topic Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget in ArcGIS Viewer for Flex Questions

Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:55:42 GMT

I had posted this question at the end of the very long Enhanced Search Widget thread. The core question is larger than that, though, so I have started a new thread. Apologies for the double post...
********************

Robert & other Flex developers,

First, let me add my voice to the chorus of thanks-- your tools and support of the community are outstanding.

I have the Enhanced Search Widget up and running successfully with my MapService. I also have a geoprocessing service that returns a point layer as part of my map. I would like the user to be able to select these results and view the table in the DataGrid. I am fairly new to both ArcGIS Server and Flex (I have poked around the uncompiled code, but haven't gotten into it yet). It's not clear to me whether geoprocessing results which come from the UniqueJobID/%scratchworkspace% on the server have a REST endpoint. And if so, if there is a consistent one that can be access across sessions with the same URL.

I hope this hasn't been addressed before-- I did search for it, but may have missed it.

Again, many thanks for your help & efforts!
-Erik

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:18:31 GMT

Erik,

The geo-processing result do get a URL but that url is not well known until the process is run and therefore I believe your answer is no.

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:24:22 GMT

Bummer... thanks, Robert. The tag line in your signature is apropos. Without wasting a lot of your time, are there any workarounds that come to mind? It seems like accessing the tabular results of a geoprocessing service would be considered fairly core functionality. Maybe have a second output parameter that's a RecordSet copy of the FeatureSet point layer that gets added to the map? Then how to link them?

Again, thanks for your time & help.
-Erik

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

MLowry — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:35:35 GMT

What does your geoprocessing do?

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:42:10 GMT

The user inputs some text parameters. The GP script runs a bunch of Python on the server that's basically some fairly straightforward math & field calculations. The input layer is on a point layer stored in SDE. The first step of the GP script is to make a copy of the point data that is put in the JOBID/%scratchworksace%, so that the user isn't writing to the SDE layer (the GP service only has viewer access, anyway). This results is a essentially the copy of the input points with a new field that ranks the points. So depending on the user inputs, the points will rank out differently. The results are brought into the map. They look great and I can query them individually, but I want the user to be able to access the whole table of results and interact with it a la ArcMap desktop.

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:46:28 GMT

So I just found the URL via the REST page. It does have the JOBID hard coded in the URL. Maybe there's a way to figure out to to have store the JOBID as a variable and use that variable in the Enhanced Search Widget URL??

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

MLowry — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:47:40 GMT

The user inputs some text parameters. The GP script runs a bunch of Python on the server that's basically some fairly straightforward math & field calculations. The input layer is on a point layer stored in SDE. The first step of the GP script is to make a copy of the point data that is put in the JOBID/%scratchworksace%, so that the user isn't writing to the SDE layer (the GP service only has viewer access, anyway). This results is a essentially the copy of the input points with a new field that ranks the points. So depending on the user inputs, the points will rank out differently. The results are brought into the map. They look great and I can query them individually, but I want the user to be able to access the whole table of results and interact with it a la ArcMap desktop.

Possible to add a step at the end of GP to copy those scratch result points to a permanent feature class which is published through its own .mxd which is published to it's own .msd which is its own service on your server with a known path. The python script will also re-save the .mxd after the old data has been overwritten with the new query data or even increment a number at the end of the feature class name (ie. results1, results2, etc.), re-export to .msd, restart the service, and clear the REST cache and that one service will just be dynamically changed each time they run a query.

Just the first idea that came to mind. There's probably better alternatives.

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:49:29 GMT

Possible to add a step at the end of GP to copy those scratch result points to a permanent feature class which is published through its own .mxd which is published to it's own .msd which is its own service on your server with a known path. The python script will also re-save the .mxd after the old data has been overwritten with the new query data or even increment a number at the end of the feature class name (ie. results1, results2, etc.), re-export to .msd, restart the service, and clear the REST cache and that one service will just be dynamically changed each time they run a query.

