Developer’s Lounge: Demystifying the Esri Developer Experience

“Where do I begin?” and “What tools are available for building my application?” are some of the most frequently asked questions by developers looking to leverage Esri’s developer technologies and tools.

In this edition of the Developer’s Lounge series, Anita Kemp, Product Manager for Developer Technologies at Esri, tackles these questions and demystifies the Esri developer experience.

From the core products, SDKs, and APIs available to developers, to the events and communities that create real opportunities for learning and growth, Anita outlines each element and shares how potential users should approach choosing a solution.

Whether you’re just exploring or ready to build your next application, you’ll get a comprehensive picture of the developer offerings from Esri.

1. Hello, Anita! What’s the story behind your first line of code, and how did it lead you to where you are today?

I think my very first line of code was for a psycholinguistics course I took in grad school. I needed to run some statistical analyses for an experiment I had conducted, and the easiest way to run them was by using R. I found myself gravitating towards classes that taught me how to use R to manage data and run complex analyses. I also enrolled in a web development course to learn C#, JavaScript, and React. Eventually I realized that, while I absolutely loved linguistics (and still do), I wanted to explore a career in software development.  

I started out at Esri as a product engineer for documentation on the Developer Experience team. I focused primarily on our main developer guides as well as on our open source mapping library  guides with the goal of simplifying the onboarding experience for developers new to ArcGIS. 

Now, as the Product Manager for Esri’s developer technologies, I get to help developers in a new way by helping shape our products, engaging with the community, and improving how developers build applications with ArcGIS.  

2. What does a typical day look like for you as a Product Manager working on Esri’s developer technologies?

My tasks vary day-to-day. In general, though, I have two goals. First, engage with the developer community to understand their successes, pain points, and priorities that I can then relay to our internal teams. Second, elevate our offerings and simplify the overall developer story so that developers can be successful in creating the solutions they need. 

3. The Esri Developer offerings are extensive with a breadth of services, SDKs, APIs, and access mechanisms via multiple products. How would you categorize and simplify these offerings in a way that’s easy to understand for a developer who may be new to the world of Esri?

I like to simplify our developer offerings into four pretty general categories.  

Foundational products: These are ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise, and ArcGIS Location Platform. They enable access to our services, SDKs and APIs, tools, and other resources.  

ArcGIS services: ArcGIS services expose capabilities like basemaps, geocoding, routing, and data hosting through REST APIs.

Developer SDKs and APIs: SDKs and APIs such as ArcGIS Maps SDKs or open-source libraries, enable developers to build custom applications that integrate ArcGIS services. You can also use SDKs, such as ArcGIS Pro for .NET or the ArcGIS Enterprise SDK, for extending services and applications. This category also includes design tools such as the Calcite Design System.

App builders: App builders, such as ArcGIS Experience Builder and ArcGIS Instant Apps, allow developers to build low-code/no-code applications.  

When selecting a developer offering, the most important step to help simplify your choice is by starting with the needs of your solution. It’s useful to ask questions such as: 

• What kind of solution am I building (web, native, desktop)? 
• Am I building a standalone application or extending ArcGIS Enterprise or ArcGIS Pro? 
• Do I want to create a custom application using a specific language or framework (e.g., JavaScript, Flutter, .NET), or would a low-code/no-code approach be sufficient? 
• Which location-based capabilities does my solution require? 
• Who will be using my application? 

4. Are there key distinctions between the offerings that you find are more applicable to GIS developers and non-GIS developers?

While both types of developers may use the same SDKs, APIs, and tools, I think the main difference is the type of product they use.  

GIS developers typically build applications where mapping, spatial analysis, and other GIS workflows are often central to their solution. For those use cases, ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise, and ArcGIS Online are the most relevant because they provide a complete system for managing, analyzing, and sharing geospatial data. 

For non-GIS developers, location-based capabilities are just one aspect of their application or business system integration. For instance, showing a map or finding nearby places. For them, ArcGIS Location Platform is often a good starting point since it provides location services like basemaps, geocoding, and routing without requiring a full GIS.

5. You’re currently working on the ArcGIS Developer Bundle. Can you share what this is?

The ArcGIS Developer Bundle provides a cost-effective solution for developers who want to access ArcGIS software specifically for development and testing purposes. For instance, if your development team requires a separate, stand-alone ArcGIS Enterprise to develop extensions or to test application functionality, then the bundle allows them to access the necessary ArcGIS software for their development and testing needs, independent of their production systems.

6. You’ve spoken on stage at several Esri conferences, including the Esri Developer and Technology Summit, offering product demos and technical workshops to attendees. For a developer or executive who may not have attended previously, what would you say is a benefit of attending, and what can they expect to learn?

I think a big benefit of attending the Developer and Technology Summit is that you get to meet the engineers who build the products you use in your solutions. Specifically, the Tech Zone is a great place to talk with us and get your questions answered.  The Strategy and Design Review area of the Tech Zone is valuable as that’s where you can consult with us and get personalized guidance for your solution.  

In terms of what you can learn, that’s really up to you! At this year’s conference, we had over 180 technical sessions and 20 user presentations with topics ranging from app development, dev ops, and system architecture. 

7. There’s a lot of talk about AI and agentic workflows. What AI-related developer offerings can developers using ArcGIS look forward to?

Our goal for any AI-related developer offering is to make it easier for developers to use  ArcGIS as part of their solution. To that end, I want to highlight our MCP support for ArcGIS Location Services (beta) and our new AI documentation assistant  

The MCP server exposes ArcGIS Location Services capabilities, including geocoding, routing, elevation, and static maps to MCP clients. This enables AI tools and AI-powered developer applications to access these capabilities without directly calling our REST APIs. The MCP server is currently available for ArcGIS Location Platform developers. To learn more, take a look at a recent interview with my colleague that provides more detail about MCP support for ArcGIS Location Services. 

The new ASK AI feature is a documentation assistant that improves the search experience on the Esri Developer documentation website. What I love is that you can ask questions such as “How do I edit a private feature layer?” or “Which basemap service should I choose?”. The assistant searches across the documentation site for you and returns straightforward answers with the sources it took the information from. You can learn all about the new Ask AI feature in this interview with another colleague. 

8. What resources are available to developers looking to get started with Esri, or who may already be developing applications but need guidance?

I think the best resources for developers looking to get started, or who are already developing applications, are our main guides:  

• Mapping and location services  
• Portal and data services  
• Security and authentication  
• Spatial analysis services  
• Low-code/no-code app builders  
• Offline mapping apps  

These guides show you how to build applications with ArcGIS  by providing onboarding resources, tutorials, and code examples using our Maps SDKs, Scripting APIs, and open source libraries.  

I’d also encourage developers to check out the Developers board on Esri Community as well as the Esri Developers YouTube channel. 

9. Is there anything else you would like to share with our audience?

Yes! Check out a recent video that the Developer Experience team created. It provides a great overview of the ArcGIS system and how you can leverage its capabilities within your mapping applications.  

Look out for more interviews in our Developer’s Lounge series!

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