ESRI Podcast - ArcGIS Server REST API

February 2nd, 2008 · 7 Comments · ArcGIS Server, ESRI, Google, Google Maps, Microsoft, Virtual Earth

I’m sure this is just a coincidence, but ESRI actually posted a discussion of the REST API for ArcGIS Server. In addition they hit on the three Javascript APIs that they will also release with the REST API; ESRI Javascript API using Dojo, Extender Javascript Library for Google Maps and Extender Javascript Library for Virtual Earth. There isn’t too much depth here but at least we can get an idea where they are going with REST and ArcGIS Server 9.3.

Being RESTful and listing to ESRI Podcast

Thanks Rachel

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7 responses so far ↓

1 Chance Yohman // Feb 2, 2008 at 9:04 am

See if you can count the number of times “http goodness” is said.
2 Anon // Feb 2, 2008 at 10:05 am

Damn, the buzzwords in that thing. Why can’t ESRI just talk about it rather than drop those sentences on us?
3 Chance Yohman // Feb 2, 2008 at 10:17 am

Sensible discourse? What is that?
4 bender // Feb 2, 2008 at 11:23 am

yeah, cute. still sending requests from your console, huh?
5 CuriousGeorge // Feb 2, 2008 at 12:08 pm

Come on guys… give it a “REST”

First you want to know what ESRI is doing with REST, then you get a taste and you still knock it - not cool.

Looking at the big picture, it looks to me like they are rounding out their offerings with “additional” API’s to appease the JavaScript world while still offering the full app framework to the rest of the services. From what I heard in both ADF and the REST podcasts, the .NET ADF will also sport an ASP.NET AJAX JavaScript library along with a Map Script control - Microsoft’s new way of using Web Controls with the AJAX clients. Sounds like the ADF team is thinking about making things easier for us.

I still want to see what ESRI discusses at the Dev Summit.
6 Dave Bouwman // Feb 2, 2008 at 4:19 pm

Sounds good to me - and certainly a step in the right direction, and will be great when it comes out.

And I don’t want to “knock” this, but I would have liked to seen these services come out incrementally via the service packs. Clearly they’ve had some underlying elements of this baked for a while, so why not shoot it out? From the outcry against the ADF, it’s clear that someone inside knows it’s a pain - why not throw the dev community a bone rather than letting things boil over?

Dave
7 Ian // Feb 5, 2008 at 7:02 am

Here’s an idea:

How about ESRI spend time improving the middle-tiers *THEY’VE ALREADY BUILT* instead of throwing another poorly architected layer on top of them?

Please?

The WebADF is sort of brutal, and everyone knows it, ESRI Professional Services most of all. My company has been working with it for almost 18 months now, and we’ve taken more than our fair share of bruises with it.

But I seriously doubt that another set of poorly documented, poorly tested APIs is going to significantly improve anything. We can roll our own JSON, thanks.

I appreciate ESRI trying to make things “easier”, but how about doing the hard work of improving existing code rather than trying new green-fields “we’ll get it perfect this time” stuff.