Latest Contributions by simoxu

To use ArcPy and ArcGIS API for Python together, there is one question inevitable: How to exchange data between two APIs? Data Exchange Between ArcPy and ArcGIS API for Python  ... View more

This is exactly the same question I came here to post --- luckily I did a search first and found someone has already asked this question. Surely lots of developers will face this problem. I use "ArcPy + ArcGIS API for Python" to connect my Web GIS and local enterprise GIS database and GIS tools, to automate my workflow. I will need to do some data exchange between two python data models (feature, featureset, table, geometry, etc.). I can't help thinking the following questions: Why ESRI doesn't provide some helper modules to in either or both API to facilitate the data exchange? Why a separate Python API from ArcPy? will it be more logical to expand existing ArcPy to support the  online GIS (ArcgIS Online and Portal)? ... View more

Hi Jake, That works! Thanks a lot. Simo ... View more

Thank you Tina, Good to know that this is all possible ---- disappointingly, it seems the local distributor does not know this.  Hopefully our issue will be resolved soon. Cheers, Simo ... View more

Very happy to know it's coming ... View more

If I dig a little bit deeper, I can see there is a javascript application framework between WAB and ArcGIS Javascript API. The document of this "framework" is very sparse, this will make it hard for non-expert developers to understand the apps generated from the WAB when needed to do any substantial customization. This is another matter anyway. Talking about the mobile friendly framework, the one WAB uses seems heavy for a Mobile-first web app. the sheer zipped size of it is more than 8 Mb,  more than 20 Mb if it's expanded, while other popular frameworks,  such as React, Vue Js, their sizes are less than 1Mb. Many modern JS frameworks explicitly claim to be mobile-first. I am not an expert JS developer, without any real experience with React and Vue mentioned above, it's a long shot for me to compare these frameworks with WAB framework... I just feel there should be a template in WAB, which is a mobile-first template, and optimised for mobile phones. the difference between mobile phone and desktop computer are not only in the screen size which responsive web design is trying to adapt seamlessly.  Google's Progressive Web Apps (PWA) sounds a step to the right direction.  ... View more

Thanks for the comment. Yes, If a native app is needed, AppStudio can be a very good option. But I doubt that native apps will ever replace web apps, and I won't rule out the other way around since web apps seem to have overtaken most of the native apps on desktop computers.  Apple, Google and Microsoft like their app stores, because they can make money directly or indirectly by controlling the app distribution.  Purely from a technical point of view, web app is internet's own child, and it's meant to be running cross-platform.  So back to the topic, by saying MOBILE FIRST, I mean when a web app is designed, the designer should assume the users will first use it on their mobile device. Therefore, the mobile users' existing experience with native apps should be considered, such as card-style (rather than popups), gestures support, etc. How to adapt to big screens on the desktop computers should come second. This is what I believe at the moment, I am ready to be convinced by other ideas Moxie Zhang‌ ... View more

Are there any considerations of assigning an area to a team/group? There will be cases that a team needs to inspect or assess an area, for example, in the disaster recovery scenario, teams are formed to work in specific areas. ... View more

What's new—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS (December 2017)     Two new editing configuration options are available for hosted feature layers and hosted feature layer views, giving you more fine-grained control over what operations editors can perform. This raised my hope, but it is proved not helpful for this particular situation. Surely many users will need this feature to symbolize the assessed objects to show the progress in the field...  Arcade expression is a new hope, but it can't extract the related data, just not yet. ... View more

OK, it is a bug for 1.2.0, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.3 and finally addressed in the latest release of 1.2.4! well, sort of... BUG-000108063: ArcGIS API for Python is unable to connect to Portal..  The bug was only submitted on Sep 15 and I reported the issue as a comment on the 1.2.0 release announcement on Sep 11. coincident? ... View more