00:01Andy Gup and I am Jim Barry with Esri in Redlands. We're with the Esri Developer Network team.

00:07And we're going to take the next hour, I guess, to go through kind of an overview of ArcGIS for developers...

00:16...where our goals today are to cover all of ArcGIS.

00:18This is to answer the question, Can someone just tell me everything that's available so I can at least know what's there?

00:26So this is really a familiarization session to start off the week and to answer the questions...

00:31...What is there? What can I do with it? and What resources are available?

00:34We're not going to dig too much into the how to do things; we're going to leave that for other sessions...

00:40...that can go into specific topics and...and do a real deep dive.

00:43There's just...there's just no way we can hit the how on...on all of that in one session.

00:48But that has happened a lot where people say, you know, I see a lot of specifics, but you know...

00:53...I'd like to make sure I understand the whole landscape so that I can pick the tools that are going to work best for me.

01:00And then...and then, most importantly, how do I get started?

01:03So if you've been using GIS, or ArcGIS, or you saw the plenary yesterday, you understand the why...

01:08...of why we use GIS and what it can do, and...and...and what we're going to cover is...is the what, not so much the how.

01:16So, who are you? I'm going to hit this slide real quick to make sure that...that you...you believe you're in the right room...

01:22...and you're making good use of your time.

01:24If you're an experienced application developer but you happen to be new to ArcGIS, this is a good session to start with.

01:30Also if you are a more advanced GIS professional but maybe you're new to leveraging developer tools...

01:37...you've tinkered with some of them, but you just kind of want to know what's the whole landscape and...and...

01:42...and what's there for me at 10.

01:45Or maybe you're in management or you're a project lead and...

01:47...and you kind of want to know the capabilities of the platform from a developer's perspective...

01:51...how can you develop with these tools and customize, this is a good session also.

01:56If you're more advanced or more experienced in any of these areas...

01:59...then you probably want to hit the metadata session down the hall or something.

02:04But I...I just wanted to make sure that we don't...we don't cut things too light for you.

02:09So what we're going to cover is ArcGIS, not as a GIS professional workstation but as a developer toolbox or developer toolkit.

02:18We're going to look at desktop development, desktop application development that you can do with [ArcGIS] Desktop...

02:24...with [ArcGIS] Explorer and with [ArcGIS] Engine.

02:26Also touch on geoprocessing from a developer's perspective; also the geodatabase.

02:31Then Andy's going to take a few minutes and go through client/server applications...

02:35...how to build server applications that serve map services and...and map...and GIS functionality...

02:42...and also client-side development that taps into those services using mobile applications and Web applications.

02:48And then finally, I'm going to sum up by going through a huge set of the developer resources that are available to you.

02:54It's not...the way we see it, it's...it's not enough to just have a bunch of DVDs with software.

02:58What kind of develop...what kind of resources are available for you to be most successful...

03:02... so that you can get up to speed quickly and get them...and get the most out of these technologies.

03:09So to start with, what is GIS? We saw that a little bit in the plenary, if...if you're new to...to GIS.

03:14And, you know, it's just a...a way to...to manage map data and to create maps and do spatial analysis.

03:21It's more than just visualizing maps.

03:23I mean, back in the day we had plastic Mylars of layers, and then it would be your eyes that would do the analysis.

03:30Well, GIS can do that computational geometry that's necessary in order to...to process and really learn about...

03:37...about the world around you by...by doing hard analysis on that.

03:40So ArcGIS, we look at it as a collection of data and functional services that are being viewed and manipulated...

03:48...by a set of windows, either Web clients, mobile clients, or desktop clients, in order to do these things in the middle.

03:55To collaborate, to discover, to analyze.

03:58The...the What Is GIS section of our Web site is a really nice overview.

04:03It's just a few pages but kind of gives you, in a nutshell, what that is.

04:07There's also GIS.com that you can also, if you're new to GIS but you're an advanced developer...

04:13...this the...a good way to kind of come up to speed on what GIS can do, some of the basic term...terms and terminology.

04:22Okay. So let's just start with [ArcGIS] Desktop. I mean, this is the GIS professional workstation.

04:28This is basically everything Esri has with regards to technology for managing and manipulating data...

04:35...it can be found in ArcGIS Desktop.

04:37In fact, if you look at the five pieces of...of GIS, software and hardware, data procedures, and people, you see it all right here.

04:45We've got our layers on the left; some are coming from a local hard drive, some are coming from Web services.

04:51We've got toolboxes and data management tools on the right.

04:54We've got a bunch of tools on the top for...for the user that's driving the system to use...

05:01...and...and this is...is basically the workstation that GIS professionals use every day.

05:07Many of them use it with very little customization and certainly no coding.

05:11But that's not why we're here. We're here to look at ArcGIS Desktop from a developer's perspective.

05:16What can you as developers do to make better applications, make applications that are tailored to your needs?

05:24Well, there's a few ways to do that from...for developers.

05:27One is that ArcGIS Desktop is extremely customizable. We'll just start right from the ground. Very customizable.

05:33If I added every menu, every button, and every tool that was available to ArcGIS Desktop, it would fill up that entire screen.

05:41So it's very important that you really customize the toolbars and the tools and the menus...

05:46...to fit your workflows and to fit what you want to do with GIS.

05:50The next is...oh. And...and so that's what that looks like. Just a little snapshot.

05:56There's some default tools and toolbars that are there already that you can strip away.

06:00There's new toolbars through the Customize dialog that you can add...

06:04...and there is...and then there's a dialog that you can use to do that too.

06:09Each GIS professional can tailor it to their workflow...

06:13...but you can also create standard interfaces that can be used across your organization.

06:19And so that's not really a coded solution, but that's okay too. That's customizing; that's developing.

06:26Had a developer at the DevSummit in March tell me once, it was pretty...pretty neat, saying...

06:31He said, "The best line of code is the...the one that you don't write"...

06:36...because it doesn't require any time to define, it doesn't require any testing, and it can't introduce any what? Bugs.

06:44So if you can get away with customizing or developing an application without...without writing a line of code...

06:49...that can certainly help you a lot.

06:51But if you are going to write code, and you'll need to, we have classic COM development.

06:57We have about a hundred of these object models that contain about a thousand object classes...

07:02...thousands of properties and methods and defined interfaces, and it's all documented there.

07:08And it's an in... In the beginning of ArcGIS Desktop, this was really the only way for developers to interface...

07:15...to...to grab the components and use them, where to use these very fine-grained, esoteric object classes and interfaces...

07:25...and it was doable.

07:26And there was training, but it took...you know, the learning curve was...was pretty steep.

07:30But one of the neat things about COM, even though it's an older standard, an older methodology...

07:36...is that we designed the system to be extensible.

07:39So we have a class that defines...that...that exposes an interface.

07:43Well, if you design your own class that has your own implementation, as long as you stub it out and to...and...

07:49...and implement our interface, then the entire ArcGIS system will treat your class like one of ours.

07:56And the...and so that's...that's one of the neat... You know, a lot of people say, oh, COM; COM is old...

08:01...but that's still one of the neat things that's left is that you're not stuck with our code and our implementation.

08:07Let me give you an example. You know how...you know, like a class breaks renderer, a value map renderer.

08:13Well, one of the renderers that we give you is called a natural breaks renderer, and it's based on a particular algorithm.

08:18Well, you may have a different algorithm, and you can implement that in the system and bring that right into ArcGIS Desktop.

08:27So that's very fine grained.

08:29What about coarse-grained options that are going to get you most of the way there in a way that's...that's...that's fairly quick.

08:36And that's something we call add-ins. Something that's relatively new, and you can...

08:41...as a developer can use Visual Studio or Java to create these things, and then you zip them up into an Esri add-in...

08:49...and you can share them very easily. You can e-mail a file to someone.

08:52All they have to do is double-click on it and it brings that add-in directly into [ArcGIS] Desktop.

