New GeoEvent Gallery Add-on Manager in ArcGIS GeoEvent Server 11.1
What’s an Add on? Add-ons are connectors and processors that were developed and managed by the GeoEvent Server team to extend the out-of-the-box capabilities of GeoEvent Server. At 11.1, one exciting new feature is the add-on manager that makes installing and managing add-ons in GeoEvent Server easier than ever. Prior to 11.1, the only option for deploying an add-on to your GeoEvent Server would be to download it from the ArcGIS GeoEvent Server Gallery and manually install it. With the new add-on manager, you will be able to install, uninstall, and upgrade add-ons all within the GeoEvent Manager user interface.
Adding an Add-on Processor to an Existing GeoEvent Service
Have you ever tried to add a new processor analytic capability to an existing GeoEvent service but not been able to find it among the out-of-the-box processors? If the answer is yes, then the add-on manager provides a great way to explore existing add-on processors out there and add them to your GeoEvent services if they fit your use case.
Imagine you are now in the service designer and would like to add an additional step to your GeoEvent service: one of the fields in your outcoming events contains values separated by commas, and you would prefer an event to be created for each of those values. Since there is not an out-of-the-box processor with this capability, it’s time to turn to our new feature, the GeoEvent Gallery add-on manager, to find out if we have an add-on processor that can perform this task.
To open the add-on manager, click on the folder icon available on the upper right corner.
Access the add-on manager by clicking on the folder icon on upper right corner
In the add-on manager, under the Available Tab, you can see a list of add-ons that you can browse through. Now, to narrow down the list to just available add-on processors, click open the Filter dropdown right next to the search bar and check the box next to Processors under Type. For Category, Esri Supported is checked by default, since the add-ons in this category can be used in production environments. Feel free to check out the other two categories (Esri Sample and Esri Community) if you are interested. To learn more about the difference among these three categories, visit Introduction to the GeoEvent Server Gallery. When you are ready, click on the Apply button and you should see the change reflected in the list of available add-ons.
Filter the list of available add-ons to show only add-on processors that are Esri-supported
Now we have a list of Esri-supported add-on processors, we need to do some additional investigation to find the one with the capability we are looking for. Prior to 11.1, all the information about the add-ons can only been found on their GitHub repositories or the ArcGIS GeoEvent Server Gallery. However, with the add-on manager, you can simply click on any add-on in the list to read about it. For example, if you click on the Field Splitter Processors for GeoEvent Server, you will see a brief description of the add-on as well as all the releases on the right panel. And based on the information provided here, you can see that the Field Splitter Processor is the add-on processor we are looking for.
Read the description of each add-on to identify the one that fit your need
Now we have found the add-on processor with the capability we need, you may be thinking, “I need to go to the GeoEvent Server Gallery to download it”. However, thanks to the add-on manager, that is no longer necessary. Now you can just click on the Install button and the latest release compatible with your GeoEvent Server will be deployed. If you are instead interested in a previous release that is also compatible, you can install it via the dropdown right next to the Install.
Install the Field Splitter Processors by clicking on the Install button
Since the Field Splitter Processor has been deployed, you can exit the add-on manager and click on the Processor under New Elements on the left. If you click on the dropdown for the Processor field, you will find the Field Splitter processor among the list of available processors. However, the question now is: how should I configure it?
Find the Field Splitter Processor among the list of available processors
To answer that question, we will need to revisit our add-on manager. This time, instead of viewing the add-ons under Available tab, click on the Installed to view all of your installed add-ons. Click on the Field Splitter Processors for GeoEvent Server in the list, and you will find a Documentation button on the right panel. Click on it, and a copy of the documentation for this add-on will be downloaded for you as a pdf file. This file will contain all the instructions you need to configure your new add-on processor. Once you’ve configured and saved your add-on processor, you can connect it to other existing components within the GeoEvent service like any out-of-the-box processors.
Click on the Documentation button to download a pdf copy of the documentation
Ingesting Data using an Add-on Connector
What if you are on the main page of GeoEvent Manager, and would like to ingest some data that is not yet supported by GeoEvent out-of-the-box? For example, what if you need to use data from FlightAware web service in your GeoEvent service? Again, this is when the add-on manager can be helpful. This time, however, we will need an add-on connector instead of a processor. After you open the add-on manager, to narrow down the list of available add-ons to just add-on connectors, click on the Filter and check the box right next to Connectors under Type. Click on the Apply button and you should see the list now only contains add-on connectors.
Filter the list of available add-ons to show only add-on connectors that are Esri-supported
To find the connector that can ingest data from FlightAware, we will utilize the search bar. In the search bar, type in “FlightAware”. The FlightAware Connector for GeoEvent Server should show up as the only result. After reading the description on the right panel to confirm that this is the connector you need, click on the Install button to deploy the latest compatible release. You can also click on the Documentation button to download a copy of the documentation.
Since the FlightAware connector has been deployed, we are ready to exit the add-on manager and create a new input. Among the list of available input connectors, you can find the FlightAware connector that the add-on manager just deployed for you. Now, you can configure the input based on the instructions included in the documentation and use it to ingest data from the FlightAware Web Service.
The FlightAware connector is now among the list of available input connectors
For the FlightAware add-on connector, installing the connector automatically adds a new input connector to your GeoEvent. One thing to note is that for some add-on connectors, you will need to go through an additional step of configuring the input/output connector yourself. The step-by-step instructions for the configuration process will be provided in the documentation
Uninstalling and Upgrading Add-ons
Now we have gone over two potential use cases of the add-on manager, here is a brief walkthrough of two other workflows that have been greatly simplified on 11.1.
The first one is the uninstallation of an add-on. Let’s say you have deployed an add-on processor and found out what it doesn’t exactly fit your needs. As a result, you are looking to remove it from your GeoEvent. Prior to 11.1, to uninstall an add-on, you would need to navigate to the deploy folder on your machine and manually delete the add-on. With add-on manager, however, you can now simply locate your add-on processor under the Installed tab, click on it, and then click on the Uninstall button on the right panel. This will be all you need to do to uninstall an add-on from your GeoEvent.
The Uninstall button enables you to uninstall an add-on in one click
The second one is upgrading an add-on. Let’s say a new release has become available for one of your installed add-ons and you want to upgrade. If you navigate to your installed add-on on the add-on manager, you will see that Install button, which was grayed out after you deployed your add-on before, has turned into an Upgrade button. You will then be able to click on it to upgrade the add-on.
The Upgrade button enables you to upgrade an add-on in one click
While we have discussed several ways to utilize the new add-on manager in this blog, you are welcome to explore different ways to incorporate this new enhancement into your workflow based on your own use cases. For more information on the add-on manager, visit Use the add-on manager.