Latest Contributions by Suzanne-Boden

Updated February 11, 2020 Story maps are popular. Their visual, interactive nature makes them a great medium to share interesting information about a place or topic and spark discussion on real-world issues. To make a classic story map, you start with a web map. There are lots of ways to make a web map and just as many ways to make a story map. In fact, if you're using the new ArcGIS StoryMaps, you may or may not use a web map—that choice is up to the storyteller. This post shows a simple process to make a classic story map. The KISS principle is my preferred approach whenever possible; overcomplicating things makes it hard to get stuff done. I found a simple way to make a web map. Here's a simple four-step process to craft a story map. It goes like this: Choose your story topic. Plan and execute your data strategy. Create a web map. Share the web map as a story map. Step 1: Choose Your Story Topic A story communicates something. Being concise is one key to effective communication, so for a story map, it's essential to choose a discrete topic and useful to narrow the topic down to a core message. Learning a new skill is often easier (and more fun) when you practice with a project that's personally interesting. Once you've mastered the skill, you can apply it to work projects. Visitors to the Esri Training Center in Redlands get a printed piece listing local restaurants (with a map of course). That piece inspires an interesting story map topic (to me). The core message (inspired by the 3/50 project) is, despite being a fairly small town, Redlands has an impressive selection of local dining options. If you need help choosing a topic, the Story Map Gallery is a great source for inspiration. Step 2: Plan and Execute Your Data Strategy "Data strategy" may sound complicated, but all it means is decide which layers and attributes to include. It's important to choose only the most relevant layers—overloading a map with extraneous data muddies your story (remember, be concise). For this practice project: Layers: Restaurant locations and a basemap for context are all that's needed. Attributes: Restaurant name, address, description, and a web page URL. Basemap: One of the free high-quality ArcGIS Online basemaps will work great. To execute the strategy, assemble the data and choose a geographic data format. The format depends on the tools at your disposal. If you use ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap and ArcGIS Enterprise, you can author and publish GIS services that are built from feature classes, imagery, or other geographic data. The advantage of using a service is that, as the underlying data changes, updating a web map is easy (you just republish the service, then refresh the map). If you don't have access to tools to create a service, you can use the easy-button method: add data stored in shapefiles, text files, CSV files, or GPX files to the ArcGIS Online map viewer. You can also manually draw features in the map viewer. Since this example showcases only 14 restaurants, it's easy to create point features to represent the restaurants. I'll just create a shapefile, then add it to the map viewer (here's another useful learning strategy: practice with manageable datasets; otherwise, you risk getting derailed by data challenges). When creating a shapefile for use in a web map, select the WGS 1984 geographic coordinate system and the Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere projected coordinate system, the same coordinate systems used by commonly available basemaps. This will improve web map performance. The map viewer requires that shapefiles be zipped (for small datasets that don't have detailed geometry, just zip the DBF, SHP, SHX, and PRJ files). Step 3: Create a Web Map When the data is ready, add it to the map viewer to create a web map. Go to www.arcgis.com and sign in to your ArcGIS Online organizational account or public account. Click Map at the top of the window. Zoom to the area of interest and choose a desired basemap from the gallery. Click Add > Layer from File. Browse to the data file and add it. Depending on your data, you may choose to use generalized features or keep the original features. For a small number of simple points, keep the original features. You can display point features on the map with a single symbol, as a heat map, or with unique symbols based on an attribute value.   For this practice story map, each restaurant should have a unique symbol. I can easily accomplish this by selecting the Unique symbols drawing style, then choosing the attribute to show. For the attribute, I'll choose Name and then click the Options button to select the symbol colors, shape, and size. After making the selections, click OK in the Options pane, then Done in the Change Style pane. If you want to adjust the symbology later, in the Contents pane mouse over the layer name, click the small down-facing arrow next to it, then click Change Style. If the story map will include a legend, make sure your layer names are easily understood. You can rename a layer in the Contents pane by clicking its down arrow, then clicking Rename. With the symbols configured, it's time to configure the pop-ups. When you click a feature on the map, you see a pop-up window with a default display of attributes. You can easily change the defaults to suit your story map needs. In the Contents pane, click the layer down arrow, then click Configure Pop-up. In the Configure Pop-up pane, the pop-up title is already set to the Name attribute, which is good. To customize the pop-up contents, in the Display drop-down list, choose "A custom attribute display," then click Configure. In the Custom Attribute Display dialog box, click the Add Field Name [+] button and choose the attributes you want shown in the pop-up. You can order and format them as desired. A nice feature is the ability to link an attribute to a web page. In this example, there's an attribute that stores URLs. I can use the custom attribute functionality to display the same link text in all the pop-ups instead of individual (and long) URL strings. Here's how: In the dialog box, select the attribute that contains URLs, then click the Create Link button. In the Link Properties dialog box, select and drag the attribute up to the URL field. Enter link text (e.g., "View web page") in the Description field. Click Set, then OK. After configuring the pop-up content the way you like, save your pop-up changes, then save the web map. You will be prompted to enter a title, tags, and summary. This information will be propagated to the story map, so give it some thought. Step 4: Share the Web Map as a Story Map Now you have the story map foundation. ArcGIS Online provides a collection of web application templates (including