James Fee GIS Blog

The ArcGIS Server RESTful API will come out at 9.3, but what about those who need it now? Well Dave Bouwman has blogged about its release. Because we all love demos, here is the link to the ArcGIS Server RESTful API.
http://65.101.234.201/rest/
Notice that it is running on OpenLayers. Think about what you are [...]

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Ed Katibah, who has a long history with IBM and Informix and is now the spatial project manager for Microsoft’s SQL Server, is blogging.
Ed on Spatial

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Now this is exciting.
With our new WPF and Silverlight 2.0 map controls, developers and designers will soon be able to build rich interactive mapping applications for the desktop and web. In our opinion, WPF and Silverlight 2.0 take giant leap forward from other user interface technologies such as Windows Forms, Java, Flash, JavaScript [...]

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I don’t like the term “ESRI Shop”. Both open source developers and ESRI developers use it as an excuse one way or another. Just because you are running ArcMap or ArcGIS Server, doesn’t mean that you can’t explore open source GIS software and in fact you might be surprised how it makes your [...]

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OK here is the other part of the ArcGIS Server 9.3 release that most of us will be interested in; the Javascript API. Jeremy Bartley and Jayant Sai talk a little about the Javascript API in their podcast. Much like the RESTful API Podcast, there isn’t much meat here, but at least you [...]

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Dave Bouwman has cleaned up his AGS Virtual Earth Tile Server and has posted the code.

HttpHandler (.ashx)that responds to Tile requests from Virtual Earth
Supports multiple layers/map services through the same handler
ArcGIS Server Tile Provider uses the AGS SOAP API (fast!)
Projects the data - can be used with any ArcGIS Server map service
Extensible design allows [...]

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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 [...]

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Bill Thorp’s great idea becomes a Microsoft Research Project. Bill notes:
Their demo makes one thing obvious, however. Douglas-Peucker just doesn’t cut it for topologies. This becomes a non-issue with a pixel-level of detail, but just looks bad in their demo. Their implementation doesn’t seem to preserve existing points between zooms; it’s [...]

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So how the heck are you guys doing it? Google Maps and Virtual Earth have so much distortion up there (or down there as the case may be) that mapping is very difficult. Plus what happens when they navigate off the edge of the map? Anyway the closest thing I’ve found [...]

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Dave Bouwman just wrote up his findings on bringing ArcGIS Server web service (using the WMS service and SOAP API) into Virtual Earth. Another great example of using a hosted web service with your existing GIS projects.
I’m pretty sure the ESRI Developer Summit will be full of folks wanting to know about [...]

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I spent most of the afternoon talking with folks about web mapping systems and how to choose a direction to go. What is painfully obvious when you start laying out the different frameworks, APIs and servers is that there is just no clear answer as to what system to pick. When it comes [...]

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Abe Gillespie has the great news on his blog, zigGIS 2.0 is officially announced.
Obtuse Software is proud to announce the upcoming release of zigGIS 2.0. For over two years zigGIS has enabled ArcView to view and analyze PostGIS layers. New to version 2.0 is the ability to edit PostGIS data as well as [...]

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I love using Virtual Earth because the imagery is so great compared to Google’s (at least in the areas I’m interested in). The reason why is the UltraCamX imagery that Microsoft uses. LiveSide.net has a small window into the UltraCam and how impressive its results are.

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Sure you can use the Xbox360 controller, or the 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator to navigate the 3D Virtual Earth globe, but anyone can do that. The real fun is using your Wii Remote to control the 3D Globe.
Video: Wiimote Interface for Virtual Earth

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Thanks to Paul Ramsey, Bill Dollins, Morten Nielsen and others, Microsoft has said that they plan to implement longitude-latitude ordering in WKB and WKT for both the geography and geometry types. Bill put it best IMO as to why this change needed to happen with SQL Server 2008.
For me, the issue is consistency. Regardless [...]

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The news this morning out of the UK is that Microsoft has agreed to buy Multimap for approximately £50 million $50M (updated from earlier number).
Multimap owns a maps website aimed at consumers that attracted more than 4 million unique users in the UK last month, according to Nielsen NetRatings, the market researchers.
The figures place the [...]

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Good news for those who want to take advantage of SQL Server 2008 Spatial and ArcGIS.
ESRI’s ArcGIS 9.3 software, the next scheduled release of ESRI’s ArcGIS suite, will take full advantage of the new spatial technology in the upcoming release of SQL Server 2008. With the November SQL Server 2008 community technology preview (CTP), Microsoft [...]

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I just got this tidbit of information from a friend who talked to Ed Katibah (lead Program Manager for SQL Spatial).
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 [...]

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I’m sure many of us on the MapDotNet email list got the news that full support for SQL Server 2008 Spatial is right around the corner.
MapDotNet Server 6.5 is currently undergoing beta testing and will be released in November 2007. In addition to support for SQL Server 2008, it will provide support for the new [...]

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We all somewhat guess this would be coming around and tonight Microsoft releases Birds-eye View for their 3D Globe. They’ve taken those great Birds-eye View images from the 2D maps and using Photosynth they stiched them all together to create a “3D World”. Now of course this isn’t a true 3D, but if [...]

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