ArcGIS Explorer Blog

The ArcGIS Explorer Team would like to send you our Season's Greetings in the form of a screenshot showing a snowy Yosemite landscape via a live Web cam seen from within Explorer. We managed to capture the sunset glow at the top of Half Dome the other day.

We'd like to pause for a moment to thank everyone for helping make it such a great year. The coming year holds much more for ArcGIS Explorer, and we're looking forward to the release of ArcGIS Explorer 900. As usual we'll be filling you in on what's new here on the blog.

Season's Greetings!

- the ArcGIS Explorer Team

The image above was made by using note results that link to live Yosemite Web cams and a display overlay map property. For more info and ideas on creating notes that link to Web cams and other content, see these posts:

Adding Photos and More to Note Popups (April 7, 2008)

Exploring the Collapse of Wall Arch (August 12, 2008)

ESRI User Conference 2008 - Plenary Part I (August 4, 2008)

For more info on display overlays, see this post:

Display overlay, legends, and streamlining the user experience (October 6, 2008)

Part I and Part II of a three part Introduction to ArcGIS Explorer training seminar are now live and available for free on the ESRI Training and Education Web site.

The training seminar covers the following:

Part I: Getting Started

• What is ArcGIS Explorer and how to add maps and data
• How to navigate and explore the map
• Using the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center
• Working with layers
• Using tasks and results
• How to customize your preferences

Part II: Doing More with Content

• A review of Part I
• Types of ArcGIS Explorer content
• Adding Web-based and local content
• Changing properties
• Importing files (text and GPS)

Part III will be published in January, 2009, and will cover non-programming customization, including doing more with map properties, using Quick Content, and setting up a Home Server.

(Submitted by George Dailey, ESRI Education Program Manager)

I was setting up a meeting with the CEO of an ESRI business partner, US Computing, who will be in Dallas to discuss new student transportation software they have built. I recommended a Starbucks near my office and was sending him the address information, when I noticed something odd about the address Starbucks has listed on their Web site—basically, it’s wrong for location finding. It might be okay for mail delivery but not for someone unfamiliar with the area to arrive at/near the shop. Regardless, I still needed to get the CEO appropriate information.

It seemed yet another perfect activity for ArcGIS Explorer.

Using the Find Address task, I quickly mapped the supposed location Starbucks had on its Web site. While it’s in the vicinity, it plops the unsuspecting at an intersection on the wrong side of the shopping area which houses the coffee shop.

“What’s the Address Here?” task came to the rescue! Using this handy function, I positioned a point where I know the Starbucks to be and at the entrance of a perfect parking area. The task returned a more appropriate location finding/routing address for my partner to use. (NOTE: If this task does not appear in your Tasks listing, add it by going to the Tools Menu > Manage Tasks > Default Tasks, Add.)

Since I had mentioned the name of the shopping area to him, I used the “Create Notes” task to provide another landmark and a built-in Web pathway to the area’s information and stores, including the Starbucks.

With appropriate symbols, text, and popup placement, I saved my map and e-mailed (File menu > E-mail) the project file to my partner. He can now see exactly where he will be going and more importantly be able to create directions using the “Find Route” task that will actually get him to the shop.

Creating and sharing this map has “bean” easy to do.

(post submitted by Adam Pittman, ESRI San Antonio)

In Big Bend National Park cell phone reception is scarce.  To keep friends and family from worrying about me on last weekend’s camping trip I decided to use ArcGIS Explorer to enable them to keep a watchful eye on my status.  Using my SPOT satellite messenger I can send progress reports directly from anywhere in the world from any location that has a clear view of the sky.  SPOT maintains this web service tracking my location as an exposed XML file. 

We can’t bring this XML file directly into ArcGIS Explorer without writing a custom task, and I wanted a simple solution. So I used Yahoo Pipes to aggregate and massage this feed into a format I could use directly in ArcGIS Explorer.  Yahoo! Pipes is a free composition tool allowing you to collect and translate content from the web, and includes many examples you can start from. I found an example SPOT messenger pipe that I used. 

This pipe collects the XML information and converts it into a consumable format, in my case GeoRSS. 

To consume this service with ArcGIS Explorer all I needed to do is add it as a GeoRSS feed. 

