Latest Contributions by MatthewLawton

‎08-10-2010

Thanks, Robert. A very good point and well taken. However I think Joshua and I are on the same page. As a member of an organization that pays over $70,000 per year in maintenance to ESRI, I do hope and wish for more from them. I don't mean to fill up the forums with my rant, but I do believe that there are others in this same position out there. My organization first deployed web mapping solutions via ArcIMS about 9 years ago. In 2007, with the release of the Web ADF for ArcGIS Server, it became very apparent that the days of ArcIMS were numbered. At that time we were told by ESRI that .NET was the way to go and we had better get on board so that we wouldn't get caught off-guard when ArcIMS went away. Two years later, after much frustration with Visual Studio and VB.NET (after all, I am a geographer, which used to matter at some point way back when) the Flex and JavaScript API's were revealed. Within 30 minutes of playing with the JavaScript API, I knew that was the direction for me to go. The skills I had developed supporting ArcIMS were directly applicable. But for the past year, whenever I debuted a new JavaScript API application (I support 6 of them now) we were always asked by our ESRI sales rep, "Why didn't you develop it in Flex?" It made me feel as if I was really missing out on something by not using the Flex API. I tried to develop an app with Flex back in November 2009. After a frustrating week, I decided to abandon that effort and continue with the JavaScript API. Now we are in August 2010. I heard all the hype from the User Conference about the new version of Flex, so here I am again trying to make it work. But after nearly 40 hours of reading and tinkering this past week, I am still left with a beta template website with some modified colors, a different title, and some broken tools. Maybe Flex is just beyond me. Maybe I should just stick with the JavaScript API. At least I will have an answer the next time our sales rep asks me why I am not developing in Flex.

‎08-10-2010

Okay, it only took me a week to figure out that the old forum posts are still there, they just need to be filtered or searched to show posts that are older than the past 30 days.

‎08-10-2010

Okay, I just realized that the reason no forum threads appear in the old forums is because they have been locked for over a month, so obviously there has been no activity in the last 30 days. Fortunately, the filter and search still work and the old posts are still there. This solves issues #1, #2, and #4. I am still facing issue #3 and am strongly considering a reversion back to the SFV 1.3 and FB3 at this point.

‎08-10-2010

I've only been cruising the Flex forum for about a week or so, but I have identified some big problems that I wish to share. I'm wondering if any of you agree with these points and perhaps there can be something done (ESRI) to address these problems. 1. We have a sticky on this forum from early July that links to an "archived forum" (aka the "old forums"), however, in case you guys haven't noticed, the old posts in that forum have gone bye bye. Am I missing something here? Is there another way to access these old forums that you guys are passing around behind my back with a secret handshake? 2. Assuming that these old forum posts really are gone forever, then I have to say ARE YOU NUTS!!! Do you know how much valuable knowledge was contained in those forum posts? I haven't been doing much development in Flex until the past couple of weeks, but I have been working with the JavaScript API since May 2009 and all of those forum posts are gone too! They are an invaluable resource! 3. From my observation, the Sample Flex Viewer 2.0 is still very much a beta product. Despite the heroic efforts of Robert Scheitlin, and a few other forum MVPs, as a beginner I am finding it difficult to impossible to create a functional application using Flash Builder 4 and the SFV 2.0 template. Granted a lot of this is due to my lack of knowledge and experience, but at least some of it is due to the fact that this platform is new and unproven and lacks much of the necessary documentation. 4. Why did the old forum posts disappear, ESRI? Was there a mistake and they will reappear soon? Are there technical difficulties with maintaining the old forum? Are you trying to discourage users from going to the old forums by making them disappear entirely? Are you forcing Flex development to be performed solely in FB4, even though your own sample application is still in a beta version? So here is my quandary, do I press on with SFV 2.0 and Flash Builder 4, hoping that things will get better while my boss breathes down my neck waiting for results? Or do I go back to Flex Builder 3 and SFV 1.3, a more proven platform, but one lacking a large knowledge base that is no longer available? Or do I abandon Flex entirely and go back to the JavaScript API where I have had much more success? Maybe my questions are off-base or maybe they have already been addressed somewhere. If so, please let me know.

‎08-10-2010

Sally, I think those were the same errors I was getting at first when I had my project pointed to "localhost". I had to update my project with the proper server name. Take a look at this post and see if it helps: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/9642-Change-localhost-in-Flash-Builder-4-when-Run-index

‎08-09-2010

James, I think this was originally written for the SFV 1.3. I am getting many of the same errors as you are in the SFV 2.0. I was following the migration tips from ESRI and Adobe to convert this to Flex 4, but it is beyond me. I just can't seem to get it to work. Luke, any chance of getting a SFV 2.0 version of this widget?

‎08-05-2010

I'm assuming the part I would alter in the MapSwitcherWidget.mxml is somewhere in here: // base maps mapList = new ArrayCollection(configData.basemaps); if (mapList.length <= 1) { this.currentState = "noBasemapsBB"; } else { setTbbSelectedIndex(); } toc.map = map; toc.isMapServiceOnly = false; //gotta get this from the config file toc.excludeLayers = getExcludeLayers(); toc.excludeGraphicsLayers = true; hideTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, hideTimer_timerCompleteHandler, false, 0, true); callLater(expandTOC); Can you provide a little more guidance please? I'm curious, what does the getExcludeLayers function do? What is the property toc.isMapServiceOnly and why is it false? I tried looking these up in the API reference but I couldn't find them.