Just the first idea that came to mind. There's probably better alternatives.

Yes -- that's a good thought. It could run into problems if there are concurrent users, though, no?

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

MLowry — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:57:34 GMT

Yes -- that's a good thought. It could run into problems if there are concurrent users, though, no?

That could cause some issues, yes, but there's always ways around that depending on how you decide to do it. Bad thing about round-about ideas like mine are the performance factors.

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:06:53 GMT

That could cause some issues, yes, but there's always ways around that depending on how you decide to do it. Bad thing about round-about ideas like mine are the performance factors.

Right... It's not clear in my mind how to do it, but I think it's worth trying to pursue the idea of passing the JOBID as a variable to the Enhanced Search Widget. The Geoprocessing widget gets the JOBID in response to the user submitting a request. So I just need to figure out how to then pass that to the other widget.... This probably can't be done given the modular nature of the widgets. Which might mean trying to combine them? Ugh. Getting in over my head fast here.

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:10:24 GMT

Erik,

The only way you are going to get a datagrid displayed for this GP process data is to do a custom widget. Which like you stated is probably a little deep for you. The eSearch does not support displaying attributes of a layer that does not come from a MapService.

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:04:14 GMT

Erik,

The only way you are going to get a datagrid displayed for this GP process data is to do a custom widget. Which like you stated is probably a little deep for you. The eSearch does not support displaying attributes of a layer that does not come from a MapService.

Thanks, again, Robert. My timeline is such that I might try to go down this road over the next 6 months. If I am successful, I'll be sure to make the results available for interested folks.
-Erik

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

MaxSquires — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:16:38 GMT

If I am successful, I'll be sure to make the results available for interested folks.

I'm interested. How can I learn more?

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:12:39 GMT

I'm interested. How can I learn more?

Hi Frederic,

I have pursued this and developed a custom widget that includes geoprocessing results as graphics linked to a datagrid. Modifying the Viewer's Geoprocessing widget ended up not making sense for me-- since I was taking the time to learn Flex and develop custom functionality, it made more sense to incorporate other project-specific custom functionality (beyond the datagrid linked to graphic results) into a custom widget. The Viewer's Geoprocessing widget is also pretty complex since it is designed to handle many kinds of geoprocessing operations, not just a specific one like my custom widget is, so modifying it would require more time spent trying to understand and modify a lot of code that isn't applicable to my project, anyway.

If you are interested in getting into the Flex coding, I would be happy to share some of my code (there are also already several posts and examples out there which helped me along the way. This blog is a good place to start... http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2009/02/19/sychronizing-map-and-datagrid-interaction-with-the-arcgis-api-for-flex/ )

If I ever have the time to dig in a bit more, I still think it would be great to have this as part of the stock Geoprocessing widget functionality and would repost the results here if I do go down that road. I suspect there are others with more Flex skills who will beat me to it, though!

-Erik

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

MaxSquires — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:32:14 GMT

Hi Frederic,

If you are interested in getting into the Flex coding...

I am definately interested. I sent you a message with more details. Thanks.

Re: Access Geoprocessing results in Flex Viewer: Enhanced Search Widget

ErikMartin — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 07:55:58 GMT

I am definately interested. I sent you a message with more details. Thanks.

Frederic,

Here's the core of my code. I took out a lot of non-essential stuff, so it might not all look right (e.g. if you look in the Design view of FB, it won't look right). But this should make it easier to see what I did to get the GP results & datagrid working. Also note that I'm using an asynchronous service-- if yours is synchronous, you'll need to amend it accordingly. Hope this helps.
-Erik