If I set the layer to automatically update I can see new SPOT locations automatically in ArcGIS Explorer, letting users know exactly where I am.  By combining this service with other content, including the content available at the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center, my friends and family can not only know where I am, but also know what the weather is and what my surroundings look like.

Here's my tour of Big Bend using Yahoo! pipes and the SPOT messenger service in ArcGIS Explorer.

When ArcGIS Explorer starts it opens a default map and data from a home server, which by default is hosted by ESRI (ArcGIS Online). The home server controls the startup map, resource center, and the look & feel and behavior of the application.

You can set up your own home server; it's a machine that hosts the default map and has a collection of XML configuration files and resources that control the look and feel of Explorer, the default map (including tasks), user capabilities, and other elements of the user experience. The home server can also notify ArcGIS Explorer when updates are available, and by setting up your own you can control when these updates get pushed out throughout your organization.

To setup your own home server, download the home server files from the ArcGIS Explorer download page.

Once you install the home server setup, a good starting location is the ArcGIS Explorer Home Server 500 Help system documents. These will be installed on your machine under the Start menu > ArcGIS > Explorer Home Help 500, or you can just access them from their online location.

The Help explains what a home server is, configurations you can make with the home server, how to administer task downloads, and migrating from a previous version.

If you've already setup a home server prior to build 480, the migration document offers useful information.  

Home Server Q & A

Here's a few common questions that ESRI's support staff receives, with answers:

Q. Does a home server require ArcGIS Server?
A. No, a home server does not require ArcGIS Server.

Q. Can I change the startup splash screen, add logos, or change the north arrow?
A. Yes, all these can be changed.

Q. Where is the help for setting up a home server?
A. The help resides online here:

http://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgisexplorer500/home_server_help/

and is also downloaded to your install location of the home server files: C:\Program Files\ArcGIS Explorer Home 500

Q. Can I change the startup map, or other layers that appear when a user starts Explorer?
A. Yes, just author the map with the layers you want, then use it as your new home server default map. 

Q. Can I change which tasks appear by default?
A. Yes, just add or remove tasks to suit, then save the map, and then use it as your new home server default map. 

Q. Can I control which things a user can do? For example, can I prevent them from opening a new map?
A. Yes, menu choices can be disabled so certain functions can't be performed or certain things can't be changed.

Q. Can I control when updates are made available to my Explorer users?
A. Yes, if you implement your own home server you control when/if the "update available" messages appear. Users connected to your home server would only see the “update available” dialog when you decode you want to push the update to all users.

Q. How do I migrate from my existing Explorer 480 home server under c:\inetpub\wwwroot to the new one under C:\Program Files?
A. Just follow the steps detailed in the migration document and you can copy over the modifications you previously made from the original location to the new location.

ArcScripts is a place where users can share source code for Explorer tasks, and recently there have been a couple of interesting additions.

Edan Cain adds his Flip Book time series animator task, a handy task when you want flip through a sequential series of images or other time-related data. The visibility of each of the selected layers is toggled, and the task allows you to set an interval and looping options. This task was used during the Western Governors' Association presentation, which we highlighted in an earlier post, to show the growth of the human footprint in parts of the US over time.

Kenneth Gorton also updates his popular GPS Data Manager for ArcGIS Explorer, delivering Version 2.0 which adds track playback, NMEA handling, and other new features.

There have been a few posts on the GIS Education Community blog that we think you'll find interesting. 

In the most recent post George Dailey, ESRI Education Manager, talks about mapping recycling sites with ArcGIS Explorer, and uses a list of recycling locations obtained from the City of Dallas Sanitation Services along with additional data downloaded from the University of Texas - Dallas. George uses ArcGIS Explorer's file import capabilities, the ability to read shapefiles directly, and geocoding and routing tasks to complete his project.

A second post by George highlights field trip planning using ArcGIS Explorer and uses its multi-stop routing capabilities to find the best way to get to the field trip destinations. George uses the Send To capabilities to use the geocoded museum and school location results as inputs to the Find Route task so solve the problem.

In another post covering GIS in education in Taiwan, ESRI Education Manager Joseph Kerski explores the country and imports his GPS track of his wanderings into Explorer, showing the vertical relief of the area and incorporating photos in popup windows.

