ArcGIS Explorer Blog

Today marked the opening of the showcase and general sessions, and it was a busy day all around. The Explorer team got lots of great feedback, and lots of suggestions for enhancements, and we're looking forward to more. Here's a few pics of the day's Explorer events.

Michael and Mark at the Doing More with ArcGIS Explorer session this afternoon. This session and the intro will be repeated on Thursday, the SDK tech session is Wednesday.

Edan makes a few points about Explorer in the Showcase island.

Rob giving his demo theater presentation on the Explorer SDK.

Michael, Andrei, Mark, Euan, and Paul still smiling at the close of the Showcase this evening.

The afternoon plenary "look ahead" at ArcGIS 9.4 and Explorer was hosted by 9.4 development lead Euan Cameron. Euan noted that Explorer has a rapidly paced release schedule, and that Explorer 600 will leverage some of the new capabilities being developed for ArcGIS 9.4, but will be released sooner.

Andy MacDonald delivered the preview of what the Explorer team has been hard at work on. Here's the new user interface which is based on the Microsoft Office ribbon. Andy showed how Explorer's tools and functions can be organized so they can be easily found. The new user experience, of which Andy is a key architect, will reveal only the tools that you need when you need them, simplifying thing for users and making for an uncluttered look and feel.

Andy also demonstrated how symbols are being organized, showing the new symbol gallery which allows you to choose from many different kinds of symbols that suit many different kinds of data and industries.

Andy mentioned that a continuing development focus is on presentation, and that the team has been working to improve these capabilities by providing tools that allow you to step though your map content much like you step through a slide deck, but an interactive slide show where you can pause and explore further, and include Web-based content.

Andy also showed how Explorer 600 will work with basemaps in different ways. He showed some of the new basemap choices, and how they can be used to layer directly underneath your own data. The basemaps can be easily swapped out, allowing you to visualize your information in different contexts. The basemap gallery allows you to choice from a variety of ESRI basemaps and basemaps of your own choosing.

Andy showed local data draped over terrain, and the controls in the ribbon which allow you to experiment with how your map looks. You don't have to open property pages to view your options, everything is right at your mouse tips.

Finally Andy showed how you can toggle from 3D mode to 2D mode on-the-fly, demonstrating how you can work with your content in either mode.  

Following Jami Garrison's excellent demonstration, Bernie Szukalski followed by highlighting additional capabilities introduced in Explorer 480.

First Bern showed Explorer running inside a Web browser. Explorer can be configured to fill the entire browser, or just a part of the Web page, which was shown (below). It's the same Explorer with the same features as when you run it on your desktop.

Next the newly added support for graticules (lat/long in various units) and reference grids (MGRS and USNG) were highlighted. Shown below is a lat/long graticule.

Bern next mentioned that Explorer had included support for several new kinds of services and data sources. First he showed a connection to a USGS GeoRSS feed with all the magnitude 2.5 or greater worldwide quake events that have occurred during the last weeek. Each GeoRSS feed location displays additional information via a link that is part of the feed when you click to open its popup.

Next, support for enterprise geodatabases, or data stored via ArcSDE was highlighted. Moving to show a part of the City of Redlands parcel database, Bern explained how map tips are now supported, displaying the owner name for each parcel as he moved the mouse over them, and also that the attributes displayed in the feature popup window could now be controlled.

One of the attributes displayed was a link that opened a new window onto the San Bernardino County Assessor's Parcel Information Management System. Bern explained that this was a mashup, but not a map-on-map mashup that was shown earlier, but rather a different kind of mashup. One that mashes up a features viewed in Explorer with an online information system.

The new e-mail capability was shown next. You can e-mail a layer, result, or the entire map. The e-mail message and the attachment are generated on-the-fly, making it easy to share your work with others.

Add Photo is a new task delivered with Explorer 480. Bern showed opening a folder and adding several geotagged images. Geotagged images have the lat/long of where the image was taken embedded in the image file header, and this task reads the header and places a result at the correct location of the image. When the result is clicked, the image is viewed in the popup window.

Next Bern used the Find Telephone task to locate the Grand Hyatt in San Diego, then explained that while these tasks are authored by the ArcGIS Explorer team that users can create their own using Explorer's SDK, which is also free to download. Bern showed some interesting and different kinds of mashups, these showing both Google Maps StreetView and Microsoft Virtual Earth Bird's Eye views via popup windows in Explorer.

