Latest Contributions by EmilyWindahl

Heads up for ArcGIS Online users: The Oriented Imagery Classic widget for Experience Builder, deprecated in 2025, will be removed in February 2026. If your apps rely on this widget, now is the time to plan your migration to the new integrated oriented imagery capability for a smooth transition.   Why are we removing the Oriented Imagery Classic widget? ArcGIS has evolved! The oriented imagery features integrated into ArcGIS are rapidly approaching equivalency with Oriented Imagery Classic. This means you can now move away from the older, community-supported prototype and benefit from oriented imagery functionality that’s fully embedded in ArcGIS. The new version of oriented imagery uses similar patterns, but has been built into ArcGIS from the ground up. This enables wide adoption of oriented imagery across ArcGIS—no downloads or add-ins required. It allows users to leverage familiar ArcGIS patterns to work with oriented imagery. It means that we're innovating with dedicated technical resources, with a more robust development process and a long-term commitment to maintenance and enhancements. And it's fully supported by Esri Technical Support. Additionally, the upcoming ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript 5.0 (February 2026) will not support visualizing oriented imagery catalogs (the data model used by Oriented Imagery Classic). Once ArcGIS Online adopts JS SDK 5.0, the Classic widget will no longer be compatible. What should you do next? If you’re still using the Oriented Imagery Classic widget: Re-publish your oriented imagery catalog as an oriented imagery layer. Use the Oriented Imagery toolbox in ArcGIS Pro to create an oriented imagery dataset with your original imagery and publish it as an oriented imagery layer. ArcGIS QuickCapture users: If you used QuickCapture to create and manage your oriented imagery catalog, you can enable Oriented Imagery in the QuickCapture designer to update your layer to be compatible with the integrated oriented imagery tools. Learn more.  Recreate your Oriented Imagery Classic app using the Oriented Imagery Viewer widget.  The Oriented Imagery Viewer widget for Experience Builder is designed to work with the new oriented imagery layers. Learn more about configuring and working with the oriented imagery viewer. The oriented imagery layer is the new, supported data model for managing oriented imagery. In addition to the Oriented Imagery Viewer widget for Experience Builder, oriented imagery layers can also be visualized using the built-in oriented imagery viewer in ArcGIS Pro, Map Viewer, ArcGIS Excalibur, the 3D Viewer and Sidebar templates for Instant Apps, as well as the oriented imagery viewer widget in the JavaScript SDK.  Learn more about which Oriented Imagery Classic features are available across ArcGIS to help plan your transition. For custom app developers If you've used Experience Builder Developer Edition or the JavaScript SDK to build and host a custom app with the Oriented Imagery Classic widget, you can continue using the app as long as you don't update your app to JavaScript SDK 5.0. If you're not ready to migrate You have the option to use ArcGIS Experience Builder Developer Edition to manage your Experience Builder app and host it yourself, continuing to reference JS SDK 4.x. You can also visualize oriented imagery catalogs using the Oriented Imagery Classic Explorer app, which we’ll continue to host for the foreseeable future.  For ArcGIS Enterprise users The Oriented Imagery Classic widget will also be removed from ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1. Before your organization updates their deployment to 12.1, you should plan your migration to the new oriented imagery capabilities.     ... View more

As 2025 comes to a close, it’s a good time to take stock of the progress we’ve made integrating functionality from Oriented Imagery Classic directly into ArcGIS. Oriented Imagery Classic was deprecated in January 2025 and will be retired in 2026. The new integrated version of oriented imagery uses similar patterns, but has been built into ArcGIS from the ground up, with a new data model, management tools, and viewer. The oriented imagery features now available in ArcGIS are rapidly approaching parity with Oriented Imagery Classic. This means most users can transition away from the older, community-supported prototype and benefit from oriented imagery functionality that’s fully embedded in ArcGIS. Oriented imagery features available in ArcGIS today The table below shows key features from Oriented Imagery Classic and when they became available across ArcGIS foundational products. Features planned for 2026 A few Classic features are still in development, including: A workflow for managing video using an oriented imagery dataset Support for managing and visualizing 360° video The oriented imagery viewer integrated into Scene Viewer The ability to superimpose images in a 3D scene We expect most users can migrate now without these features, but they are on track for release in 2026. Classic features that won’t be supported Some Oriented Imagery Classic features will not carry forward: You will not be able to define custom variables as part of the oriented imagery layer schema the way you can with oriented imagery catalogs. This also means that we will not be able to support token servers, which rely on the custom variables in Oriented Imagery Classic. To securely host images, users can leverage feature attachments in ArcGIS Online, custom data feeds in ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5+, and secure image hosting available with ArcGIS Enterprise 12.0 and ArcGIS Pro 3.6. Additionally, we do not plan to provide a separately hosted app like the Oriented Imagery Classic Explorer. Instead, users can take advantage of the built-in oriented imagery viewer in Map Viewer or ArcGIS Excalibur; build Instant Apps using the Sidebar and 3D Viewer templates; or build an Experience Builder app using the Oriented Imagery Viewer widget. Next steps for Oriented Imagery Classic users If you haven’t already, it’s time to familiarize yourself with the oriented imagery functionality that has been integrated into ArcGIS, and start migrating your Oriented Imagery Classic management workflows, oriented imagery catalogs, and apps.   ... View more

