Innovations in GIS

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:52:00 +0000

I recently finished Alabama's National Hydrography Dataset Web Editing Tool, known as NHD-WET. This video demostrates the major functionality and takes users through some basic "how-tos".

Google Public Data Explorer

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:25:00 +0000

This is a really incredible Google Lab. I have worked on similar systems over the years, but of course Google resources changes the game completely [also they are a lot smarter than I am :) ].

The charting of course is smooth and clean with really great collection and aggregate functionality. The thing though that caught my eye was the visualization application. It's a really cool way to represent aggregate quantities in a dynamic state through proportional symbol sizing.

See it here!

How To Create a Standard Web Mapping Application in ArcGIS Server

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:32:00 +0000

First it’s important to state that there are lots of custom options for the creation of web maps using ESRI's ArcGIS Server. These custom methods are documented and discussed in detail at the ESRI Resource Centers (http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/index.cfm?fa=applications ). The method I am covering here is the basic web mapping application creation available
through ArcGIS Server.

Begin by setting up your map project in ArcMap. Save your project in a folder that the local windows user group "agsadmin" can access (for UNA students this will be your "geolab" folder). If you are not using ArcSDE as your datasource, then it’s a really good idea to put your data in the same folder as where you save your map project (*.mxd).

In order to set up your basic web mapping application follow these steps.

1. Log into your ArcGIS Server Manager via web browser at (http://<SERVERNAME>/arcgis/manager/), be careful to put your username in exactly as the example shows.

2. Select the "Publish a map, globe or other GIS resource as a service"

3. Select your map project *.mxd and accept the default choices for the following menus.

4. Go back to the ArcGIS Manager home page.

5. Select "Create a web application"

6. Go through the steps to create your application

There are several style options and configuration choices, but basically that’s it!

Geodatabase Version?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:35:00 +0000

Having trouble projecting data in your personal or file geodatabase? If you are working in ArcGIS v9.3.1 you might have the same problem I have. I use National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) streams and waterbodies often in my work. Right now I am working on developing a web based system to aid in recommending changes or edits in the NHD data. While developing this "crowd-sourcing" GIS application I discovered I needed to reproject my geodatabase to be compatible with my base map sources. That's when the strange things started. Things like I created a FeatureDataset with the appropriate projection, but couldn't see it in ArcCatalog. Even after refreshing and trying various other things. I attempted to reproject some of the FeatureClasses and received multiple varying errors.

At that point I stumbled on a reference about checking my geodatabase version to ensure that they coincided with my ArcGIS software.
So how do I see this?

Go to ArcCatalog
Navigate to the geodatabase of interest
Right-click and select Properties

Upgrade your database and you should be good to go.

Google Building Maker

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:49:00 +0000

The question: How do we make 3D texturize buildings for use on the web?

Google's answer: Google Building Maker

No matter how you feel about those guys, sometimes you just have to step back and say WOW.

ARMS at the ESRI Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:03:00 +0000

Our work on the Alabama Resource Management System (ARMS) was recognized with a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award at the ESRI International Users' Conference in San Diego this year. Here is a picture of me, Jack Dangermond (ESRI), and Chris McInnish (ACJIC) at the ceremony. More info here....

The Father of GIS

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:59:00 +0000

At the "Special Achievements in GIS Awards" I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Roger Tomlinson (The Father of GIS). Pretty neat. Honestly I was little star struck...

Dynamic XML from SQL Server for ArcGIS Server

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Some of my colleagues asked me to put together an example for a very common problem with starting up WebGIS projects in ArcGIS Server utilizing the Flex API. So here is a stab at it.

Problem:

I have a dynamic database that is being updated very frequently and I need to show the results on my AGS Flex map.

Solution:

We will use several pieces of software for this project. Here are the majors;

SQL Server 2005/2008 (Express/Standard/Enterprise)
Visual Studio 2005/2008
Flex Builder 3
Internet Information Server (IIS) 6.0

SETTING UP YOUR SQL DATABASE

Create a SQL Server database and add a table to it. Add a minimum of [NAME], [X], and [Y].

SETTING UP YOUR GENERIC CONTENT HANDLER

Begin the development of a generic content handler in Visual Studio. I usually accomplish this by creating a blank ASP.NET Web Site project, Add a New Item to the project, and select the Generic Handler from the choices of templates.