classic story map templates). Using a template simplifies the work. To use a template, you have to share your web map. In the map viewer, click Share. If you have an ArcGIS Online public account, you need to share with everyone. If you're using an ArcGIS Online organizational account (or free trial) and you have permissions to share content, you can share the map with everyone or with an existing group. Click Make a Web Application. Browse through the available templates. You can preview how your web map will look in different templates by clicking the down arrow next to Publish and clicking Preview. If you like a template layout overall but want to make some changes to enhance your story map, you can download the template and use the readme file instructions to configure the changes. You will need access to a web server (and some basic HTML and JavaScript skills). If you like a template as-is, click Publish. In just a short amount of time, I have a link to a simple story map I can share with the world. More importantly, I've developed skills I can use in the future to create story maps on other topics. Telling stories has always been an essential way humans communicate and share knowledge. A story told through an accessible GIS map lens is a new way to communicate, and a powerful medium to share geographic knowledge that informs and influences. Related post: Commonsense Tips for Story Map Data Want to learn more tips, techniques, and best practices to make story maps AND get hands-on practice? Check out Creating Story Maps with ArcGIS. ... View more

We've said before that the process to create a certification exam is rigorous and time-consuming. In fact, we get a lot of questions about how exam questions are developed. Who writes them? Who validates them? Why does it take so long? To answer these questions, here's a high-level overview of our exam development process. Like many IT certification programs, we use a third-party consultant for test development. For each certification, we hold a series of workshops, one of which is the question development workshop. To this workshop, we invite a group of subject matter experts (SMEs) from across Esri, psychometrician facilitators from the consultant, and facilitators from our certification team who monitor consistency. The group gets together in a room to write and review questions, collaborate on appropriate wording and scenarios, and debate each question's merits for measuring specific knowledge. For each item, a committee of 5-7 SMEs has to agree on both its technical accuracy and its congruency to the skill being measured (to make sure it tests what it's supposed to test). After the workshop, the collection of questions undergoes a psychometric review, a copyedit, a style edit, and is then assembled into the beta exam question pool. When the beta period is over, the psychometricians analyze the results and select questions that are proven to reliably measure the skills and knowledge a qualified candidate for the certification has. When you take an exam at a testing center, you are presented with 95 or so questions from a larger pool of the final questions. So that's the overview of how certification exam questions are created. Now here's an inside view from one of the many smart people who's participated in the exam development process. Nana Dei, geodata development technical lead with Esri Support Services, acted as a subject matter expert for the Enterprise Geodatabase Management Associate exam. In an intensive four-day workshop, Nana wrote, researched, collaborated, debated, and discovered that creating exam questions is easier said than done. What knowledge and experience did you contribute to the exam development process? Nana: I’ve worked on a number of databases since early 2000 including MySQL and Oracle, which led me into SQL Server and ArcSDE. After joining Esri in 2008, I started working on SDE geodatabases, which helped me build a stronger foundation and in-depth knowledge into the workings of a geodatabase. This knowledge helped me effectively communicate and assess questions and answers in the exam development process. Describe your experience with question writing. What was it like to have your questions debated during the process? Nana: Placing myself in the shoes of the test taker was one of the things I thought about while writing questions. A question can be easier or difficult depending on how it is phrased. When writing a question, I thought about a test taker taking the exam under time constraints and feeling pressure. How would they react when reading this question and answering it? It was great to have the other SMEs think out loud during the question writing stage. Debating the questions was fun. It was important to gather different perspectives on particular concepts. It helped me modify the question or come up with stronger answers. What were your expectations going into the certification development process and how did they change as the workshop progressed? Nana: Initially, I thought it would be easy to write questions. Finding the correct answer to a question was pretty easy, but coming up with incorrect answers for each question was difficult for me. I think I spent a lot of time coming up with [psychometrically acceptable] wrong answers. Has the experience of participating in the workshop influenced how you do your work today? Nana: It taught me to be more conscious about not having any ambiguity when explaining a concept or scenario, to be clear and not leave things open to interpretation. In the geodatabase world, there are multiple ways to reach a destination; each method may have slightly different modes of operation even though they will all lead to the same destination. It is always important, I feel, to be on the same page with the person I am discussing a situation with. If we are not on the same page, the entire knowledge transfer will not be effective. Knowing what you know about the exam development process, what would you say to those who want to achieve certification? Nana: Study for the exam. Leave no stone unturned. Ensure that you know and understand the concepts being tested. What was the most valuable or rewarding part of being a contributing subject matter expert? Nana: During the exam development process, it was rewarding to have other SMEs value my input. I really enjoyed the collaboration with different SMEs. The input by all members of the team made it feel as if we were unified in our approach to reach the goal. The fact that I went through the exam development process and demonstrated my knowledge in the technology—you have to have a level of knowledge to come up with possible scenarios, questions, and answers—was very rewarding. After the exam development process, I feel other employees see me as a go-to person for that specific technology. What value you do you see in Esri technical certification? Nana: I think it’s a very good indicator that one is familiar with that technology and that a person can effectively communicate in that subject area when called upon to explain a concept or give help in a specific scenario. It would look good on a resume when applying for jobs because it shows the person really cares about personal growth in that area. The technology changes over the years, and we need to keep up. ... View more

