Display differences among embedded webmap, AG Online, and AG Explorer Online

[DotHelm]

I've been struggling with the differences among embedded webmap, ArcGis Explorer Online, and ArcGis Online. This application is very simple - just a single 38-mi trail with some waypoints with pictures in popup windows. I have it set up the way I want in AG Explorer Online - single click to the waypoint icon brings up the waypoint name and picture; mousing over it gives the waypoint name. If I want the trail info, I need to click that separately, but generally wouldn't need that info.

If I try to embed the map in my website, it uses a web viewer and "View larger map" takes me to AG online. With the embedded map, if I click on an icon, I have to scroll through the list of both waypoint and trail popups, then select the popup (waypoint or trail) I want to display. Nothing appears when mousing over waypoint. Somewhat cumbersome for a simple map.

"View Larger Map" takes me to AG online (? www.argis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=....). There when I click on a waypoint icon, I get the popup window and can also scroll through the list of other popups (either the trail popup or another nearby waypoint, if I'm zoomed out). This isn't too bad.

But I could also insert the url to the AG Explorer Online map on my website, which would take them directly to the map as I'd like them to see it.

Other than a "gee whiz" factor, does it make more sense to just include that link to the AG Explorer online map rather than embedding the map? The potential viewers are John Q. Public.  I'm sure there's a reason why Explorer is not the embedded form. There's a subtlety in the differences of the 3 views that I'm not quite grasping as a newbie to the online stuff. (I'm thinking about making the embedded map "small" so it forces users to click on link for AG Explorer Online.) It may be related to needing Silverlight for Explorer? (I don't remember installing it, but I'm not getting any error messages so must have it.)

(I recognize AG is overkill for this application, but I'm using this as a learning stepping stone to figure out how best to deal with another situation where we've an AG desktop map where we're trying to make some data available to land managers and the simple stuff available to trail users. Land Managers - 4 different organizations - may or may not be able to put AG Explorer on their desktop, owing to IT folks not allowing admin privileges, which is one aspect that has forced me into the online realm.)

Thanks for any insight.

Dot

[DotHelm]

One more question. I started adding more of the photos for the waypoints on the RP50/100 map. The photos have been uploaded to a File Cabinet page in our RP google sites site. This works as expected in the ArcGis Online viewer with the pics displaying in the popup, but when I open in ArcGIS Explorer online, the photos aren't showing - just a red x. I put the url in the Media part of the popup. (I've also included the Photo url as a field on some tries, so a person can get the original photo. Exploring options.)

This worked fine with the original photos. New photos are the red circles, old stuff was the green square pins. The only thing I've been able to think of that's different is those first photos were grabbed from my personal website (not a google site), and these are from a google site. The size of the google sites photos might be larger (800x600?) while the first photos were more thumbnail size (400x300).

thanks.

Dot

[ShellyGill2]

What I'd noticed when zooming in and out with these things, is that it tends to go in steps, and I'm wondering if that's what corresponds to the 'level' parameter.

Yes - the 'level' is the level of detail that tiled map caches are built in - they're basically scales of pre-prepared map images that can be drawn in your maps, and you can see in the basemap you're using the levels that it has under the 'Tile Info' heading (in the map viewer, click the layer in the Contents, then choose Description):
http://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Topo_Map/MapServer

FWIW, here's the more complex map ... With volunteers and managers working together, we now have reasonable maps (always being improved upon), 88 posts with 239 directional signs, a dozen maps dispersed throughout the system, and about half done our trailhead signs.

Great - looks like a nice place to be.

[DotHelm]

One more question. I started adding more of the photos for the waypoints on the RP50/100 map. The photos have been uploaded to a File Cabinet page in our RP google sites site. This works as expected in the ArcGis Online viewer with the pics displaying in the popup, but when I open in ArcGIS Explorer online, the photos aren't showing - just a red x.

This turned out to be a http vs https issue, described in another thread. The default url from "copy link" in google sites was https, but by using our domain address, I was able to get http to work.