08:59Okay. So in ArcGIS Desktop, if...I'm sorry...in Visual Studio, we provide templates for you to get started with these add-ins.

09:08Sure, you can write them from scratch...

09:09...but if you use these templates, this will give you a Visual Studio project that has a kind of vanilla structure.

09:17All of the licensing has been wired, all the binding has been wired, all the references that you need have been included.

09:23So it has everything there to kind of start with, and then you can build from there.

09:27That'll save you a lot of development time.

09:31As long as your add-in is going to contain these types of components, then you're good to go.

09:36And the...an add-in is constructed of some XML metadata...

09:40...some resource files, and then also then the .NET assemblies or the Java jars, all brought into an Esri add-in.

09:48That Esri add-in's really a ZIP file, but we call it Esri add-in so that the file association can launch the install wizard.

09:54It's pretty easy to distribute.

09:57Then once you have an add-in, you can use your Customize dialog and add that thing in...into the interface.

10:05We also have you put that Esri add-in, you can put it in what we call a well-defined location.

10:10It's a specific folder on your machine that when you fire up [ArcGIS] Desktop, it'll just discover the add-in.

10:17And that's on a local machine. If you have add-ins that you're creating for your entire organization...

10:23...you can tell ArcGIS Desktop that that well-defined location is on a network share somewhere...

10:28...so that everyone that's using ArcGIS Desktop will simply inherit that add-in.

10:33If the next day you change that add-in, then the next time they fire up [ArcGIS] Desktop, it's just going to take that add-in.

10:38So it's...it's...it's a neat way to distribute this stuff.

10:43And the help on this is fairly extensive, not only in the detailed developer technology documentation...

10:53...but also we wrote a lot of topics that are conceptual as well.

10:56And I highly encourage you, if you're...if you're...if you're eager to...to start digging into add-ins...

11:01...is to take a look at some of this conceptual documentation so you understand kind of what's being built...

11:06...and then...and then...before digging into the developer doc.

11:12More details? Right here in this room this afternoon and our...is a session for .NET and for Java...

11:20...and then Wednesday and Thursday, that session will be repeated.

11:23So what we're going to do right now with add-ins is kind of "fork" you. If you use Java, go this way, .NET go the other way.

11:29And they will walk you through exactly how this stuff is done, how you make them, and also how to share them with others.

11:37We also, in the Desktop Developer demo theater, which is in the big showcase area, we have demo theater sessions that cover add-ins.

11:45You can meet the developers from the [ArcGIS] Engine and [ArcGIS] Desktop development team.

11:50And then if you have specific questions or specific problems, we have a Tech Support Island you can use.

11:55Next is ArcGIS Engine. Note that I'm not showing an application here.

12:00ArcGIS Engine is not a software application; it's simply a developer toolkit that contains object classes and controls and components.

12:12Again, you have access to the same controls, even more controls than you do at [ArcGIS] Desktop, but you have...

12:18...also have access to the entire fine-grained object model of ArcGIS.

12:24So you can take any components that are in our products and put them into yours. Alright?

12:29So let me do something real quick with [ArcGIS] Engine. If I start up Visual Studio and go to New Project...

12:39...you'll see that there's...you can start from scratch, but there's a bunch of templates here.

12:42I can create an [ArcGIS] Engine application, [ArcGIS] Desktop. I can create 3D applications with [Arc]Globe and [Arc]Scene.

12:47But we have this one template here called Map Control Application that's a pretty neat one to start with.

12:57It's a popular one to start with because if you go to the... Like I said, all of the references are already there.

13:05All of the...all of the licensing, all the...the binding, the wiring under the hood is all there...

13:10...and you're starting with a form that has a map control, a table of contents, and a toolbar control.

13:15Right here at design time, I can add and remove buttons and tools from this toolbar.

13:20There are hundreds to choose from on the menus and toolbars that you can just drag and drop.

13:24This stuff...these tools are already coded; you don't have to write any code on that.

13:30And the licensing control allows you at design time to specify which licenses and which order the application...

13:39...when it starts up is going to try to discover and use them; that also goes for extensions.

13:46And then finally, what I can do, is back in ArcMap, I created this map document that had some local data...

13:53...and also some...some data from ArcGIS Online.

13:58I'm going to open that MXD that I created in [ArcGIS] Desktop and put that into [ArcGIS] Engine. Okay?

14:07And rather than compile, you know, just for sake of time, I'm going to go ahead and just build that solution.

14:14This is about as "hello, world" and vanilla as it gets, but we all have to start somewhere.

14:21Alright. So I'm going to start that up in Runtime, and you're going to see what's going to end up on my screen...

14:25...is my [ArcGIS] Engine application that I created with Visual Studio.

14:31This can be deployed on any machine that has a supported Windows development environment.

14:35Doesn't have to have any Esri products; doesn't have to have ArcGIS Desktop or anything else.

14:40This is your application that you've embedded our components with, and you deploy that through ArcGIS...

14:47No. ...through Visual Studio. Okay?

14:57Okay. For ArcGIS Engine, this isn't for add-ins but just for creating stand-alone applications.

15:04There's...I believe there's a session right here today in this room for .NET, and...and then there's sessions for Java also.

15:13So check the agenda if you want to learn more about creating stand-alone applications.

15:19We also have a bunch of demo theater sessions in the Desktop Developer Island.

15:24There's some What's New at 10 if you've been using 9.x before. There's sessions on how to actually...

15:30...tips and tricks for deploying your application and making sure that all the dependencies are there in...in the...in the app.

15:36We have a really neat session on geoprocessing using ArcGIS Engine and...and also migrating your applications.

15:45Alright. The third desktop option is ArcGIS Explorer.

15:49This is a very lightweight map viewer...

15:51...that can take advantage of some more advanced GIS functionality by tapping into map services.

15:59One of the advantages of [ArcGIS] Explorer is the application is free, the developer SDK is free, and deployment is free.

16:05And as long as you have the map data local or you can get to ArcGIS Online or some ArcGIS services, that stuff's free also.

16:13So if you just need a, you know, basic map viewer that has some neat functionality into it, that's...

16:19...you know, ArcGIS Explorer may be a good option for you.

16:22There are two options for developers with ArcGIS Explorer.

16:26For end users, they just download it, install it, and use it. That's it.

16:29But for developers, you have two options. You have application configuration, which doesn't require any code...

16:35...and then you also have the ArcGIS Explorer SDK that you can download and use in Visual Studio.

16:41And like add-ins, these are portable files. These...these add-ins for ArcGIS Explorer are very easy to deploy.

16:47They're just a single file that you bring into ArcGIS Explorer; you can e-mail it to somebody; you can...

16:54...and...and they can just...they can just go ahead and use it.

16:58This is the Application Configuration Manager. It's an applica...it's a utility that gets installed when you install...

17:04...[ArcGIS] Explorer, and this allows you to real...

17:12I'm sure some of you have built applications where the requirement is this application's going to be used by these people...

17:18...and they need to do these four things and nothing else with no training whatsoever.

17:23This is a really good option.

17:24You can make the interface look exactly the way you want, and then you can go from there.

17:29You can also change the splash screen. So take "ArcGIS Explorer" off there, put your splash screen on there.

17:35Take the...you know, put your own little logo in the corner of the map itself.

17:40So this application really does become yours.

17:42Integrate your help, integrate your About splash screen.

17:48SDK is very well documented; there's conceptual doc, also detailed developer doc.

17:54Much like I showed you with [ArcGIS] Engine, when you open up Visual Studio, there are templates for ArcGIS Explorer as well.

18:01You can create what kind of add-in. You can create a single button add-in that does a specific thing...

18:06...an extension add-in, a dockable window or a...or a gallery. Okay?

18:13You don't just have to create these yourselves. There are developers that are creating add-ins all the time...

18:19...and they're loading them up onto our Resource Center, and you can...

