Well I think most would agree, the 2008 DevSummit was one of the best. There was tons of new stuff to learn about, much more attendees, more ESRI staff, better layout of the conference (the Community Center was particularly good) and better session (and more of them). So what did I take away from the conference?
ArcGIS Platform
So underneath it all, what has changed. Well first ESRI has really focused on bug fixes. I know we’ve all heard this before, but I think the new crash reporting dialog will give better feedback to ESRI and internally they’ve caught many bugs that might not have been caught without the crash reporter. In addition ESRI is using Coverity to help uncover hidden bugs in the code (read some of these case studies, very interesting stuff). I was told that they found stuff that has been hidden for years in the code that would have caused problems, but for one reason or another never was discovered. I think it is safe to say the 9.3 code base will be as bug free as anything they’ve ever released (hold for joke) and given how short this beta period is I think they are confident that they’ve delivered on this.
The focus at 9.3 is stability, performance and security. Those are 3 areas I know have been a great concern for most ESRI users/developers and the examples that we were given between 9.2 and 9.3 showed great performance increases (I can’t comment on stability until I’ve worked with 9.3 for a while). The new security improvements aren’t revolutionary, but address the specific concerns users have had with the product (specifically check out the security presentation on EDN from the DevSummit for the details).
ArcGIS Server
Well there are tons of new "exciting" features with 9.3 as we’ve all heard. First of the REST API is the real deal. The REST API can server up tiles to Google Maps and Virtual Earth (assuming you use the "web Mercator" projection) and the ability to use ArcGIS Server with Yahoo! pipes really opens the possibilities of taking ArcGIS Server and moving it into areas that we’ve not been working in. Providing results from Geoprocessing is as easy as appending f=kmz to the URL (don’t you just love RESTful services?). The JavaScript API is based on Dojo so you’ve got some power in there to make some really interesting JavaScript applications. The Google Maps and Virtual Earth (2D and 3D support) extenders allow you to bring your ArcGIS Server services right into consumer mapping products. The JavaScript API is hosted by ESRI and in the Akamai cloud so it should be very stable anywhere in the world. We’ll be seeing a ton of new applications out there based on the JavaScript API in the next year, that I’m sure of.
Now don’t forget about the .NET Web ADF (didn’t hit any Java sessions this year). It is now what ESRI is calling a "hybrid" model meaning that there is both server and client side stuff going on (rather than the total server side stuff at 9.2). The key new feature is ASP.NET AJAX, but it is still very compatible with 9.2 projects (usually just change a line or two of code and your old projects should still work). The core controls are now scriptable with the ASP.NET AJAX libraries so you can do a ton more on the client than you did before. The JavaScript API in the Web ADF is totally different than the other one (the Server JavaScript API for use with RESTful) so your code may have to be customized between the two versions if you jump between the REST API and the Web ADF. The Task Framework is much improved and you can now build them using User Contols. In addition they are releasing tasks into the code gallery on the ESRI Resource Center for Server (I’ll talk more about the Resource Centers later) so you’ll be able to see what ESRI has done and create your own modifications. The documentation in the Resource Center is so much better than what was available in 9.3. The examples are great and the explanations are detailed and well written. The performance of the Web ADF at 9.3 has increased at least 100% if not more. If you ever blended two data sources (one tiled, one dynamic) you know that it takes the dynamic one time to match the tile scheme that the tile scheme already existing. Now each resource has its own tiling scheme and the layers load much faster. The Web ADF (and obviously the JavaScript API above) will be "uncoupled" from the ArcGIS Server release schedule. This means that you won’t have to wait years for new features to be implemented. Silverlight 2.0 support will probably happen way before 9.4 arrives which would have us all complaining down the road I’m sure. Dave Bouwman has a great write-up on the details of the .NET session so head over to his blog to read up on his thoughts.
ArcGIS Explorer
I’ve already posted on the new features in the 480 release due in May and the 600/700 release due by the end of the year in my Plenary session post, but I’ll list some of the new features in Explorer that caught my eye. First off 480 will increase performance (multi-threaded), direct connect to SDE, GPX support, GeoRSS support and improved task frameworks and popups (the bubbles). Build 600 has the new Microsoft "ribbon" interface and looks great. From a usability standpoint, the information you are working with gets presented right to you and not hidden by interfaces. You will also be able to finally view the maps in 2D mode. I think this will be a boon to organizations who are using AGX as a decision making tool. Ease of use goes a long way. The "enhanced" ArcGIS Explorer SDK will allow you to embed AGX inside your applications. I asked how ESRI would charge for this SDK and they are still thinking about it (will the SDK be free and the deployments cost, will the SDK cost and deployments be free, or will everything be free).