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<viewer:BaseWidget xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
       xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
       xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx"
       xmlns:esri="http://www.esri.com/2008/ags"
       xmlns:viewer="com.esri.viewer.*"
       xmlns:supportClasses="com.esri.ags.skins.supportClasses.*"
       xmlns:renderers="com.esri.ags.renderers.*"
       widgetConfigLoaded="init()">
 <fx:Script>
  <![CDATA[
   import com.esri.ags.FeatureSet;
   import com.esri.ags.Graphic;
   import com.esri.ags.Map;
   import com.esri.ags.events.ExtentEvent;
   import com.esri.ags.events.GeoprocessorEvent;
   import com.esri.ags.geometry.Extent;
   import com.esri.ags.geometry.Geometry;
   import com.esri.ags.geometry.MapPoint;

   import com.esri.ags.layers.GraphicsLayer;

   import com.esri.ags.renderers.supportClasses.UniqueValueInfo;
   import com.esri.ags.symbols.SimpleFillSymbol;
   import com.esri.ags.tasks.supportClasses.*;
   import com.esri.ags.tasks.supportClasses.JobInfo;
   import com.esri.ags.tasks.supportClasses.LinearUnit;
   import com.esri.ags.tasks.supportClasses.ParameterValue;
   import com.esri.ags.utils.GraphicUtil;
   import com.esri.ags.utils.WebMercatorUtil;
   
   import flash.events.Event;
   import flash.utils.flash_proxy;
   import flashx.textLayout.tlf_internal;
   import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
   import mx.collections.IList;
   import mx.controls.Alert;
   import mx.core.mx_internal;
   import mx.events.CloseEvent;
   import mx.events.EffectEvent;
   import mx.events.FlexEvent;
   import mx.events.ListEvent;
   import mx.rpc.Fault;
   import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
   import mx.utils.ArrayUtil;
   import mx.utils.ObjectUtil;
   import spark.events.GridEvent;
   import spark.events.TextOperationEvent;
   
   
   [Bindable] private var taskurl:String;
   private var myGraphicsLayer:GraphicsLayer;
   [Bindable] private var resultAttributes: ArrayCollection;
   private var selGraphic:Graphic;
   private var fs: FeatureSet;
   private var highlightedGraphic:Graphic;
   private var requestObject:Object;
   [Bindable] public var inputArr:Array = new Array();
   private var inputFR:FileReference = new FileReference();
   
   
   
   public function init():void
   {
    if (configXML) // checking for valid content in the configuration file
    {
     myGraphicsLayer = new GraphicsLayer();
     taskurl = configXML.taskurl;  
    }
    else
    {
     Alert.show("Problem with config.xml file")
    }
    map.doubleClickZoomEnabled= true;
   }   
   
   
   //geoprocessor fault handler
   private function gp_faultHandler(event:FaultEvent):void
   {     
    Alert.show(event.fault.message.toString() );
   }
   
   //parameter input submit button handler
   private function submit_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
   {  myGraphicsLayer.clear();
    var requestObject:Object = createRequestObject();
    gp.submitJob(requestObject);
    //     CursorManager.setBusyCursor();
    setCurrentState("Processing",true);     
   }
   
   //creates the request object from the input parameter values
   private function createRequestObject():Object
   {
    var metric1:String = met1.text;
    var metric2:String = met2.selectedItem;
    var metric3:String = met3.text;
    requestObject ={
     "Metric_1":metric1,
     "Metric_2":metric2,
     "Metric_3":metric3};
    return requestObject;
   }
   
   //fires when geoprocessor finishes.  retrives result data
   protected function gp_jobCompleteHandler(event:GeoprocessorEvent):void
   {
    if (event.jobInfo.jobStatus == JobInfo.STATUS_SUCCEEDED)
    { 
     gp.addEventListener(GeoprocessorEvent.GET_RESULT_DATA_COMPLETE, onGetResult);
     gp.getResultData(gp.submitJobLastResult.jobId, "Result");
    }
    else
    {
     Alert.show("Geoprocessing Error");
    }
   }
   
