Latest Contributions by ThomasSolow

It looks to me like the 3.21 API has a heatmap renderer that will do this work in the client: HeatmapRenderer | API Reference | ArcGIS API for JavaScript 3.21  This component isn't ready in 4.XX though. How are you getting your GPS data?  I mean how is it hosted? ... View more

As far as I know there's nothing exactly like this in the web tier.  This kind of thing is generally not done in the browser. There is this: GitHub - nickcam/FlareClusterLayer: ArcGIS javascript custom graphics layer. Creates clusters and creates flares for clu…  which might meet your specifications, but may be too slow with a large number of points. However, the example you linked isn't for arcgis desktop, it uses the web map viewer in ArcGIS online/ArcGIS Portal.  Assuming your data is pulled in from a feature service, and you have access to AGOL/Portal, you should be able to follow the steps in that tutorial to get this effect. The thing to note here is that this work is not done in the browser, it's done by creating a new feature service and using an aggregatePoints GP tool.  All of this takes place on the back-end.  Technically it would be possible to do this work in the client, but it would be fairly expensive and you wouldn't want to do it every time the map gets loaded, ... View more

However, if one of my clients required back end functionality couldn't I just sign them up for a developer account which would allow them to purchase credits if and when needed?   My feeling is yes, although I don't know a lot about the credit system having never used it. Also, do you have any recommendation as to the best resources to learn more about development for client facing apps?  I know that Rene Rublecava is in the process of writing a book for the ArcGIS 4 API, but wasn't certain if it was focused more on server development? As far as I know that's the only book:  Intro to ArcGIS API 4 for… Rene Rubalcava 著 [PDF/iPad/Kindle]  Looking at the table of contents, it looks pretty client-focused.  It should be since the subject is the JS API. I would say that client-based app development should be similar to app development with the API in general.  The caveat is pretty straightforward: layers and graphics need to be constructed in the client, either from user input, or from third party servers that will be accessible from wherever your app is hosted.  (For example, lots of cities have APIs that share transit information.  It would be easy to use these services to add symbols representing buses to a map and poll/update every 5 seconds). My general impression is that the Esri JS API is more complicated, but also more powerful, than other JS mapping APIs.  If you're not familiar with promises, the 4.XX version is hard to pick up.  Some selling points are the free world-elevation layer, 3D maps, multiple views of the same map, and the geometry engine (which lets you do a lot of things in the client that might ordinarily be done on a server). ... View more

FeatureLayer, and other Esri modules, will only be in scope of the callback that is passed into require (which is what I think you mean by initialization function). You can define other functions within that function and then set up listeners/events so that your functions will fire based on user actions. ... View more

Portal for ArcGIS | ArcGIS Enterprise  I don't know the details of installation, but generally portal is used by organizations. You can host tiled map services using arcmap/arcgis pro and ArcGIS Server: Tutorial: Creating a cached map service—Documentation | ArcGIS Enterprise  I've never gone through this process myself, but I see no reason you couldn't create your own basemaps using arcmap and server and then consuming them in the JS API. ... View more

I don't really know much about licensing. As far as I know there's nothing stopping you from creating applications with the JS API using either the esri-hosted source code or downloading the source code from the developer site and hosting it yourself.  A caveat here is that the source code is only publicly distributed in a minified form. My feeling is that the JS API is suitable for client apps, although the majority of developer users seem to be Esri platform users.  If you use the API this way, you'll be using Esri's public (and free) basemaps.  Apparently these basemaps do have a request limit, but for most users 50 million transactions per year is probably fine. Everything else can be done in the client, like adding graphics (features) and layers, handling user-input, click events, and so on.  The API also includes a geometry engine that contains some helpful functionality, all performed in the client. One pitfall I could see is that a lot of the widgets in the API rely on an Esri back-end.  For example, the geocoder will make requests to the ArcGIS Online geocoder.  Parts of this service are free, but parts are not (more information). If you can explain a little bit about what kind of functionality you're looking for I can go into more detail. ... View more

Can you post a code sample? ... View more

You should be able to use google's API without pulling anything in from google.  It's been a while since I've used a google API but a quick search led me to a couple sample URLs: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=40.714224,-73.961452&key= YOUR_API_KEY https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=1600+Amphitheatre+Parkway,+Mountain+View,+CA&key= YOUR_API_KEY (source) You can make requests in these formats using an XHR, or whichever wrapper your prefer (esri/request is an option since you're pulling in the Esri JS API) and get back a list of results, which you can then display how you choose. I recommend creating your own search widget: you can add a text box, search button, and a place to display results. ... View more

By default the JavaScript API uses a lot of resources from ArcGIS Online (AGOL), which requires an internet connection. It's possible to host these resources yourself and totally eliminate any dependence on AGOL.  In my experience this is most often done via Portal + ArcGIS Server (Portal is essentially your own version of AGOL) but it should be doable to set this up just with server. Anyway, the approach I would take is to use your browser's dev tools to see which requests your browser is trying to make.   The most likely candidates are requests for basemaps: by default, basemaps are pulled in from AGOL.  You'll have to host your own basemaps.  Portal provides a streamlined way to do this: you can tell the JS API to pull basemaps from Portal rather than AGOL (note: you'll still have to ensure that your Portal + Server installation is hosting some basemaps, a default Portal install still points to AGOL for basemaps). A lot of other resources in the JS API point to AGOL by default as well, such as geocoding and the world elevation layers. ... View more

JS Bin - Collaborative JavaScript Debugging I copied your sample to a sandbox.  Seems to work fine, unsure what the issue is here. ... View more

Yep, looks like something going wrong in 4.4 (possibly with view.graphics).  I would recommend using 4.3 for the time being. ... View more

Seems like this may be a search widget issue rather than a SFS issue.  I can remove any reference to the SFS and I get the same error: JS Bin - Collaborative JavaScript Debugging  Edit: my new best guess is that this is a view.graphics issue. ... View more

You could try escaping the quotes around the abbreviates. Something like "STATE_ABBR = \"GA\" OR STATE_ABBR = \"IA\"" ... View more

The issue here is that, by default, the query won't return all attributes on each feature.  To force it to return all attributes, you need to set outFields on the query: JS Bin - Collaborative JavaScript Debugging  ... View more