Updated March 11, 2015 While I work at the motherland of GIS services and web maps, I don't have ArcGIS  Server or even a web server installed on my local machine. Odds are, many of you don't either. For me, getting set up with a virtual machine configured with all the right software is completely doable...but not done. Things came to a head recently when I wanted to visualize some Excel data on a web map. Of course, I could bring the Excel data into ArcMap and visualize it there, but I wanted to make a web map so I could easily share it with coworkers who don't use ArcGIS in their day to day. Lacking the ability to publish a map service myself, I opted to go the minimalist route—that is, use the ArcGIS Online map viewer. If you have access to an ArcGIS Online organizational account, you can map your data right inside Excel using Esri Maps for Office. A viable alternative for those without an organizational account is to add a .csv file (text file of comma-separated values) to the map viewer and save the map to their ArcGIS Online public account. An Excel spreadsheet is easily saved as a .csv file. To be mapped, the spreadsheet must have fields that store location data—latitude and longitude values, GPX coordinates, or addresses. I wanted to visualize the locations of individuals in the U.S. who attended the Creating Hosted Map Services with ArcGIS Online live training seminar. Understanding the geographic distribution of our viewers is useful to evaluate seminar broadcast times. All I had to do to create a web map was follow these easy steps.Step-by-Step Example Open the Excel spreadsheet and save it as a .csv file. Go to www.arcgis.com and sign in to your public or organizational account. Click the Map link at the top (or bottom) of the page. In the map viewer, zoom to the data's extent. Keep the default Topographic basemap or click the Basemap Gallery button and choose a different basemap. To the left of the Basemap Gallery button, click Add > Add Layer from File, browse to the .csv file, then click Import Layer. (If you're using Firefox or Chrome, you can just drag and drop a .csv file into the map viewer.) Note: You may get prompted to specify which fields contain location information (e.g., your address or lat-long field names). There is also a 250-feature limit when adding .csv files to the map viewer. Point features can be drawn on the map with a single symbol, unique symbols based on an attribute, or as a heat map. To quickly see the point distribution, I'll choose to use a single symbol for all the features. Clicking Select under Location (single symbol), then Done displays the points on the map. In less than two minutes, I'm visualizing my data as points on a pretty map. I can click each point and see the associated data from the Excel spreadsheet in a pop-up. Easy. Except... I only want to show certain columns, and I don't like the names of those columns. I also decide I'd like to symbolize the points by self-reported industry. I can address all of these issues right in the viewer. In the Contents pane to the left of the map, mouse over the layer name and click the arrow next to it, then click Change Style. Under Choose an attribute to show, choose the field that stores the values you want to show. For the drawing style, select Types (Unique symbols). In the symbol preview, I notice an industry category named Other. For my purposes, Other is the same as no data. It's easy to change the Other symbol label. Click Options, click the label next to the Other symbol, then type a new label (No Information is more understandable for this map). If I wanted, I could click the symbol and assign a different symbol to distinguish this category. Click OK, then Done. Takeaway #1: Explore your data and decide how you want to present it before putting it on a map. In the map viewer, it's easy to change the display properties, but you can't modify the data itself. So, in just a few more minutes, I've mapped viewer distribution and self-reported industry. Next, I'll configure the pop-ups. In the Contents pane, click the arrow next to the layer name again and choose Configure Pop-up. Enter a descriptive pop-up title or select an attribute to use as the title. Click Configure Attributes and uncheck fields you don't want to display, then make sure the fields you do want to display are checked. You can also use the arrow buttons to reorder the fields. Be sure to type a friendly alias for each field that will display, then click OK. At the bottom of the Configure Pop-up pane, click Save Pop-up. Now when I click points on the map, I see only the information of interest. I also notice something. When I zoom in to a large scale, the Topographic basemap gets very detailed. Building footprints and local streets display. Some of my symbol colors blend into the basemap features. Switching to the Light Gray Canvas basemap is a quick solution. This basemap, with its subdued colors and less detail at large scales, is a better backdrop for my data. Takeaway #2: Before deciding on a basemap, explore it at large (and small) scales to understand the level of detail and assess its appropriateness for your mapping purpose. It's important to choose symbol colors that will stand out against the basemap at various scales. Finally, I want to show time zones on the map. I don't have a layer of time zones but I'll search ArcGIS Online content to see if anyone has shared this data. Click Add > Search for Layers. In the Find text box, type time zones, choose to search in ArcGIS Online, then click Go. The search results include several time zone feature services. After adding one of them to the map, I change its symbology to unique symbols so each zone will have a different color and I increase the layer transparency value so the time zone features don't obscure the other data. In less than 20 minutes, I've "mappified" my Excel data and added context to it. To generate a link to the map that I can embed in a web page, e-mail, or social media post, I just need to save the map to my public account, add a title, some tags, and a brief description, then share the map. Takeaway #3: There are lots of ways to create, save, and share a web map these days. If you don't have access to software for creating GIS services, you're not out of luck. Creating a high-performing web map with the ArcGIS Online map viewer really is an easy—and useful—method. Related posts: Commonsense Tips for Story Map Data Four-Step Process to Make a Simple Story Map ... View more