During Monday morning's opening day plenary presentations, ArcGIS Explorer 480 was showcased. We'll review the Explorer presentations here.

Jami Garrison, from the Arizona Department of Transportation, was the Explorer featured user, and was introduced by Explorer product manager Bernie Szukalski. Bern explained that Explorer has been evolving rapidly, with the 480 release in July, and a preview of the forthcoming 600 release to be shown in the afternoon plenary session.

When ArcGIS Explorer starts, it connects to a home server which by default are ESRI's. But you can choose a different home server, and using your own you can control the startup map and tasks, the look and feel of the application, and enable or disable capabilities. Jami used a custom home server for Explorer, and had changed some elements of the skin; adding a custom logo, using a display overlay (for "ADOT Explorer'), a cactus north arrow, custom home page, and her own startup map and tasks.

Jami first talked about the need to connect to and use not only GIS assets in the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), but also GIS content that comes from other state agencies and local governments that they work with. Here is a map showing the Maricopa Association of Governments IMS service along with ADOT's fuel depots.

Jami added results that showed ADOT's live traffic cameras, enabling users to get the most recent image of traffic conditions from a variety of locations along the highway system. By clicking on the result, the latest traffic image is displayed in the popup window.

At any given time, ADOT has numerous construction projects going on around the State.  Jami showed how aerial imagery helps ADOT track and monitor the progress of these multi-million dollar projects. These local data sources can be added quickly to Explorer, and tools like swipe and transparency can be applied to aid visualization.

ADOT's Explorer users really liked the ability to quickly add data to their maps using the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center.   ADOT took that idea and created their own Resource Center to quickly distribute news and data to the Department's users.  For instance, if a user needs to view the Engineering Diagrams for a bridge, they can go to the resource center and choose what they want to view. 

Explorer zooms to the location of the bridge and then opens the Engineering Diagram in the popup window.

Jami described how the Incident Management teams at ADOT really like the ability to perform GIS Analysis right in the application.  For example, if there was an incident involving a chemical spill, the Incident Manager could right-click and send the location information to the model (in this case she used the Emergecny Response Guide (ERG) by Chemical model).   Then input some parameters about the incident: type of chemical (select from a drop-down list), wind direction, time of day and size of spill.    After the model is run, a containment area based on the input parameters is added to the map. 

Explorer has a lot of great features. ADOT has another type user, though, that does not need all of these features. They just need something simple so that they can quickly and easily get information about various incidents and projects around the state. The latest release of Explorer (Build 480) introduced the Quick Content task. The Quick Content is an embedded webpage so it can be quickly updated to provide current information on top events. Jami showed how easy it is to use the Quick Content to click on an icon and Explorer then zooms to the location of the event and pops up information about that event. The example below shows information about a landslide northeast of Phoenix.

The Quick Content area can also be used to get project data and information out to anyone. Jami demonstrated a project along State Route 260 designed to reduce vehicular collisions with wildlife.  ADOT had built several wildlife underpasses along this section of roadway but there were still a significant amount of crashes in the corridor. The Arizona Game and Fish deparment used telemetry from GPS-collared Elk to determine where they were crossing the roadway, as incidated in the analysis shown below (the high red columns are the areas where the elk were corssing the roadway most frequently). 

Using the analysis, the project team was then able to determine the locations to place fencing so that the wildlife could be funneled into the underpass areas.

The results of that project are then shown in the 2005 crash data where the amount of vehicular collisions with wildlife are greatly reduced, providing a much safer environment for both the wildlife and the traveling public. 

Once empty seats now filled, with people and anticipation.

The view of the opening minutes of Jack's welcome from behind the stage.

Here's the beginnings of the heart of the Explorer island in the middle of the ArcGIS Server area at the Showcase. Please stop by to meet the team, ask questions, and learn about Explorer 480 and what's ahead. The Showcase opens on Tuesday. We promise it will look more inviting than this.

Today was the final day of preparations and rehearsal for the plenary presentations tomorrow. Here's Chris manning the control center, he's one of the hard working ESRI staff behind the scenes making sure the plenary goes perfectly.