In your content handler set up your business logic in the "ProcessRequest" something like this.

    Dim blnErrorOccured As Boolean
Dim strErrorMsg As String
Public Sub ProcessRequest(ByVal context As HttpContext) Implements IHttpHandler.ProcessRequest
blnErrorOccured = False
context.Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
context.Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8
Dim strFunc As String = context.Request("func")
Dim strValues As String = context.Request("values")
Dim aryValues() As String  
Dim strReturn As String = ""
Select Case strFunc
 Case "FORESTRY"
     'aryValues = Split(strValues, "|")
     'strReturn = getMember(CType(aryValues(0), String), CType(aryValues(1), Int32))
 Case Else
     strReturn = getSchools()
End Select
         
If blnErrorOccured = True Then
 Dim sb As New StringBuilder
 sb.AppendLine("<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8"" ?>")
 sb.AppendLine("<message>")
 sb.AppendLine(strErrorMsg)
 sb.AppendLine("</message>")
 context.Response.Write(sb.ToString)
Else
 context.Response.Write(strReturn)
End If
End Sub

Next, set up you connection strings for your databases. This can be done various ways, but if you want your .ashx file to be more portable, place it all in the file. (Note: Do this only if your IT security policies allow for no obfuscated code to have connection strings included.)

    Private Function getConnectionString(ByVal db As String) As String
Dim strConn As String = ""
Select Case UCase(db)
  Case "FORESTRY"
      strConn = "Data Source=servername;Initial Catalog=databasename;Integrated Security=True;UID=blah;Pwd=blah;"
End Select
Return strConn
End Function

Next, configure you database retrieval. You can put as much or as little into filtering or joining as you like here via your SQL statements.


Private Function getDataTable(ByVal strCnn As String, ByVal strSql As String, ByVal strTableName As String) As System.Data.DataTable
Dim cnnSql As New SqlConnection(strCnn)
Dim dt As New System.Data.DataTable
Dim da As New SqlDataAdapter(strSql, cnnSql)
Dim ds As New DataSet
Try
   da.Fill(ds, strTableName)
   dt = ds.Tables(0)
   cnnSql.Close()
Catch exSQL As SqlException
   blnErrorOccured = True
   strErrorMsg = exSQL.ToString()
Catch ex As Exception
   blnErrorOccured = True
   strErrorMsg = ex.ToString()
End Try
Return dt
End Function

Next, manage the layout and styling of your output XML with the variables retrieved from the database query.

    Private Function getSchools() As String 
 ' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ' Retrieve data for selected layer from SQL and send to DataTable
 Dim sb As New StringBuilder
 Dim dt As New System.Data.DataTable
 Dim strSql As String
 Try
     Dim strCnn As String = getConnectionString("ARMS_IM_v5") ' Retrieve connection string
     strSql = "SELECT "
     strSql += "[NAME], POINT_X, POINT_Y "
     strSql += "FROM POI_Schools "
     strSql += "ORDER BY [NAME] "
     dt = getDataTable(strCnn, strSql, "Schools") ' Get tabular data table
         
     ' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     ' Prepare the output XML     
     Dim rw As System.Data.DataRow
     sb.AppendLine("<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8"" ?>")
     sb.AppendLine("<table>")
     For Each rw In dt.Rows
         sb.AppendLine("<row>")
         sb.AppendLine(" <name>" & fixSqlTextForHTML(rw.Item("NAME")) & "</name> ")
         sb.AppendLine(" <x>" & rw.Item("POINT_X") & "</x>")
         sb.AppendLine(" <y>" & rw.Item("POINT_Y") & "</y>")
         sb.AppendLine("</row>")
     Next
     sb.AppendLine("</table>")
     rw = Nothing
     dt = Nothing
 Catch ex As Exception
     blnErrorOccured = True
     strErrorMsg = ex.ToString
 End Try
 Return sb.ToString()
End Function

SETTING UP YOUR AGS FLEX MAP

First configure your map element.

    <esri:Map id="map" backgroundColor="#FFFFFF" >                                        
        <esri:ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayer id="baseMapLayer" url="http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/ESRI_StreetMap_World_2D/MapServer" />                                            
        <esri:GraphicsLayer id="glGraphics" />    
    esri:Map>

Second configure your HTTPService including your ResultEvent and FaultEvent.