Python is one of the most popular languages used to script ArcGIS tasks, maybe because it has a relatively low learning curve and it can do a lot. Python is integrated into ArcGIS Desktop. You can create Python add-ins and toolboxes and in ArcMap you can directly enter Python label and MapTip expressions instead of having to load a script file. It's nice to have these options. Amidst all the Python love floating around, some have said ModelBuilder is the forgotten hero of the ArcGIS automation world. They contend that ModelBuilder deserves a bigger share of the spotlight that's shining on Python. I've always found GIS professionals to be visual thinkers who embrace scripting, so it makes sense they would use both Python and ModelBuilder to do their ArcGIS work (and many of you likely do). But if there is a Python vs. ModelBuilder debate, I'll stay neutral by saying that both are valuable and have their place. When an older child angrily accuses them of favoritism towards the unwanted intruder, wise parents know to respond, "We love your little brother just as much as we love you." And so it is with ModelBuilder and Python. Both are tools to automate GIS analysis, data management, and mapping workflows. Unlike Alex and little Sam, they can even play nicely together (you can add a Python script tool to a model, and you can export a model to a Python script). I've heard ModelBuilder called a "visual programming language." This is an interesting way to think about it as it's true there are many things you can do in ModelBuilder that mirror programming techniques—such as creating variables, iterating (looping) through a set of data, setting preconditions, and nesting submodels inside a larger model (similar to calling another script from inside a script). Let's shine a little light on ModelBuilder just in case it is feeling left out. Why might you want to create a model? Visualizing Workflows A model is extremely useful when designing and sharing a workflow, especially when it's complicated. You can always draw on a whiteboard, but dragging and dropping tools into a model scores efficiency points—you can dynamically build and adjust the workflow as you're thinking it through. You can easily rearrange model tools and elements and add text labels to document the flow and datasets being created. When collaborating with others, communicating about a workflow using a model is more effective than reading and scrolling down through a script. A model is like a map—it's a graphical medium that engages people and enhances understanding. You can even export a model to a graphic or PDF file and bring it along to a meeting as a handout. Exploring Results and Testing Scenarios Because you run a model from inside ArcGIS Desktop (ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap), you can examine the results immediately. In this way, a model is part of the daily fabric of your GIS work. If the model output creates a new question to investigate, all you have to do is change a model parameter (e.g., switch out a tool's input dataset or value) and rerun a process or rerun the entire model, then explore what that yields. With a script, it's certainly doable but not as easy to work iteratively like this. You have to open the script file, find the lines of code that need to be edited, make the edits, save the script, run the script, then possibly open ArcMap and add the output and maybe some other layers for context. To make things easier, you can start by loading the script into the Python window in ArcGIS and go from there. Identifying Problems One of the cool things about a model is that you can eyeball its progress as it runs. As each process executes, the tool flashes red and a drop-shadow displays under its elements when the process completes. You can immediately tell where an error occurred in the model because it stops processing there. Just find the first process that doesn't have a drop-shadow. After correcting the error, you can continue running the model from that point—you don't have to go back to the beginning. Just right-click the tool element in the process that failed and choose Run. Identifying the location of a problem in a script is not always as fast. Applying Skills You Already Have The most obvious reason to create a model over a script is that you lack scripting skills, whether Python or any other language, and you don't want or can't afford to invest the time to learn scripting. Though these days it's fairly easy to acquire basic Python skills. From Esri alone there are free tutorials, presentations, training seminars, and free and low-cost web courses. ArcGIS geoprocessing tools output Python code snippets you can examine to learn from and then modify to suit your needs. Basic Python skills don't cut it, however, if you need to automate an advanced workflow. Models chain together and run geoprocessing tools, so if you are a GIS professional who uses ArcGIS, more than likely you already have the skills required to create a model. Setting up a model correctly requires time and planning, like any other task. You have to understand your data, environment settings, tool parameters, and desired outputs. There are nuances and more advanced capabilities of models that you may need to educate yourself about, but again there are lots of resources to do so (see the list at the bottom of this post). In the end, the choice of whether to automate an ArcGIS workflow using a script or a model comes down to what you feel most comfortable doing. Python is a logic-driven text-based tool and ModelBuilder is a logic-driven visual tool. When feeding your culture appetite, sometimes you want to read a great novel and sometimes you want to look at a beautiful painting. Similarly, there may be times you want to write a script and other times you want to create a model. The beauty of ArcGIS is that you can easily do both, right inside ArcGIS Desktop. Related posts: ModelBuilder 101 for ArcGIS Pro ModelBuilder 101 (ArcMap) Resources to learn more about ModelBuilder: Esri training options ArcGIS Help (ArcGIS Pro, ArcMap) Resources to learn more about Python scripting: Python website Esri training options for Python ... View more