18:24You know, so before you take the time to develop an application or an add-in, probably not a bad idea to go to the Resource Center...

18:35...and see if there's something already there that does either exactly what you want it to do...

18:41...or at least something that gets you a couple steps along the way...

18:44...that has some source code that you can modify and move from there.

18:46Save you a lot of development time.

18:48For example, there's one here I wanted to buffer a point and create a circle out of it.

18:54I found out that there was some code out there already. And let me see here.

19:09And so I downloaded that...that add-in, and the...

19:16Not only did that download come with the .eaz file that I can just use as the add-in, and the end user can use that as an add-in...

19:23...but whoever developed this was nice enough to also give me the Visual Studio project that has all the source code in it.

19:35So if I go into ArcGIS Explorer, and go into ArcGIS Explorer Options, there's a place for me to manage my add-ins.

19:45And what I did is I downloaded that from the Resource Center and threw that right into here.

19:52And then that new buffer point shows up on my tool...on my toolbar.

19:58I can say, hey, I want to create a buffer point by 10 miles, click that by one of these red dots, buffer that point.

20:09How am I creating the buffer?

20:11This is kind of neat too is that I'm not...

20:13...I didn't actually write any code in Visual Studio that did the geometry that buffered the point...

20:18...because from the [ArcGIS] Explorer SDK, you can actually call out to an ArcGIS Server map service or functional service...

20:26...in this case, I'm calling a geometry service...

20:29...that's handing over a point for the radius, and the geometry service is returning that shape back.

20:33So I didn't even have to code that.

20:35Now if I zoom in...Andy, can you see that? The circle?

20:41The circle? No.

20:42Yeah, a little tough to see. Can anybody see it? Yeah. Oh, there you can. Okay. But...

20:47Okay. So I don't like that, but in the source code, I can see that...I can find out where that is happening and...

21:00I found it in here before. Yeah, it's in here before where it has the...the size and the color...

21:07...and I can actually change it from red and 1 to yellow and 5 or whatever.

21:11So I can...I can take this buffer point and enhance it any way I want and then just create a new .eaz file and then move from there.

21:18So that...that saved me a lot of development time also.

21:21So much in the same way that the best line of code is the code... the one you don't write, the...the...the...

21:27An almost best line of code is the code that somebody else wrote, as long as you check it out.

21:34Alright. There I'm managing my add-ins, there's the SDK help.

21:40Also, on ArcGIS.com, you'll find a lot of add-ins through ArcGIS Online.

21:45You can create groups and collaborate on these things and give access to the world...

21:49...or just give access to these things to people in your own group or in your own organization.

21:54You can share not only these tools but maps and applications as well. You saw that a little bit yesterday, so I won't go into that...

22:00...too much, but also...let me see here.

22:05[Inaudible audience question]

22:14You have to write a separate add-in. They're using different SDs...different SDKs.

22:17The question is, Can you write an add-in that works both in [ArcGIS] Desktop and in [ArcGIS] Explorer?

22:27Let me see; what was I going to do? Oh, yeah. Let me go to blogs. Okay. And if I go to ArcGIS Explorer blog...

22:37If you go to the ArcGIS Explorer blog, they actually wrote a blog post that details all of the ArcGIS Explorer sessions for users...

22:44...but also for developers that are going to be here this week.

22:47So take a look at that.

22:48And if you're interested in ArcGIS Explorer as a free option for deploying GIS throughout your organization, go for it.

22:56Alright. The next is geoprocessing.

22:59Geoprocessing, of course, is...goes...takes map visualization and goes even further.

23:04It really is the place to interrogate your data, to create new data, to manage your data.

23:08This...geoprocessing is really what gives GIS its muscle.

23:14And at...at version 9, now at 10 also, we've included Python scripting, so there's a Python interactive window.

23:22In this case, here's a video from the Resource Center that...

23:28Here's a video from the Resource Center where Liz Flanary from the geoprocessing team talks you...

23:34...talks you through an introduction to the Python interactive window and shows how you can use it to actually drive ArcMap.

23:41You can use it to do some more advanced interrogation. She's writing some Python code to do a selection on the map.

23:49And there's...there's a set of those out there, and there's also some other help on...on the Resource Center as well.

23:54And not only do you have that interactive window, but you can save your scripts as .py files, or as Python files...

24:00...and attach those files to tools on the toolbar.

24:02So much in the same way I said you can use an add...you can build an add-in with Visual Studio and put it on the toolbar...

24:08...you can also write Python scripts and put...and make those tools in your toolbox as well.

24:15Geodatabase is a deep and complex topic...

24:18...but for developers, it's very important to know that there are a lot of options for you.

24:22A lot of the applications you're going to build aren't just to do geoprocessing and visualization...

24:26...but also give your users the ability to edit data, to add data, to create new datasets.

24:34There's really no way for me to skim this other than to say if you haven't used the geodatabase before...

24:39...there's a part 1 and a part 2 for essentials and then there is a... I highly recommend this one.

24:47At our Developer Summit in March, there was a preconference seminar, three-hour preconference seminar...

24:53...that was basically a programmer's guide, a developer's guide to the geodatabase.

24:58It's three hours long; it's made by the members of the...the geodatabase development team, and I highly recommend that.

25:05That'll...that'll...that's the best way to kind of kick-start you off there.

25:10So that's basically all the stuff that as I skim the surface that we have on the [ArcGIS] Desktop side.

25:16I want to turn it over to Andy now. He can talk about [ArcGIS] Server and Client Server, mobile and...and Web applications.

25:22And then I'll take it back on the end and talk about developer resources. Andy?

25:35There we go. Can you guys hear me okay? I see a hand way back there. Is it a quick question?

25:42Otherwise, I'll ask you to wait till the end.

25:44[Inaudible audience question]

25:47Oh, sure. Certainly. The question was, Can we go to the Web site or write it down. Another quick question?

25:53[Inaudible audience question]

26:02The question was related to the times for the Geodatabase Essentials. Part 1?

26:07[Inaudible audience question]

26:12Okay. Yeah, there could be. The question is, there may be a discrepancy between the times that I'm giving...

26:18I was going off of the online schedule. You're looking at the printed one? Okay. Yeah.

26:23If...I would...I would say go off... Double-check with the online schedule, 'cause if there's last-minute changes...

26:32...they're going to be visible more in the online schedule than on the...on the...

26:35Well, of course they're not going to be able to be changed on the printed materials, but...

26:39But I...I would suggest you double-check these times and then check the room and...and make sure that'll be there...

26:43...to make sure you get to the session that you want to be at.

26:47And which...Which Web site were you looking for? This, the video one?

26:52[Audience participation] Yes.

26:53Okay. Yeah, I made a short URL out of that 'cause the URL was really, really long.

26:57So it's...it's esriurl.com, which is our in-house shortener, and then it's just slash devgdb, developer geodatabase.

27:09But if...if...if you misplace that URL, if you just go to the Resource Center and Geodatabase, and go into the video section...

27:16...you'll probably find it in there. It's in there somewhere so...

27:19[Inaudible audience question]

27:28The answer to that is yes. You can watch it, the video, in the embedded player as an FLV...

27:35...but every one of these videos has a...has a big orange download button on the bottom.

27:38You can download a WMV local and watch it local on your local machine later. Good question. Thanks for pointing that out.

27:46Andy?

27:49Arc...I'm going to talk about ArcGIS Server. And it really is an end-to-end system.

27:55I'm going to give you an overview and a hundred thousand foot level of the architecture from a developer perspective.

28:01And I'm going to look at some of the GIS services and the APIs that you can consume these services through...

28:07...and I'm going to just liberally sprinkle some demos in there to keep your interest.

28:13One of the really important things about ArcGIS Server is to remember just how many clients ArcGIS Server can work with.

28:20Jim was talking about [ArcGIS] Desktop; that's a client of ArcGIS Server. ArcGIS Explorer is also a client.