   //fires when the results have been received.  renders the results & grahics to map, gets attributes 
   protected function onGetResult(event : GeoprocessorEvent) : void
   {     
    myGraphicsLayer.renderer = ResultRenderer(); //this is a separate unique value renderer compenent
    var pv:ParameterValue = event.parameterValue;
    fs = new FeatureSet;
    fs = pv.value as FeatureSet;
    
    for each(var graphic:Graphic in fs.features)
    {
     myGraphicsLayer.add(graphic);
    } 
    map.addLayer(myGraphicsLayer); 
    
    var resultAttribute:Array = fs.attributes;
    resultAttributes= new ArrayCollection(resultAttribute);
   }
   
   //selects result graphic when clicked on and finds matching record in datagrid
   protected function graphic_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
   {
    selGraphic = Graphic(event.target);         
    for each(var attributes : Object in resultsGrid.dataProvider)
    {
     if (attributes === selGraphic.attributes)
     {
      resultsGrid.selectedIndex = (resultsGrid.dataProvider as ArrayCollection).getItemIndex(attributes)         
     }
    }                
    resultsGrid.ensureCellIsVisible(resultsGrid.selectedIndex);
    resultsGrid.setSelectedIndex(resultsGrid.selectedIndex);
   }
   
   //helper function to find the graphic from the selected datagrid row
   protected function findGraphicByAttribute(attributes : Object) : Graphic
   {
    for each( var foundGraphic : Graphic in myGraphicsLayer.graphicProvider)
    {
     if ( foundGraphic.attributes.OBJECTID === attributes.OBJECTID)
     { 
      return foundGraphic;
     }
    }            
    return null;
   }
   
   //zoom to the selected point when datagrid row is double clicked
   protected function resultsGrid_gridDoubleClickHandler(event:GridEvent):void
   {
    var pt:MapPoint = null;
    pt = highlightedGraphic.geometry as MapPoint;
    if (map.scale > 80000)
     map.scale = 50000;
    map.centerAt(pt); 
   }
   
   
  ]]>
 </fx:Script>
 
 
 <fx:Declarations>
  <esri:Geoprocessor id="gp"
         jobComplete="gp_jobCompleteHandler(event)"
         fault="gp_faultHandler(event)"
         processSpatialReference="{map.spatialReference}"
         outSpatialReference="{map.spatialReference}"
         showBusyCursor="false"
         url="{taskurl}"
         useAMF="false"
         updateDelay="2000"
         />
  
 </fx:Declarations> 
 
 <viewer:WidgetTemplate id="myWidget" 
         width="450" height="600"
         >
   <s:Group id="widgetGrp"
      width="100%" height="100%">
    <s:Group id="paramsArea">       
     <s:TextInput id="met1" 
         x="68" y="48" 
         width="210" height="20"/>   
     <s:ComboBox id="met2" x="120" y="75" selectedItem="{}">
      <s:ArrayCollection>
       <fx:String></fx:String>
       <fx:String>AND</fx:String>
       <fx:String>AND NOT</fx:String>
       <fx:String>OR</fx:String>
      </s:ArrayCollection>
     </s:ComboBox>    
     <s:TextInput id="met3"
         x="68" y="105" 
         width="210" height="20"/> 
     <s:Button id="submit"
         x="300" y="720" 
         label="Submit" 
         click="submit_clickHandler(event)"/>
    </s:Group>
    <s:Group id="resultsArea">
     <s:DataGrid id="resultsGrid"
        width="100%" height="98%"
        dataProvider="{resultAttributes}"
        mouseFocusEnabled="true"
        verticalScrollPolicy="auto"
        doubleClickEnabled="true"
        gridDoubleClick="resultsGrid_gridDoubleClickHandler(event)"
        bottom="24">
      <s:columns>
       <s:ArrayList>
        <s:GridColumn dataField="Field1" width="250"/>
        <s:GridColumn dataField="Field2"  width="65"/>
        <s:GridColumn dataField="Field3" width="100"/>
       </s:ArrayList>
      </s:columns>
     </s:DataGrid>
    </s:Group>
   </s:Group>
 </viewer:WidgetTemplate> 
</viewer:BaseWidget>