Updated February 13, 2018 A previous post covered converting standard annotation to feature-linked annotation—to recap, it cannot be done directly. A recommended workflow when you have standard annotation that you wish were feature-linked is to create an empty feature-linked annotation class, then append the standard annotation features to it (using the Append Annotation Feature Classes tool). Several readers have wondered, once you have feature-linked annotation in place, what happens when you need to replace the data linked to the annotation? No one wants to repeat the work of setting up annotation if they can avoid it. Can you change which feature class your feature-linked annotation is linked to? The answer is no. Feature-linked annotation can be associated with only one feature class (the one specified when the feature-linked annotation was created). The feature-linked annotation and the feature class participate in a relationship class that you cannot alter. Despite this, when you receive new data, there is a way to preserve the annotation. Consider this scenario: Every month, you receive updates to a geodatabase feature class in shapefile format. Each month, features have been deleted, there are new features to be added, and remaining features have changes. Replacing the data would be faster than editing the existing feature class. However, the feature class has linked annotation. A reader shared a solution for this situation: delete the existing features from the feature class (thus creating an empty feature class), then append the new features to repopulate the feature class. This solution works and it's a good one when you have data that changes a lot and doesn't participate in table joins or relationships (besides feature-linked annotation). This method is not advisable in all situations. Before deleting features, check your workflows to make sure there are no unintended impacts. Depending on how extensive the data changes are, you can replace all features or just a selected set. Below are the steps to do this using ArcMap. Of course, before deleting any data, it's always wise to make a backup copy first. For example, you could create a file geodatabase in an archive workspace and copy the feature class and feature-linked annotation class to it before performing the steps below. To create or edit a feature class that has feature-linked annotation, you need an Standard or Advanced license of ArcGIS Desktop. Delete Existing Features In ArcMap, open a blank map document and add the feature class that needs to be updated and its feature-linked annotation to the Table of Contents. Start an edit session. Select the features you want to delete. You can build a query expression to select a subset or, to delete all features, right-click the feature class layer and click Selection > Select All. Click the Delete button, then save your edits. Stop the edit session. Open the attribute table for the feature-linked annotation and note that its features have been deleted as well. Append Replacement Features Add the dataset that contains the new data to the map document. The Append tool accepts map layers, shapefiles, and geodatabase feature classes (and other data types) as input. You can use its optional Schema Type and Field Map parameters to control how attributes are treated. In the Catalog window, expand Toolboxes > System Toolboxes > Data Management Tools > General (or just use the Search window to search for "append"). Double-click the Append tool to open its dialog box. For Input Dataset, click the drop-down arrow and choose the layer that stores the new data. For Target Dataset, choose the existing feature class, then click OK to run the tool. After the Append tool finishes running, open the attribute tables for the updated feature class and the annotation. Note that the features were added and new annotation features were created for them. Review the features and annotation on the map and reposition individual annotations as needed, based on the new feature locations and shapes. So there you have it: an easy way to mass-update data and associated feature-linked annotation. Thanks to reader Pedonkus for sharing this solution. If you regularly receive new data to replace current data that has feature-linked annotation, you can automate this process using a Python script. The ArcPy site package includes the UpdateCursor function (can use to delete existing features). The Append tool help topic includes example Python code. Related Post: ArcGIS Annotation: Woes and Woohoos ... View more

Updated February 11, 2018 These days, "Is there an app for that?" is a rhetorical question. The answer is assumed to be yes. Surprise (annoyance even) is likely to surface if it turns out an app doesn't exist for a particular need. So it's no surprise there's a continuing conversation about whether GIS professionals—analysts, specialists, technicians, and others—should add programming to their list of must-have skills. And how much weight are organizations giving to programming expertise when evaluating GIS job candidates? The fact is that a lot of GIS professionals have been enthusiastic about programming for a long time. If you attend an Esri conference, you're almost guaranteed to overhear at least one veteran ARC/INFO user fondly reminisce about jamming with AML (ARC Macro Language). If there are former ArcView 3.x users in the room, Avenue talk rules. When ArcGIS came on the scene, many GIS professionals embraced first VBA, then Python. Given this strong tradition, the current conversation should focus not on whether GIS professionals should cultivate a programming language, but which languages and which platforms will help them do their jobs faster and better. The main reason to learn a programming language is to accomplish something, after all. Here are some reasons you may want to consider. Be more productive by automating ArcGIS tasks and workflows. How: You can create scripts to execute time-consuming or repetitive tasks, and schedule them to run after business hours. You can document and easily repeat complicated workflows that some projects require. You can  share your scripted workflows with other ArcGIS users to boost their productivity too. Language: Python. Python is still the replacement for AML, Avenue, and VBA. It's free, cross-platform, and integrated into the ArcGIS platform. If you want to script ArcGIS tasks, learn Python if you haven't already. Tip: Keep an eye on Arcade, a newish scripting language for ArcGIS that may become as popular as Python some day. Training options for Python Extend the value of GIS throughout your organization. How: If there are non-GIS users in your organization who perform GIS-powered tasks, you can help them be more efficient by simplifying things for them. Give them the ArcGIS tools they need without overwhelming them with a lot of other features and functions. Maybe they never even know they're using a GIS application—maybe they're just opening a map, getting information, and printing a report. Language: For desktop environments, add-ins are a relatively easy way to create and deliver a custom ArcGIS experience. The Microsoft .NET Framework (VB.NET and