    <mx:HTTPService id="httpService_GetSchools"
           url="http://dev.sicsconsultants.net/Projects/ISDXML/Handler.ashx"
           resultFormat="e4x"
           result="getSchools(event)"
           fault="httpServiceFaultHandler(event)"
           method="GET" >           
   >

            private function getSchools(event:ResultEvent):void {
             dt = event.result.row;
             renderPOIs(dt, glGraphics);                                 
         }

            private function httpServiceFaultHandler(event:FaultEvent):void
          {
              var errors:String = "Some errors occurred \n";
              errors += "\n Fault Code is : \n" + event.fault.faultCode;
              errors += "\n Fault Detail is : \n" + event.fault.faultDetail;
              errors += "\n Fault String is : \n" + event.fault.faultString;
              Alert.show(errors);
          }

Last configure your graphics renderer.

            private function renderPOIs(pois:XMLList, gLayer:GraphicsLayer):void{
               gLayer.clear();
               var x : Number;
               var y : Number;        
               for (var i:int=0; i<(pois.length()-1); i++) {       
                   var r:Object = pois[i];
                   x = r.x;
                   y = r.y;      
                   var poi:Graphic = new Graphic( new MapPoint( x, y ), null, null );                    
                   poi.toolTip = r.name;
                   gLayer.add( poi );                 
               }                     
           }

You can download the source code for this project here.

Microsoft Seadragon Ajax for Photogrammetry?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:05:00 +0000

This is some really interesting new stuff. I did a little experiment to illustrate how this might come into play for some of our photogrammetry projects.

This comes from Microsoft Live Labs and is the call Seadragon. It is part of their new visualization technologies. You can see evidence of it in PhotoSynth and Deep Zoom. The neat thing here is you don't have to have any additional components installed. I will post some other samples coming soon, but what I through together real quickly was this.

The images are from the F3 tornado that hit Enterprise, Alabama a couple of years ago. I downloaded the images from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA). Then I used Deep Zoom Composer to generate "composition". Then I put it on my web server and used the URL in the "Seadragon Ajax" page to build the script to embed in this blog.

There were 24 source image files that equaled 73.2 Mb in size. After the mosaic and export from Deep Zoom Composer the there were 13,715 files that equaled 1.49 Gb in size. This is because of the tiling system that is created. One of the amazing things is how much data can actually be shown via a really thin pipe.

The only trouble I had with the process was figuring out what file the "Seadragon Ajax" page wanted to use to generate the script. They don't give you any instructions, so even though it is relatively straightforward, I had to do a little trial and error. It turns out that Deep Zoom Composer creates an XML file in the process of generating the composition. The file is named "dzc_output.xml". You will need to reference this file on the Seadragon page.

Anyway here is the results. Enjoy! :)

The most relevant presentation I have found in quite a while...

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:14:00 +0000

This presentation by Dave Bouwman is awesome. It really hits on the issues GIS professionals are faced with in moving to WebGIS, also the graphics are excellent.

Usability in the GeoWeb

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: geoweb usability)

Speaking at the Rocket City Geospatial Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:46:00 +0000

Ok, so this is shameless self promotion. :)

It would be awesome if I could pack this session, so if you’re interested in dynamic KML generation, you’ll probably find this one interesting.

Here’s my abstract:
“This presentation describes a Web service that dynamically generates a KML from user-selected layers. The service, originally designed on the Alabama Resource Management System for Virtual Alabama, uses computational geometry to generate thematic layers on the fly. Users choose map layers of interest and a KML is then made available to them for download. This discussion will show how quickly a novice user can utilize a Web service to locate and visualize thematic data layers of interest without having to use anything more than their browser and KML displaying application.”

Here’s a link to my session on the agenda: AGENDA

After I’m done, I will post my presentation on SlideShare.
Hope to see you there!

Mansour Raad at Adobe MAX

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Just wanted to advertise some for a really great guy. Mansour Raad is a Senior Software Architect for ESRI. He lead the technical discussions on the Flex API in the Holistic Testing Lab a couple of weeks ago. If you have ever heard one of Mansour's talks, then you know he is brilliant and hilarious. If you haven't been to one of his sessions then I would highly, highly recommend it.

