Interface to ArcGIS Pro to retreive data

Kai_DA

Hello everybody,

 

I am currently doing research for my master thesis in GIS. At the moment I am looking into the possibilites of creating an interface to ArcGIS to retreive data from ArcGIS Pro projects using the many different APIs ESRI offers. 

Using the ArcGIS API for python I was able to establish an interface which is able to access all the data that is currently present in the project.

Now I have stumbled across the Runtime API for .NET, but since I am basically new to .NET (using C#) two questions arise:

1. Is it even possible to establish such an interface using .NET API (reading through the description of the API it looks like it should be possible, but the description focuses more on map visualization for desktop or mobile apps).

2. Do I always have to specify an API Key to use the Runtime API?

 

Maybe the answers to my questions are very obvious, but i still thought I'd give it a shot and ask here.

Many thanks in advance!

Nicholas-Furness

Hi.

As you noticed, the Runtime SDK for .NET is really meant for building standalone desktop and mobile apps. It doesn't provide an interface to ArcGIS Pro or its projects. Now, you can use ArcGIS Pro to export/generate/publish data and packages that you can use with the Runtime, but that's not what you're after.

There is also the ArcGIS Pro SDK, which allows you to build add-ins for Pro. That is used to customize the ArcGIS Pro app (e.g. create custom tools, or a customized user interface, but still all running within the Pro app). Again, this doesn't sound like it will necessarily do what you want, but it could perhaps help you build a custom user interface around what you're doing.

For your goal of accessing data in an ArcGIS Pro project, I think you're already doing the right thing. This page should provide some guidance too, although I suspect you've already found it.

As for API keys with the Runtime: No, you don't need to use them. They only come into play if you are making use of mapping services hosted in the ArcGIS Platform (geocoding, routing, demographics, etc. or your own data uploaded and hosted in ArcGIS Platform). See the Mapping APIs and services guide for more details. An API key is an authentication mechanism that provides metered access to these services when working with an ArcGIS Developers account. If you are accessing data hosted in an ArcGIS Online organization (as opposed to your own ArcGIS Developers account) then you could instead use one of the other authentication methods that the ArcGIS system supports (usually a named user).

You might find the community pages for Python and the ArcGIS Pro SDK useful too.

I hope that helps.