topic Please help diagnose where my problem is? in ArcGIS Viewer for Flex Questions

Please help diagnose where my problem is?

TimothyGoddard — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:54:41 GMT

I am new to the ArcGIS Flex viewer and learning on the fly. Thank you to Jon and the forum for helping with my earlier post of getting the viewer up and running. There is nobody at my academic institution that has the expertise to help with my questions

So here is my problem now. I have been playing with tweaking the viewer and learning how to config the config.xml. I am fine with widgets and the basic title and cosmetic changes.

I am working on a single server so I do not think the crossdomain.xml is an issue but i have read only a little about this. I tried making the crossdomain.xml not sure if it right but the default viewer worked before i started tweaking things.

I have not been successful in loading a service that i have created through ArcGIS server Manager. The viewer loads fine just not the layer i create. I have problems at the Server/network level as well that im not sure if they are effecting my issue as well.

The service seems fine as far as I can tell, I have also made web applications in the manager as well to test the service. I can view the web app internally on server, but the data does not seem to load if i try to access the web app over the internet. The tools and legend and template load, the list of layers load but no geometry or images load.

So my first question is could this problem effect the use of a service through the flex viewer? IF not here are lines of thought i have explored with the flex viewer. The projection of the data in my service is wkid 2248. I have tried removing all arcgis basemap layers and just load my service. I have tried not giving an extent to the map because i read that the viewer would take the coordinate from the first basemap layer (which is my service as i have no other layers loading). I have tried creating an initial extent pulling the info from the rest directory and specifying the wkid. Still no luck. I also am not sure if my syntax is always right. I understand the concept of the structure of the config.xml but am not always sure that i have the context right.

I have tried between a dynamic layer and wms. I have made my service also a WMS and tried changing the url to the WMSServer but still no luck. if i am changing to dynamic or WMS do i only need to change the type and/or the URL?

I also am confused about the "/rest/" in the URL. The URL when i look at my service in the ArcGIS Server manager does not have rest in it. But I do see the rest interface listed for any of my services under the Services Directory listing. SO I am unclear how this translates in the config.xml I have tried the URL with and with out the rest directory in it. Still no luck.

So I am sure there is a lot that i have missed in my understanding as i am learning this on the fly. But I am hoping someone can help me understand a logical deduction method of solving where my problems could be. I have attached my latest config.xml in a zip file. You can reach the viewer addressed with the attached config.xml at http://preservationsearchwebgis.anth.umd.edu/flexviewer/

thank you for your help.

Tim

Re: Please help diagnose where my problem is?

BjornSvensson — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:50:42 GMT

Hi Tim,
The syntax in your config.xml have some issues.

The first problem is that you have "<Layer" instead of "<layer". All tags in the config.xml should be all lowercase. All other tags/spellings are ignored.

Also, there is no such property as "mapservicelabel", I think you meant "label".

The documentation for the layer tag is available at http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapps/flexviewer/help/index.html#layer_tag.htm

As for the /rest/ in the URL:
The URLs without /rest/ is the "older" way (using SOAP) which is used by ArcMap and manager. When using the Flex Viewer, any of the Flex, JavaScript, Silverlight API's or on ArcGIS.com, you should be using the URLs with /rest/. See "Troubleshooting Tips" on the layer tag page referenced above.

Re: Please help diagnose where my problem is?

TimothyGoddard — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:42:39 GMT

Thank you bjorn for your input. The service now loads after correcting the syntax problems in the config.xml.

The other problem i'm trying to learn how to deal with:

What does anybody recommend as the best way to give user control over the layers within a service?

I saw you can load each feature as an operational layer individually. or is their a better mechanism to load the entire service but give the user control over turning on/off feature layers. I saw different layer widgets but was not sure the best way to load the layer to work with these type of widgets.

Anybody have a reccomendation for the best way to do hyperlinks? I have a point layer in the service that one attribute gives the hyperlink location of a corresponding photo. What is a way i can have people be able to hyperlink to the photo?

Any advice?

Thank you in advance.

Tim

Re: Please help diagnose where my problem is?

FaizanTayyab — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:52:29 GMT

You can maybe use a Hyperlink widget, which should on activation highlight all hyperlinks on the maps, therefore allowing user to click on the points.

Re: Please help diagnose where my problem is?

JonFisher — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:58:21 GMT

I saw you can load each feature as an operational layer individually. or is their a better mechanism to load the entire service but give the user control over turning on/off feature layers. I saw different layer widgets but was not sure the best way to load the layer to work with these type of widgets.

If you don't need the functionality of a feature service, just load it as a dynamic map service and the users will be able to check/uncheck each layer within the service.

Anybody have a reccomendation for the best way to do hyperlinks? I have a point layer in the service that one attribute gives the hyperlink location of a corresponding photo. What is a way i can have people be able to hyperlink to the photo?

I like Robert Scheitlin's Identify widget a lot, but the SearchWidget or even just using the standard InfoPopup with a feature layer all do what you need. The result from the identify/etc. will show a preview of the photo, but it will also be clickable to open the full size photo. I think it looks for .jpg, .png, and .gif links to preview photos in the popup, otherwise it shows a little icon (by default it's a black circle with orange triangle, I replaced it with my own hyperlink icon) they have to click on.