Latest Contributions by AmyNiessen

From November 3-7, Autodesk, along with the support of Esri experts, will be welcoming all developers and engineers looking to improve the performance of their applications to collaborate with both Autodesk engineers and industry peers. This is an in-person, free event where participants can work intensively on their projects with guidance and mentorship from Autodesk and Esri experts.  Event Details What: APS Accelerator with Esri, focused on BIM + GIS workflows  When: November 3-7, 2025  Where: Autodesk Denver Office: 1601 Wewatta Street, Suite 300. Denver, CO 80202 Who Should Attend: Developers, startups, and tech enthusiasts interested in integrations between Autodesk (APS) and Esri (ArcGIS) to create innovative solutions If you are interested in attending, apply here today. Click here to read more about this event. ... View more

We are very excited to be hosting developer events and activities at this year's User Conference (UC 2025)! Join us in learning about Esri’s developer technologies and more about the ArcGIS System and its architecture by attending our sessions, ArcGIS Developer Showcase area in the Expo, and/or attending the Developer Summit.  You can read about all of these events and activities taking place in this blog post. For a quick guide, see the attached flyer for reference. Finally, be sure to follow us on X (@EsriDevEvents and @EsriDevs) and LinkedIn for the latest updates on our developer events and product information. ... View more

In the latest release, we introduced a large number of changes that address the feedback we’ve received to improve your developer experience with ArcGIS. Here is an overview of the changes: New ArcGIS Location Platform site and dashboard Automatic migration of ArcGIS Developer Accounts New ArcGIS Developer Bundle Updates to the Developer documentation site New credentials experience For more information and resources, read more on the ArcGIS Developer Blog. ... View more

UPDATE: The cheat sheet linked is more than likely out of date, so it would be best to head on over to the Esri/arcpy GitHub repo for the latest resources (and updated cheat sheet). Happy coding! ArcPy (often referred to as the ArcPy site package) provides Python access for all geoprocessing tools, including extensions, as well as a wide variety of useful functions and classes for workign with and interrogating GIS data. Using Python and ArcPy, you can develop an infinite number of useful programs that operate on geographic data. Here is a cheat sheet you can use for more information. ... View more

UC 2024 is around the corner, and we’re incredibly excited to share some of the exciting sessions and events happening where GIS and software development intersect. Read on for information about the sessions being offered, the ArcGIS Developers area within the Expo, and Developer Day — all happening at UC!  Feel free to download the attached ArcGIS Developers Events and Activities flyer so you have it handy when you attend UC! ... View more

At Game Developers Conference, not only were we excited to host a virtual booth demonstrating our ArcGIS Maps SDK for game engines capabilities, but we were also looking forward to attending sessions and interacting in the live chat with attendees. With ArcGIS Maps SDK for game engines, we focus on the developer components for Unity and Unreal Engine. This product is in beta, and we're preparing for a pre-release in August, with our first production release scheduled for Q1 of 2022.  There are many opportunities available to developers with building out games. The developer technology for data provisioning capabilities as part of the system can help developers out who are wanting to use real-world data. We encourage those who are to look at and work with ArcGIS Maps SDK for game engines to bring real-world data, geography, and/or a geographic content -- essentially bringing geospatial -- to their games. There may also be developers who want to work at a more granular level within the apps that they are building for game development, and with still adding an element of real-world data, a great option would be for a look into ArcGIS Platform. ArcGIS Platform offers a set of location services, which includes basemaps and other analytics as well, so that developers who want to work "closer to the metal", but also want to take advantage of location or geospatial services and capabilities that are outside of the box, can do so. The documentation on those capabilities are available here. In addition to having the virtual booth, we were also able to attend some of sessions being offered during the conference that were particularly interesting to the developer community: Business & Technology Trends in the PC Gaming Landscape (Presented by Intel) Program your Games Today. Prepare for Tomorrow. (Presented by Intel) Fair Play Summit: LIVE Fireside Chat: The Disruption and Harms in Gaming Framework: Six Month Check-In. Fair Play Summit: Tackling Cheating In Gaming. Community Safety: What Does It Mean? Advocacy Microtalks Conquer Challenges No Matter Your Team Size (Presented by Perforce) We enjoyed our time at the conference and were able to welcome a number of visits to our virtual booth, and we look forward to seeing the involvement in our public beta program. If you yourself are interested in participating in the ArcGIS Maps SDK for game engines public beta program, sign up here: https://esriurl.com/a4ge.  ... View more