Yesterday was GIS Day, and we've still got a couple of days left in Geography Awareness Week. About.com informs us that:

Geography Awareness Week was established in 1987 when U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed legislation that established the third week in November as Geography Awareness Week. Geography Awareness Week is sponsored by the National Geographic Society and other geographic organizations at the national, state, and local level.

We've received some screenshots and descriptions of Explorer being used on GIS Day and throughout this week. If you have more examples that you'd like to share, let us know by sending a screenshot and description via e-mail to arcgisexplorerblog@esri.com

This first example is from Adam Pittman, who prepared a presentation for the fourth grade class at Cambridge Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas. The students are learning about explorers of North America, and ArcGIS Explorer was used to look at the explorations of Coronado, Lewis & Clark, and LaSalle.

Here's a screenshot of the Lewis & Clark exploration ending up at Fort Clatsop, Oregon, where Capt. William Clark wrote in his journal "Ocian in view! O! the joy." While they weren't quite at the ocean, they were close, having reached the Columbia River estuary. Various camps are shown along the route.

Coronado travelled up from Mexico, heading to the Grand Canyon and then heading east through Texas and up to Kansas. He stopped just outside Lindsborg, Kansas, erecting a small fort on top of a hill, shown below. The fort has been rebuilt and can be seen in Explorer's default map.

GIS tools were used to analyze terrain and view other layers of information that could have helped these early explorers, like weather, topography, vegetation, and others.

And Ray Carnes presented at the Highland (California) Library and Environmental Learning Center as part of a "See Highland Through Maps" GIS Day exhibit. Shown below is a part of the city with average household income information. Images like these helped visitors understand the characteristics of their local community.

The ArcGIS Explorer default map, and maps and layers you can discover on the Explorer Resource Center, are created using ArcGIS Online services. Behind the scenes these have been authored using ArcGIS Desktop, and are powered by ArcGIS Server.

We've chosen a subset of all of the available ArcGIS Online services to include on the Explorer Resource Center, but you can connect directly to ArcGIS Online and shop around for more. Here's how...

Go to File > Open, and choose Servers. You'll see a list of the available connections you can make across the top. Choose ArcGIS Server (since the ArcGIS Online services are ArcGIS Server based) and type the following connection URL:

http://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/services

You'll see a list of all of the available services, many of them organized into folders.

At the bottom left of Open Content you'll see a link to the Help on Opening Content that includes a legend describing the icons you'll see:

Since Explorer is a globe, the globe services will be optimal. Many of the listed services are intended for use in ArcGIS Desktop, but any services you find will work just fine.

In this example, let's click to open the NASA CloudCover_World, and choose Space:

We've just added a cloud cover layer to our map. There lots of content to choose from, so try browsing for others you may find of interest.

Yesterday nearly 5 million Californians living near the San Andreas fault participated in an earthquake disaster preparedness drill called the ShakeOut, which we mentioned in our post yesterday. The earthquake scenario included a 7.8-magnitude earthquake along a 190-mile stretch of the fault starting at the Salton Sea and stretching northwest.

To understand the demographics of the most impacted areas in the scenario, we opened the USGS earthquake simulation shake intensity map (published as a KML) and added it to Explorer. Here's the view of the quake intensity map looking north along the southern California Coast. The red areas are the areas with the highest predicted intensity.

We used the Business Reports task (powered by ESRI's Business Analyst Online), available on the Explorer Resource Center, to delineate the boundary around the highest intensity areas. We used that boundary to generate the report, shown here:

The graphic demographic profile is the one we chose, and there are many different kinds of reports to choose from (some are free, some require a subscription). The report showed that over 6 million households are located in the high intensity area, roughly evenly distributed by age and income, with %50 of the owner occupied homes having a value greater than $400,000, and %40 having a value of greater than $500,000.

Today at 10:00 a.m. PST marked the official beginning of the Great California ShakeOut. According to the Great Southern California ShakeOut site site the event will bring together millions of people throughout Southern California in the ShakeOut drill, the largest earthquake preparedness activity in U.S. history. The scenario depicts a magnitude 7.8 quake striking the southern San Andreas fault, and stretching north 190 miles.

One of the event sponsors is the USGS, and according to the USGS ShakeOut site the earthquake would kill 1,800 people, injure 50,000, cause $200 billion in damage, and have long-lasting social and economic consequences. The USGS site includes content and a list of resources that you can use to find data for use with ArcGIS Explorer.