Here is a link to Mansour's blog so you can see where he will be next. Also he posts really awesome samples for Flex developers here.

Thunderhead Explorer -
http://thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com/

The next big thing is coming up next week, but regretfully I won't get to be there. If you are going to Adobe MAX this year, please try to pack out Mansour's session. Here are the details.

Delivery of a Mission-Critical RIA for NATO

Adobe Consulting and ESRI will discuss the real-world implementation of a Mission Support System for AWACS aircraft, built in Flex for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). See this powerful example of leveraging ESRI mapping technology with Flex and LiveCycle Data Services ES.

Speakers:	Peter Martin, Mansour Raad
Audience:	Architect, Application Developer
Skill:	Intermediate
Products:	LiveCycle DS, Flex
When:	Tuesday, November 18, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm, Moscone West 2011

Here is a PDF of the details.

http://gisinnovations.sicsconsultants.com/Docs/MAX%202008%20Filtered%20Session%20List.pdf

The Lab - Day 2 (other notes)

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Several topics were discussed on Day 2 in the ESRI Holistic Lab for the Flex API. Here are some highlights and links.

Presentation #1: "Custom Geometry" - (continued from Day 1)

Presentation #2: "How to build an application"
The second presentation of the day focused on core principles of how to build an application, focusing on frameworks and unit testing.

Frameworks

Cairngorm: "Cairngorm is the lightweight micro-architecture for Rich Internet Applications built in Flex or AIR." - (http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/cairngorm/Cairngorm)
PureMVC: "PureMVC is a lightweight framework for creating applications based upon the classic Model, View and Controller concept." - (http://puremvc.org/)
Swizframework: "Swiz is a framework for Adobe Flex that aims to bring complete simplicity to RIA development." - (http://code.google.com/p/swizframework/)
Mate Flex Framework: "Mate is a tag-based, event-driven Flex framework." - (http://mate.asfusion.com/)

Unit Testing

FlexUnit: "FlexUnit is a unit testing framework for Flex and ActionScript 3.0 applications and libraries. " - (http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexunit/FlexUnit)
Fluint: "Based loosely on the concepts of FlexUnit and its ancestor JUnit, fluint provides enhanced asynchronous support, a graphical test runner, integration with continuous build systems and an optional Adobe AIR client for directory watching." - (http://code.google.com/p/fluint/)
FlexMonkey: "FlexMonkey is a unit testing framework for Flex apps that provides for automating the testing of Flex UI functionality. FlexMonkey can record and play back Flex UI interactions, and generates ActionScript-based testing scripts that can easily be included within a continuous integration process." - (http://code.google.com/p/flexmonkey/)

Unit Testing Coverage Tool

Flexcover: "Flexcover is a code coverage tool for Flex, AIR and AS3. It incorporates a modified version of the AS3 compiler which inserts extra function calls in the code within the SWF or SWC output file." - (http://code.google.com/p/flexcover/)

Other topics:

AlivePDF is an open source project that lets you generate PDF files with ActionScript 3. ( http://www.alivepdf.org/)
Flash 10 FileReference Class - (http://www.flashmagazine.com/news/detail/flash_player_10_new_feature_load_and_save_files_using_filereference/)

The Lab – Day 1 (and Day 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:40:00 +0000

So I mentioned I would be in ESRI's Holistic Testing Laboratory all this week, well this is day 1.

We covered a lot through the day, and it's late, but here are some of the major points.

Major topics:

Creating a framework of overrides to allow you to display custom symbols or system symbols as scale dependent.
The ongoing saga of what is the best method of data integration.

I worked mostly on replicating my environment in the lab for testing. Tomorrow is on to interface and data connectivity.

More too come…

Update (includes Day 2):
Mansour Raad, Senior Architect from ESRI, gave lectures on these topics. He focused largely on the override of 2 methods in the ESRI Flex API.
1. override public draw
2. override public clear

The sample code draws 10,000 random points across the globe at various rotations using a bitmap.

I have included Mansour's sample code here.

ArcGIS API for Flex version 1.0 just released!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:49:00 +0000

I have been working with this API for a little while now. It is definitely coming along. The potential is huge and for all of us who have struggled with the Web ADF in an internet environment this offers an excellent alternative. Besides all that it is freakin' fast!!!!

