Welcome to the Esri Labs GeoNet Place

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We have created this Geonet Place to more easily share with you all news related to Esri Labs initiatives. Through our Blog we will describe new projects and updates to existing ones. This Place is also intended to help solve any technical issues, discuss enhancements and new ideas around Esri Labs projects.

What is Esri Labs?  Esri Labs is a brand that Esri uses to make available to you new technologies and collaborative projects that we feel are worth sharing, but not quite ready for full productization. Esri Labs projects are developed by Esri employees and shaped based on customer feedback and validation. While often awesome, Esri Labs initiatives are not official Esri products and as such are not covered by Esri Technical Support.

Why Esri Labs? Through Esri Labs we want to share with you innovative works that can be useful for your job, and get your feedback so that we can evaluate if and when these tools should make it into the ArcGIS Product Portfolio.  Early Adopters of Esri Labs have an opportunity to influence the development of ideas and technology by submitting feedback.  On a case-by-case basis, some Esri Labs projects may be entirely or partly productized.  

How do I get Technical Support on Esri Labs projects? Esri Labs initiatives are often directly supported by the Esri Development team behind them. In some occasions, the Esri Community also provides support through the Esri Labs Geonet Place.

Esri Labs projects are released to the public as non-commercial offerings and are not official Esri products. Esri Labs initiatives do not go through the standard rigorous software development lifecycle and testing as official Esri products do. Esri Labs projects may not be holistically tested or documented, and are not supported by Esri Technical Support. The use of Esri Labs initiatives is governed by the Esri Labs User Agreement.

What is the difference between projects in Esri Labs and projects in Beta? Esri makes no commitment towards fully productizing works under Esri Labs. Beta Programs from Esri are setup on top of initiatives for which there is a well-defined product plan and pathway for release as part of a supported production-quality technology or product.  

Can I use Esri Labs technology in production?  Yes, at your own risk.  Remember that all the support you will ever get for Esri Labs initiatives is that provided by the Esri team developing it and its community of users.   The Esri Technical Support team does not provide support for Esri Labs products.  Esri does not make any commitments regarding the future of Esri Labs initiatives.

Are Esri Labs works licensed under an Open Source License? Not necessarily, but many Esri Labs initiatives offer source code under Open Source licenses. This is by design, so you can take these initiatives to the next level and when appropriate, contribute to them. 

Will Esri move Esri Labs project into official Esri products? Full produtization of Esri Labs initiatives is subject to user feedback. Some Esri Labs such as Activity Dashboard and Survey123 for ArcGIS have graduated into official products, or capabilities of ArcGIS. Many other projects however, have been dismantled, or left under Esri Labs for your use. Esri and the teams behind Esri Labs projects do not set as a goal for Esri Labs initiatives to have them fully productized. Sometimes, Esri Labs is the best home for these initiatives.

What should I expect from this GeoNet Place? As described at the beginning of this post, we have setup this GeoNet Place so we you can find all news related to Esri Labs in it. We also would like technical questions, ideas and general discussion around Esri Labs projects to happen in this Place.

 Thanks,

The Esri Labs Team.