8:32 AM: Video starts showing the languages ESRI supports.  Keeping my eye out for Avenue.  Nope looks like Avenue gets no love.

8:33 AM: Jack opens the DevSummit with a welcome.

8:37 AM: Jim McKinney takes over and explains the purpose of the Developer Summit and why everyone is here.  There are over 1,100 developers at the DevSummit this year from 41 countries (much larger than the BPC).  Tech Sessions will be recorded and placed on the ESRI Resource Centers.

8:43 AM: Jim talks about the road from 9.3 to 9.4.  9.3.1 ships “May”.  9.4 will go beta around the 2009 UC.

8:45 AM: Scott Morehouse takes the stage and talks about the philosophy behind ArcGIS.  Very high level stuff.

9:05 AM: Jim gets back on stage and the demos are about to begin.

9:07 AM: Demo on how 9.3.1 adds functionality to tune map services automatically.  No longer do you have to figure out what layers are slowing down your maps.  Run the analyze tool and get errors and warnings to show what is slowing your services down.  The results lists tells you what you have to do to fix the service, some as easy as right clicking and saying fixing.  After you fix the errors, you get can preview the service inside ArcMap and get see the speed of the service after fixing.  Thus you no longer have to author in ArcMap and publish in ArcCatalog.  You can do this directly in ArcMap.  In fact the tool can be used in just desktop applications to improve map display performance.  All very slick and will be well received.

9:14 AM: Next demo is for the Flex API.  Amazing that 1 year ago it was barely featured at the DevSummit and now it is probably the default API for ESRI.  We drop into some Flex Developer IDE demo and code.  Seems all simple, but I’m no Flex developer.  Demo shows importing data (xls file) directly into the client side application.  I think this gets into unhooking these APIs from ArcGIS Server.  Adobe is here at the DevSummit and is having a get together.  Quite a change from the past.

9:20 AM: Oh my, an actual Java demo.  Talk about Java and excitement at ESRI.  I used to understand how Java Devs worked, but this demo is just way over my head.  Lets just say that ESRI continues to support Java and leave it at that.

9:33 AM: ArcGIS Online is next up.  ESRI seems to refer to this as the cloud so if you here that mentioned here, think ArcGIS Online.  Sud and Jeremy are showing the ArcGIS Online 9.3.1 demo.  Remember now you can upload those Layer Package files (zipped layer files and data).  It seems that ESRI wants you to package your data using the layer package format and then upload it to their system.  I can’t but help think of the Geography Network when I see this, but maybe users are willing to use this much simpler interface.  One thing that it does do is you can limit your content to certain users, rather than the whole cloud Internet.  These users are members of groups so collaboration can occur on ArcGIS Online.  I can’t figure out the business model here for ESRI, but I suppose it ties back into Desktop and Explorer.  Not only can you add data to ArcGIS Online, but you can create hosted maps from your uploaded data.  Reading between the lines here, we see ESRI uncoupling ArcGIS Server from workflows.  You can share data and maps with the world without having to purchase an ArcGIS Server license.  The demo showed the JavaScript API, but I’m sure any ESRI REST API SDKs can be used with ArcGIS Online and without an ESRI ArcGIS Server license.  ArcGIS Online goes public beta after ArcGIS 9.3.1 arrives in May.

9:47 AM: Break

10:17 AM: Back and video showing ESRI mapping implementations

10:18 AM: Jim starts off with the ESRI Resource Centers.  Jim Barry takes the stage to talk about ESRI’s community efforts.  The Resource Centers were updated a couple months ago so most of this stuff on stage is old hat.  The story is that unlike the old EDN pages is ESRI is investing time and effort into the website.  Still no mention of a true Wiki, but maybe one day.  The new template galleries are interesting and hopefully they’ll do much better than the Geoprocessing and Data Model pages on the support site.

10:29 AM: Art Haddad introduces ArcGIS Silverlight API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF.  Art turns the stage sliver (get it Silverlight?).  He demos the ArcGIS Resource Center Silverlight page.  The demos really show off the power of Silverlight.  We can argue about Silverlight’s install base vs Flash, but it really is compelling.  The getting started demo of Art’s shows how quickly you can get started with Silverlight.  Art’s demo is by far the smoothest we’ve seen today and really highlights where ESRI is going (Microsoft Integration).  The cluster feature method works well and you get some really great maps without much code.  Also slick is the ability to use the same code with WPF.  Silverlight API is not coupled to the ArcGIS release schedule (like the other APIs) so get involved with the beta.