28:26And just about any Web-enabled client that you can think of, if it can talk Internet protocols, it can work with ArcGIS Server.

28:36So just to get your brain cells going here, I'm going to jump into just a few demos that I'm going to show you...

28:42...and then I'm going to tie that back into the presentation. You may have seen some of these demos earlier, maybe not.

28:49First demo that I wanted to show you. This is a USGS natural hazards events map.

28:55It was built with the ArcGIS JavaScript API.

28:58Mainly I just wanted to show you that there's lots of different layers that you can...that you can turn off and turn on in this application.

29:05It's the power of the API that's letting you build these applications very quickly.

29:11The next application is an application that was built with our Silverlight API...

29:16...and this application ties in a whole bunch of different types of geoservices.

29:19We have Flickr, we have geoprocessing here, we have Twitter and weather...

29:25...and all sorts of other processes that are going on into the background.

29:30This is using the Visual Studio 2010 templates that are available with the ArcGIS Silverlight API SDK download.

29:39Again, I'm just trying to give you a flavor of some of the types of things that you can do.

29:42This is built with the Flex Viewer; very beautifully done cartographically.

29:47It's pulling... The...the arrows that you can see on...there on the bottom, this is a map of the Gulf Coast.

29:53And that's just live data that's dynamically being pulled in for the...the water flows in the Gulf of Mexico.

30:09So what's behind the scenes here?

30:11There's really four things that you need to know as a developer when you're building against ArcGIS Server.

30:16As Jim was talking about, you have your data, which is stored in a geodatabase for ArcGIS Server.

30:23That data is published in ArcGIS Server as GIS services...

30:28...and then some of my examples, the most common one you're going to see is mapping services.

30:32I mentioned geoprocessing services.

30:36The way that you're consuming those in your applications is through a variety of Web services such as REST and SOAP...

30:43...and using various protocols such as JSON or XML.

30:47We've made your job easier; you don't have to deal with the raw, low-level APIs if you don't want to.

30:53And we do have REST APIs and we do have SOAP APIs.

30:56You can build against these using these coarser-grained, abstracted APIs such as mobile, JavaScript, Flex, and so on.

31:04And I'll go into those in just a little bit more detail in just a minute.

31:11I mentioned GIS services.

31:15Just about any requirement that you can have that's going to come across your desk as a developer...

31:20...there's probably a GIS service that has already been built that can do that for you.

31:25It stands to reason that there's many of them out there.

31:28If you think there's a requirement on your desk, and you're not sure...

31:31...you can always go to the Resource Centers and look.

31:34This is just a sampling of what's available to you.

31:37I mentioned geoprocessing; there's KML-based services, OGC services; and many more.

31:44When you look at the PowerPoint presentation, I...

31:47I've included the link here so you can go to that. And if you need the link later, I can certainly give it to you.

31:52It's esriurl.com/services, and it gives you the highlights of all the services that are available with ArcGIS Server.

32:01So what is a GIS service? It's very simple.

32:04A GIS service is going to let you publish that data so that people can display, edit, or manipulate it.

32:14It...GIS services almost always have some sort of an endpoint that you're going to be able to access it from any one of our APIs.

32:22And that's really all there is to a GIS service.

32:29Show you real quickly what it looks like.

32:35This is a GIS services... This is a services endpoint, and what we're looking at here is the ArcGIS Services Directory.

32:42For any service that you publish, almost always, if you're using the default settings on ArcGIS Server...

32:49...you can go to ArcGIS/REST/services, and in that directory, you'll see if your service was published successfully...

32:57...and you'll have a description of that service.

33:03Looking pretty good so far, right?

33:09The next logical progression. Okay, we talked about our data, we have our GIS services, maybe we have...

33:16...we're wondering how do I get this information into my application.

33:19Well, I mentioned the Web services.

33:22And we have four primary ways that you can get your information into your applications.

33:27We have REST, which is a URL-based API; it looks like just the URL in your browser.

33:34We have SOAP, which used to stand for Simple Object Access Protocol.

33:39In comparison to REST, which can be JSON or XML or a number of other different formats...

33:45...the nice thing about SOAP is, it's pretty much protocol agnostic...

33:50...which is really good for enterprise deployments if you have to traverse through supertight firewalls or proxies.

33:57There's lots of challenges if you're doing that with REST and HTTP; SOAP might help you out a little bit there.

34:03OGC. We have interfaces for WMS, WFS, and WCS.

34:09Don't really have to know what those are right now...

34:11...but those are protocols that are standardized for the Open Geospatial Consortium...

34:15...where you can get your data into the application.

34:19And lastly, AMF. AMF is Action Message Format. It's a bimary...binary format that works with our Flex API.

34:28What it does is it lets you talk from the Flex client to a back-end server such as LiveCycle Data Services or BlazeDS.

34:37And if you don't know what those are, those are just back-end storage products that allow you to store information in Adobe Flex.

34:49Let's look a little bit at the REST API.

34:52The REST API, you saw a lot of Web demos during the plenary. The REST API, as you're going forward, if you're doing...

34:58...especially if you're doing rapid application prototyping, it's going to be your friend.

35:03I do want to stress that you need to understand the workflow on how this information becomes the REST API.

35:11And this is just a high-level abstraction, and I'm going to show you a real quick demo at the very end on how this works.

35:17So you're going to publish your layer file, your MSD or your MXD, to ArcGIS Server.

35:23That information's going to be stored in the database.

35:26You're going to grab that REST endpoint from your Web server and integrate it into your application.

35:34I guarantee you that there's going to be some point when you're developing and you're going to build your sample application...

35:40...and you're going to say, hey, I thought I did everything correctly, but the map's not showing up.

35:44Or...or a layer's not showing up properly, or my symbology isn't correct.

35:49Understanding this workflow at a very high level is going to be key to you solving those problems.

35:59Alright. So I showed you a service endpoint.

36:04Now what we're going to do is we're just going to do a...I'm just...

36:07At the very bottom, you'll see supported operations of your REST endpoint...

36:12... and if our Internet connection cooperates, which it's not...

36:17What you can do is you can click on this...this link.

36:22And if that link works, it'll give you a REST-based URL that shows you a command that launched.

36:30And if you get an image back, you know that your REST endpoint is working...

36:34...or, in this case, your Internet connection is...is working or not.

36:44That's the challenge of doing these demos when everybody else is using the Internet pipe.

36:49Web APIs. We actually have, there's four Web APIs. JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight.

36:58There's also a JavaScript Compact API that's perfect for mobile deployments.

37:03It's...it's a much smaller footprint, so when that...

37:06...that...the library comes across the Internet, it's much smaller than the normal one that you're using for Web applications.

37:13Lot of people ask us, well, which one do I pick? There's lots to choose from.

37:17Depends on what your skill sets are for your organization.

37:21If you're an HTML/HTTP/JavaScript organization, then obviously, my suggestion is that you migrate to the JavaScript API.

37:30If you're a Java shop, you're probably going to be looking at Adobe Flex because it's built on top of Java.

37:35And if you're a .NET shop, you're most likely going to be comfortable with the patterns and workflows of a .NET environment...

37:42...for Microsoft Silverlight or WPF.

37:46So I'm just going to take you through a very quick tour of what some of these features mean.

37:54The easiest place to start if you're looking for a quick place to jump-start and get a flavor for how these APIs work...

38:01...I strongly recommend the JavaScript API...

38:03...'cause it has a much lower barrier for entry in terms of getting these applications started.

38:08One of the newest features in ArcGIS 10, which is pretty cool, is feature layers which...feature layers.

38:18Feature layers. The nice thing about feature layers from a...from a developer perspective, you have a very, very compact syntax...

38:26...so that the pattern that you're using to draw stuff on the map is very simple.

38:31So this one line of code here where it says "feature layer" and you have out field...

38:38I'm just specifying draw me everything. ...is very simple.