I will be out in Redlands next week working in the ESRI Holistics Testing Lab on the Flex API with ArcGIS Server and SQL 2008. I will post what info I can afterwards. I think we will get some gold nuggets!!!

ARMS wins the ESRI 2008 Vision Award!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:40:00 +0000

The Alabama Resource Management System (ARMS) has received the international “2008 ESRI Vision, Service, and Communication” award. This is a really big deal for us. The award was presented at the 2008 ESRI Health GIS Conference in Washington D.C. There will be several press releases coming out, so I will add them as updates to this posting.

Been away too long...

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:52:00 +0000

I have been away entirely too long. It's been a really busy year, but I am back and the site has a new look.

I have plenty to write about, so I will try to get some the Alabama activities out soon!

Is it MAGIC or is it MetaCarta: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 05:54:00 +0000

I will be writing this as a multi part posting to provide the newest information available.

So who is MetaCarta? The short intro into this company is they rose out of intelligence sectors and were initially funded by CIA for their work. The company has grown and matured and now have made the move to State and local government work. If you are not sure what they do, then here is the understatement. They put documents on maps. The amazing part is how. The proprietary idea that really make this sing is the ability to use some artificial intelligent in conjunction with the "natural query language"

I am making a tour of the State of Alabama over the next few days to make sure that my friends know this is out there. I do not evangelize if I don't believe that it can help our State. This has huge potential. Anyway off my soapbox now. Attached are a couple of links that help understand the strengths of the system. In part 2 I will address the technical principles of the technology, architecture, the setup, and the YIELD.

http://www.metacarta.com/

http://www.metacarta.com/news-room/press-releases.html

Last, a couple of quick screen shots.

ACJIC Users Conference - 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:52:00 +0000

I spent the week of 09/17 – 09/21 at the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) Users Conference. It was a really big turn out. I did miss most of the first two days for some “consultant golf”, so I can’t remark about everything, but here are the biggies.

AlaCop 2 is due for release soon and is based on SharePoint 2007

Virtual Alabama is nearing the end of Phase I and have ingested almost every county in the State of Alabama.

Other awesome apps, but they are “them whose names must be spoken”

The big interest for me was the opportunity to work and talk with a friend of mind from the Microsoft Virtual Earth team. Of course I can’t release the info, but there are some pretty amazing things on the horizon. For me these developments create a lot of excitement for my projects like ACJIC.

Another interesting point is I will have a Beta of the new AlaCop GIS for my subscribers to review out by the end of October, so sharpen your pencils!

Whooo!!! Big project

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:40:00 +0000

I am embarking on moving my data center, about 14 servers, 2 NAS, 4 switches, 3 firewalls, 2 full racks, 5 IP cameras, and tons of cable management controls. I am moving my company from Huntsville to Florence, Alabama to get a little closer to home to help with some other things. This has caused me to be a little late on some posts, and will continue to until my offices are moved.

Any suggestions for a pleasant office move would be appreciated.

Server or workstation won’t boot? Here’s what to do…

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:40:00 +0000

It's inevitable if you work in GIS for any amount of time you will face the need to do some of your own network or systems administration. Historically for me and many of my colleagues we came into different firms and were asked almost immediately to take over network and systems administration. I think it's probably due to the traditionally high-end processing, storage, and bandwidth needs associated with GIS. It places us in a situation where our needs exceed that of the normal user and therefore we are left to our own devices to plan, implement, and maintain our department or even company networks. Well with all that said if you administer a system or hundreds you will eventually need to get to data on a system that won't boot.

Let me say that the caveat is you should focus your energies on a good rotating, offsite, differential and full backup and disaster recovery plan, but in case you find yourself in a situation where you don't have time to worry with a backup restoration and just need to get to a few files fast on a system that won't boot, here's a quick solution.

BartPE Builder is a really nice piece of software. It's free and it simple does what they say it will. It has saved my "bacon" on several occasions and continues to get better. BartPE stands for "Bart's Preinstalled Environment Builder" and is used to build a bootable live windows CD/DVD. Here are the highlights.