We followed links at the USGS site to the USGS Land Cover Institute site where we downloaded a geotiff of the Southern California landcover from the USGS Seamless Server. The landcover shows urbanized areas, and so is an indicator of population. 

We added the NLCD data to our map by going to File > Open, then choosing Rasters as our content type and adding the file we'd just downloaded. We adjusted the transparency of this layer a bit by highlighting it in the contents, and then right-clicking to choose the transparency tool. 

This newly added layer was on top of others in our contents, and to add some additional context we moved the transportation layer on top using Manage Layers (Tools > Manage Layers).

Here's what our greater Redlands, California, area map looked like.

Next, we connected to the USGS earthquake magnitude 2.5 and greater GeoRSS feed. To do this we went to the USGS earthquake feeds site, and looked for the list of feeds.

We clicked the link for M 2.5+ earthquakes over the past 7 days and copied the URL. We added this feed to our map by going to File > Open and choosing Servers. At the top we clicked the GeoRSS connection, and pasted the URL into the Server input.

After we added the feed to our map, we discovered that on this ShakeOut day we've had a couple of recent temblors. Opening the popup on the feed event we can obtain additional information from the USGS site, and discover that the closest quake was a 2.8 just southeast of ESRI that took place last night shortly after 11:00 p.m.

We recently completed a two-part post on managing your Explorer cache. In Part I we noted how the content available at the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center is delivered via ArcGIS Online. We also talked about the fact that ArcGIS Online content is updated often, and explained how to manage and refresh your cache to ensure that you're always looking at the most recent content.

If want to know when ArcGIS Online content is updated, there's an easy way to do so.  The ArcGIS Online Blog provides information about all changes and updates, and includes RSS feeds to which you can subscribe. We'll also keep you posted here.

In Part 1 of our mini-series on cache, we covered its implications with the default map and using other maps and layers from the Resource Center. Here in Part 2 we'll take a closer look at managing cache when connecting to individual services and local data.

ArcGIS Explorer either fetches cache (when leveraging cache or cache-on-demand capabilities in ArcGIS Server) or creates it when you first connect to content. This happens whether it's an internet service or local data. This results in optimized performance, and also enables offline use. But there may be times when we don't want to create cache, or when we might want to update it at regular intervals. For example, when we connect to a weather service that is continually updating.

When you add content to ArcGIS Explorer you go through a wizard, and will eventually see the Disk Caching Options dialog (except when you connect to GeoRSS feeds, or add KML or KMZ, which don't use this option).

Let's examine the options more closely.

Save layer's disk cache when saving map file.

This option is the default, and is appropriate for any non-dynamic content source. This will ensure that cache that is fetched or created during your session is saved locally when you save your map. The next time you open the map, you won't have to fetch or create cache again; it will be read directly from your local cache saved to disk.

Create a disk cache for the layer during the session.

Cache will be created as you work with your map during your session, but won't be saved. This is appropriate for content you know will change, but aren't sure how often it may be updated. It can be augmneted by choosing a time interval for refreshing the cache, discussed below.

Don't create a cache for the layer on disk.

Cache won't be saved at all, but this means that it will be continuously fetched or created. 

A good option to use is the time interval option which clears all layer cache at the specified interval. This is optimal for most dynamic content like weather. We can set an update, say every 15 minutes, and cache will be cleared and refreshed at the specified interval. When the map is saved and reopened, the layer will automically refresh its cache and then updated at the specified interval.

Using these choices you can ensure you've got both the best performance and are viewing the most up-to-date content.

Another way you can refresh cache is manually by using the Layer Manager (Tools > Manage Layers).

Highlight the layer and click Clear Layer Cache to remove all cache for that layer.

And a final way to remove cache is via Tools > Options > Cache > Disk Cache. Choosing All Caches and clicking Delete Caches will clear all your local ArcGIS Explorer cache. We covered this at the end of our previous post.

This Weather Channel article reviews the 2008 severe weather season, and makes for a very interesting, if sobering, read.

We noted that the 4th graphic in the article shows ArcGIS Explorer displaying a tornado path across downtown Atlanta, and was produced by the National Weather Service.