ArcGIS 10 is expected to be released shortly and please visit the new What’s coming in ArcGIS 10 site for more information on 10. The demo videos on the site are awesome and a must watch to get an inside scoop on ArcGIS 10. Meanwhile, we have created our own set of casual videos and a few other samples to highlight ArcGIS 10 for Java/Linux platform. The video on what’s coming in ArcGIS 10 covers most of the significant enhancements and I encourage you to watch it for a broad overview on ArcGIS 10. But, here is a short note on ArcGIS 10 for Java\Linux developers in no particular order.
ArcGIS Server for the Linux platform
The past year, we vigorously tested the stability and scalability of ArcGIS Server on Linux platform. In our test environment, we were able to achieve a throughput of more than a million dynamic maps per hour (about 1.5 million maps) on a cluster of 8 machines (with a total of 64 CPUs). This effort has made the product more scalable and stable at 10. Also, we have automated the user synchronization of SOM machines and you do not have to manually synchronize users to handle failovers. The ‘How to automatically sync local ArcGIS Server Users between two SOM machines’ section in the help doc on Managing GIS Server User accounts describes the necessary steps you must take to achieve auto synchronization. For managing map caching workflows better, we have added new shell scripts to export and manage cache on Linux machine and have added new documents on cache generation. You might find them very helpful for creating and managing caches on Linux platform.
ArcGIS Server Web ADF
On the Web ADF front, you will notice a significant performance improvement in startup and response time of the application. We have created a 10 min video on the Web ADF performance enhancements. Please watch the video to take advantage of all the new performance tuning features. The other major enhancement is, our refactored Dojo based JavaScript API. The new API has several new dojo based adf events and allows seamless integration of Dojo and other third-party widgets in your web ADF application. Please download the sample application Dojo JavaScript API demo and watch the video on Dojo Widgets in Web ADF application to get started with the new JavaScript API.
ArcGIS Java Server Object Extensions
We introduced SOE’s in our previous release and have incorporated several of your feedback on development and deployment of SOEs in ArcGIS 10. To begin with, you can now access Server Object Extensions via REST as well as SOAP. This allows you to directly consume SOE services in SilverLight, Flex, JavaScript and Web ADF applications. The samples and help docs in ArcObjects SDK provides a step by step walkthrough on the development and deployment of SOEs. Alternatively, you can also watch the video, ArcGIS 10 : Server Object Extensions as SOAP services to understand the deployment steps to create SOAP services for SOEs. The second major enhancement is on the deployment aspect of SOEs. At 9.3.1, we provided a tool to register SOEs. But now, when you deploy SOE jar files, ArcGIS Server Manager will auto-discover them and you can register and unregister SOEs via Manager.
Java Add-ins for ArcGIS Desktop
We have introduced add-ins at 10, which allows you to create custom buttons, tools and other UI elements for ArcGIS Desktop. Add-ins follow the plug-in model and are easy to install and uninstall. It is also very simple and easy to create an add-in using Eclipse IDE. Also, since add-ins are self-contained single archive file, it is very easy to share them via email, network share and public download. The video New at 10: Add-ins for ArcGIS Desktop can help you get started on creating, deploying and consuming add-ins in ArcGIS Desktop.
In summary, we encourage you to explore the new features at 10 and take advantage of them. We’ll discuss in detail the other areas of enhancements and migration strategies in the coming weeks.
- MJ
