ArcGIS API For Flex 2.0 Public Beta Now Available

The ArcGIS API for Flex 2.0 Public Beta has now been made available for use. There were a number of demonstrations and sessions at the ESRI Developer Summit 2010 showcasing the ArcGIS API for Flex 2.0 and now you can try it yourself.

Like its JavaScript counterpart, version 2.0 of the ArcGIS API for Flex introduces support for Web editing, a "feature layer" for working with client-side graphics, support for time-aware layers, an expanded geometry service, new components, faster queries, and many other features.

There are bundles of new features in this latest version. Some of these include:

• FeatureLayer
  FeatureLayer is a new type of clientside operational layer that can be created and added to your map. FeatureLayer extends GraphicLayer and work against an individual layer or table in a MapService or FeatureService.

• Editing
  At ArcGIS Server 10 a new service, FeatureService, was added to support template style editing. Several widgets have been added to support editing including the Editor component, a configurable out of the box editing solution.

• Time-Awareness
  Support has been added for time-aware layers and a new TimeSlider component. You can query or display your time-aware layers using a particular slice of time. The TimeSlider provides an easy way to visualize temporal data.

• Other Updates
  Including mapping enhancements, AMF, geocode, network analyst, Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4 as well as geometry service updates.

Full information on these enhancements and updates can be found here: http://help.arcgis.com/en/…

You can access the online SDK here:

There are loads of samples, concepts and developer reference topics that should help you get started easily.

The ArcGIS API for Flex 2.0 is really designed to work against ArcGIS Server 10. While the new features require ArcGIS Server 10, existing features will still work against ArcGIS Server 9.3.1. If you are wanting to take advantage of some of the new features but do not have ArcGIS Server 10 yet, there is a solution:

Many of the new features are designed to work with the forthcoming ArcGIS 10. If you’re not part of the ArcGIS 10 beta program, you can still get a feel for the API using an ArcGIS 10 sample server that ESRI has made available. All the samples in the online SDK use this sample server.

The ArcGIS Server 10 sample server can be found here: http://sampleserver3.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/…

This is a great opportunity to test drive and have a play with the latest ArcGIS API for Flex 2.0. Sterling has posted about this release as well here: http://blogs.esri.com/dev/… As mentioned above it comes packed with loads of new features so give it a go!