C# languages) is commonly used to create add-ins. Python add-ins are also supported. Training options for add-ins More and more organizations are having non-GIS staff use web apps to do their jobs thanks to their cross-platform accessibility and lower system footprint. One way to quickly create custom web mapping applications is to use the ArcGIS Online configurable apps. With a configurable app,  you don't have to write any code, you just configure the tools and data you need to deliver a friendly experience and enhanced productivity to end users. Training options for configurable apps Add new capabilities to support your organization's unique business workflows. How: If you really want to embrace your inner developer, you can learn how to create custom GIS applications accessible to desktop, online, or mobile workers who create, maintain, manage, or make decisions using your organization's geographic content. Language: This depends on your organization's preferred platform. Custom desktop applications are often developed using ArcGIS Engine and .NET, Java, or C++. ArcGIS Runtime SDKs are a great option for mobile apps and lightweight desktop apps. For web apps, ArcGIS API for JavaScript has many benefits and has a lower learning curve than other APIs. If you already know some HTML, you may actually have fun learning JavaScript. Training options for web and mobile development Bottom line: Do you need to learn a programming language? If it's not a requirement of your current job, then learning how to program is optional. Can programming help you perform your job better? More than likely at least one aspect of your job could be done better if you knew some programming. Can programming knowledge make you more valuable to your employer or potential employers? A non-scientific review of major job posting sites reveals that about half of GIS-related postings list a programming language as either a requirement or a recommended skill. It's a good bet that sharpening your programming skills is worth the effort and will help you grow your career. ... View more

Like people, training comes in different sizes. Put another way, training suits different purposes—and it scales from individuals to organizations. Individuals use training to gain new knowledge and skills that will help them do their current job faster and smarter, earn more responsibility (and pay), and reinvent themselves professionally. Projects use training to make sure team members acquire the skills they need to complete the project on time, on budget, and on spec. The skills that project team members acquire are almost always transferable to future projects. Departments use training plans to support functional job roles. Training is used to onboard new employees and support  performance objectives for all employees. Training plans are a great tool to document the knowledge and skills needed for each role—they also assist with writing job descriptions used to recruit and evaluate job candidates. Organizations increasingly understand the strategic benefits of workforce development. Workforce development includes training but more fundamentally, it encompasses the organization's belief that investment in their human talent is directly linked to achieving long-term business objectives. When integrated into the fabric of an organization, resources spent on workforce development are validated by the organization's bottom line. Because when individuals are empowered to perform to their potential—and they believe the organization is vested in their success—productivity, loyalty, and innovation have a rich environment in which to thrive. Where are you on the training scale? Esri offers free planning assistance for all sizes.  ... View more

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." This old adage has wide applicability—when you want to lose 10 pounds, be picked for a leadership position, land the perfect job, and on and on. So just like everything else in life, when it comes to GIS analysis, planning pays off. To ensure reliable results, here's the tried and true process we recommend: Frame the question. Explore and prepare data. Choose analysis methods and tools. Perform the analysis. Examine and refine results. Step 2 is arguably the most critical as your final results are only as reliable as the data you start with. Read on for a closer look at exploring and preparing data for an analysis project.Exploring Data The first part of step 2 flows directly from the analysis question. Spend time upfront identifying all the data, including attributes, needed to answer the question. Don't get halfway through a project and discover you're missing a key dataset. The point of exploring data is to understand what valid things you can do with it. You should: Examine the metadata. Note the spatial resolution and accuracy, coordinate system, when the data was collected and by whom, data use constraints, and other important information. Explore all the spatial datasets you plan to use in ArcMap. Do the layers align properly together? Are some layers more generalized than others? Do some layers have a larger (or smaller) extent than needed? Explore the attribute table for each layer and note the number of records and the attributes. Sort fields and look at field statistics to understand the values. Note obvious data entry errors and inconsistencies. Preparing Data Preparing data means ensuring datasets can be validly analyzed together and reducing processing time as much as possible. Data preparation tasks often include projecting data, reducing the spatial extent to the area of interest, deleting unneeded attributes, creating new attributes, cleaning up attribute values, and more. Get the most out of ArcGIS geoprocessing tools. Many can be run in batch mode and some have options you can use to combine data preparation tasks. For example, inside the Feature Class to Feature Class tool, you can create a SQL expression to import only features located in your area of interest, you can exclude source attributes you don't need, and you can define new attribute fields that you do need. With one tool, you accomplish three preparation steps. You can also create a model to automate data preparation—just drag the geoprocessing tools you need into a model window and define their parameters. Creating a model is an excellent way to visualize and order tasks as you go. The same data may be used for multiple analyses. It's good practice to make a copy of the original data before you make changes to prepare for a specific project. This way, the original data is preserved for subsequent analyses—and you have something to go back to just in case.Example: Analyze Piracy Incidents Let's look at a simple example to illustrate the importance of exploring and preparing data. The analysis question has been framed as: In the years 2009 through 2011, what types of vessels were the most frequent victims of piracy in and around the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea? The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) distributes Anti-Shipping Activity Messages (ASAM) reports, which include locations and descriptions of hostile acts against ships and mariners worldwide. You can download ASAM data in shapefile format from the NGA website.Explore the Data After downloading the ASAM shapefile, add it to ArcMap. For geographic context, it helps to add a basemap; in this case, the World Topograpic Map from ArcGIS Online works well. The map graphic on the right shows the global extent of the ASAM data (symbolized with red dots). A quick exploration of the attribute table reveals 6,158 records; an attribute that stores a world subregion code; and an attribute that stores the date each incident occurred—the date range is 5/1/1978 through 1/9/2012.  