Many of you have probably heard about ArcGIS 9.4 Beta since the UC back in July. At this point, you might be wondering what is going on and where ESRI is at with it. Well, we launched the ArcGIS 9.4 Beta Program with the release of ArcGIS 9.4 Beta 1 on October 22. We have already been receiving lots of feedback and hope it continues to pour in for the next six months. In an effort to make this ESRI's best beta program yet, we have made some changes to increase the amount of feedback we receive on ArcGIS 9.4:

• We invited every site that is current on maintenance, including all subscribers to the ESRI Developer Network (EDN) program. We are up to 3,000 customers world-wide in the program!
• All software is available for download and beta testers can download any ArcGIS product they choose.
• Beta is fully-supported by ESRI Technical Support; testers can contact us anytime.
• New 9.4 Resource Centers and Support Center Web sites are being tested along with the software. Some highlights are improved navigation, search, documentation, galleries, discussion forums, as well as an easier to use Support Center for contacting ESRI by phone, Web, and (coming soon) online text chat.

Some of you might be thinking..."I know my company is current on ESRI maintenance, but I’m not in this awesome program". Here are few things you can do to get yourself into the program:

• Contact your maintenance contact, the person at your site who is the primary to ESRI, as they are the person in your organization who we invited. They will have the e-mail invitation, or they are already participating in the program. If they are in the program, they can add you.
• If you are unsure if you have maintenance or who your site contact is, contact ESRI Customer Service.

OK, enough about the beta program - check out What’s Coming in 9.4 to see some highlights of ArcGIS 9.4.

- Beth G., ArcGIS 9.4 Beta team

Good day, folks! My name is Khalid, and I am a member of the Geodata Raster Unit at ESRI Support Services. This post is the first of a series that examines basic concepts revolving around raster data. Gaining familiarity with the terminology associated with a new subject matter is arguably the most challenging hurdle in mastering any new content: a notion that is not lost on GIS professionals inaugurating themselves into the world of imagery, scanned documents, and other manifestations of raster data. The hodgepodge of formats and properties intrinsic to rasters may cause confusion with understanding the processes needed for preparing the data so that it may be properly utilized in a GIS application. With this in mind, we will explore some of the more common topics associated with raster data by taking a look at georeferencing: what it is and when it is needed.

Before we get into georeferencing, it is important to develop an understanding of raster data, so please take the time to review the linked article. In short, if you have a scanned paper map, it is a raster. If you have an aerial photograph, it is a raster. If you took a picture from your digital camera, it is a raster. A raster can come in many formats; this list summarizes the formats supported by ArcGIS Desktop. The proper geographical placement of the raster, as with any other spatial data, is critically important for use in a GIS application. The idea of georeferencing a raster is done to ensure that the data essentially falls in the right place on the map. When it comes to rasters, satisfying this requirement involves evaluating a series of questions noted in this article on gathering raster data information:

• Where did the raster come from?
• Was there any special processing used to create the raster?
• What has been done to it?

Understanding where the raster came from and what has been done to it plays a large part in determining whether the raster needs to be georeferenced. For example, a paper map that you might have scanned a few moments ago will certainly need to be georeferenced, whereas a DEM downloaded from the USGS Web site will not. If you are unsure about the details of the raster and whether it may or may not need georeferencing, examine its extent values and determine whether they appear to reflect real world coordinates in a projected or geographic coordinate system. If the data's extent appears to use real-world coordinates, review this article on identifying an unknown coordinate system. Hint: Projected coordinates typically have a minimum of 4 units for each extent, whereas geographic coordinates have 2 units for the top/bottom and up to 3 units for left/right. Also, be sure to check out the "Georeferencing a raster dataset" Web help article; it provides detailed information on this topic and has a neat video demonstrating the process.

- Khalid D., Support Analyst, Geodata Raster Unit, ESRI Support Services

We’ve all been there. It’s Monday morning and squinting through the haze of the past weekend, you boot up your computer and double-click the ArcMap icon, so you can finish up Joe Somebody’s latest über urgent request: something involving lots of acronyms and possibly underground electrical lines. As the familiar blue and white splash-screen pops up, you head out to get the first of several cups of what you were told was coffee. Trudging back to your desk, you see the same splash-screen that was there when you left. So you sit…and wait…and wait…eyes glazing over. You’re jolted from your semi-comatose state by the sound of your neighbor already starting his work. As the tears of frustration start to well, you mumble to yourself, “15 seconds…It took him only 15 seconds to start ArcMap. We have the same computer...”.