38:42So what we have is a cached basemap as imagery...

38:45...but what I wanted to show you is that one line of code is letting you draw this hydro...

38:51...hydrography operational graphic layer. I can't speak this morning.

38:56But primarily the key takeaway is a very compact syntax.

39:00There's also samples that you can copy directly into your browser and launch or load right on your local IIS machine.

39:08The next thing I'm going to show you is time.

39:11Time is a...is very cool because in addition to the geographic information that you're plugging into your system...

39:17...you can also add time-based elements.

39:23So you can see here, we have some time sliders.

39:25All of the APIs have standardized tools where you can just drop a time slider into your application...

39:31...very easily and plug this temporal data into your applications.

39:38Pretty cool so far, right?

39:42Last but not least, editing.

39:49You now have the power of editing built directly into your Web client applications.

39:54So I can change shapes, add shapes, points, lines, and polygons, directly into my Web applications.

40:02This gives you a very powerful example for any analyst that you're building applications for...

40:10...for manipulating data in ways that you couldn't possibly do it before.

40:13And all this stuff is built into the Web APIs, and all these samples are available in the resource centers.

40:27I just touched on a...three of the key capabilities, but there's much, much more...

40:32...and I highly encourage you to go to the resource centers and check out a lot of the functionality that's there...

40:38...especially the object model.

40:40Geoprocessing, time awareness; I mentioned those. Geometries, graphic layers, symbology.

40:47The purpose of these Web APIs is it's saving you a tremendous amount of time...

40:51...in the cycles that you're going to have to go through to build your applications.

40:55The applications that we can build today in hours or days used to take weeks or months with the tools that we have in the...

41:02These advancements have really, really made our job so much easier.

41:07Just a very quick dive into what's going on behind the scenes.

41:11When you saw these applications, from a programmatic standpoint, just keep in mind that what the API is helping you do...

41:18...is logically order the information that you're visualizing.

41:23The base layer, which is going to set the extents for everything on top of it, such as the operational layers...

41:28...in this case is a tax parcel application where I have imagery as the base layer, so that's setting my projection and my extent.

41:37On top of that, I have the operational layer that's pulling in the polygons and metadata for tax parcels.

41:43If I wanted to, it's very easy to extend that API to pull in any other information into the operational layer that I might want.

41:51All these languages, whether it's JavaScript, Flex, or .NET, is just extending that native language.

41:57So if you already know the patterns and workflows for those languages...

42:00...it's very easy for you to plug that information into the mapping application.

42:08Okay, maybe you're saying, oh, that's great, but I...I really want to get a quick start on these applications.

42:15We have the answer just for you.

42:16We have a number of out-of-the-box solutions can get you quick started, especially if your stakeholders are saying...

42:22...hey, I want to see something today, or I want to see something at the end of the week.

42:26We have a viewer for Flex; you may have seen it demoed in the plenary.

42:30We've had over 26,000 downloads of this...this product.

42:34You can also look at all these...source for the application is open and you can do whatever you want with it.

42:40It's a dependency injection model that comes with prebuilt widgets.

42:44Basically, this is just a great way to get kick-started.

42:48We also have Visual Studio 2010 Silverlight templates that I mentioned earlier with the Live on Everest application.

42:54That comes with the SDK when you install it in Visual Studio 2010.

42:59It won't install in Visio...Visual Studio 2008. I already tried, so you don't need to bother trying it.

43:05We also have quick starts for mapping with SharePoint, if you're doing SharePoint development.

43:13Switching gears just a little bit to the mobile SDKs, we do have three different mobile offerings.

43:21The ArcGIS Mobile SDK in particular is a Microsoft .NET deployment.

43:26It's developed specially for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft CE.

43:33That smaller format for these...for the Windows Mobile phone necessitates a different type of development pattern.

43:42Mobile is a client of ArcGIS Server, and although it has a smaller subset than what's available on the Web APIs...

43:50...it has a very comprehensive SDK in itself.

43:54One thing to keep in mind, if you're...if you think you're going to be doing mobile development...

43:58...is when you publish your service, and I'll show you a demo of that in just a minute...

44:03...make sure that you check Mobile Data Service.

44:06One important differentiation is this particular SDK is SOAP based...

44:11...but remember I told you that there's some advantages to SOAP.

44:13Even though it's XML based, it's protocol agnostic...

44:17...so it's much better for enterprise deployments where you're traversing firewalls and proxies.

44:23The other thing to remember about the ArcGIS Mobile SDK is that there is a local database...

44:29...so that this is good for both connected and disconnected deployments.

44:35An example of a disconnected deployment is if the person with that particular device is in an area where there's no cell phone coverage.

44:42We also have ArcGIS for iPhone; brand-new offering, very exciting.

44:47You can look at this, you can search for ArcGIS for iOS on iTunes, and you...it's also available on the App Store.

44:57Couple of developer things to remember about iOS and our API.

45:02It is REST based, so it's different than the [ArcGIS] Mobile SDK, which was SOAP based.

45:07It is native Objective-C, so if you're used to higher-level programming languages such as our Web APIs...

45:13...this may take you back to the old days where you're doing garbage collection and pointers...

45:18...and those types of things that you may or may not have forgotten about.

45:21Last but not least, if you're planning on doing this on Windows and you have a...a Windows laptop...

45:26...you do need a Mac in order to develop with that API.

45:33Last but not least, ArcPad is our oldest mobile...mobile offering.

45:39It is perfect and designed for disconnected usage where there is no Internet connection.

45:45It's based on the Windows Mobile platform and it's .NET, and the way that you configure it is through XML.

45:52There's a number of ArcPad offerings if you're interested in developing with ArcPad.

45:56There's an introductory session if you just want to get an idea of what it does...

46:00...and if you're a developer looking at customizing it, there's sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

46:10So for my grand finale, what I'm going to show you is from A to Z, very quickly...

46:15...what I mean by publishing this information to ArcGIS Server and then consuming it in a Web app.

46:22So what I did is...find where I am here.

46:29I went to ArcGIS.com and I searched for world physical map, and on World Physical Map...

46:36I know it's very hard to see, but right here, there's an MXD.

46:39And I'm not actually going to do this because the Internet connection here is a little bit flaky.

46:43What I did is I double-clicked on that MXD and it opened up in [ArcGIS] Desktop.

46:49Now that I have it in [ArcGIS] Desktop, and you can see here I have my map; got a map, see it right here.

46:56What I did is I saved it to [ArcGIS] Desktop and then I'm going to go ahead and open Catalog.

47:01Catalog lets me manage my ArcGIS Server very easily. And you can see here that I save...see right here.

47:11That I save right there.

47:14I save this map to [ArcGIS] Desktop, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to right-click and I'm going to say...

47:19...okay, let's publish that to ArcGIS Server.

47:22Now I'm dramatically speeding this up; I've already made sure that [ArcGIS] Server's on my system and I'm connected to it.

47:28What I would do is I would just go ahead and say Yes. Let's go ahead and publish that.

47:33And if it works, what's going to happen is down here, it's going to show up in Catalog...

47:39...and I'm going to go OK. I'm almost there; I think this was successful.

47:45Now remember when I said you've got these REST endpoints.

47:50The first thing you're going to do once you've published this...this service, and I'm publishing a map service.

47:56Remember our GIS services? I'm going to go to <my local host> ArcGIS/REST/services.

48:03Sure enough, it's there, but I'm not done yet.

48:06What I really want to do, if it's going to cooperate, and it worked this time... Yea, it worked!

48:12See along the top of the address bar there?

48:15This is my REST...my raw REST-based command, and it worked, because I got an image.

48:20I know that I'm almost done.

48:23So what I do is I can take this URL for the endpoint, that one right there in the address bar...

48:31...and what I'm going to do is I'm going to grab a...I grabbed a very, very simple JavaScript API sample...

48:38...and I plugged my endpoint into it.

