The Spring edition of ArcNews recaps some important ESRI announcements about version 9.3’s ability to create mashups on par with Google Maps that were announced at the 2008 ESRI Developer Summit. More than 1,200 developers representing 69 organizations in 49 countries attended the conference. Images and summaries below from ESRI. [ ] enclose my comments.
“The ArcGIS 9.3 platform places a much greater emphasis on the Web,” said [Scott] Morehouse [director of Software Development at ESRI]. “The technology platform for GIS has evolved over the years. Initially, the focus was on leveraging minicomputers and workstations with an emphasis on high-performance computing and end-user interactivity. Then, the focus shifted to the database with an emphasis on information modeling and transactional data management. Now, the focus is on the Web. We have been working to put the Web at the center of everything that we’re doing with the ArcGIS system.”
The new APIs were showcased at the Plenary Session and in technical sessions presented by the ArcGIS engineers who developed them. In the REST API session, there were demonstrations of how to use JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and Yahoo! Pipes to access backend REST services powered and published by ArcGIS Server. All resources and operations exposed by the REST API are accessible through a URL.
In the ArcGIS JavaScript APIs session, there were demonstrations on how mashups can be built using JavaScript with REST that add map layers and tasks from ArcGIS Server to Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth. The JavaScript API comes in three flavors: ArcGIS JavaScript API, ArcGIS JavaScript Extension for Microsoft Virtual Earth, and ArcGIS JavaScript Extension for Google Maps. [A Flash based API is also planned].
ArcGIS Server 9.3 Offers New and Enhanced Support for OGC Standards
At 9.3, ArcGIS Server provides enhanced support for the three leading Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web standards: Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), and Web Coverage Service (WCS). In addition, with the recent announcement from OGC that Keyhole Markup Language (KML) 2.2 is now an official OGC standard, ArcGIS Server at 9.3 will comply with the OGC KML specification by allowing users to publish their geographic data as KML 2.2. Read more.
New Features in ArcGIS Engine 9.3 Coming Soon
ArcGIS Engine developers can also now use the integrated Eclipse 3.3 plug-in to inspect the state of ArcObjects. In addition, ArcGIS Engine 9.3 supports the Java Development Kit version 6 on the latest platforms. Read more.