Here's Euan, Andy, and Doug prepping for their demos covering the road ahead for ArcGIS, including Explorer 600.

Here's Andy rehearsing his Explorer 600 demonstration. Note the new ribbon interface. We're sure excited about 480, and where we're heading with 600. You'll see some great highlights of both at the plenary. See you tomorrow!

ESRI's User Conference has grown into several concurrent conferences in one. One of the intra-conferences that started today is the Education User Conference. Here's a look at some of the Explorer highlights from today's opening presentation.

Derrick Burke showed some of the interesting ways Explorer can be used by Educators. The theme of the opening revolved around history, and Derrick started by using the new Quick Content task (with eye catching blinking eyeballs) to examine the history of the US, and how cartography has evolved. Here's the Pinkerton 1912 layer from the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center, along with the unique cartography of the 1833 map of the US. Both are from the David Rumsey collection.

Here Derrick has added the 1783 boundary in green, the Louisiana Purchase boundary in orange, and all US cities in 1810. The popup shows the population. At that time Philadelphia had a population of just over 87,000.

ju

The BioBlitz projects are popular among educators, and here is the results of a BioBlitz shown using Explorer. Each observation includes popups of the name of the observed species, a photo, or in this case a photo and a sound - a scream Eeeeek! Ok, it might be corny, but kids (and educators) love it.

More behind the scenes looks at the UC 2008 Plenary preparations.

Euan, Andy, and Jami (from Arizona Department of Transportation) ready their demos.

The end of a long day...

Here in San Diego several ESRI events have already started, and the excitement level is ramping up. The plenary stage has been readied (well, almost), and here's a peak behind the scenes.

Here's (from right to left) John, Betty, Ismael, and Mike at the control center behind the stage.

Here's the stage being readied, demo rehearsals in progress, and the seats that will be filled on Monday.

We've been readying for the 2008 User Conference, and we're looking forward to meeting existing and soon-to-be Explorer users in San Diego. Please stop by and visit us in the Showcase area. We'll be happy to answer your questions, and show you some of the interesting and powerful things you can do with Explorer 480. We'll also be giving a preview of the upcoming Explorer 600 release. And of course we're there to listen to and gather your comments and suggestions as we move forward with our development plans.

There's a handy Agenda Search tool on the ESRI Web site. Just type in "ArcGIS Explorer" to get a list of sessions to consider attending. Here's the results of that search, and we've highlighted some of the sessions that we recommend to help you plan your conference. Just follow the Explorer globe. See you there!

Tuesday's ArcGIS Explorer List

Wednesday's ArcGIS Explorer List

Thursday's ArcGIS Explorer List

Friday's ArcGIS Explorer List

ESRI and Microsoft have jointly announced the availability of Microsoft Virtual Earth map and imagery content for ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server. ArcGIS Explorer is part of the ArcGIS Desktop family of products, and here's a preview of what these look like in Explorer:

The services will include high-resolution street maps, imagery, and hybrid maps. Street map coverage is available for more than 60 countries and regions including North America, Europe, South America, the Asia Pacific region, and Northern Africa. Aerial and satellite imagery includes worldwide coverage, but varies by region.

These can be previewed at the ArcGIS Online content showcase and we'll be providing more information on availability and how you can subscribe in upcoming blog posts.

Here's a map that speaks for itself.

At this moment there is an average flight delay of 175 minutes at Logan International Airport due to weather.

Real-time radar weather from weatherbug.com (ArcIMS service), real-time airport delays from guiWeather.com (KML).

One of the new features introduced with ArcGIS Explorer 480 is the ability to set any color in a raster image transparent. This is very handy when working with georeferenced images with "no data" values. Have a look at the video, then follow along in this post.

Let's take a closer look. First, we've added a local raster file, in this case a TIF image that was used during the California fire response last year. To add a local raster go to File, then Open, and choose Rasters, and then browse for the file you want.

In this particular file you will see that we have black areas representing "no data" surrounding the image, and blocking the view of the underlying basemap information.

To set the black areas in the image transparent, first open the raster layer properties. To do this, right click the layer in Contents, then choose Layer Properties.

In the layer properties, choose Raster Background. You can specify the transparent color in one of two ways, by typing in the actual RGB values, or by clicking on the image on the map. It's easiest just to click on the color you want transparent in the raster.