10:43 AM: ArcGIS Explorer 900 is next up.  The new Office ribbon interface makes the application fit in very well with other windows applications.  Bern shows the reading of layer packages being loaded into AGX.  So now you get the fancy cartography generated in ArcMap, inside AGX.  2D Maps are now part of AGX.  3D globes are great for some mapping, but nothing beats 2D for getting the message across.  Microsoft Virtual Earth is now part of AGX so you get much better looking base maps than before.  Yet another new feature, there is a new presentation mode to allow you to use AGX for presentations.  This is hard to describe, but think about using AGX for your presentations rather than PowerPoint.  You can navigate back and forth through the “slides” and then interact with the maps.  Larry Young went into some customization of AGX with an application configuration file.  This means you can streamline AGX to meet the needs of your users, dropping out the tools that users might not need.  This is done with an Application Configure tool that is included with the AGX 900 download.

10:55 AM:  Bill Moreland talks about Python and ArcGIS.    The Python demo uses pulp-or with ESRI’s Geoprocessing model.  In the past, Python hasn’t been getting as much love as it should at the DevSummit so seeing this on the Plenary stage is really a change.  It is good to see the Geoprocessing Resource Center is getting some traction with shareing scripts.

11:05 AM: ArcGIS Desktop at 9.4 is next up.  Some key goals were to simplify common tasks, streamline workflows and improve ability to share work.    Catalog is now integrated into ArcMap (like Toolbox), much faster map drawing, search from ArcMap, better cartography (isn’t that always there?), charting and reporting, 3D GIS (3D editing) and Asynchronous Geoprocessing (no longer locking up Desktop why your analysis runs).  New ADFs at 9.4, extensions can now be developed with .NET and Java (drop in extensions).  Side by side deployments at 9.4, thus you can run 9.3.1 and 9.4 at the same time on the same machine.  Map automation can now be performed with Python in ArcGIS Desktop.  Say goodbye to DS Map Book because now you can create PDF export using Python scripts, much like we did in the old days with ArcPlot.  With a few lines of code you can replicate all the functionality of DS Map Book.  You can now add geoprocessing tools to any of the toolbars (including your Python scripts).  Python is also now integrated into Python.  Yep and interactive Python window right inside ArcMap.  So intellisense GIS analysis with Python.  Brilliant!

11:17 AM:  Editing Demo – Sorry I can’t bring my self to blog about editing.  If you do lots of editing with ArcGIS Desktop, you’ll want to learn more because the editing tools are really leaping over where they are at 9.3.x.

11:30 AM: Jim is back with the news that you can now edit in all ArcGIS Server ADFs and APIs (including the RESTful ones).  Now on to ArcGIS Mobile, the story here is that it doesn’t seem to integrate with what Art Haddad is doing with WPF and Silverlight.  It is a shame that ArcGIS Mobile is still treated as a different product than the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF.  I don’t like the idea that the ArcGIS Mobile team is doing WPF work and the ArcGIS Server team is doing it as well.  I want to write code once and deploy on Server or Mobile, not maintain two different apps.

11:45 AM:  Break for lunch.

ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 5
ArcSDE 9.2 Service Pack 5
ArcIMS 9.2 Service Pack 5
ArcGIS Image Server Service Pack 5

In case you can’t remember if you care or not, check out the Service Pack 5 announcement.

Freakin’ sweet!

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".

At 9.3, ArcGIS Server Enterprise (or whatever ArcSDE is called these days) will move to 64-bit. This is a huge improvement as I would guess most new database deployments are built on 64-bit servers. But clearly ArcGIS Server itself is not going to be 64-bit at 9.3. When spec’ing out new servers, it is impossible not to go down the 64-bit route and servers going multi-core only in the next year ArcGIS Server will only get slower because it cannot take advantage of new technology. With the focus moving from clock speeds to cores, ArcGIS Server users run the risk of being stuck at a level of performance that is going to be unacceptable in the future.

I’ve been told that ArcGIS 10 will support multi-core/64-bit, but given that it probably won’t go final until at least late 2009/early 2010 that means we’ll be running into trouble way before we can even deploy beta version of ArcGIS 10. But is this really a concern for users? Generally speaking, most folks I’ve talked to don’t seem to really be bothered by this and maybe that is why ESRI is waiting until v10 to ship multi-core support.