To efficiently answer the analysis question, you need to reduce the data to incidents that occurred between 1/1/2009 and 12/31/2011 in subregion 62 (the NGA website lists subregion codes). You also need to do some other preparation work to resolve issues with this data.Issue 1: The data has no spatial reference. When the ASAM shapefile was added to ArcMap, a message that the data was missing a spatial reference displayed. For shapefiles, spatial reference information is stored in the projection (.PRJ) file and it's not unusual for the .PRJ file to be missing, as it is here. So how do you know which coordinate system to use? A good place to start is the Layer Properties dialog box. In the Source tab, when you look at the extent coordinates, the number of digits to the left of the decimals tells you it's a geographic coordinate system. With geographic coordinate systems, the Left and Right extent values will have one to three digits to the left of the decimal, while the Top and Bottom extent values will have one or two digits to the left of the decimal. Tip: You can learn methods to identify unknown coordinate systems in the Working with Coordinate Systems in ArcGIS web course. Since the data has a global extent, it is reasonable to assign the WGS 1984 geographic coordinate system. If your analysis involved precise measurements, you would want to assign a suitable projected coordinate system for the area of interest as well.Issue 2: The data is more extensive than you need. The ASAM data has a larger spatial extent and a longer temporal extent than you need. SQL queries will resolve these issues. For this analysis, the initial data preparation tasks are: 1. Create a file geodatabase to organize the project data. 2. Import the ASAM shapefile into the file geodatabase. Import only features within subregion 62 that fall within the date range 1/1/2009-12/31/2011. 3. Assign the WGS 1984 coordinate system to the geodatabase feature class. The model graphic on the right shows the geoprocessing workflow. A SQL expression was defined in the Feature Class to Feature Class tool dialog so only the incidents meeting the analysis criteria will be imported. Tip: If you need help creating a SQL expression, use the SQL reference in the ArcGIS Help. After running the model, you have a new feature class with 643 features. Now that the data is a more manageable size, before moving on to step 3 of the analysis process, you need to verify that all 643 features represent piracy incidents that occurred during the analysis timeframe. In ASAM data, two fields contain date information (Reference and DateOfOcc). DateOfOcc stores mm/dd/yyyy, while Reference includes the year followed by a unique ID number. The Reference field was used in the Feature Class to Feature Class dialog's SQL expression for convenience, but it means there's cleanup to be done now. Sorting the DateOfOcc field reveals that four records have 2009 in the Reference field (reflecting the year the report was submitted), but their DateOfOcc values tell you the incidents actually occurred during the last week of 2008. These records can be deleted. Now there are 639 records to analyze.Issue 3: Attribute values are inconsistent. Next, you need to make sure all records are incidents of piracy. The Aggressor field stores this information. Sorting the Aggressor field reveals multiple values, the vast majority of which contain some variation of "pirate."  Tip: A quick visual method to understand how the Aggressor values vary is to open the Layer Properties dialog box and symbolize the layer by Unique Values based on the Aggressor field. Each unique aggressor value displays and the Count field tells you how many of each. After exploring the Aggressor values, you can create an attribute query to select all records that have one of the "pirate" variations in the Aggressor field, then switch the selection to see how many records don't directly reference pirate aggressors. In this case, only 16 incidents have Aggressor values that don't reference pirates. You need to explore the incident descriptions to determine whether any of these 16 likely were attacks by pirates. If they clearly did not involve pirate aggressors, delete the records. In this case, the incident descriptions don't clearly rule out pirate aggressors, so you choose to keep the records but categorize them to account for the ambiguity. You use the Field Calculator to change those 16 Aggressor values to Possible Pirates, and you clean up the remaining records so they all have an Aggressor value of Pirates.Issue 4: The table has duplicate records. With the DateOfOcc field sorted, a look at the Reference field shows something alarming. There seem to be many duplicate records—records with the same Reference value and identical data in the other attribute fields. How could this be? Did something go wrong when you converted the shapefile to a geodatabase feature class?  