2 COVER STORIES Web Editing with ArcGIS 9.4 continued from cover Highlights „ Modify or add content via a Web mapping application. „ Provide fast, intuitive editing opportunities for Web users and geodesigners. „ Save time by distributing focused editing tasks over the Web. What Is Web Editing? Web editing involves modifying or adding content to the geodatabase via a Web application. Editing is performed using a set of simple sketching tools that allows users to draw new features or edit existing features directly on a Web map. Users can also edit attributes and add attachments, such as digital photos. At 9.4, Web editing capabilities are supported in all client applications, including browser-based applications built with ArcGIS Web Mapping APIs (JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight/ WPF), ArcGIS Mobile applications, and ArcGIS Desktop. Custom Web mapping applications and simple sketch tools can be used to update map features. Please see the “ArcGIS 9.4 Web Editing” poster on pages 24–25. Featured in This Issue 1 18 24 26 KINGSTON UNIVERSITY LONDON GIS FOR CITY SOLUTIONS WEB EDITING POSTER WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT WITH GIS 32 36 GIS FOR DISEASE MONITORING FOCUSING ON MAPS WITH GIS Web editing is optionally enabled when a map is published to ArcGIS Server. The user can choose to provide feature-level access to the map service while configuring service capabilities. Web editing capabilities include an enhanced geometry service that supports new geometric operations, such as union, intersect, trim, extend, cut, offset, auto-complete, and reshape. Why Is Web Editing Important? Web editing provides fast, intuitive editing opportunities for users of the open Web. While they don’t replace the sophisticated editing tools of ArcGIS Desktop, Web editing capabilities allow organizations to extend spatial data editing to a larger, more diverse audience. GIS professionals will save time by distributing focused editing tasks that can be handled more efficiently by subject matter experts. In addition, geographic sketching, a central component of the GeoDesign concept, will allow users to quickly sketch their design ideas on top of digital maps and get immediate feedback on the performance or impact of the design being proposed. Sketching enables rapid testing of multiple design proposals and alternatives. Feature services (services with feature access) provide end users with a simple, easy-tounderstand view of the geodatabase. They can interact with individual features, feature attributes, attachments, and relationships to other features or tables and make basic changes to those elements. Web editing in ArcGIS is template based. At 9.4, feature templates (authored in ArcGIS Desktop) are published with the feature service and carry over layer properties, such as how features are symbolized in the map. Templates also allow the publisher to control which attribute fields can be viewed and edited, as well as provide access to subtypes and domains. Authoritative data editors can use feature services too, but they are not restricted to the simple Web editing toolset. ArcGIS Desktop users can create a local copy of the service layers, edit features using ArcMap editing tools, then synchronize those changes back to the service via ArcGIS Server. Who Will Use Web Editing? One of the fastest-growing audiences for Web mapping applications is Web citizens. Web editing empowers ordinary citizens to contribute their observations by merely drawing on an online map. They can create new features describing the shape and location of a problem or concern. They can attach a photo to the feature or simply take a picture with a smartphone and send it. In this way, people become dynamic sensors moving through the landscape, annotating the map as they go along. Organizations might incorporate these observations to gauge citizen response to a proposed policy or build a new kind of social geography that changes the way leaders look at their communities. Regular Features and Departments 9 10 14 16 19 40 43 GIS HERO—Mukund Rao GIS PRODUCT NEWS GIS IN ACTION EXCLUSIVE ArcNews Online ARTICLES CITIES USE Esri SERVER TECHNOLOGY GIS COMMUNITY NEWS “GEO LEARNING” FROM DANIEL C. EDELSON 44 45 45 45 46 44 “CROSSING BORDERS” BY DOUG RICHARDSON NEW Esri TRAINING OFFERINGS Esri T-SHIRTS WORLDWIDE URISA ANNOUNCES SOLUTIONS FROM Esri BUSINESS PARTNERS CAREER OPPORTUNITIES Mobile workers can use Web editing to tap into and edit authoritative datasets on-site. They can quickly improve the accuracy and value of the data with their observations because those changes are synchronized with the GIS server, and the new information is immediately available for others to use. Similarly, an organization’s non-GIS office staff can use internal Web applications to keep feature attributes up-to-date, attach supporting digital documents to a feature, or validate the status of assets and inventories. GIS professionals, as well as a new breed of geodesigners, will use Web editing to sketch out ideas, create prototype designs, and visualize what-if scenarios. They can take a what-if sketch and turn it into a topologically sound, as-built layer and maintain the entire history of changes and ideas. Conclusion New Web editing tools and services available in ArcGIS Server 9.4 allow everyone—from authoritative data editors to citizens on the street—to contribute content to the geodatabase. GIS professionals can proactively shift simple editing workloads to appropriate staff. With this expanded capability, people can share and build a common understanding of the issues affecting their environments and work together to design the best solutions. More Information For more information, visit www.esri.com/ whatscoming. AN How Good Is Your Data? Find out with DataQE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF THOMAS K. MILLER FOUNDING EDITOR KAREN HURLBUT GRAPHIC DESIGNER STEVE G. PABLO CIRCULATION COORDINATOR WILLIE CALHOUN ArcNews Subscription Additions or Deletions and Changes of Address To subscribe to Esri publications, visit www.esri.com/subscribe. To unsubscribe from Esri publications, visit www.esri.com/unsubscribe. Requests for back issues, missed issues, and other circulation services may also be sent via requests@esri.com; 909-793-2853, extension 1-2778; or faxed to 909-307-3051. To update your mailing address, visit www.esri.com/coa or use any of these e-mail, phone, or fax options. Outside the United States, please contact your international distributor to subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your address. For a directory of distributors, visit www.esri.com/distributors. How to Reach ArcNews Tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-1660 Article submission guidelines/advertising information: www.esri.com/arcnews Thomas K. Miller ArcNews Editor-in-Chief Esri 380 New York Street Redlands, CA 92373-8100, USA tmiller@esri.com See ArcNews Online at www.esri.com/arcnews ArcNews (ISSN 1064-6108) is published quarterly by Esri at 380 New York Street, Redlands, CA 92373-8100, USA. ArcNews is written for the Esri user community as well as others interested in mapping and geographic information system (GIS) technology. It contains material of interest to planners, foresters, scientists, cartographers, geographers, engineers, business professionals, and others who use spatial information.