Is the lack of 64-bit ArcGIS Server going to impact your business moving forward?

Moony only runs 64-bit servers, do you?

Launching maps and globes from web pages (new in SP5)

• Service Pack 5 includes a fix that enables you to launch maps (MXDs), globes (3DDs) and scenes (SXDs) by clicking on them in web pages. Previously you had to right-click the files and save them to a folder, and then launch them from the folder. With this fix, it is much easier to launch maps and globes containing internet content, such as those on the ArcGIS Online beta website: http://arcgisonline.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=access.desktop
  This enhancement provides a useful way to make map services that you are serving with ArcIMS or ArcGIS Server easily accessible to other ArcGIS Desktop users, because you can simply include a map or globe referencing your service(s) on a web page.
  Layer files can also be added to web pages for download, but ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 users have to right-click on a layer file on a web page and save it to a folder in order to access it. In the ArcGIS Desktop 9.3 release we are adding full support for adding layer files from web pages to your maps and globes simply by clicking on them.

First and foremost, the zigGIS codebase will remain open. Secondly, personal and educational use of zigGIS will remain free…

As for our corporate users – you will need to purchase licenses per seat. Licenses will fall somewhere below $300 each. We hope this keeps zigGIS affordable to those organizations that require heavy-duty GIS capabilities. (don’t forget that the use of PostGIS + zigGIS saves you from all ArcSDE licensing costs)

If you are in an enterprise environment, ArcGIS Server Enterprise probably makes a ton of sense (especially in the ESRI server stack), but in smaller offices and workgroups why pay for all that overhead you are not using?

1. ArcSDE finally rides into the sunset. Even though technically ArcSDE has been replaced at 9.2, it was still a separate product. Now at 9.3 it will become fully integrated into ArcGIS Server. ArcGIS Server Enterprise will be the “traditional” ArcSDE level where ArcGIS Server supports an unlimited number of users via either direct connect or connection to an application server. It offers DBMS support for IBM DB2, IBM Informix, all editions of Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL. It has no data or memory limits. The Workgroup level of ArcGIS Server supports a maximum of 10 direct connect users. It includes an embedded DBMS (Microsoft SQL Server Express Spatial). It has a data limit of 4 GB and a memory limit of 1 GB.
2. ArcGIS will connect to Microsoft SQL Server via direct connect. Out of the box ArcGIS application will be able to connect to Microsoft SQL Server Express Spatial, but if you want unlimited users, you’ll need to purchase ArcGIS Server Enterprise. This is probably less than what folks wanted, but you’ll have to sort that our yourselves.
3. ArcGIS supports older versions of the Geodatabase. At 9.3, ArcGIS can connect and create geodatabases (personal, file) back to 9.0. This means you won’t need to keep older versions of the geodatabase around to share with others. You also won’t have to upgrade your geodatabases just because ArcGIS went to a new release. If you wish, you can keep your older geodatabases running at whatever release you wish (back to 9.0).
4. SQL Server 2008 Spatial will be fully supported when Microsoft releases final version of SQL Server 2008. This might mean that SQL Server 2008 support might not show up until SP1 or SP2 for 9.3. It all depends on Microsoft’s release schedule.
5. PostgreSQL support will be available at 9.3 as has been reported. There will be support for both the PostGIS and ESRI data types.
6. ArcGIS Engine will allow developing with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express so you can scale down your enterprise applications to the workgroup level. You’ll no longer be limited to working with personal for file geodatabases.
7. ArcGIS Server Enterprise will support 64bit processors. This is only the spatial database application server and not the AGS Basic, Standard and Advanced product.

So does that answer your questions about ESRI spatial database support at 9.3?

Through November 30, 2007, ESRI licensed server software based primarily on the number of physical sockets on the server which are being utilized by CPU chips. These CPU chips can have 1 or more processing “cores,” each core providing additional computing power for the CPU chip. Licensing requirements and fees for ESRI server software are based on the combination of the number of utilized sockets on the server and the number of cores on each CPU chip.

To address recent changes in the server hardware markets, ESRI has adjusted the licensing and pricing model for ESRI server software to be based only on the number of cores on the server. This adjustment simplifies the process of determining the appropriate license requirements and license fees, especially for new hardware configurations that are continuously being introduced.

Now before you get all worked up that this will cost you more money…. DON’T. Your maintenance will not change because ESRI is adjusting the pricing model as well. It will mean you’ll have a much easier time determining your license and fees using the new chart provided by ESRI.