Reads FAT and NTFS drive formats.
Contains all your basic hardware drivers to include USB for external drives.
Contains drivers and utilities for network access.
Contains basic hard drive diagnostics and surface repair utilities.

You may have heard of WinPE, well BartPE is not based on Microsoft, but it allows you to have a quick removable disk bootable environment at no cost.

Here's a quick peek.

For more info check these out.
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
http://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/sa/benefits/winpe.mspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Environment

James Fee is the best…

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:27:00 +0000

I have to say I have never talked or exchanged anything with James, but I am a big fan of his blog. He has consistently posted the most informative info on our industry for as long as I have been keeping track of the things. Sometimes you just gotta give credit where it's due, so I say "atta boy" to James. I hope he keeps up the good work.

Find him at: http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/

ArcGIS Server Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:57:00 +0000

Something really interesting and really under publicized is the ArcGIS Server Mobile SDK for ArcGIS Server (AGS) 9.2. I recently had the opportunity to visit with some of my friends from the ESRI Charlotte division where they gave me a tour of some of the applications their professional services division has been working on. One in particular caught my attention as a mobile application so I dug in a little deeper. When publishing services in AGS you will see the option for the required "Map Service", but you have the option to add "Mobile" (you also have the option for WMS and KML, but that's another post). So you're probably like me and saying "so what? I've seen ArcPad for years." Well I would suggest a second look because there is a lot more there than first glance suggests. Here's an example to frame discussion.

Let's say we have a fleet of vehicles (could be utility repair, first responder, etc.). The fleet is equipped with a combination of devices that are connected via a cellular network. Coverage for the connectivity comes and goes dependent on location, terrain, and man-made surroundings. Spatial data needs to be accessible at all times regardless of connectivity with GIS functionality.

With this scenario you need to be able to support multiple platforms, you need to be able to cache and synchronize data, and you need to be able to have customized GIS tasks. AGS Mobile provides exactly that. AGS Mobile is an SDK that comes with ArcGIS Server 9.2. Since it is series of .NET 2.0 components it works on Microsoft Pocket PC and Windows platforms. The components manage synchronization, so it works in a connected or disconnected state. The cache it creates is database driven instead of file driven, so it is much more efficient. It is based on AGS, so the GIS functionality is intrinsic. Oh yeah and once your application is complete, since it is .NET it doesn't have to be installed, so you can store the entire application on a USB, SD, or other portable memory, plug it in and go.

Not to beat the drum too much, but this is the neatest mobile solution I have seen for the amount of effort it takes to get it up and functional.

News Wrap-up for July and August

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 04:36:00 +0000

Here are some of my favorite feeds that have been out lately. Just my way of filtering some of the fluff for you.

James Fee - How Popular is SharpMap?

James Fee - Going a different direction

Planet Geospatial - Map Servers

Planet Geospatial - Tiling Tools

Planet Geospatial - Introductory Open Source GIS Articles

ArcGIS Server Development Blog - Tips from tech support (Part I)

ArcGIS Server Development Blog - Tips from tech support (Part II)

Free Geography Tools - Natural Area Coding Tool For Google Earth

Free Geography Tools - Worldwide Reverse Geocoding With Google Maps

Obviously there are TONS more, but here are some very interesting highlights for the practicing GIS developer. In other words very little emphasis on the conceptual and lots of info on practical.

Geocoding Web Service

noreply@blogger.com (Steve.McKinney@SICS) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 05:11:00 +0000

I recently had an inquiry about geocode services in ArcGIS Server. I have done a lot of work there in address normalization services, address to parcel services, address to structure services, and standard geocoding. The question really comes down to "how accurate does your location match need to be?". If you just need to get to approximately the area with on the street, then there are a lot of choices for free.

By utilizing the Google Maps, MS VirtualEarth, or Yahoo! Maps API you can geocode and return a coordinate via web service. They all limit how many searches you can have per day so you have to consider what your number of users will be.
Another option is the use of the US Census web service (Geo::Coder::US). This is free web service that will allow you to submit searches and return coordinates.
A third option is to set up your own. This takes a bit of effort and you have to think about maintaining the service, but all in all it's not too bad.
Last of course is us. We (SICS) have geocoding, normalizing, and batch services that we offer our clients very, very cheap.

Here are a couple of URLs to get you started.