GIS information gets easier to share!

 

Esri has released two tools for ArcGIS, an updated ArcGIS Explorer and a MapWidget, which are designed to make the sharing of geographic information easier.

 

 

New updates to ArcGIS Explorer, the free GIS viewer, help more closely integrate it with ArcGIS 10. It now provides direct support for image services, improved support for ArcGIS 10 layer packages and geodatabases, and more ways to leverage ArcGIS 10.

 

OpenStreetMap is now included in the basemap gallery, and notes now have titles.

 

The new release supports greater interoperability with ArcGIS. Image services can be directly used and optimised. New tools and properties for image services include gamma, brightness, and contrast; compression and resample methods; and mosaic methods and operators. Image services can also be added as elevation layers.

 

With direct access to ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Explorer users can easily find and add content and share geographic data and maps through online communities. OpenStreetMap is now included in the ArcGIS Explorer basemap gallery. More data sources can be used in ArcGIS Explorer. In this new version, data from Excel spreadsheets can be added.

 

Enhanced features in ArcGIS Explorer make collaboration easier. Notes, a pop-up window associated with a shape drawn on the map, now displays a title as well as text. The presentation, pop-up, and Analysis Gallery features have new tools for sharing information. Shared layer packages, notes, and KML can be saved locally, added to ArcGIS Online, or e-mailed directly from ArcGIS Explorer.

 

Users can also share notes as Keyhole Markup Language (KML) and convert KML to notes. KML handling has been improved in both the 2D and 3D modes, and regionated KML is now supported in 2D mode. (Regionated KML is a format that breaks an image file into tiles, or regions, that are easier to deliver than one large file.)

 

With the new query capability, users can create expressions to filter the data displayed. Symbology has been improved for both 2D and 3D modes.

In addition to the free download of ArcGIS Explorer, Esri offers a free ArcGIS Explorer software developer kit (SDK). This SDK has been updated to support Visual Studio 2010, including templates for the new add-in types and an updated add-in wizard. The reference and conceptual help have also been updated, and new/updated SDK samples are included. ArcGIS Explorer is supported in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and simplified Chinese.

 

 

The new Map Widget for ArcGIS is available for IBM Lotus Greenhouse and WebSphere Portal Business Solutions Catalog users. It allows them to embed mapping and geographic information system (GIS) capabilities in mashup applications. The map widget can be used within IBM products such as the IBM Mashup Center and IBM WebSphere Portal Server.

 

Map Widget for ArcGIS is an Enterprise 2.0 solution, which provides a direct link between two enterprise ecosystems: IBM's Lotus and WebSphere Portal and Esri's ArcGIS Online maps and services.

 

Developers and end users can employ the map widget to create easy-to-use, highly visual enterprise mashups that display dynamic business information on interactive maps. The widget does not require programming and is configurable. The end user has the ability to change basemaps and connect to ArcGIS services as well as combine the map widget with other widgets and portlets.

 

For example, within a single portal environment, an organisation can use the widget to configure a spatially enabled, operational dashboard with multiple maps for monitoring and managing distinct assets distributed across multiple locations.

 

The widget is based on ArcGIS API for JavaScript and adheres to IBM's iWidget specification. The download includes an optimised, compiled widget ready for deployment, user documentation, and license text.

 

Developers can obtain the source code released under the open source Apache license, version 2.0, directly from ArcGIS Online.

 

Click here to access the original article.