Spatial Adobe

Testing SyntaxHighlighter (Code colouring)

2007-11-01T09:14:04Z

CF test

  
  // Set component variables  
  variables.appConfig = 0;  
  variables.modelGlueConfig = 0;  
  variables.rolePermissions = structnew();  
  variables.userIDWithAdminRights = "";

cfset test (XML close)

cfset test (non-XML close)

Again

2007-11-01T06:55:21Z


Kirk

Spatial SQL | Simple Feature Access SQL functions

2007-11-01T03:55:02Z

ESRI's new ST_GEOMETRY data type for Oracle offers a total of 88 functions. For SQL select statements, their are basically two groups of functions: ones that you can use in a select clause; and others you can use in a where clause. These functions are in additional to being able to use all the standard SQL functions (sum,count etc) so you can mix spatial criteria with traditional SQL (ESRI's webhelp published a full list of ST_GEOMETRY functions).

An example of the select clause functions are the map extent basics like:

ST_X, ST_Y: Which will return the x and y coordinates (that's Latitude and Longitude) of a point
ST_minX, ST_minY, ST_maxX, ST_maxY: Which return the extend (or bounding box) for a geographic feature/row
ST_Area: No prizes for guess this returns the area of a spatial feature.

These are the simple one, the real power of ST_GEOMETRY comes when you look into the where clause functions.

]]> The where clause functions allow you to do traditional spatial overlay operations in plain old SQL. The list of functions is pretty good, some examples are: ST_Intersects; ST_Union (returns the union of two source objects); ST_Overlaps; ST_Crosses; ST_Touches, ST_Contains, ST_Buffer, ... the list goes on. (Ah, it brings back great memories of high school maths and Venn diagrams!)

It is these type of functions that really give the ST_GEOMETRY data type its teeth. These functions are the building block that allow you to ask questions like:

"What fire hydrants are with a x distance buffer of major roads?"
"What is the count and total area of land parcels with a given area?"
"What is the closest public library/hotspot/toilet to me?"
"What ATMs are within x distance of my location?"

These are the type of questions that make geography so much fun!

SDE 9.2 and ESRI's ST_GEOMETRY datatype for Oracle

2007-10-31T02:45:40Z

At version 9.2 of ArcSDE (or as it's now called ArcGIS Server Basic) ESRI got with the program and added a new data type - ST_GEOMETRY - to Oracle that caters for the storage of spatial data. Of course, you have been able to run ArcSDE on top of Oracle Spatial (and its own ST_GEOMETRY data type) for sometime (also DB2 and Informix). I don't want to get too much into the pros and cons but needless to say it's great to see ESRI finally allow a standards-compliant way to store spatials within a database.

To quote ESRI:

]]> ArcSDE for Oracle offers an geometry storage type that provides ISO and OGC compliant SQL access to the geodatabase. This storage extends the capabilities of the Oracle database by providing storage for objects (points, lines, and polygons) that represent geographic features. It was designed to make efficient use of Oracle database resources; to be compatible with Oracle database features such as replication and partitioning; and to provide rapid access to spatial data. (reference)

Now for the best part: ESRI's ST_GEOMETRY allows you to access your spatial data via OGC's Simple Feature Access for SQL. Accessing ESRI-flavoured spatial data via plain old SQL is what I've been waiting for for a very long time!

At work, we have made the push to use ST_GEOMETRY as our standard data type (instead of sdebinary) for our spatial data and are looking at all the areas this will add real value.

Soon I'll post some examples of what you can do with ST_GEOMETRY and all the power you can unleash!

Google going Flex

2007-10-31T01:00:03Z

I just got my ColdFusion Developer's Journal e-mail titled "Google moves toward Adobe Flex" and I must say it brought the "inner smile" to my heart. For those of us who have been carrying the Flex banner out there in the battlefield, Google, with all those uber-smart people who can pass those ridculously hard interview questions - well, it makes us feel a bit smarter ourselves. I completely agree with Yakov Fain's assessment that this is big news.

To see what Google is doing with Flex - visit the SearchMash site for yourself - could it be that a Flex-based Google Maps KML parser is on the way ? I'll bet....

