{"id":74701,"date":"2016-12-19T17:34:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T17:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/arcgis-python-api-1-0-released\/"},"modified":"2018-03-26T21:11:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T21:11:16","slug":"arcgis-python-api-1-0-released","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/analytics\/analytics\/arcgis-python-api-1-0-released","title":{"rendered":"ArcGIS Python API 1.0 Released"},"author":6911,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[23341,37101],"tags":[24341,23391],"industry":[],"product":[36841,36571,36551,36601],"class_list":["post-74701","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analytics","category-announcements","tag-python","tag-spatial-analytics","product-api-python","product-arcgis-enterprise","product-arcgis-online","product-developers"],"acf":{"short_description":"At the Esri User Conference in San Diego last year, a small team of Esri engineers from the Python and Server teams huddled together with...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

At the Esri User Conference in San Diego last year, a small team of Esri engineers from the Python and Server teams huddled together with Scott Morehouse<\/a>, who is one of the original designers of geographic information systems,\u00a0to conceive what a modern Python API for the Web GIS would look like. Today, after eighteen months of endless design discussions, debates, development and demos, we are excited to announce the release of the ArcGIS Python API<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The project (codename Geosaurus) was initiated with this scope and vision:<\/p>\n

Geosaurus is a project to design and implement a pythonic<\/a> API for a GIS.\u00a0 A GIS consists of:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An information model<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Visualization functionality<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Editing functionality<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Information management functionality<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Analysis functionality
\nA pythonic API is one which corresponds to Python best practice style in its design and implementation (e.g. PEP 8<\/a>) and which leverages standard Python types, classes, and packages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Geosaurus API has Python modules, classes, functions, and types for managing and working with the elements of a GIS information model.\u00a0 This includes both data and visualization elements (i.e. maps, scenes, layers as well as datasets).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The API design of Geosaurus will be generic \u2013 not tied to specific ArcGIS jargon or implementation patterns.\u00a0 Although a \u201cpure Python\u201d implementation is possible for the API, it is intended to be implemented by leveraging Esri native code libraries.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Python, a package<\/strong> consists of modules<\/strong> containing classes<\/strong> and functions<\/strong>.\u00a0 A module is an installable component, with all the Python and native code necessary for execution.\u00a0 Functions, classes, and class methods are parameterized using Python types.\u00a0 These types include built-in primitives (e.g. string, number) and structures (list, dictionary), as well as object class instances.\u00a0 Where possible, Geosaurus will employ \u201cnative\u201d Python types (e.g. primitives, lists, dictionaries, and standard library objects) rather than introducing new types.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, what is the ArcGIS Python API<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

It is the Python API to your Web GIS, which could be online or on-premises.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s powerful, modern and easy to use.<\/p>\n

What do I mean by that?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0powerful<\/strong>\u00a0as it harnesses the full power and content of your Web GIS, including the ability to create, use and manage GIS resources such as users, groups and content including web maps and web layers, and provides access to the rich analytical capability of the ArcGIS platform.<\/p>\n

The API is\u00a0modern<\/strong>\u00a0as it\u2019s a new library built for Python 3 and integrates well with popular Python libraries such as Pandas, Numpy and the SciPy stack. It works especially well with the Jupyter Notebook and is distributed using Conda \u2013 a modern package and environment management system for Python.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s\u00a0easy<\/strong>\u00a0to use. It uses standard Python idioms and types and avoids introducing a complex type system or API. We\u2019ve worked very hard on keeping the API \u2018short and sweet\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s implemented on top of the REST APIs of the Web GIS platform \u2013 that\u2019s just an implementation detail, so you know where it sits in an Architecture diagram. However, the API is a pythonic representation of a GIS and you don\u2019t need to know anything about REST, such as how GET and POST work, how to obtain access tokens, and so on to use it.<\/p>\n

ArcGIS Online is built into the API and everyone<\/em> can use the GIS()<\/a> to work with the rich collection of public-access maps, layers and tools published by Esri and authoritative sources from around the world, as well as use essential GIS and mapping functionality.<\/p>\n

GIS<\/strong>(public account<\/a>) lets you use the public content and tools to create, store, and manage maps, apps, and data, and share them with others using this API.<\/p>\n

With GIS<\/strong>(org account<\/a>), you have access to the subscriber content from the Living Atlas<\/a> as well as the rich collection of spatial analysis<\/a> tools and can publish, share and use content throughout your organization, across a community, and openly on the Web. The API has great support for managing and administering your ArcGIS Online Organization or ArcGIS Enterprise – users, groups and content included.<\/p>\n

GIS<\/strong>(enterprise account<\/a>) enables you to keep your GIS under your complete control, online or on-premises. You can use the latest geoanalytics and raster analysis tools with this API and leverage distributed analysis of large datasets to gain insights from big data or create information products. We can’t wait to hear about the amazing things you will do by combining Python and the Scipy<\/a> stack with realtime GIS, imagery and geoprocessing!<\/p>\n

A free developer account<\/a> lets you get started quickly with free credits, features like geocoding, routing and geoenrichment and premium content like demographic and traffic maps from Esri.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who is this API for and what can you do with it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a Web GIS Administrator<\/strong> or a DevOps<\/strong> person, you can automate most of your repetitive tasks and use scripts instead of using the UI and clicking your way through. You can schedule these scripts to run at periodic intervals and do things like standing up Portals or your online org, creating users, assigning roles, creating groups and set access restrictions and so on.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a content<\/strong> publisher<\/strong>, you can take care of repeated content creation and content validation workflows using scripts. You can clean up and fix stale items in your GIS, script and automate the creation of web maps and web layers, update tiles and features, fix broken links in web maps and layers and update them \u00a0\u2013 doing things that may be tedious or not apparent through the UI.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re an analyst<\/strong>, data<\/strong> scientist<\/strong> or academic<\/strong> user<\/strong>, you can use all of the analytical capabilities of the ArcGIS platform including spatial analysis as well as the recently introduced geoanalytics and raster analytics tools that provide distributed analysis of large datasets.<\/p>\n

You can also use the API through the Jupyter notebook to record your workflows and share how you arrived at your conclusions. You can combine this API with the rich set of libraries in Python, especially in the machine learning and analysis space and do all sorts of amazing things.<\/p>\n

And finally, an important category of users this API is targeted towards is that of a Web GIS power user<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If you know a lot about Web GIS, use it everyday, and want to become more efficient by automating your workflows, this could be the first ArcGIS API for you. Python is a great language for people who want to start programming, and is very readable…<\/p>\n

\u2026 and conversely, this API is geared towards a Python programmer <\/strong>who doesn\u2019t know a lot about GIS but wants to add geographic analysis to his or her workflows. It provides a gentle introduction to GIS for the Python programmer as it models a generic GIS system through its simple, intuitive design.<\/p>\n

\n

That\u2019s quite a mouthful. It\u2019s probably best seen through a demo. So, here is the ArcGIS Python API explained in a quick 5 minute video:<\/p>\n