Hey everyone, I’m Todd, one of the Desktop Analysts here in the Eastern Support Unit. We here in Support Services see this kind of thing all too often: ArcMap running side-by-side on two computers that, to the best of the owner’s knowledge, appear to have the same configurations. One computer opens MXDs and performs various geoprocessing tasks like clockwork, but the other, using the same data, spits out errors, hangs, and/or eventually crashes. There are some obvious red flags to check for first, such as corrupt normal templates, user profiles, and registry keys, but what happens when the issue is not so apparent? A powerful, easy to use tool to help us debug these types of situations is PC audit and reporting software. There are numerous free PC audit and reporting products available, such as PC Discovery Audit, Look in my PC, etc. ESRI does not endorse any of these products, but one of the more popular tools that analysts have reported success with is Belarc Advisor. PC audit and reporting software creates a very detailed configuration profile of the problem computer and includes such information as installed software and hardware, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, anti-virus status, and missing Microsoft hotfixes. This profile is saved as a local HTML file on the user’s computer, which can be emailed to ESRI for further analysis.

By comparing the profile of the problem computer against a second profile generated for a working computer, underlying issues due to slight differences in configurations, network connections, memory allocations, and software installations can be pinpointed much more efficiently, thereby getting the problem solved quicker.

-Todd S., Senior Support Analyst - Desktop Group, ESRI Support Services, Charlotte, NC

We are pleased to announce that the following ESRI products and versions are now supported on the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System:

ArcGIS Desktop 9.3 and 9.3.1
ArcReader 9.3 and 9.3.1
ArcINFO Workstation 9.3 and 9.3.1
ArcGIS Engine 9.3 and 9.3.1
ArcGIS Explorer 900

Note: ESRI Server products (ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE and ArcIMS) are not supported on Windows 7 at this time due to some known issues with Internet Explorer 8. ESRI is planning to support ESRI Server products on Windows 7 with the 9.4 release of the software.

Mike H., Program Manager
User Advocacy Group, ESRI Support Services

Hi all! This is Jim B. with the Eastern Support Services Desktop unit and a few tips to keep you going strong. We each have found ourselves in situations where customers, clients and colleagues are using different versions of ArcGIS Desktop. If you upgrade immediately after a new release, you may find the need to share geodatabases or map documents with those who haven’t had a chance to upgrade yet. Fortunately, there is a quick and easy way to share data and documents between versions of ArcGIS Desktop.

Map Documents

To send a map document that is compatible with an earlier release of ArcGIS Desktop, you’ll need to save it for that particular version. For example, if you are using ArcGIS Desktop 9.3.1 and you need to send your map document to a colleague that is using ArcGIS Desktop 9.2, a copy of the map document needs to be saved specifically for ArcGIS Desktop 9.2. To do this:

1. Open the Map document you need to send.
2. Go to the File Menu and scroll down to ‘Save a Copy’.
3. In the ‘Save a Copy’ dialog box, add a ‘File Name’ for the document and ‘Save a Copy’ as “ArcMap 9.2 Document”.
4. Click ‘Save’.

This saves a copy of your ArcGIS Desktop 9.3.1 map document that is compatible with ArcGIS Desktop 9.2.

Geodatabases

Sometimes it is necessary to share entire geodatabases with others, but they could all be using different versions of ArcGIS Desktop. With the exception of ArcGIS Desktop versions 9.0 and 9.1 as well as version 9.2 SP5/SP6 and 9.3 being compatible with each other, previous versions of ArcGIS Desktop cannot read or access geodatabases created from later releases of ArcGIS Desktop. It is possible to work around this by adding feature classes to a geodatabase that was created using an earlier release. To do this:

1. Make sure that the Geodatabase does not contain any objects that are specific to the newer release.
2. Create a new personal geodatabase using the previous release of ArcGIS Desktop.
3. With the current release of ArcGIS Desktop, copy/paste the data into the geodatabase created by the previous release of ArcGIS Desktop.
4. The geodatabase now contains the data from the current geodatabase and can be used by the previous release of ArcGIS Desktop.

More details can be found using the following links to the Knowledge Base:

How can previous versions of ArcGIS Desktop connect to geodatabases created with newer releases?

How to share data from more recent versions of the Geodatabase with older versions of ArcGIS Desktop.

So, the next time you have a colleague that needs documents and data for an earlier release of ArcGIS Desktop and they think it's impossible, you’ll be able to impress them using your new knowledge of the sharing capabilities of ArcGIS Desktop.

- Jim B., Desktop group, Eastern Support Services - Charlotte, NC

Hi, this is Sumedha. I am a Support analyst in the SDK group at ESRI. With the increasing popularity of the Sample Flex Viewer application, several users are seeking help to get started with this application in Flex builder.

I would like to focus on how to import the existing ‘Sample Flex Viewer’ project in Flex builder, in order to deploy and customize it further through the IDE.

