Map Packages

[JoeBorgione]

I'm not at all familiar with the use of Map Packages, but I guess they've been around since version 9.3 or so.  Can anyone tell me what the life span is planned to be?  What would be the advantage to using a Map Package over a published ArcGIS Server app?

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Joe,

   I have not heard of anything about map packages possibly going away. The advantage of map packages is that all the data and the mxd is packaged in a esri kind of zip file called the map package so you can sent this map package to another computer or person and they instantly have your map. It is great for transferring a map when the other party definitely has ArcGIS. The comparison is more about the way one use to transfer shapefiles for data and then the mxd and try to ensure they got each file before they sent it to another person. Not really much to with comparing to ArcGIS Server App.

[JoeBorgione]

Thanks Robert. If I understand this correctly;

1. Once you make a package, in order to have anything updated, you would need the repackage it, correct? (Unless its a SDE data package.)

2. The recipient(s) need to have some flavor of ArcGis or at least an ArcEngine app to utilize the data, correct?

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Joe,

   That is correct. You can also choose to convert SDE data into a FGDB when making the package. The engine app would have to be programmed to support map packages.