Bring back something akin to ArcScripts site for sharing among users

1045
7
10-27-2011 02:25 PM
Status: Open
jennifercarrell
New Contributor II
Currently in order to post new scripts or tools we have to use the ArcGIS Resources Template Galleries.  These galleries are sorely underutilized because they are hard to find, hard to search within, and they are not well publicized elsewhere on the esri/ArcGIS web site.  The name "template gallery" seems confusing because it is not obvious what exactly you supposed to post there.  The old ArcScripts web site was invaluable to me.  I basically learned how to program ArcObjects by looking at other people's code and reading the forums.  I have not found a substitute for that on the new support web site.  Or am I missing something?
7 Comments
DuncanHornby
I agree. The code gallery is horrible and just does no work. I find the whole categorising of Products, user community, functions and solution products totally baffling. For example say I want to find a tool that someone may have posted up that works out stream order, which section do I look under? It's a hydrological question I want answered but then it's a network tracing problem, which is sort of a geo-processing problem, but I don't run to run it in Python... How am I to second guess what group the tool has been placed under? In Arcscripts you have 1 entry point you could filter by language and voila it finds stuff.

In my opinion this is a classic example of new is not always better, ESRI should reinstate ArcScripts.
RandyKreuziger
I've chatted with an ESRI employee on the forums and he says there with have a new software sometime next for the galleries.  Unfortunately, they are not doing anything to imporve the current galleries in the meantime!
MaxSquires
Agreed.  Who needs tiles with preview images with 9-12 results per page?  Just let me search for what I'm looking for or show me everything.  And get those presentations out of the geoprocessing script results.  That is documentation, not sample code.  Jeez.
MLowry
by
Yes! The Gallery is a terrible Layout!

Only 10 results per page, that is ridiculous.

The Gallery needs to be overhauled to provide better search parameters and better viewing of results (ie. View All Results on one page).
RobertPruyne1
I agree 100%.

I used to have my browser start on ArcScripts, I can't tell you how often I found a great tool by accident.  Not to mention the amount of times I saved myself gobs of time by finding a script someone already wrote. 

One of the most valuable parts of the GIS community is the overwhelming amount of people willing to share, work, data, tools and methods.  Arcscripts was obviously userdriven to be very functional and helpful to GIS people.  It wasn't pretty, but pretty is far less important than functional.

I can't find anything in the gallery, it needs a lot of work:
better searching
better queries for it's searches, such at software platform (AV3, AV8, AV10)...etc
more than 9 panels on a result.

please bring back arcscripts!
JimBarry
Thanks for all of the feedback.  Sharing your items inside separate pre-categorized code galleries worked ok only when you knew what you were looking for and where it was.  These code galleries have since (in 2012) been retired.  Now, everything you want to share (code, apps, services, maps, data, packages) are all shareable on ArcGIS Online through the ArcGIS.com website.

To do so, go to arcgis.com and login, then go to your "My Content" tab to share whatever you want.  You can organize these items into your own folders and categories, and you can also control you can find and use them on an item-by-item or group basis (share openly to the world, share only to your organization, your group, selected individuals, or just private to you).  The better you title, describe, and tag the items, the more they'll be discoverable.

The search box is also very flexible, and since any search parameters you use are stored in the URL, you can save, reuse, and share your searches.  For example, using "type:add-ins" then sorting the results by date is a way to always see the latest ArcGIS for Desktop Add-ins recently uploaded.
DanPatterson_Retired

it is around... just in beta Search ArcScripts (BETA)