slick Google/VE maps and their interfaces, it does show its age.

I agree with James, the South Carolina product is pretty cool… it’s a small commercially available site that a few other counties use, including one here in Colorado. I’m still trying to figure out how to implement the zoom transitions this site and now Google maps and VE use. (Anyone have any suggestions?) It’s these little animations between map refreshes that give these sites much of their perceived speed. The return of fresh map data still takes a few seconds, but the user is fooled by the eye candy while the map is retrieved.

That said, the site loses a few points these days for its lack of FF / Netscape support. We track usage of our site, and on average 15% of all hits come from a Mozilla-based browsers.

32 Pseudonode // Apr 26, 2007 at 11:04 pm

CA Department of Fish and Game IMAPS viewers. AXL-based ArcIMS (currently 9.1). Won first place for Internet Mapping at the ESRI conference a few years back. Several cool custom tools.
http://imaps.dfg.ca.gov

33 mapbutcher // Apr 27, 2007 at 1:16 am

http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/clc/default_content.asp

would be interesting to see a similar thread about opensource web mapping server sites?

34 MIGIS // Apr 27, 2007 at 5:41 am

http://maps.mtri.org/website/gleams-DSS/
for the water quality & PCB contamination risk tools (have to allow popups)

35 MIGIS // Apr 27, 2007 at 5:43 am

http://maps.mtri.org/website/gleams-template/
This one has more tools (water quality, PCB fish consumption, gene expression).
This one has a mercury fish consumption risk tool:
http://maps.mtri.org/website/GLEAMS_foxriver/

36 Donny V. // Apr 27, 2007 at 7:00 am

http://idv.civilsolutions.biz//login.aspx?username=Demo159&password=Demo159&siteservice=Hammonton
This is used as a light weight alternative to ArcView. It has an admin back end that lets you manage and create user profiles. We’ve worked with Pictometry to incorporate there data into this map viewer.
(Sorry IE only)

37 doug // Apr 27, 2007 at 7:16 am

I’m a lurker here, but ditto on what Aaron B. said, this is a great thread topic - I’m seeing some stuff that really makes me want to get out there and try to improve my stuff. The Asheville and the Arapahoe County sites are some of the nicest IMS sites I’ve seen - great job! Since others have done it, I’ll throw out 2 that I’ve worked on (they aren’t the fastest on the planet, but have a lot of data behind them):

Kentucky Water Quality:
http://kgsmap.uky.edu/website/KGSWaterQual/

Kentucky Geologic Map Information:
http://kgsmap.uky.edu/website/KGSGeology/

Any suggestions/comments appreciated!

38 Kyle // Apr 27, 2007 at 7:37 am

http://aims.jocogov.org/legal/imsterms.asp

and with lots of goodies:

http://ims.ursdcmetro.com/Run.htm

39 G1smast3r // Apr 27, 2007 at 10:08 am

Hmm… Firefox & Netscape… All I have to say on that topic is I’m gland people aren’t yelling about Safari yet…

I use to get hate mail from Safari users until I informed them that their browser hadn’t been rewritten in 5+ years…

Anyways… Kudos to microsoft… kudos to ESRI… If it wasn’t for those two corporations I would still just be a “paper map” geographer!

40 MIGIS // Apr 27, 2007 at 10:08 am

And the ArcIMS site I’ve used most often for work - USGS Seamless Data Distribution site:
http://seamless.usgs.gov/website/seamless/
(I wonder what the resources are behind this)

41 Post Your Favorite Open Source Web Mapping Sites // Apr 27, 2007 at 10:25 am

[...] was suggested in the ESRI Web Mapping Sites post, post your favorite open source web mapping sites. One of my [...]

42 Brian // Apr 27, 2007 at 11:31 am

Why all the digging into IMS sites, when, after all, we were just informed of its 4/11 death?

http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2007/04/23/the-day-arcims-died/

With this in mind, I’d rather see some good ArcServer sites .

Although, admittedly, I just saw some great web apps in the above posts. Thanks for the examples everyone.

43 Durnin // Apr 27, 2007 at 1:59 pm

@Jesse - IMO your comments are spot on.

The vast majority of IMS applications are an attempt to be a replacement for desktop applications. Developers brag about how many layers users can access it their apps.

At our little Municipality, we use IMS primarily to supplement enterprise data-mining applications for our users. We call them “Targeted Applications”, rather than the 100 layer free-for-all most of these applications are.

Our usability testing has shown us that users want an app that does one thing very well, easily and intuitively.

But hey, to each their own.

@Mark - that hurts man.

44 prp // Apr 29, 2007 at 2:43 pm

OK everybody, how about one more in the ‘favorite’ series…

“Post Your Favorite ESRI Web Mapping Sites Built With 9.2 Web Manager/Web ADF”

45 Joseph Wallis // Apr 30, 2007 at 11:09 am

I would but all of those sites are the same:

Server error in Application /webmapping blah blah blah.

So much for ADF

46 Robert Cheetham // May 1, 2007 at 8:38 am

A shameless plug for a client site.

http://www.PhillyHistory.org/

The map is not the center of the action, but plays an important supporting role (provides geographic bounds for the search results).

47 MATT // May 2, 2007 at 10:59 am

NWI is simple but its good to see them actually doing something with data I collected.

http://wetlandsfws.er.usgs.gov/wtlnds/launch.html

48 Jon // Jun 12, 2007 at 6:20 pm

This is the first fully functional web mapping site I found built with 9,2 Web ADF.

http://www.cuahsi.org/his.html

49 Ole // Jun 13, 2007 at 5:10 am

The German Mountaineering Club “Deutscher Alpenverein” has been building an extensive rock climbing database. About 500 rocks have been carfully researched and described, another 4,000 or so are still to be indexed.

The website is in German only but you may want to give it a try:
http://www.dav-felsinfo.de/ajaxdav/

The map server is ArcIMS running on Windows 2003 with Tomcat and Apache.

50 ROB // Jun 13, 2007 at 8:33 pm

I haven’t seen any sites using the ArcGlobe. Do you guys know of any?

51 Ralph Dell // Dec 21, 2007 at 1:54 pm

I’m responsible for this ArcIMS ActiveX site.
http://www.gis.catawba.nc.us/website/Parcel/index.html
I’m always looking for what others are doing. My gut feeling is that most sites are slow and not very intuitive. I would welcome any comments on this site

52 Katia Pereira // Jan 22, 2008 at 6:46 am

This site has information on Brazilian Amazon and it was developed with Mapserver, Chameleon and Php. I would welcome any comments on this site

53 Katia Pereira // Jan 22, 2008 at 6:53 am

The website address that I talked in last message is
http://www.imazongeo.org.br/

54 Farid // Apr 10, 2008 at 6:40 am

http://www.activeplaces.com/

This website allows you to search for sports facilities any where in England by a number of different ways. You can browse an interactive map of the country, search for facilities in your local area, use the name and address of a specific facility to find out more information

James Fee GIS Blog

Geospatial Technology, Web Mapping and Spatial Services