Preview of two great new widgets coming out mid January 2011

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

All,

   I have been working hard on two great new widgets that I want you to preview. The final versions will be made available Mid January 2011 and submitted to the Flex a Widget competition.

http://www.esri.com/events/devsummit/get-involved/widget-challenge.html

The first is a new route widget for FlexViewer 2.2

Its' feature include:

• Up to ten stops that can be added to the map interactively or by single line address matching using Bing geocoder.


• Up to ten point barriers that can be added in the same fashion as stops.


• Interactively added stops and barriers are automatically reverse geocoded.


• You can calculate by time or distance and optionally use best sequence.


• Route segments can be individually clicked in the directions list and visualized using a polyline animation (Thanks to Mark Deaton).


• The big deal for this widget is its' printing capability. Both direct printer output and PDF output are supported. Multi page output with headers and footers and the option to include the large route image are all included. The individual direction segments have maneuver arrows that are included by default but can optionally be turned off. Things like configuring alternating directions background color can also be configured.

So if you are a developer and don't care about routing but want to know how to do moderately advanced multi page printing and AlivePDF techniques than this widget is for you.

Preview here:
http://gis.calhouncounty.org/FlexViewer2.2/index.html?config=config-route.xml



The second one is a new infoTemplate for featurelayers.

The Attachment Relate Info Window Widgets' features include:

• Ability to specify which fields are displayed


• Specify one link field that will display as a clickable text or an actual image in the info window


• Buttons at the bottom of the window for Zooming to feature, querying attachments, querying related features or tables


• Attachments are preview only and are displayed in a custom grid popup not the standard attachment inspector.


• Relates are initially displayed in a grid that allows for the selection of which related feature you want to preview and then when you choose the one you want to see then a floating datagrid is displayed with the related records.

In the examples below click on the point in the screen.

Preview of attachment and link capability:
http://gis.calhouncounty.org/FlexViewer2.2/index.html?config=config-attachment.xml

Preview of related feature capability:
http://gis.calhouncounty.org/FlexViewer2.2/index.html?config=config-relate.xml

preview of image link in info window:
http://gis.calhouncounty.org/FlexViewer2.2/index.html?config=config-infoimage.xml

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

David,


    You could use attachments. But you could also setup a virtual directory in IIS (if that is what you use) and have all the pdfs in that folder then you can have a field called pdfs in your feature class with the url to the pdf for that faeture (i.e. http://yourserver/pdfs/pdf111.pdf) then you set that as your link field.

[CaussinDavid]

ok Robert,

But a have sometime 2 pdf for one element sometime 3 or more thus there is a problem because there is only 1 linkfield available.

Or am i missing something???

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

David,

   So in your case enabling attachments would be the way to go.

[philippschnetzer]

I am using the Relate Widget and am extremely happy with it, thanks, Robert!  One tweak I would like to see is to be able to initiate the process by having the user click an icon in the header and only then allowing them to click on a layer for the related info.
I am using this tool for a parcel layer and it would be more intuitive for the user to see a 'parcel info' icon in the header rather than just figuring out that clicking on a parcel initiates the tool.

Thanks again for this tool!!!

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Philipp,


   If I understand what you are after... That work flow is not even close to how this widget works. Sound like you need some widget that will run a query get the relates for the results of the queried feature. This widget works like an identify. The user clicks on a feature and then has a choice of showing the relates for that specific feature.

[philippschnetzer]

Robert,

Wasn't very clear in my last post.  I am using the tool as intended...like you say, basically as an identify to click on a feature...which brings up the pop-up and then being able to click the 'related tables' icon.

All I am saying is that it would be good, in my case, to have the user first click an icon and then click on a feature.  Basically just adding another step into this process....

So, the user would click the icon and then be able to click on the map and this would bring up the pop-up and the tool would work from then on as it does already.  I would like to see this because right now there is nothing to let the user know that they can actually click on a feature to see the info on that feature...

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Phillip,

    Ooooh. Now I see what you are after. Hmmm. Let me consider this... Would the features even be visible in the map before the button was clicked?

[philippschnetzer]

In my case I would use this for a parcel layer.  It is set to become visible once the user zooms in three scale levels.  I have the parcel layer excluded from the TOC so that the user cannot shut it off.

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Phillip,

   So really it sounds like all you need is to have some popup to indicate to the user that all they need to do is click on the feature then... Doesn't really sound like a change to this code. Sounds like you just need to use the splash widget to inform the user of what they need to do. You could even have a button like you are after display the splash widget for this purpose.

[philippschnetzer]

I also thought about using the splash screen...

...but who actually reads those anyway??
...I would like to see an environment where the user can use/interact with the map with no additional instructions needed

I realize this is not a high priority item to enhance the widget...or even that for some purposes it would make the widget more clunky...