Follow the steps below:

1. Here is the link to download the project: Sample Flex Viewer.

2. The source code present in ‘flexviewer-src-1.0.zip’ will be used in the Flex Builder IDE. Extract the contents of this zip file.

3. In Flex builder, click ‘File’ from the main menu. Click ‘Import’, and then select ‘Flex Project’ to open the ‘Import Flex Project’ dialog box.

4. Choose the ‘Project folder’ option and click the corresponding browse button.

   

   Select the ‘FlexViewer’ folder from the following location as shown in the above screenshot: Project download location\flexviewer-src-1.0 > flexviewer-src-1.0 > FlexViewer. Click OK.

   The screenshot for the ‘Import Flex Project’ dialog box is shown below:

   

5. Click Finish. The Flex Viewer Project is added to the Flex Navigator. Before executing the application, make sure that the project makes reference to the ArcGIS FLEX API library (.swc file). To specify the path in Flex Builder:

   A. Right-click the project.
   B. Click Properties.
   C. Click Flex Build Path.
   D. Click the Library Path tab.
   E. Add the ArcGIS API for Flex Library using the Add SWC button.

6. Once the reference to the library is added, Click OK to all windows.

7. The application can be executed directly by selecting the project from the Flex Navigator and clicking the ‘Run Index’ button.

8. To deploy the Sample Flex Viewer application using your own compiled binary, the recommended extra step is to export a release build from the Flex Builder project. (Information based from the FlexViewerDevelopersGuide.pdf)

   

   From Flex Builder, as shown above, you can select ‘Export Release Build’ from the Project menu. By default, a new folder called bin-release is created to store all the released files. Everything inside the bin-release will be part of your own release package. That means you can rename and zip or move this directory and deploy it as a regular Web application.

I hope this has helped you to get started using the Sample Flex Viewer Application in Flex Builder. Enjoy!

-Sumedha S., SDK Support analyst, ESRI Support Services

HI, this is Jamie P. bringing you another post geared towards our developer community.

ArcGIS Server's JavaScript API provides a Graphic object that takes multiple Geometry types for overlaying custom graphics on the Map. Three basic types of Geometry are provided: Point, Polyline, and Polygon. How the graphics are drawn is dependant on the symbol assigned to the Graphic. Graphics don't always need to be static.

Making the Graphics work can easily be accomplished by adding or removing geometries from the Graphics object. Geometry manipulation of the Graphic object provides an appearance of graphical animation.

Below is a JavaScript example of creating a line that has the appearance of a tracking layer. The setInterval function call sets a timer to call the buildLine function based on the duration specified in the second parameter passed. The addGraphic function creates the initial point Graphic. The buildLine function adds additional point Graphics to keep extending the line Graphic.

setInterval(buildLine, 1000);

function init() {
      map = new esri.Map("map");
      dojo.connect(map, "onLoad", addGraphic);
      var tiledMapServiceLayer =
      new esri.layers.ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayer(
      "http://brownduck/arcgis/rest/services/UtahEnergyTiled/MapServer");
      map.addLayer(tiledMapServiceLayer);
}

function addGraphic() {
      xcoord = 324299.8395;
      ycoord = 4460178.869;
      startPoint = new esri.geometry.Point(xcoord, ycoord, map.spatialReference);
      var symbol =
            new esri.symbol.SimpleMarkerSymbol(esri.symbol.SimpleMarkerSymbol.STYLE_CIRCLE,
            5, new esri.symbol.SimpleLineSymbol(esri.symbol.SimpleLineSymbol.STYLE_SOLID,
            new dojo.Color([255,0,0]), 5), new dojo.Color([255,0,0,0.25]));
            map.graphics.add(new esri.Graphic(startPoint, symbol));
}

function buildLine(){
      var i = 1;
      var polyLine;
      var symbol;
      if(i < 2){
            var points = new Array();
            points[0] = startPoint;
            polyLine = new esri.geometry.Polyline(map.spatialReference);
            symbol =
            new esri.symbol.SimpleLineSymbol(
            esri.symbol.SimpleLineSymbol.STYLE_SOLID, new dojo.Color([255,0,0]), 5)
      }
      xcoord = xcoord + 1000.0000;
      ycoord = ycoord + 0.0000;
      var addPoint = new esri.geometry.Point(xcoord, ycoord, map.spatialReference);
      points[i] = addPoint;
      polyLine.addPath(points);
      map.graphics.add(new esri.Graphic(polyLine, symbol));
      i = i + 1;
}

The image below shows the outcome of the code above. Notice the start point to the far left of the drawn line. The start point Graphic may be enhanced by applying a different symbol to the Graphic.

-Jamie P., Support Analyst, SDK Group, ESRI Support Services