- Author: Sean Hogan
The thing that I possibly like the most about the ESRI Users Conference is that you not only get to see all of the recent updates that the company has recently developed but also glimpses of what is coming soon. In particular, I am excited about the advancements that they have made in respect to web mapping applications.
Are you an ArcGIS Online user, and have been wondering when to transition from the Traditional Web Map Viewer to the new Web Map Viewer? To answer that question, for myself, I think the time is now. At this point, per ESRI, there are now only four remaining functionalities that remain to be added to the new Map Viewer to give it all of the functionality that the Traditional Map Viewer had, which will be discontinued in late 2025, including the abilities to:
- Calculate fields (this would be nice to have)
- Add additional relationships to related records (something I have never needed to do previously)
- Vector tile style editing (not something I have ever needed to do, but which I could see being useful for some people)
- Saving/duplicating layers (there is a relatively simple work around for this, but it would be nice to have it built into the Map Viewer)
That said, there are far more than four added functionalities that the new Map Viewer has that the old version lacks, including:
- Easier browsing of data
- Feature editing enhancements
- Analysis enhancements, both for vectors and rasters
- Shortcuts
- Improved visibility, filtering, and effects (on the fly)
- Toggleable layers
- Charts (donut and pie)
- Label enhancements (including improved bookmarks and placements)
- Blending (in a group layer); including blending layers with basemaps and multiply effects
- Added display expressions
- Multidimensional imagery support, including an imagery slider
- The ability to upload feature symbols (svg)
- Sketch layers (as opposed to Classic's notes) with snapping, and also with the ability to upload custom symbols
- The ability to add and manually georeferenced media layers (jpg or png) using control points (on which media blending and effects can also be applied)
Besides all of these additions, the interface has been thoughtfully revamped with usability and efficiency in mind. Some of the above enhancements will now allow you to complete some work flows/functions several times faster than they could be done before. I must admit that I am very pleased!
- Author: Shane Feirer
This is the 42nd ESRI User Conference yet in some ways it felt like the first. This is the first in-person user conference since the COVID—19 outbreak after almost 2 and a half years. All in-person participants had to have proof of vaccination to attend, even with that requirement there are over 14,000 participants. I heard more than once that it was nice to be meeting again in person.
The tag line from ESRI this year is ‘GIS – Mapping Common Ground'. They are making the case that GIS will help us as a society meet/share data on Common Ground. This can be when addressing complex issues such as Climate Change, Conservation Planning, Urban Planning etc. All these activities need us all to meet on common ground and mapping helps with that. We heard about the development and use of Geospatial data from Deanne Criswell the Director of FEMA and California's Natural Resources Secretary - Wade Crowfoot Crowfoot and Nate Roth from the Department of Conservation's Chief Science and Data Advisor, they described the data and the tools created for the California 30x30 initiative these data will be available in a web app developed in concert with ESRI https://www.californianature.ca.gov/.
I the coming days I am looking forward to hearing about the new tools that ESRI have been developing. These tools include ArcGIS Insights, Spatial Analysis of Big Data, Knowledge Graphs, etc, I look forward to writing more about the advancements as the week progresses.
- Author: Shane Feirer
Normally at this time of Year, I am getting ready to travel to San Diego for the ESRI User Conference. At the user conference 20,000 people from all over the world gather to hear about what new GIS tools and functionality ESRI is building into their GIS products. The participants also attend hundreds of technical sessions and workshops to improve their GIS Skills and they also network and discuss how they are using GIS in their fields of interests.
This year with COVID-19 the in-person user conference is not occurring, and the User Conference is going to be presented as a virtual conference (see agenda) with plenary sessions, technical sessions, and technical support. This is unfortunate, but it provides for a broader community to attend the plenary and learn about how GIS is currently being used and what GIS can be used for.
The plenary session is always an eye-opener! It typically has examples of impactful ways in which GIS is changing the world - examples from education, environment, planning, health, and so much more! It is really a great experience, and I recommend it.
If you are curious about what GIS can do or to get ideas about how else GIS could be used in our Organization please register and attend the plenary sessions of the ESRI Virtual User Conference. If you want to talk about GIS or about what you saw at the Virtual User Conference, please email me at igis@ucanr.edu.
https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/events/uc/overview
From ESRI:
‘Get access to the Plenary Session livestream
Watch powerful stories about how GIS is making a difference in the world. See demonstrations of Esri technology and learn about the newest upgrades. Hear a keynote from Jack Dangermond and presentations from other thought-provoking speakers.
Plenary Session access is complimentary for everyone'
Registration Now for the Plenary:
https://www.esri.com/en-us/lg/events/20/virtual-uc-plenary-livestream-sign-up
- Author: Shane Feirer
IGIS worked with UCANR Advisors Mike Jones, Rick Satomi, and Yana Valachovic to conduct two 2-day training workshops in Northern California the week of March 18th-23rd. These workshops were held in Santa Rosa, CA and Arcata, CA. and they were well attended by approximately 20 participants at each location. The intent of these workshops were to bring the participants up to speed on the latest GIS software (ArcGIS Pro, and ArcGIS Online), best practices in cartography, managing data, and spatial analysis, and mobile data collection (ArcGIS Collector, ArcGIS Survey 123, and Azenva).
IGIS will conduct these workshops two more times in the coming months. These workshops will be held at the following locations and dates:
- Lake Tahoe Community College, April 25 – 26
- Shasta College, May 10 – 11
For More Information: Please see the following website: http://ceshasta.ucanr.edu/Forestry/ForestGIS/
Register now at: UCANR.EDU/GISWORKSHOP
- Author: Shane Feirer
Day 3 of the ESRI User Conference, new tools, new story maps, and new ways to work with data.
New Tools, ESRI is supporting new tools with the python and R programming languages. With python they have integrated the ability to easily use 3rd party libraries within ArcGIS by integrating conda into the upcoming release of ArcGIS Pro 1.3 and they have also made it possible to use python to manage ArcGIS online content with the Python API. With R, ESRi has released a ArcGIS R Bridge that allows for the use use or esri data sets in R and the easy use or results from your R analyzes in ArcGIS.
New Story Maps, at the user conference last year, ESRI highlighted a new story map style called the cascade story map. I found out yesterday that they have developed an app builder for this new style of story map and they have also released another style called a crowdsource story map. I also reached out to the developers of story maps today and found out they are developing a new template, they are going to share this new template with us. I cannot wait to see how these storymaps will be used by UCANR in the coming months / year.
New ways to work with data, ESRI has developed new ways to work with data, these data may include Big Data or Multi-dimensional Data. In the case of Multi-dimensional Data they have highlighted new tools to work with netcdf data, but they also showed how that are using existing tools within ArcGIS to work with Multi-dimensional Data. These tools start by importing Multi-dimensional Data into raster mosaics and they using the full suite of ArcGIS tools on these data structures. When it comes to Big Data, they have created a new suite or tools and capabilities within ArcGIS that will allow us to perform big data analysis directly within ArcGIS. Multi-dimensional Data can be used now with ArcGIS and Big Data Analytics will be available in the coming months.
I look forward to seeing what the 4th day will bring.