Dekko - ArcGIS Server and Flex

2007-10-29T02:34:17Z

ESRI Australia has announced their new product - Dekko (sp?) at the OZRI conference in Australia. Dekko is a flex-based front-end to ArcGIS Server. It sounds pretty exciting and it is good to see that they followed my lead with Flex instead of going with yet another overly complex jsf solution. With ArcGIS server set to take over the world, they are looking very well placed indeed...

Ramping up again...

2007-10-29T02:04:45Z

Oh what a wild ride life can be. Well, with so many changes it the last couple of years, I am thinking of re-branding this Adobe and Spatial or Spatial Adobe...and get going again with news and views from the world of spatially related applications that use, or compete with, such solutions by those of us in the community..

The universal spatial backend - ColdFusion

2006-10-25T03:32:59Z

I have just been reading some of the postings out of Max and just ran into Sean Corfield's post on Ray Camden's info on hooking into .Net natively from ColdFusion. Now couple this with Flex -- and stand back. I am currently working Paul Hastings -- well Paul is doing the work -- on a ColdFusion / Flex / ArcIMS project that hooks into the Java connector on the backend via ColdFusion.

Now imagine a world where a Flex client with its native vector capabilities can hook into other services -- even WFS native vector streaming -- and then pull in WMS services from wherever (native transparency) and even ArcGIS server (leveraging your existing ArcObjects code, Models, Data Tansformations via Interop) -- .Net or Java (who cares) and then natively layer all that stuff into one unified system -- that can hook into any web service -- say SAP, Oracle, whatever -- well you get the idea...Oh yeah, and then Apollo will come and all this can run as a desktop app with fine-grained pdf support...

Links back in

2006-10-05T06:42:40Z

In case some of you noticed the links going missing a while back - including the link for those of you (you know who you are) who can post - well, they inadvertently go rewritten by a default template and now they are back.

Why Spatial Data Infrastructures Fail

2006-10-04T08:36:16Z

This is a bit OT, but Spatial Data Infrastuctures (SDIs) and all of the conceptual rigamarole around them are making quite a few open source specialists buckets of money at the moment. So, if you haven't read this article by Paul Ramsey you might find it interesting, as I did http://geotips.blogspot.com/2006/09/why-sdis-fail.html - I particularly like his section titled "Loosely Coupled Things are Easy to Break" -- I have lost count on how many bullshit discussions and talks I have heard by consultants in the last year bandy-ing the "loosely coupled" term about. Yes, it is good idea in many instances, but somehow the whole idea of achieving _something_ like hey, getting some data, is completely lost in the paranoiac haze of making the methods so "open" that nothing can really connect to them in a practical, functioning way.

The ArcIMS Tasker looks to have a config issue

2006-09-07T04:40:31Z

I have site that I am working on that creates a lot of files on the fly and I want to delete them automatically. The ArcIMS Tasker has been designed to do just this for temporary map images that are created on the server. The tasker can also be configured to go and delete files from any directory you tell it to -- and/or the extension of the file.

So I went the ArcIMS Tasker to delete some files for me (this is its job). I opened the Tasker.properties file to check out where to add a directory etc. -- C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\ArcIMS\AppServer\Tasker -- It references the config file -- tasker.xml as being in C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\ArcIMS\Middleware\Tasker -- a directory that does not exist.

In fact the tasker.xml property is right next to the Tasker.properties file in C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\ArcIMS\AppServer\Tasker . So I changed the reference to it in the taskfile property in the taskfile.properties. Restarted and checked the stdout stderr logs in the same Tasker directory -- still wrong, because of course this is ArcIMS using Java -- it wants forward slashes. A quick change to taskFile=C:/Program Files/ArcGIS/ArcIMS/AppServer/Tasker/Tasks.xml in the tasker.properties and a restart says the tasker is now happy.

The point - if you (or your clients) have directories that are not getting cleaned up as they should be -- this is probably the issue. Tasker cleans out the files as instructed in tasker.xml.

JavaScript API for Flex based ESRI GIS viewer

2006-08-09T04:50:15Z

ESRI has published its JavaScript API for the ArcWeb Explorer Flex/Flash viewer. The Quick start guide has examples for adding markers, doing routing from place to place and finding locations. The have also published information on the Flash variables.