48:41So you can see here that I've highlighted.

48:44There's my endpoint; I've specified it as a dynamic service layer, and then I ran it and it worked.

48:51So voilà! There you have it from A to Z; that's what you're going to do when you're developing these applications...

48:57...you're going to publish them in [ArcGIS] Desktop, you're going to consume them in your applications.

49:02So Jim. I'm going to pass it back to you.

49:06Thanks, Andy. One, two...can you hear me? Okay. Alright, let's go back.

49:17Alright. So that's...that's one of the neat things to point out is with these developer options, one of the things Andy said was...

49:25Like I said, you can use these SDKs and APIs and code them from scratch...

49:30...or you can use templates or applications that we provide to kind of give you a kick-start.

49:34The Web APIs are the same way. I mean, the APIs are there; you can use them any way you want technically.

49:41But we also have these sample viewers that you can use as proof of concept.

49:46So that gives you the ability to spin something up real fast that your users can use...

49:50...while at the same time you're designing and building something that you really want to end up at.

49:55So you can kind of take a...a phased approach.

49:58Also while Andy was talking, I double-checked. Thanks for that. I think I transcribed them...them improperly.

50:04The Geodatabase Essentials part 1, like I said, is now, but the next offering is on Friday.

50:10And then the part 2 of the essentials is on Thursday in room 3.

50:15Okay. So those are the products; those are the technologies. What about the resources?

50:20How do...what is available to help me be successful?

50:24Well, first, when in doubt of where to start, start at resources.arcgis.com. This...

50:31We have lots of documentation and lots of samples and lots of tutorials.

50:35This site is designed to give you a focused, filtered view into certain areas of our resource system...

50:43...so that you don't have to hunt and peck around to find things.

50:47Okay. So let me give you a quick tour real quick of the resource center.

50:54You have, you know, quick links to the blogs and to the forums; you have quick links to get to Tech Support.

51:00But then we have these resource centers that are divided by products, functions, industry-based communities, and solution products.

51:07Let's go into, let's just say, geoprocessing.

51:10All of the resource centers are designed similarly...

51:13...in that you have kind of an introduction that you'll read maybe once and then that's it.

51:18But the key here is the left nav...menu links on the left-hand side.

51:22I can give a quick filtered view right into the help system that drills right into geoprocessing.

51:30What is geoprocessing, the conceptual stuff, the technical stuff, the developer stuff.

51:34I can click on the blog to go, instead of to our set of blogs, directly to the geoprocessing blog.

51:40This is stood up and maintained by our geoprocessing development team.

51:44This is their podium to talk to you and with you about things that are new.

51:49So I would suggest...subscribing to that...

51:52...or subscribing to the blog of your choice from the team of your choice that best fits what you're doing.

51:59We have about 60 discussion forums, but if I'm in geoprocessing and I click Forums, it's pretty simple.

52:04It drills right into the geoprocessing forum.

52:07I can ask questions of my choice and talk directly with other users around the world and also the development team.

52:15There's a sharing gallery. If you create script tools and models, if you create applications and add-ins...

52:21...if you create templates, if you want you can share them here with other users or you can...

52:26...more importantly, search here to see if something already exists close to what you need, as I mentioned before.

52:33The videos I mentioned before. We also have a new site called an Ideas site.

52:38This is a place where you can give us your ideas and let the rest of the user community comment on them...

52:45...discuss them, vote on them. And...and as you can see, you can add an idea, but then when you log in...

52:53...you can also demote and promote, giving or taking away points, if you think that this is something that...that should be prioritized.

53:00Esri staff and particularly product management read this stuff all the time, and they're seeing what the community really wants.

53:09And this way, we can reply...

53:10...we can respond with our technologies to what most people need rather than to what the loudest people want.

53:18So, you know, we want to make sure we prioritize our work to stuff that's going to have the...be most beneficial.

53:24And next to each title, a lot of times you'll also see an icon that says Under Consideration or Implemented...

53:32...and these are ideas that we're already working on or...

53:35...or ideas that have already been built and put into the product since that idea came to us.

53:40So it's not just a vent area where you can scream into a box; okay, thank you very much.

53:44No, I mean, we're actually using these ideas to make ArcGIS better.

53:52And there you go on that. Let me see.

53:56Okay. Then we have ArcGIS.com. Particularly right now for developers...

54:01This is particularly important for mobile applications and Web applications.

54:06...are...is...is...you can share and search and find them through ArcGIS Online here.

54:12If I go to the gallery, as a developer, I can find maps that I can put into my applications.

54:18You don't have to have your own map data. You can put your map data on top.

54:22These can be basemaps or sharable, collaborative maps that you're doing with your organization or with the world.

54:29If you click on Web Apps, you can filter them by highest rated, most recent.

54:33You can also filter them by the language, are you doing Flex, Silverlight, or...or JavaScript...

54:38...and you can use those applications, and some of them have source code with them also.

54:50One second. We jumped ahead here.

55:03Okay. So there's the Resource Center, there's ArcGIS Online through ArcGIS.com.

55:11How do you get your hands on the software?

55:13Well, you don't need to buy the big production licenses of ArcGIS Server or ArcGIS Desktop.

55:19We have a product just for you developers. EDN.

55:22Anyone in this room an EDN subscriber right now? Okay, some of you.

55:26It's a subscription model where we give you basically all of the ArcGIS stack.

55:33[ArcGIS] Desktop is an optional add-on, but that's discounted as well.

55:35For a very, very low price, it's...it's just a few percentage points over the production...I'm not selling or marketing.

55:41But if you're a developer, this is a...this is developer licenses over our entire stack that you can use...

55:48...to play with, to prototype, to design, to...to build, to test, and you're doing all of this with very inexpensive developer licenses.

55:57And in essence what you're doing really is you're deferring your production license costs until you're actually ready to deploy.

56:04And after you're deploying, you as the developer are also still not using and eating production licenses.

56:11You have your own software, you have your own license, you can put...you yourself, it's linked to you.

56:16You can put it on as many machines as you want that you use, and it's...it's...it's...

56:21If you're doing development work with...with Esri technology, this is a great subscription model.

56:27There's the edn.esri.com gives you quick links to social media, to...quick links to manage your subscription, quick links to the team.

56:37We at Esri are also trying to...constantly improving the ways that we train you.

56:41If you go to the training Web site, you'll find a lot of courses that you can take, and our focus lately has been on...

56:50...more options for organizations and folks that have limited budgets for training and for travel.

56:57We have more options that are inexpensive. We have more options where you don't have to travel at all.

57:02We're doing more with Web-based training, with online training, also live training seminars.

57:07Here's one that Rob Burke did. It's a free, one-hour live webcast training seminar on the ArcGIS Explorer SDK.

57:18He went...goes through it for an hour and not only is it live webcast, it's recorded. If you missed it you can watch it later.

57:25But if you're there when it's happening live, there's also a live text interactive Q&A with Rob...

57:31...and whoever else at Esri is in the room at the same time.

57:34So, you know, he's going through the training and you're just watching it from your desk through your browser.

57:41If you're at the end of your rope with all of the self-help tools, you can also just go to support.esri.com...

57:48...and we'll attach you to our Tech Support.

57:52Now we have an area of our Tech Support called the SDK unit.

57:56These are developers; these aren't the "click the Identify tool" type of tech support people.

58:02These are developers, these are C++ programmers, Java developers that...

58:06...that spend at least half their time developing applications...

58:09...and the other half of the time assigned to you to help you with your issues.

58:15Forums are good because you get the view of the community, but going to Support is really good...

58:20...because then you're guaranteed to be assigned to someone, and this is recorded and accountable...

58:25...and they have to stick with you until there's some type of resolution that...that...that we can find.

58:30You know, whatever best resolution we can come up with.

58:33So it's a very accountable system where you're working one-on-one with a developer and when...

58:37...and that's a part of your maintenance with Esri software.