ESRI Resource Centers
New at 9.3 is the ESRI Resource Centers. You’ve already been looking at the first one for quite some time (the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center) and the ones for ArcGIS Server, Desktop, Engine, Image Server, Mobile, IMS and Geodatabase are currently available for those in the 9.3 beta program. These are help centers where you can get support, online help, code samples, interactive SDKs and other resources that you can use with developing (or even using) the ArcGIS Platform. The forums are due to be re-launched based on the Beta forums (which means you’ll be able to subscribe to a forum topic via RSS). There will be many new blogs available from teams that haven’t blogged yet and there *might* be community aspects introduced as well. How this all interacts with the EDN site I have no idea.
Issues?
The one thing that scares me and Dave Bouwman did bring it up at the closing session is overselling what you can do with the new REST API and JavaScript API. Have sales staff running around that you can create "rich" JavaScript applications "consuming" ArcGIS Server services using only 12 lines of code is going to put many of us in a bind. JavaScript is easy to pick up, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be adding complex geoprocessing to your Google Maps mashup with one line. The speed that you can develop has increased, but the complexity will still be there. The JavaScript API will increase your productivity, no doubt. But telling everyone all you need is 12 lines of code will result in disappointment.
What now?
Well I’ve got both ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Desktop installed on my laptop and they seem very stable. Moving forward I think we’ll jump with both feet into the RESTful API and the JavaScript APIs. I think users will want to get their services published via the REST API as soon as possible so Google can start indexing them. What a great way for organizations who want to share their data with the community, just publish and let Google index your services. The ArcGIS Services Explorer is going to be a great tool to learn what is available out there. I had quite a few ArcIMS developers say that they can finally feel comfortable working with ArcGIS Server. The .NET and Java Web ADFs were too much for them and they were usually used to working with simple HTML pages. Compare the speed of JSON vs the speed of sending XML (AXL) requests to the server and see how fast you get a response. It really does highlight why the community at large has really moved to JSON.
So go get on the 9.3 beta, but you’ve got to hurry as 9.3 RTM could happen as early as "June".
17 responses so far ↓
1
M@
// Mar 21, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I’m surprised no one has blogged about the “OGC in ArcGIS Server” talk (or did I miss it?).
http://edn.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=conferences.detail&id=52&selectedConference=ds08
Just some quick points:
WMS now supports Styled Layer Descriptions, whether by associating it during publishing or by clients during the request. They had a demo with OpenLayers here
WFS and WFS - T are available, with feature locking supported. This had a cool OpenLayers demo in it, and they said that some data CD we are getting from the conference will have the code. One important note is that to do WFS -T you have to use SDE with a versioned database.
WCS. You can publish WCS, they showed a Landsat TM image published and then used in ArcMap with all bands available. They also have new geoprocessing tools to work with other WCS. Here was a cool demo with a WCS coming from NASA (from what I remember) and using it to do some geoprocessing.
2
James Fee
// Mar 21, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I tried twice to go to that talk and couldn’t get in the door. Thanks for the write-up.
3
resting
// Mar 24, 2008 at 1:35 pm
rest API was announced nearly a year ago, as part of 9.3. now it is post 9.3 vapor
http://virtualearth4gov.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!369B39F890CE30C1!408.entry
4
James Fee
// Mar 24, 2008 at 1:38 pm
resting: What are you talking about? There is a RESTful API as part of 9.3. It is live and running right now.
http://sampleserver1.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services
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resting
// Mar 25, 2008 at 4:43 am
oops - its the flex api thats post 9.3 - my bad. so many api’s, so little time
6
Ron
// Mar 27, 2008 at 11:04 am
I thought the conference was generally speaking a let down. The technical sessions were full of lame ESRI demos that don’t reflect real-world usage. They still don’t understand Z values very well. Also, several of the demos I saw crashed. The ArcGIS Image Server demo was a complete waste of time. You could tell those guys live in a bubble. The one demo about 3D and real-time was horrible. ESRI needs to have people that can present. Some of those guys barely speak English.
7
Martin
// Mar 27, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Of course they live in a bubble. They are a software company.
I’m a little tired of complaints from people claiming to know the “real world”. The demos I saw were focused on showing a specific feature and demonstrated it well. If they used a full-blown application it would make it more difficult to see the objective. It would be silly for them to waste effort on making “real world” applications, and they were not trying to.
I don’t think you know what the “real world” of making commercial software is like, so cut ESRI staff some slack.
8
Somervim
// Mar 28, 2008 at 3:50 am
James — and community,
As I read your blog and other GIS blogs, I keep trying to come up with some basic rules of thumb for using the tools and technologies that I read about and use.
But first — my bias — I’m a systems engineer working in the geospatial systems world. I’m not a GIS practitioner, but I’m passionate about helping them to get the right tools to do their job.
All the tools seem to have some things in common:
1) they all operate against GIS data — maps, vectors, terrain, imagery, coverages, etc.
