Building a Data Driven Organization, Part #10: Have more fun with REST APIs
It's holiday season in much of the world so I'm giving myself some light duty with this post.
I previously posted about making REST API calls in the context of handling JSON responses in ArcGIS Data Interoperability ETL tools. I'll assume you know what you're doing there now (while authoring temporarily write the JSON to file, build your JSON query with the JSONExtractor's handy picker, revert to using the response JSON instead of the file...) and encourage you to reach out to as many REST endpoints as you want - by way of example.
First check out my video captured from ArcGIS Earth. I'll wager you don't know about the ArcGIS Earth Automation API - I didn't until a couple of days ago! The video shows navigating the optimal route amongst ten 311 calls taken from New York City's 311 Service Request RSS feed. I calculate the optimal route from the ArcGIS Online routing service solve endpoint. (Please excuse video quality at mid show, I'm on home network).
I start from the Esri campus, fly to an extent 39km above New York, then draw my route and 10 events (in order), navigating from first to last. I take a jaunty excursion into space right after the first event visit, if Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk can launch people into space so can I. My flights are cheaper.
An aside: Years ago there was a room at Esri with a projector in it that sampled web maps requested by users of ArcWeb - the precursor to ArcGIS Online - and displayed them on a globe that would rotate to the map footprint. It was mesmerizing to watch where maps were going. I remember being impressed by the projector - this was when the bulbs in those things cost $1000 or some crazy amount if the projector was home-cinema grade.
I didn't get fancy with my flights by exactly following the route, I do crow-flies hops - well my crow does quite high trajectories but you get the idea.
So this is really just a shout out to a couple of Esri APIs, one you can have fun with as a 'presentation layer' and one that does a real analysis you want to present. APIs are where you find them, just go looking like I did.
Oh yes - there is no coding required, when I think of coding I am reminded of the projector bulbs - something you don't have to buy these days ;-). The ETL workspace that does the work is in the download, you can run it yourself if you provide credentials in the ArcGISOnlineTokenGetter.
The Earth Automation API is under active development, if you really do want to use it as a presentation layer talk to your Esri representative and ask to be put in touch with the Product Manager who will be pleased to hear of your requirements.