58:41If you want us to do more of the work for you, we have Professional Services.

58:46We work on a time and materials basis or on a specific deliverables basis where you can bring in...

58:53...consultants in for design, for architecture, or even just for coding. "I need you to code this module."

58:58"I want a programmer for a week that can help us through some specific issues."

59:04You don't just have to use Esri for that. We have a global network of a few thousand partners around the world.

59:12And if you go to the Partners site, you can find an...an Esri partner near you who may be able to...

59:17...who you may be able to contract with for some specific services or training.

59:23How many of you have been to the DevSummit conference in Palm Springs? One, two, three, four...

59:30This is the premier Esri and geospatial developers conference. It's a few days long and this is deep dive on everything.

59:40This is not for beginners or the faint of heart...

59:43...although we do have some preconference seminars that help experienced developers that are new to GIS get on board.

59:50But this is the place to go to really be a...it's a real productivity event.

59:54From meeting the engineers and developers, talking with them one-on-one and...

59:58...and taking a deep dive into all of this stuff that Andy and I are just kind of skimming the surface.

1:00:03This is every March, and it's in Palm Springs.

1:00:09At the DevSummit, we record all of the sessions.

1:00:12In fact, at the last DevSummit, we recorded over 100 technical sessions...

1:00:17...and we put them all for free up onto the Resource Center.

1:00:21So you can search for them, you can query for them, you can go in the Resource Center by topic and find them.

1:00:27And it's...it's...if you cannot get to Palm Springs in March, this is the second-best thing; you see all the same stuff.

1:00:35We have a brand-new event called the Dev Meet Up. We're holding these at specific selected cities around the U.S.

1:00:44We did our first one a few weeks ago in New York. We're going to be doing Baltimore, Philly, and D.C./northern Virginia soon.

1:00:51L.A. County, Orange County soon. I think Florida's coming up and...and Denver.

1:00:57And if...you know, if we get a few of those off the ground and the...and the community really likes those...

1:01:02...then we're going to start stretching out into Canada, into Europe, and...and...and we'll do what we can.

1:01:06This is an after-business-hours, three-hour event. Esri sponsors it, we do all the admin and logistics, but the content is yours.

1:01:17You...you select a...a presenter and you have a one-hour-long lightning session where you can get, you know...

1:01:23...8 or 10 or 12 people in there to do lightning sessions.

1:01:26There's a social before, a social after, gives you a real good chance to meet people in your area that are...

1:01:32...that you might not have known that are doing development work.

1:01:34Also, great community building event. And, the beer, you know, we pay for the beer and the food.

1:01:40So, I mean, come on. Come on out.

1:01:44So watch for that on the...on the Resource Center. We'll announce that as...as we take that road show to you.

1:01:51Social media. Great way for people to connect. I know it's kind of trendy, but there are some...

1:01:57...you can get some value out of it. We have an Esri Developer Network Facebook site.

1:02:01If you're not following #esriUC here at the conference, you really should. It's lots of great conversations...

1:02:08...#devsummit when that conference is going on.

1:02:11LinkedIn is a great way for geospatial developers to professionally connect with others...

1:02:16... build networks, build connections, get out there and connect with us.

1:02:20We also have a LinkedIn EDN site. You don't have to be an EDN subscriber.

1:02:25You can just use that to find and connect with other developers that are using the same tools you are.

1:02:32Hundreds of videos on YouTube; some of them are kind of behind the scenes.

1:02:36We'll just...you know, Andy and I just take our camera all around Esri and say...

1:02:40...Hey, talk to us right now about this tool that you're building.

1:02:43Or, What do you want people to know about printing at version 10?

1:02:47Or, How can I put printing in...into an Explore...an [ArcGIS] Engine application?

1:02:53So we do some tutorials, we do some meet the teams, and...and also presentations as well.

1:03:01We also have a developer blog, wiki.gis.com. We started this last year...no. We started it earlier this year.

1:03:10And we already have hundreds of contributors and thousands of pages and tens of thousands of views...

1:03:15...and our goal is not just Esri, but our goal is to build the world...the...the global repository of GIS knowledge.

1:03:24And at some point, this will be turned over to the community, but...but Esri is starting it.

1:03:30This one's not ours, but I really wanted to point it out, 'cause we're all pretty excited about this.

1:03:34Is Stack Exchange. Someone proposed a geographic information systems stack exchange.

1:03:42Has anyone used Stack Exchange or Stack Overflow? A place where you can ask questions; it's a good Q&A site.

1:03:47The community can vote on the answers, vote on which one's best.

1:03:50It's a great way to drill right into...to good questions and to good answers. I recommend that.

1:03:57This...this one's also not ours, but I wanted to point it out 'cause they're doing a lot of great work, is the GIS Forum.

1:04:03You can join that.

1:04:04They have forums and...and...and sharing sites you can connect with other developers that are doing what you're doing.

1:04:10And then there is the conference that you're at. I mean, this is a great resource. 01:04:14

1:04:16The developer track is...we got more than 70 sessions; look them up.

1:04:21We have product islands, meet the engineers, meet the developers.

1:04:24Andy and I are at the Desktop Developer Island. We have a demo theater. Tech Support Island for specifics.

1:04:30There's a lot of...lot of good stuff there. I want to show you one more thing, though, if I can.

1:04:36I just got an e-mail this morning from the geoprocessing team, and they wanted to make sure I pointed this out...

1:04:43...because it's not in the printed agenda.

1:04:46And because I talked about geoprocessing, I wanted to make sure I included this too.

1:04:50This is not in the printed agenda; it's today. It's in room 8 at one-thirty.

1:04:56And if you want to get started with Python scripting for map automation, this is the session to go to.

1:05:02It's also offered again on Friday, so I wanted to make sure I took a moment to...to point that out.

1:05:08And it appears that we've got...oh, right on time. We've got about 10 minutes for questions. Thank you for your attention.

1:05:17Yes, ma'am.

1:05:18[Inaudible audience question]

1:05:20It's...yeah, it's...it's not in the agenda for Friday either. Friday...okay, yeah. Let me put it like that so that you can see it.

1:05:27It's Tuesday at one-thirty and then Friday at nine. Thanks for having me scroll that. Yes, sir?

1:05:33[Inaudible audience question]

1:05:42Okay. Question is, Visual Studio 2008 version versus 2010...

1:05:48Second? Yeah, go ahead.

1:05:50...as it relates to ArcGIS 10. Okay.

1:05:57The question related to ArcGIS 10 in Visual Studio.

1:06:00It...it really depends on which one of our APIs you want to use.

1:06:05If you want to use ArcGIS 10 and the Silverlight API, you're going to be better off using Visual Studio 2010...

1:06:13...and all the features and functionalities that are enabled with it because that build was compiled to a newer version of .NET.

1:06:22.NET 4 for Visual Studio 2010.

1:06:25If you're currently using Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5...

1:06:30...then some of the features that are available with .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 may not be enabled when you install it.

1:06:39And that's primarily the thing to keep in mind is things may or may not work.

1:06:44The best...if you're going to the newer version, it's best to stick with what the dev team is recommending for that.

1:06:50And currently for ArcGIS 10 and .NET, they're recommending Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.

1:06:58[Inaudible audience question]

1:07:06Correct. The question was, Does Visual Studio 2008 just support VB .NET?

1:07:12No, it's C# also.

1:07:14Oh, yes, correct. Yeah.

1:07:17[Inaudible audience question]

1:07:21Oh, yeah. VB 6 to VB .NET. That...that was actually my transition too. I started in VB 5...VB 4, VB 5 way back.

1:07:30I...I would recommend the sooner you get the C#, the more flexibility you're going to have.

1:07:34But yeah, just for quick prototyping, you can use VB...you can use the VB part of it or...or C#.

1:07:40Most...a lot of the samples that we publish are in C#, but I think we have a lot of VB samples as well. Okay.

