ArcGIS Desktop 9.4, ArcGIS Server 9.4 And ArcGIS Mobile 9.4, The Road Ahead At The ESRI International User Conference 2009

The ESRI International User Conference 2009 is in full swing after a massive Plenary session yesterday. Coverage of what went on at the Plenary session can be found in my write up here: http://mandown.co.nz/events/…

The Plenary introduced some of the new concepts that are coming with ArcGIS 9.4. Many of these were similar to those showcased at the ESRI Business Partner Conference 2009 and the ESRI Developer Summit 2009 earlier this year. ESRI has made good way with the platform since then and I was really interested to see what they had to offer. I collated a bundle of the information that has been fed back from the different sessions on ArcGIS 9.4.

ArcGIS Desktop 9.4 Road Ahead

ArcGIS Desktop 9.4 will focus on dramatically improving usability, performance and scalability

Mentioned at the Plenary session yesterday, these are the key areas being targeted. ArcGIS Desktop 9.4 will “evolve” the way you work with GIS. The three key themes for the release.

Create, Analyse, Share

ArcGIS 9.4 beta will start around October 2009 with a pre-release is scheduled for early 2010. Some of the key enhancements of ArcGIS Desktop 9.4.

• While ArcGIS Desktop 9.4 does not have a ribbon interface, a number of the tools and functions have been tidied up with more customisation options being offered.

• ArcCatalog has been integrated with ArcMap. This window also auto-hides itself. For those that work with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, ArcMap will adopt the similar docking mechanism giving users the ability to rearrange windows however they like.
• New searching capabilities have been added to ArcGIS Desktop 9.4. This is great! Searching will include all symbols and styles. You will also have the ability to share search indexes with ArcGIS Server 9.4.
• Layer packages are being extended to include maps, globes, tools, models and diagrams. This is going to be great for sharing data with ArcGIS Explorer 900.
• A new time tab in the layer properties will provide support for temporal data.
• The table of contents has had a lot of work and has been vastly improved. The new TOC will allow for better selection options and rendering representations.
• The ability to add geoprocessing models as tools into any toolbar for quick access has been added.
• Geoprocessing processes will be able to be run in the background allowing you to continue working while the model does its work. This is going to be a huge feature for increasing productivity.
• Data driven pages will allow you to create map series very easily. The layouts will include dynamic text created automatically from map content.
• PDF export has been extended to support multiple pages. You will be able to export your map series as PDF to email/print.
• Microsoft Windows 7 will be officially supported, while support for Microsoft Windows 2000 will be dropped.
• Python support will be built into ArcMap. This was heavily showcased at the ESRI Developer Summit 2009 earlier this year. Python support will allow you to interact directly with Python script. This integration will also include intellsense support.
• 64-bit support for ArcGIS Desktop 9.4 is scheduled for post ArcGIS 9.4 release while multi-threading is slowly getting there. Geoprocessing services are taking some advantage of this but research is continuing on how to add this to other parts of ArcGIS.

ArcGIS Server 9.4 Road Ahead

While many of us have been thinking ArcGIS 9.4 will be a desktop release, ArcGIS Server 9.4 is set to get a bundle of new features and enhancements. So what do these include?

• A new compact map cache.

You may have noticed that moving a map cache is a big pain. ESRI is addressing this at 9.4 by providing a “compact” map cache format. It isn’t really that much smaller in terms of total size, but the number of files is much smaller. A cache that took 9 hrs to move was able to be moved in 8 min in a compact form. That is not a typo: 8 minutes. Creation drops from 5 hours to 2 hours.

This is going to be great! No information on how this works yet.

• Map services are being extended to support tables, relationships, maplex and cartographic representations which will in turn be exposed through the REST API.

• A new enhanced geometry service will support advanced geometry editing through a web client. These will include reshaping, spliting, merging and the like.
• The ability to edit features from a map services using database replication has been added. You can sync the changes to the GDB via the web.
• Similar to ArcGIS Desktop 9.4, 64-bit support is scheduled for post ArcGIS Server 9.4. This is currently an ongoing engineering project.
• Query layers is a new addition that’s coming in ArcGIS Server 9.4.

If you’ve worked with spatial data in Sql Server Management Studio (SSMS) you’ve probably wondered why you can’t produce a map showing the same results. It looks like you will be able to in Arcmap at 9.4. The demo showed a cryptic long SQL string in the layer properties dialog box. You’ll probably want to have SSMS to design you queries, then cut and paste into Arcmap. When you publish a QueryLayer as a map service, it hits SqlServer directly – no ArcSDE required. Sounds even more direct than a Direct Link.

ArcGIS Server 9.4 is going to include some really neat new features. To add to the above list, will be new editing templates to take advantages of some of these features.

ArcGIS Mobile 9.4 Road Ahead

We were presented with an initial insight into what’s coming at ArcGIS Mobile 9.4 earlier this year but since then ESRI has expanded heavily on this list. What the key framework improvements of ArcGIS 9.4?

A nice list of some of the key improvements to ArcGIS Mobile. What are some of the other improvements that’s coming?

• The support for capturing photos in the field. This will work similarly to the way capturing photos work in ArcPad.

• A new project centre for creating and managing your mobile deployments. The project centre will allow you to control you project deployments on your devices as well as customising each project to your specific need.
• A new geometry collection task has been added; GPS, from the map or from XY coordinates throw you into a streamlined capture process.
• Automatic posting options for syncing with ArcGIS Server 9.4 has been added and this includes automatically syncing whenever the data has changed.
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• Motion tablet enhancements will include touch support, skinning for use in the evening and feature contrast. This follows a number of the handheld principles.

ArcGIS Mobile 9.4 for the iPhone was announced and demonstrated on stage at the Plenary yesterday. More information has been available.

ArcGIS Mobile 9.4 for the iPhone will be available from the Apple Store. The initial version will be shipping at the ArcGIS 9.4 release. Some of the key capabilities can be seen in the slide above. There are a bundle more capabilities coming as well.

Wow what a list of features and enhancements coming for ArcGIS 9.4. It’s going to be a very exciting release and definitely one to look out for. More information will be coming so I will continue to update when this is made available. Information here was collated from Neil, Glenn and Kirk. Thanks guys