Spatial datatype, methods and indexes will be supported equally on all SQL Server editions (Express, Workgroup, Standard and Enterprise) at no extra charge. That means anyone who wants to use the SQL Server 2008 Spatial can download the free Express version and start working with spatial databases. Express will still have its limitations as it does now but you have to believe that this puts a huge damper on middleware producers that are targeting .NET developers (ArcSDE cough).

Just think, download SQL Server 2008 Express and perform geospatial operations in Virtual Earth or OpenLayers.

SQL Server Mechagodzilla pushes other Spatial Databases aside with ease

Geodatabase replication enables the distribution of datasets across several geodatabases, and provides a mechanism for keeping those datasets in synch by sending changes over the network or the Internet. This discussion contains suggestions for planning a replication strategy that will help you implement a comprehensive distributed data workflow. The mechanics of creating and synchronizing replicas are also discussed.

Learning about geodatabase replication is cool!

ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 4
ArcIMS 9.2 Service Pack 4
ArcSDE 9.2 Service Pack 4

FeatureServer + ArcSDE Data Store = Holy Grail

Being able to store data in ArcSDE, but still access it freely across any and all platforms. ArcGIS clients can hit ArcSDE and everyone else can enjoy data served by FeatureServer. But deep down this is even bigger than FeatureServer because really what I’m talking about is GDAL/OGR ArcSDE Vector Write Support. That opens up loads of open source projects to ArcSDE users and gives them the best of all worlds. ArcGIS Desktop/Server users can continue using ArcSDE they way they always have and open source solutions can come right in the front door and coexist with existing workflows. The benefit will be realized by users who will be able to get products that work best for them.

If I have to sell Amway door to door, I will get this project funded.

The gatekeeper will no longer be able to stop users from writing to ArcSDE from OGR.

Anyway I was hanging out at Duke’s Waikiki and randomly started talking to the group next to me at the bar. Turns out that they are all readers of my blog and have been migrating their GIS from an ESRI only shop to a combination ESRI/open source shop. It was interesting to hear how they were picking and choosing the best products from ESRI and open source to help them better get their work done. What was also interesting is that they didn’t decrease their maintenance costs, but reallocated. They’ve replaced most of their ArcView seats with QGIS, replaced all but one license of ArcSDE with PostGIS and in turn used those savings to buy more licenses of ArcInfo and extensions. They’ve been able to give their high end GIS analysts the tools they feel that they need to get their work done, but still increased their GIS production. Every person at their company has either an ArcInfo or QGIS license on their desk that they can connect to WMS services hosted by MapServer and PostGIS.

I wish I could have spent more time with them talking about this, but they were heading to China in the morning so they needed to get to bed. I liked how they were able to give better tools to everyone by prioritizing what they needed and picked the best tools for the job.

“Now is the time to be the last one out of the parking lot”

The Colorado Geographic Information Portal is now available for users to get access to publicly available GIS data. My company does quite a bit of work in Colorado these days and getting data was always a PITA as many different organizations had to be contacted to get datasets. So I was very excited to see what Colorado put up for their portal, especially since it launches after big changes in the Geospatial world. Alas, I was very disappointed in what I saw as it is just another GIS portal powered ESRI’s GIS Portal Toolkit. The biggest problem is that the ArcIMS front end is so dated and slow. If this was built on the WebADF or even better ArcGIS Server, there would be so much more functionality. In the end this is the same, cluncky interface that we’ve been used to for years on the Geospatial On Stop.

Vladimir Lenin rails against holding geographic data hostage to proprietary formats

The second disappointment is that the data is still really only available as standard shapefiles and saved jpg format. There is no real OGC support let along KML/KMZ support that would enable more users access to this data. I’m fine with no WMS/WFS services as that is an strain on resources for most public entities, but all this data should be available in shp, gml, kml/kmz, tiff, jpg, pdf, and ecw. I’d take shapefiles over anything, believe me, but the lack of KML support is very surprising.

OK, lets not get too negative here. Metadata is great for finding datasets and the Colorado Geographic Information Portal is loaded up with great metadata. If you are looking for data from Colorado, you’ll be able to find it easily with the search. Actually this is the one area the ESRI GIS Portal Toolkit gets right. It took me no time to track down data that I will be needing for a project near Colorado Springs using the metadata search.