1:07:45[Inaudible audience question]

1:07:51Visual Studio, you can get the Express... The question was, Is Visual Studio a free download?

1:07:58[Inaudible audience question]

1:08:00Yeah. The...the Express is, but the Professional edition or the higher editions, you...you've got to buy those from Microsoft.

1:08:06[Inaudible audience question]

1:08:12Well, you're not going to be able to use VB 6 with ArcGIS 10.

1:08:16[Inaudible audience question]

1:08:21Will...will...oh, yeah. It will work, but you're not going to be able to develop new, okay, with...with 10. At...that...

1:08:29[Inaudible audience question]

1:08:38Okay. I...that's a good question. Let me...let me hit the...I've never used the Express to know what the limitations are.

1:08:47But you know, the next session that's in this room...

1:08:49...in fact, I think that the presenters are going to be coming up here in a couple minutes to set up.

1:08:53So after the session, why don't you come up and we'll ask them too, 'cause I don't have much experience with the Express edition.

1:08:59Okay, thanks. Any other questions?

1:09:03[Inaudible audience question]

1:09:11File geodatabase open API. I don't have an update on that, of when that's going to be available. Do you, Andy?

1:09:17Nope. I don't have an update either.

1:09:18I know it's something that they have been working on and still are working on.

1:09:23The question is about the Open File Geodatabase API.

1:09:26There's a lot of developers around the world that are very eager to get their hands on that...

1:09:31...because that allows you to read and write and create file geodatabases without...you know, just in...

1:09:40Well, I use the word open loosely. I'm not sure it's...if it fits everyone's definition of open, but you're...

1:09:46...the point is you're going to be able to read and write file geodatabases without any Esri technology...

1:09:51...without ArcGIS Desktop, with ArcGIS Server.

1:09:54And...and...and I think it's going to be a C API or maybe even with a dot...you know, a .NET API.

1:10:00But I don't have an update on that.

1:10:02But I would recommend that you get with either on the Geodatabase Island in the showcase area...

1:10:09...or go to one of the geodatabase sessions and...and...and ask those folks.

1:10:14I know they're working on it, but they may have an up-to-date, up-to-today update as to where they are on that. Good. Yes?

1:10:23[Inaudible audience question]

1:10:35Okay. Very good question. EDN subscription just gives you the...the software with the developer license.

1:10:46...the ArcGIS Explorer SDK, all of the Web mapping SDKs, the iPhone stuff.

1:10:52You don't need EDN for that. All that stuff is just available.

1:10:55If you have ArcGIS Desktop already or ArcGIS Server already...

1:11:00...they also come with all of the ArcObjects that you need without EDN also.

1:11:05So EDN is simply a way...it's...it's...

1:11:08EDN, the software and SDKs that come with EDN are really redundant to every one...everything else.

1:11:14And you're thinking, Well, if they're redundant, why?

1:11:16Well, because it's simply...it's...it's everything that's in our other products...

1:11:20...but it's just your kit for your development use in a very inexpensive way.

1:11:25[Inaudible audience question]

1:11:26Oh, the support with EDN, if you're an EDN subscriber, you're not automatically entitled to tech support.

1:11:33There's an add-on that you can purchase. I think it's $2,000 for 10 incidents, but those never expire.

1:11:42But on the other hand, if you're an organization that just has EDN, then that's...you may want that.

1:11:49But if you have EDN and you also have production licenses of Esri software, then you don't need the EDN support either...

1:11:56...'cause you already get support by having those production licenses.

1:12:00[Inaudible audience question]

1:12:02Yes. Okay, what's a production license? Let me give you a great example. ArcGIS Server.

1:12:08ArcGIS Server, you can buy a production license, and I don't have the pricing, but it's five figures somewhere.

1:12:14And you put that on a server or multiple servers with multiple core processes...

1:12:19...and you can actually serve functions and data in production to the world.

1:12:24That's a production license of ArcGIS Server.

1:12:27When you subscribe to EDN, you also get ArcGIS Server software; the same exact software.

1:12:34It's not hobbled in any way.

1:12:35It's the same stuff, but you're only licensed to use it on your development machine for development purposes.

1:12:42Yeah, you can't sell it to clients and you can't use it to serve stuff out to the world.

1:12:47It's really just a developer license versus a production license.

1:12:51So the software's exactly the same; it's just what you can do with it is different.

1:12:55So glad you brought that up, 'cause I was not clear about that. Thanks. Yes.

1:12:59[Inaudible audience question]

1:13:08Very good question. What do I do with add-ins?

1:13:10If you develop an add-in, and that add-in is going to be used by someone who has a desktop license...

1:13:17...then that...there's no deployment cost to that at all. That's... You develop for free and you distribute for free.

1:13:24That also goes for the ArcGIS Explorer add-ins.

1:13:27So really the only desktop model that I can think of that has any type of extra deployment cost is ArcGIS Engine.

1:13:38So you're using Visual Studio, you use [ArcGIS] Engine components, you compile a Visual Studio app into an EXE...

1:13:44...into a deployment package, for every machine you deploy that onto, there's a deployment fee that comes back to Esri.

1:13:50But that's really just [ArcGIS] Engine. Does not apply to [ArcGIS] Desktop, nor does it apply to [ArcGIS] Explorer.

1:13:55So great question. Thanks for bringing that up. Yes?

1:13:58[Inaudible audience question]

1:14:20Good question. She's using VBA with ArcGIS Desktop. How we doing on time?

1:14:26We got a few more minutes.

1:14:27Okay, good, 'cause that's a great question.

1:14:28She's been doing...you've been doing it for a while, right? Yeah. She's been doing VBA scripting.

1:14:33For those of you who remember, at version 8 and version 9, we had the VBA scripting environment...

1:14:37...actually it's in 10 also, which is getting to my answer. Yeah.

1:14:42Has the VBA Script Editor and you can create VBA scripts and macros and build tools using VBA right in [ArcGIS] Desktop.

1:14:49And that was a neat way to...to build customizations.

1:14:52At 10, VBA still exists, but it's a separate license for free. It's a separate download, and it's a separate install.

1:15:01We really kind of have to get off of VBA because Microsoft has left it in the dust a while ago.

1:15:08So if you're at 10 and you have VBA scripts, you can still use them.

1:15:12You just have to download, do the license separate, do the install separate; you're good to go.

1:15:17You want to build new scripts, that's fine. But the writing's been on the wall for a while of moving.

1:15:21Python is an option to do a lot of things, but it's not everything. It's great for geoprocessing...

1:15:26...great for map automation, but there are...there are some things which...too long to get into now.

1:15:32The answer for you...

1:15:35...probably my best recommendation would be to start spinning up on...on Visual Studio and develop add-ins.

1:15:44Because the...the API is very coarse grained.

1:15:49You don't have to get into the sea of a thousand classes and controls to do what you got to do.

1:15:54You could do maybe 80 percent of...of...of...of what you could do with ArcObjects you could do with add-ins.

1:16:00And the...and then, you know, compiling that as an Esri add-in and distributing that on a local...

1:16:06...on a network share on a local machine is very easy. It approaches the ease of VBA. Not quite, but...but there.

1:16:13So I think what you're going to see is kind of a fork in the road with VBA.

1:16:17Python is going to be able to take care of a lot of it...

1:16:19...and Py-...and the exposure of Python with what you can do is going to get better and better.

1:16:24But using Visual Studio with add-ins is...is what I would explore doing next. 01:16:28

1:16:33[Inaudible audience question]

1:16:36It's like the last question.

1:16:37Say again? Last question. Yes.

1:16:39[Inaudible audience question]

1:16:45No. Add-ins...add-ins can do dialogs, can have...

1:16:48...can have, you know, interactive type controls in the add-ins. Yeah. Okay?

1:16:55Thank you.

10:10:41There are a lot of these SDKs that you can download without having an EDN subscription...