ArcGIS Server 10 introduces some great enhancements when working with caches. Cache generation is not only faster but there are a number of new tools to help you manage large caches which also makes it easier to move. Some of these tools were touched on at the ESRI Developer Summit 2010 and for those looking at some of the more advanced topics around caching you can have a watch of the technical session from the ESRI Developer Summit 2010. This can be found here: http://www.esri.com/events/… With the introduction of these enhancements, I have been using ArcGIS Server 10 build our map service...

Over the last few weeks I have had a few users asking for detailed security requirements for ArcGIS Server 9.3 running on Windows. As such I wanted to remind everyone of a whitepaper that is published on the Enterprise Resource Centre. This document provides a list of security settings required for ArcGIS Server implementations. Most customers will not need to refer to this document, as the default installation steps help manage these settings automatically. This document is primarily for customers who need to manually set security settings in hardened environments. There are four primary areas of...

VMware has published a comprehensive deployment guide for ArcGIS Server 9.3. While this guide is focused on deployment it does contain a number of technical considerations to take into account during deployment. This document describes the best practices for running a typical ESRI ArcGIS® Server deployment on VMware® Infrastructure. It provides basic guidance on the architectural design of an ArcGIS deployment and the value of utilizing the VMware platform to provide virtual infrastructure.  It then discusses results of recent testing conducted jointly by VMware and ESRI characterizing the...

Late last week the New Zealand Archaeological Association launched their new site recording scheme website. ArchSite is a new initiative that will enable people to more easily access information about archaeological sites in New Zealand. ArchSite is an online database that contains information about recorded archaeological sites, and uses GIS (Geographic Information System) technology to manage and display site information. ArchSite is the national inventory of archaeological sites in New Zealand, and the information it contains is used for research, site management and protection. There are currently...

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 late last month. Since then I have installed it on a number of my workstations. Performance has been great and I haven’t had any major problems. Almost a year ago I tested the first beta release of IE8 on a number of web mapping applications. The results can be found here: http://mandown.co.nz/development/… Most sites have worked to add support for IE8. With the new Compatibility View mode on IE8 which emulates IE8 as IE7 it makes it very easy for websites to support the browser. Developers can add a meta tag which will tell IE8 to emulate the browser as...

The ESRI Developer Summit 2009 kicks off next week in Palm Springs. In preparation for this, the ArcGIS Server Development Team has make available the demonstrations that they will be presenting during the Developing Advanced Applications With The ArcGIS JavaScript API. These are the demos that we will be presenting during the ‘Developing Advanced Applications with the ArcGIS JavaScript API’ session at Developer Summit ’09. The demos include Dijits, Printing, API Usage, Custom functionality, Info Window Customization, etc. These demonstrations can be downloaded from the ESRI...

ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API 1.2 was released late year. Since then the team has been hard at work on the next version. ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API 1.3 is now available for immediate use. There are a bundle of new features. Some of these include: Support for Dojo 1.2.3 Layer Extensibility Error Handling Enhanced Map Layer Management Other Map Enhancements I/O Enhancements Other Enhancements Bug Fixes A full write up of all the new features can be found on the ESRI Resource Centre for the ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API here: http://resources.esri.com/help/… The SDK examples have already been updated to...

For those that haven’t seen the announcement, ESRI has announced the availability of ArcSDE 9.3 with new native 64-bit support for a bundle of platforms. ESRI is pleased to announce the availability of ArcSDE 9.3 with new native 64-bit support for Oracle® 10g & 11g, and Microsoft® SQL Server® on the following platforms: Windows, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 4 & 5, and SUSE® 10 Enterprise Linux from Novell® These new platforms have been built on the ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 source code. How do you get a copy? US based customers who are under maintenance can request a DVD from ESRI...

This week I have been doing some research and development around some of the new sample viewers that ESRI has build for ArcGIS Server 9.3 users. Sample viewers exist for the different API’s and is freely available for users to download and extend. Today I thought I would download and have a look at the Sample ArcGIS 9.3 JavaScript API Viewer. This viewer can be found and downloaded from the Code Gallery on the ArcGIS Server Resource Centre here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/… Included in the .zip is a developers guide and the folder containing all the required files. The...

This is a great and very useful post from Emeline who is a Support Analyst with ESRI. Emeline polled the ArcGIS Server Usage Team and came up with a top ten most helpful ArcGIS Server help topics that are available from the ESRI Support Centre. No matter how you use ArcGIS Server, whether you are an administrator, developer, or the analyst responsible for making the maps and models, these topics are worth adding to your Favorites folder! The list counting down is as follows: 10. Performance Tips for Web Applications 9.5. Tuning and Configuring Services 9. Working with Configuration Files 8. Checklist...