Content contributed by @RandallRebello  With the release of ArcGIS Online in October 2023, some users of Oriented Imagery Classic have noticed their 360-degree imagery displayed incorrectly in the oriented imagery widget for Experience Builder. This happened because the widget started utilizing roll and pitch parameters that were previously being ignored for 360 images. Using these values results in more flexibility for Oriented Imagery Classic users to define pitch and roll for 360 images, but changed how existing catalogs displayed 360 images in some cases. The solution is for users to edit oriented imagery catalogs that are displaying incorrectly to include correct roll and pitch values. In October 2023, Oriented Imagery Classic changed how it handles 360 images in oriented imagery catalogs in the Experience Builder widget. If an oriented imagery catalog’s feature service contains a CamOri field, nothing has changed; the CamOri parameters (which define the most accurate orientation available in the oriented imagery schema) will be used to visualize the images. However, before the October release, if no CamOri field was included, the Oriented Imagery Classic API assumed that the CamPitch and CamRoll values of 360 images were always 90 and 0, respectively. For 360 images, CamPitch and CamRoll parameters provided in the attribute table or in the oriented imagery catalog properties were ignored. With the October release, the CamPitch and CamRoll fields (in either the attribute table or the oriented imagery catalog properties) are now utilized to visualize 360 images. If you had values in these fields that were different from the Oriented Imagery Classic defaults, it may have changed how your 360 images are displayed. If your 360 images are suddenly displaying incorrectly, the oriented imagery catalog should be revised to correct the pitch and roll of the images. To get the same rotations as before, you can set CamPitch to 90 and CamRoll to 0 in the attribute table of the oriented imagery catalog’s feature service or in the oriented imagery catalog’s properties. (Note the order in which orientation parameters are applied: if a CamOri string is available, that will be used to define the images orientation. If no CamOri string is available, the CamPitch and CamRoll values in the attribute table will be used. Finally, if the CamPitch and CamRoll fields are not present in the attribute table, the default CamPitch and CamRoll values defined in the oriented imagery catalog properties will be used.) Before making any corrections, we recommend backing up existing CamPitch and CamRoll values to new, unused fields in the attribute table, so you’re able to recover them if needed. Note that editing your data to use the correct pitch and roll values will fix the issue in Experience Builder, and will not cause issues in the Pro add-in or Oriented Imagery Explorer app. Correcting your data will also prevent the same issue from occurring in the Pro add-in and the Explorer app in the next release. Currently, the Oriented Imagery add-in for ArcGIS Pro and the Oriented Imagery Explorer app are not affected—they are using the default CamPitch and CamRoll values of 90 and 0, respectively. However, with the next release of Oriented Imagery Classic, all Oriented Imagery Classic clients will utilize the CamPitch and CamRoll fields when displaying 360 images (if no CamOri string is provided). For reference, it’s useful to understand how the oriented imagery catalog schema defines camera pitch and camera roll. Camera pitch starts at nadir (pointing straight down)—this is defined as 0 degrees. This pitch increases as the camera rotates counter-clockwise around the X axis, meaning the pitch is 90 degrees when the camera is pointed to and level with the horizon. Think of this as holding your phone and taking a picture of your feet (pitch = 0 degrees). Then rotate your phone up 90 degrees to take a picture pointing at the horizon in front of you (pitch = 90 degrees). For camera roll, in this example, because the phone screen is parallel with your body, and the top of the frame is parallel to the ground, camera roll is 0 degrees. If you tilt the phone to the left 45 degrees (still pointing at the horizon), the camera roll would be 45. If you continue to have issues with this, or need additional support, you can contact OrientedImagery@esri.com. ... View more

We're integrating oriented imagery directly into ArcGIS foundational products! With the new oriented imagery capability of ArcGIS, you can expand the range of imagery sources and perspectives in your GIS to better inform decision-making and provide situational awareness. With the October release of ArcGIS Online, check out the new oriented imagery layer and oriented imagery widget in the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript, and support for visualizing oriented imagery (including the oriented imagery viewer!) built in to Map Viewer. The ArcGIS Pro 3.2 release will include the ability to manage and visualize oriented imagery directly within Pro, plus the option to publish oriented imagery layers to ArcGIS Online (and ArcGIS Enterprise 11.2). More key features will be introduced throughout 2024. Read the blog to learn more about the integrated oriented imagery capability. If you're already an Oriented Imagery Classic user, check out the FAQ to see what the plan is for the legacy version of oriented imagery. ... View more