This is the time to go back to the original data and determine if the duplicates existed there. Because of the number of features in the shapefile, it's efficient to summarize the Reference field, which outputs a table with a count of each unique reference value in the shapefile. After creating the summary table and sorting the Count_Reference field, you see that many Reference numbers have a duplicate. To find out exactly how many, select the records whose Count_Reference value is equal to 2. It turns out that 493 Reference numbers have a duplicate in the source data you started with. Determining how many of those 493 are in your geodatabase feature class requires more work. Just like you did for the shapefile, in the Incidents to Analyze layer, summarize the Reference field to output a table with a count of reference values, then select the records whose Count_Reference value is equal to 2. It turns out that 170 records have a duplicate. Is there a way to easily remove 170 duplicate records? Yes, fairly easily. Here's how: Join the summary table of reference values to the Incidents to Analyze table. Select records whose Count_Reference value is equal to 2—as expected, there are 340 selected records. Start an edit session, then use the Delete Identical tool to delete the selected records that have the same Reference value as another record (note that before running the Delete Identical tool, you must remove the table join—the selected records remain selected after the join is removed). Final result: 469 incidents ready to be used as input in step 3 of the GIS analysis process. All this data exploring and preparing really only required a couple of hours of focused work. Of course, the incident victim values likely need cleanup as well—but we'll end the example here as the boundary line between steps 2 and 3 of the GIS analysis process is not a solid fence.Takeaway: When preparing data for analysis, you have to make decisions and live with some uncertainty. Your specific analysis criteria and how well you know the topic determine how far you go to clean up the data. To avoid creating or propagating errors, carefully explore the data and document any data preparation you do and why you chose to do it. Remember that a model is a valuable tool to document your workflow and help others better understand your analysis results. The data you use for a GIS analysis project may not be perfect and it may not fit your needs exactly. But planning and preparation go a long way toward making sure the data generates reliable results you can confidently share with others. Want to learn more best practices for GIS analysis? Here are courses that can help. Building Geoprocessing Models Using ArcGIS Pro ArcGIS 3: Performing Analysis Quality Control Using ArcGIS Data Reviewer ... View more

Updated February 13, 2018 Labeling features can be a time-consuming part of creating a map. When you're dealing with many features, it may seem downright onerous. But there are ways to make the job easier. Consider this illustrative tale. Week 1: James—smart, ambitious, new on the job—is designated the department map maker. Sam, data technician by day, ink artist by night, tells James about a new dataset with a thousand or so point features that will be used as an operational layer in several high-profile maps produced by the department. The data will be updated weekly and the maps need to be in sync (Sam also suggests a warrior armband to command respect from Marc, the alpha analyst in the group). In ArcMap, James adds the point layer and turns on dynamic labels, spends time creating label classes and setting scale ranges and formatting the labels in each class appropriately for the map products. He converts the labels to a standard annotation feature class stored in the same geodatabase as the point feature class so the annotation can be reused easily on multiple maps. He then spends several hours painstakingly positioning the annotation until he's satisfied the map text looks perfect. Marc will be impressed, he thinks (and mulls whether to go for a drink after work to discuss those Aztec jaguar symbols Sam just texted). Week 2: James receives a message that the point feature class has been updated. Ignoring Sam's question about flame throwers, he adds the point and annotation feature classes to a map document. Uh oh. Orphan text and unlabeled points galore. His heart sinks as he realizes how much work needs to be done to fix this. The thought occurs to him—is he going to have to redo this work every single week? Searching the ArcGIS help, James discovers he should have created feature-linked annotation when he converted the labels. If he had, he wouldn't have to edit the annotation feature class every time a point feature is added or deleted. If he had, then the annotation (and the maps that reference the annotation feature class) would automatically sync up with the point data—when a feature gets deleted, its annotation would also get deleted and when new point features get added, annotation would be created for them. If a feature got moved, the annotation would...well, Marc was going to have a field day with this. James wonders if there's a way to convert his standard annotation class to feature-linked annotation. Taking a deep breath, he dives back into the help... Week 3: Just as James is sitting down with his mocha java lite to look over the latest sketches from Sam, a soft ding heralds a message that the points have been updated. He shakes off a little fritter of nervous anxiety. Again he adds the point and annotation feature classes to a map document. Sweet relief, he is a warrior! The annotation for the features displays as it should, where it should. The maps are good to go. Yes, Sam, the eagle sun god eating a snake is just what he needs! Are you wondering how James' story ended so happily? Create Feature-Linked Annotation from Standard Annotation You can't convert standard annotation to feature-linked annotation, but you can add standard annotation features to a feature-linked annotation class. Creating feature-linked annotation requires an ArcGIS Desktop Standard or Advanced license. The feature class and the feature-linked annotation must be stored in the same geodatabase, or in the same feature dataset if the feature class is inside a feature dataset. Here are the high-level steps to do it. In the ArcMap Catalog window or ArcCatalog, create a new feature-linked annotation class in a geodatabase (right-click the geodatabase, click New > Feature Class and work through the New Feature Class wizard). Be sure to check the option to link the annotation to a feature class and specify that feature class. You can import the coordinate system information from the feature class you are linking to or specify it yourself. Set the reference scale to the appropriate one for your mapping needs. After creating the feature-linked annotation class, in the Catalog tree, expand System Toolboxes > Data Management Tools > Feature Class and double-click the Append Annotation Feature Classes tool. For input features, specify the existing standard annotation class. For output feature class, browse to the empty feature-linked annotation class. Specify the reference scale, check the options to create a single annotation class and to create annotation when new features are added. Click OK. Voila, the annotation features are now feature-linked and will update as edits are made to the linked features. You can delete the standard annotation class or perhaps archive it. Related Post: Lose the Features, Keep the Annotation Properties Want to learn more about working with annotation? Building Geodatabases Designing Maps with ArcGIS ... View more