‎08-05-2010

Robert, thank you for your lists and I agree they are dead on correct. When i showed my boss the Flex Viewer 2 template yesterday the first things he asked me were "Where are the navigation buttons?" and "Where is the Identify tool?". Bjorn, you get an F- for your response. Instead of asking why customers want something (especially something as simple as navigation buttons) your response should be "We will get working on that ASAP!". It is nice to think that all of our apps are being consumed by 20-something web geeks, but the fact of the matter is that we have many people using our apps that are not Internet savvy. When they learn to zoom in on a map by clicking a Zoom In button, then by gosh they want that Zoom In button to be there every time. Even if you think these tools are unnecessary, we need the option to add them. This is the concept of good legacy support.

‎08-04-2010

This is an issue I have been dealing with in the Flex Sample Viewer for a while and I see it is still an issue in 2.0. How can I add additional Base Maps to my app without generating multiple buttons on my toolbars? For example, I have my own tiled base map (or street map) that is cached with the Google/Bing scheme. I would like to also have the ESRI World Street Map as a backdrop to my base map for areas outside of that base map. Likewise, I have my own aerial photo and topo cached services, but would like to have the ESRI World Imagery and USA Topo services as backdrops to each of those respectively. If I just add these services to the config.xml like this: <mapservice label="Streets" type="tiled" visible="true" alpha="1" url="http://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Street_Map/MapServer"/> <mapservice label="Streets" type="tiled" visible="true" alpha="1" url="http://<server>/ArcGIS/rest/services/BaseLayersWebMercator/MapServer"/> ...then I get two "Streets" buttons. I just want one "Streets" button that will turn both of these services on at the same time with my service on top. Likewise if I toggle to the "Aerial" and "Topo" buttons. I'm assuming I can't do this by simply modifying the config.xml. How might I go about this?

‎08-04-2010

Daniel, my map service just seems to work. It is also dynamic and takes a few seconds for the layers to render, but they do show up. Are you sure the primary check box is on for the service before you toggle the individual layers? I have mine not visible by default so I have to make sure to do this. Do you have any permissions set for this service that would cause it not to appear? This is how I have my service referenced in the config.xml: <operationallayers> <layer label="Facilities and Infrastructure" type="dynamic" visible="false" preload="true" url="http://<server>/ArcGIS/rest/services/EOCWebMercator/MapServer?token=xxx"/> </operationallayers>

‎08-03-2010

Well done, Robert! Thanks for not giving up on me. I will stop complaining now. 😄

‎08-03-2010

Perfect, Thank You!

‎08-03-2010

When I "Run index" in Flash Builder 4, my browser opens up and uses "localhost" for the server address to view my app. This throws up a bunch of errors. If I change the server name in the browser to the fully qualified domain name then everything runs great. Is there someplace in Flash Builder 4 that I can force my project to use the fully qualified domain name when I "Run index" so I can avoid those annoying errors?

‎08-03-2010

Okay, I junked my 1.3 site and have downloaded the 2.0 Flex Viewer template. I have my map services plugged in and I am starting fresh. The config file is a bit different. I see that the "Live Maps" from the 1.3 template are now under the "More.." button. I have successfully added my dynamic layer under the operationallayers tag in the config.xml and the service shows up under the "More.." button. I now want my map service under "More..." to be expanded to show all of the layers available for toggling. Would that be in the LayerListWidget.mxml?

‎08-03-2010

Thanks for your thoughts, Matt. I have been trying to learn by modifying the Flex Sample Viewer and the VIPER code (built from FSV). I will keep your comments in mind as this may not be the best way for me to actually learn Flex. But I still have to produce something for my boss 😄 I had a lot of trouble trying to learn Visual Studio when the Web ADF came out. It was a totally foreign environment for me. When the JavaScript API was relesed it was a blessing because I could return to the HTML and JavaScript fundamentals I had learned with ArcIMS. Unfortunately Flex has put me back into the world of an IDE. I guess I just feel constricted working within the confines of an IDE, especially when I am also trying to learn a new programming language. It is like trying to learn English by using Microsoft Word.

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My Ideas

Latest Contributions by MatthewLawton

Re: A big problem

Re: Links to ARCHIVED FORUMS

Re: A big problem

A big problem

Re: Testing Flex Viewer 2.0 and getting the following error

Re: KML Widget - Feedback needed

Re: Multiple Base Maps for Streets Aerial Topo

Re: Navigation controls in FlexViewer 2?

Multiple Base Maps for Streets Aerial Topo

Re: TOC Expand 2.0

Re: TOC Expand 2.0

Re: Change localhost in Flash Builder 4 when Run index

Change localhost in Flash Builder 4 when Run index

TOC Expand 2.0

Re: Help a beginner get rolling with Flex and ArcGIS, please!

Re: Convert a point form StatePlane to Degrees Min...