So what do we have here? A great new resource for folks looking for data from the “Centennial State”. It is as clunky as any GIS portal out there so I guess this is expected, but there needs to be more focus on data formats beyond shapefiles and an improved mapping front end that should be viable inside Google Earth (and probably powered by ESRI’s WebADF). It is a good start, but most of these GIS portals start well and end up getting stagnant over the months/years. Maybe Jon Gottsegen’s new powers as GIO will enable him to be more nimble and able to make improvements to the portal to make it the first “Where 2.0″ data portal out there.

Substantially improved rendering speeds with ArcSDE. This is especially the case in large multi-processor web garden deployments where the MDNS services are less likely to be processor-bound. Substantially improved SDE connection pooling resulted in upwards of 10 times the rendering performance in our tests. This was especially noticeable when ArcSDE is installed on a separate server from the MDNS web services.

Anything that makes talking to ArcSDE faster is good news in my book.

As I mentioned we’ve been working with MapDotNet Server 2007 and I plan to blog about the experience when I’ve got more time. It has been a nice learning experience for us (though under tremendous pressure due to a very tight timeline). We put ourselves in a bad position, but ISC really helped us out when we needed it. MapDotNet Server is very different from ArcGIS Server and ArcIMS so if you are used to the “ESRI way” of doing things you get frustrated. But once you understand how MapDotNet Server works and all the possibilities it opens up, it all starts to click and make complete sense. We’ll have to see how the prototype works for our client and then move forward with what they want to do. I’ll try and blog about the experience next week when my workload lightens up.

“Because you didn’t come here to make the choice, you’ve already made it. You’re here to try to understand why you made it.”

On one our latest projects, we are developing a site using SharePoint and what would have been ArcIMS. The difficulty we’ve had getting the WebADF to work the way we want has put a damper on our excitement that we had when it first showed up. It is just way too difficult for the “simple” and “quick” development that we have to do. Plus, as nice as the WebADF is, clients still are expecting a Google Maps type interface and the WebADF is not that (nor does it try to be). With the new licensing of Virtual Earth, we’ve decided that MapDotNet Server 2007 connecting to ArcSDE is the way to go. The front end will be based on Virtual Earth so folks will feel comfortable with the interface (it seems every ArcIMS web mapping site is different and that causes usability issues) and they’ll be able to work with the data rather than fighting the interface.

Now this isn’t to say that we are abandoning ESRI server products because that isn’t the case. We will continue to develop ArcIMS sites for clients who want them (I still say it makes sense to leverage existing licenses of ArcIMS or move over to ArcGIS Server Standard) than dump all that work and start new and ArcGIS Server applications for clients whose requirements need Geoprocessing. But for quick and simple web mapping I think MapDotNet and Virtual Earth will be the killer combination for ESRI .NET developers who are already familiar with the tools. The simple fact that folks won’t have to abandon any of their existing ESRI servers (ArcSDE is still there) and desktop clients, the ease of which we can develop applications and the speed of MapDotNet will give our clients that quick, easy to use, great looking web mapping tool that they have been clamoring for.

Maybe the ESRI REST API will change things for us (I wasn’t at the 2007 UC so I have no idea how it looks or works), but for now we are going in this direction. We’ll see what the 2008 Developer Summit brings for the REST API and rapid development of ESRI web mapping applications.

I find it interesting to see another ESRI developer look outside the ESRI stable for a replacement to MapObjects. There was some concern among many developers at the 2007 Dev Summit that ESRI was abandoning the smaller developers and focusing on enterprise level GIS tools. Steve, who posted on his blog about .NET SIG at the Developer Summit wrote:

Damian [Spangrud] talking … discussion about pricing … tension between large enterprise customers who expect it to cost more and smaller shops that think it is too much (like me).

That just scares me working with ESRI server software. I feel like I’m being priced out of the marketplace with their new tools. The days of writing simple and cheap Avenue or MapObjects application are over. Now you need superstars who know ArcObjects in and out and clients where price is no option. Maybe the RESI API will change this (or maybe not), but if you look around there are tons of tools available for you to use that won’t mess with your workflows and might just allow you to improve you output without spending tens of thousands of dollars.

So we’ll see where this all leads. We still may decide that MapDotNet isn’t for us and go back to trying to figure out the WebADF and its task framework.

Wonder why they kept the name ArcSDE. Shouldn’t it be CAD Client for ArcGIS Server Enterprise?

As promised by ESRI, the Service Packs are out.

ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 3
ArcIMS 9.2 Service Pack 3
ArcSDE 9.2 Service Pack 3