Developer's Corner From Design to Deployment ArcGIS 10 apps in the cloud Editor's note: In the last issue of ArcUser, the authors described some of the Flex API customization work they have done for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team (FHTET) in "Remix Those Sample Viewers: Elevate your RIA and stand out from the crowd." This article details work they have done on applications that make FHTET information more accessible internally and externally. Historically, the FHTET team has collected and analyzed data describing the effects of major forest pests on the landscape and disseminated this information through an annual hard-copy report. This article describes a custom application the team deployed to the cloud to make this information available to a wider audience. While GIS and hard-copy maps play a role in the preparation of the FHTET report on the effects of major forest pests, this static report does not fully leverage the data exploration and analysis tools available from today's GeoWeb applications. A current software development initiative is using ArcGIS Server 10 and the Flex API to create a series of rich Internet applications (RIAs) facilitating the distribution of information on forest health to a variety of audiences. In addition, the FHTET team elected to use this initiative as a test bed for assessing the ease and speed with which custom applications can be deployed to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud with ArcGIS 10 for greater scalability and convenience. Given the richness of the FHTET data and the desire for novel user experience (UX) elements in the applications, FHTET has elected to pursue a fully custom Web implementation based on Esri ArcGIS Server 10 and the Flex API with many custom widgets and extensions of the DynamicMapServiceLayer. We have based our implementation on our considerable experience in customizing Esri's Flex Starter Kit to produce a template that will now serve as the starting point for many Flex-based applications leveraging ArcGIS Server 10. The Forest Pest Conditions Viewer A FHTET Forest Pest Conditions Viewer public application (fhtet.dtsagile.com/fhtet/ Flex/FPC#) was first developed to help public www.esri.com By Brian noyle and Dave Bouwman, DTSAgile Bar charts prominently displayed across the bottom of the map show the acreage and number of counties affected by each pest. Regional view in the USDA Forest Service pest Conditions Viewer showing acreage and counties affected by four major forest pests pest incidence trend charts and information on individual pests are available from widgets in the FHTET public viewer. Continued on page 46 ArcUser Fall 2010 45