2) they all help us to make sense of the data that we can collect, morphing it into geospatial information
3) they all produce some informative view of that data — be it a finished map, an analysis, a graph, an overlay layer, etc.
4) they are all trying to bring new tools to bear on a very old question — “where?”
What would you add to this list?
I’m a little more hung up on the things that set them apart from each other and make them different from each other.
In most well-established fields, it seems like practitioners and experts can say pretty easily, “This tool is good for this, but not that” or “If you’re trying to do this, use this tool” or “This material can handle x amount of stress, but not y”. Engineers are wonderfully obsessed with the specification and capabilities of their tools. I’m probably lumped right in there with them!
At the end of the day, though, if you’re trying to drive a nail, you need some kind of a hammer, not a screwdriver. Whether you use a nail gun, a good ol’ framing hammer, or a large rock, you use the right tool for the job. Either way, you don’t use a screwdriver to drive a nail (unless you are desperate, or just really really enjoy doing things the hard, painful way).
Do you have any kind of a “gut feel” about what “basic GIS problems” the tools that we have today are good for?
Do you think there is a one-size-fits-all GIS solution, or will GIS of the future always require a variety of tools and tool providers to tackle the tough job of understanding “where?” and showing people the world we inhabit? Tool developers will often try to use the marketing pitch that says “our tool is all you’ll need” … are they right?
Do you think that open standards are just a fad, or do you think that they are key to ensuring that GIS practitioners can use any tool they like to solve their particular problem?
9
Ron
// Mar 28, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Martin,
What’s the point of showing a new feature of the software if it’s not in context? If I give you an equation like x = b + 1 * sin(y) - t go and try to use it and see how far you get.
The point is that ESRI needs more context. Some times their software is so generic that it ends up taking a ton of custom code to make it useful. They have specific industry solutions in some areas and not in others. They also have some generic software solutions in some areas and not in others. There are many contradictions with their software and they need to know this.
Ron
10
James Fee
// Mar 28, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Ron, what may be “real world” to you might be irrelevant to others. GIS is so broad and folks are doing such different things with the software, examples are bound to not match what you’d like to see.
Honestly I didn’t feel that the demos were irrelevant and I think they were more “realistic” than they have been in the past.
11
Martin
// Mar 28, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Ron,
Did you see anything in the workshops that had no obvious utility? Not me. I can think of immediate uses for most of what I saw. A lot of what’s new comes from ideas that have been around since the early ArcIMS days, but for whatever reason were too difficult and too big to implement yourself. I don’t understand what you mean by saying the demos were not in context. I appreciate the hard work it has taken to create the ADF and ArcGIS Server, so I don’t have to implement things like editing tools myself, and I’m free to concentrate on things more important to my clients. A few presenters lacked tact and professionalism, but the majority were good.
12
Martin
// Mar 28, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Ron, here’s another thought if I may use an old cliche: perhaps you see the glass as half empty where I see it as half full
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James Fee
// Mar 28, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Exactly, I mean they showed an example of creating a Sharepoint Web Part using the Web ADF. How more relevant can you get?
14
Ron
// Mar 29, 2008 at 1:09 pm
James,
The point I’m trying to make is that they need to show how a particular new feature solves a problem in the market. Just saying we have this new feature doesn’t provide much insight if the person not asking for it may want to use it. If I give you a wheel but don’t tell you what it’s for in a few different ways it probably won’t be that useful. ESRI often times hears a user request from a user that had a particular need but then they incorporate it and don’t mention how this came about.
Martin,
Yes, I saw lots of stuff that was completely irrelevant to my needs. I also saw features that were not only irrelevant but it was clear that ESRI didn’t understand the requirements because many of these guys live in bubbles.
And no, I see the glass a 60% full but it needs a lot more filling. I guess I expect too much from ESRI.
Ron
15
James Fee
// Mar 29, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Ron, what example would have been good for you? That might help me better understand the problem you see. As I said, I thought the examples were much more relevant than in previous years.
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Ron
// Apr 1, 2008 at 10:54 am
James,
Your own post about ArcGIS Server from Bowman spells out exactly what I’m referring to:
http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2008/04/01/overselling-arcgis-server/
Essentially ESRI has delivered a “solution” that doesn’t match the rhetoric. And, they aren’t providing enough examples on how to make this really work in the “real-world.”
Ron
17
Mike
// Apr 2, 2008 at 5:23 pm
“You will also be able to finally view the maps in 2D mode.”
Why wasn’t this a AE feature in the first place? It seems rolling out ArcExplorer when it was half finished doesn’t give them the privilege to make ‘announcements’ about updates
If you bought a car and it didn’t come with doors, would you be excited if they called you and said they made some doors and all you have to do is come in a pick them up???
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