After we apply the changes, you'll see that we've turned the black RGB values transparent, and created a much nicer overlay.

For more information, see the Raster Background Color Help topic. 

(submitted by Jonathan Fisk, GIS Solutions Engineer, ESRI Charlotte)

Part of my job is to discover Web based content and services, mash them up, and then show these to others. Many of them don’t realize how easy these are to mashup in this Web 2.0 world.  ArcGIS Explorer is a great platform for doing these kinds of things, and I have assembled collections of real time feeds, map views of organizational resources and emergency plans, and tasks that answer timely and relevant questions using Explorer.  And sharing is as easy as exporting a result or saving a map.

I’ve recently discovered that ArcGIS Explorer’s result popups can bring more than just an HTML page to life on your map.  Below is an example where I call Microsoft Virtual Earth’s API from the popup window when I click on the map to create a yellow map note. The popup window displays the Bird's Eye view of the location. 

Why does this excite me?  Well, just like the next person, I love to see my house in high resolution from 4 directions (that's not my house above!).  But this content can also be used to visually add to more practical applications, and can be combined with other content and tasks in ArcGIS Explorer. By authoring this as a custom task I can create results that can be shared with others or included as part of my map, and I can also enable others to use the Bird's Eye view popup easily. Here's what my task UI looks like currently - just click on the map to create a VE result, then click the result to open its popup window to see the Bird's Eye view.

The first time I tried this I used the brute force method - I went to Microsoft’s Virtual Earth API documentation and tried to make their example Birds Eye view of the Seattle Space Needle pop up in a browser. 

Next, I created a note result using the Create Note task and then pasted the Virtual Earth API sample into the result popup content, which I accessed via the result property sheet. This consisted of HTML and JavaScript that would run when the popup was opened. The neat thing is it worked!  But each time I wanted to do this I would have to create a new map note, paste the JavaScript code into the result popup content, and then manually replace the latitude and longitude values with new coordinates. This was tedious, and the natural solution was to make it a custom task that would automate the whole process.

So I set out to create my very first custom task.  Fortunately there is a nice collection of samples included in the ArcGIS Explorer SDK, and one of them did almost exactly what I wanted my task to do.   I jump-started my effort using a sample called TrackShapesCS.  This sample creates a new map note when the user clicks the map, and automatically populates the popup content window with its latitude and longitude.  All I had to do was tweak the custom task in Visual Studio to append my working VE JavaScript sample, and then insert the new coordinates where the Virtual Earth API expects them.  I was relieved to find that this was easy, and worked without major surgery to the sample task.

Here's what the code looks like in the popup window properties for an already placed VE result. The lat/long coordinates of for VELatLong() are always obtained from where you click the mouse:

I now have a custom task that I use quite frequently to spruce up a map with Virtual Earth content.  And best of all my map content rides along with the NMF document and I can e-mail or post it for others to use.

I have shared my custom task on ArcScripts - Enjoy! 
 

We've been busy, so have missed mentioning some interesting posts on the GIS Education Community Blog about ArcGIS Explorer. So let's catch up...

George Dailey, ESRI Education Manager, published a series of Where's Geo? entries, covering his travels throughout the U.K. His third installment looked at UNESCO World Heritage Sites using lat/lon data from a text file and also finding a KML file of the sites.

If you've been using KML or KMZ in the latest release of Explorer (480), you've probably noticed the KML improvements and enhancements (which now include support for time series). The new features are discussed in the Working with KML or KMZ data Help topic.

Joseph Kerski used a GPS from his plane to create a track of his flight across the US in his post on Mapping An Airline Route.

Joseph used a utility to convert his waypoints to a shapefile for use in Explorer, but with the latest Explorer 480 he could have imported the GPX file from his Garmin directly. See the Importing GPS data files Help topic for more information.

Joseph also heads to the Crossroads of the World, traveling to Istanbul and using Explorer for an historical overview. Joseph uses Go to Location and the Pinkerton 1812 layer found under contents on the Explorer Resource Center.

And finally, George Dailey cruises the new ArcGIS Explorer 480 with Captain James Cook, checking out the newly added graticule and also the GeoNames Search.

More information about the graticule, reference grids, and other options can be found under Setting application options in the Explorer Help. And the GeoNames Search task can be found with others on the Explorer Resource Center.