I believe this is still a Flex 1.5 application. It will get a lot more interesting when they finish their port to Flex 2.

Q & A on ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server 9.2

2006-08-04T01:40:19Z

ESRI has published the pre-conference (ESRI User Conference is next week in San Diego) Questions and Answers list. . You can also see their current response to "Will ArcIMS disappear ?" in light of the streamlining of the ArcSDE, ArcIMS, and ArcGIS Server into one product at version 9.2. They are also now supplying information about what verson of ArcGIS Server 9.2 you get if you are on maintenenance for ArcIMS and ArcSDE for example. There will be huge amounts of information coming out of the UC next week, and this is the page to nip all the faqs in the bud.

ESRI Announces Enhanced Standards Support

2006-07-28T00:46:18Z

Press Release:

Redlands, California-- At the upcoming 26th ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, California, ESRI will be showcasing its commitment to building an open and interoperable geographic information system (GIS) platform.
“GIS is inherently collaborative, and ESRI users must be able to easily work in heterogeneous computing, GIS, and data environments,” says Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI. “ArcGIS 9.2 and the GIS Portal Toolkit are engineered to be open and to support OGC and ISO standards. I believe our users will be pleased with the enhanced OGC support, whether they are single users or large organizations deploying a service-oriented architecture using ESRI technology.”

Several new interoperability improvements in ArcGIS 9.2 and in the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension will be shown and discussed at the upcoming User Conference (August 7–11, 2006). These include ArcGIS 9.2 support for OGC WMS, WFS, and GML Simple Features on both the client and server. ArcGIS 9.2 also embraces the ISO 19139 metadata standard. In addition, there is greatly enhanced support for reading, exporting, and working with CAD drawings from AutoCAD and MicroStation.

The ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension is also updated with FME 2006 GB, the latest release of the core Safe Software engine. This release enhances support for many of the existing formats including OGC GML Simple Features and adds support for several new formats including Google Earth Data Exchange (KML), MapInfo TAB (replaces old MapInfo TAB reader), tabular data, ESRI geodatabase (file-based), ESRI ArcGIS 9.x layer, and GML 3.1.1.

ESRI is currently finishing support for the Web Coverage Service (WCS) and is developing an application that supports WFS-T as part of ArcGIS Server. These developments will be included in ArcGIS 9.2 or will be available shortly thereafter.

Some standards organizations that ESRI actively participates in include OGC, ANSI/INCITS L1, ISO/TC 211, and OASIS.

In addition to enhanced standards support, ESRI’s open architecture supporting spatial extraction, transformation, and loading; hundreds of direct read/write data formats; KML; CAD-GIS data sharing; various data models; SQL access to the geodatabase; open APIs (Java, .NET); SOAP/UDDI/WSDL; and openly published data formats of shapefile and geodatabase will be shown at the 26th ESRI International User Conference.

For more information about ESRI's commitment to standards and interoperability, visit www.esri.com/standards.

End Release:

ArcIMS 9.2 to Include ArcGIS Server and ArcSDE - Big news for GIS

2006-07-26T01:41:21Z

Big news for those of us in the GIS community. ESRI has just announced a few of the rumours that many of us have been speculating about for some time. Namely, that ArcGIS Server will be integrated with ArcIMS -- and added to that ArcSDE will also be thrown in. That's right -- if you are on maintenance for ArcIMS, you will get ArcGIS Server Standard Edition and ArcSDE at version 9.2. ArcGIS Server will now have three flavours -- Basic Edition, Standard Edition, and Advanced Edition. Standard Edition will allow the publishing of globes as well as maps, plus:

"...a collection oof 2D and 3D web mapping/geopublishing tools, applications and services. Application developers will have access to components (objects, Web controls, and services) for building solutions on both the Java and .Net frameworks."

This not only "streamlines" the product line -- it also diffuses the tension between Oracle Spatial and ArcSDE. Since you now get SDE as part of "Server GIS" when you get ArcGIS Server and ArcIMS, it simply makes SDE a non-issue. I am sure that we will be hearing more and more about this as the UC approaches, and the implications for creating a CFC connector for "Server GIS" has been raised another knotch in my opinion.