It's one of the best times of the year at Esri - User Conference (UC)! With hundreds of technical sessions taking place July 12-15, it can be quite overwhelming for attendees; however, if you're a developer or interested in checking out our developer-focused sessions, you've come to the right place! Here is a guide to our ArcGIS Platform for Developers track and the sessions in it that you will not want to miss: Monday, July 12 Catch some of our most important introductory sessions being offered. We're going to have to make you choose between ArcGIS AppStudio and ArcGIS API for JavaScript (tough call!), but we trust you'll make the best decision. 12:30pm - 1:30pm (PDT) - ArcGIS Platform: A Developer's Introduction 1:45pm - 2:45pm (PDT) - ArcGIS AppStudio: An Introduction 1:45pm - 2:45pm (PDT) - ArcGIS API for Javascript: An Introduction 3:00pm - 4:00pm (PDT) - ArcGIS Runtime: An Introduction Tuesday, July 13 To all the developers in the place with style and grace, allow us to delve a bit deeper into styles and awesome techniques you can use in your development. You can also dapple in some game engine development, if that suits you! 7:15am - 8:15am (PDT) - ArcGIS Experience Builder: Designing Apps with Style and Layout 1:00pm - 2:00pm (PDT) - ArcGIS API for Javascript: Modern Development Environments and Techniques 2:15pm - 3:15pm (PDT) - ArcGIS Maps SDK for Game Engines: An Introduction Wednesday, July 14 And for the last day of sessions offered in the ArcGIS Platform for Developers track, we have some great features for you to look forward to, especially as we look into the future. 7:30am - 8:30am (PDT) - ArcGIS API for Javascript: Web Editing in 2D and 3D 11:15am - 12:15pm (PDT) - Geocoding: What's New 11:15am - 12:15pm (PDT) - ArcGIS API for Javascript: 3D Visualization 12:30pm - 1:30pm (PDT) - ArcGIS Runtime: What's New and Road Ahead 1:45pm - 2:45pm (PDT) - ArcGIS API for Javascript: The Road Ahead We hope you enjoy this year's offerings for developers at UC. One great way to provide feedback would be through the Session Survey located in every session on the bottom left of the viewing screen. We can't wait to hear about your experience and what you'd enjoy seeing in the future! Another great way to express how passionate you are about Esri's dev tools, location services, maps, and data would be through our ArcGIS Developer Ambassadors Program! To learn more about this program, read about it here. Are you interested? Let us know in our survey. ... View more

On Wednesday, June 16th, we hosted a GeoDev Webinar, “Working with Custom JavaScript Functions in ArcGIS Survey123”. Ismael Chivite, Senior Product Manager, and Travis Butcher, Professional Services, presented this webinar that helped developers learn how to take their ArcGIS Survey123 smart form logic to the next level using their own JavaScript functions. With over 400 developers in attendance, we received a good number of questions. Most of them, you can find in the recording of the webinar; however, we have captured the ones we were unable to get to during the webinar below. Q: Where can I get started with custom JS functions in Survey123? A: Here are three useful links: Survey123 help topic Extending Survey123 smart forms with custom JS functions, blog post Survey123 JavaScript XLSForm sample in Connect Q: Can custom JS functions work in the Survey123 web app? A: Yes, custom JS functions are supported in both the web and field Survey123 apps. Q: Can custom JS functions work while offline? A: It depends on what your custom JS function does. If your code makes use of external web services, your JS function will not work while offline. Q: Can I use custom JS functions in a public survey? A: No. Due to security considerations, the execution of custom JS functions is disabled in public surveys. Q: Does Esri have any plans to support custom JS functions in public surveys? A: So far, security reviews advise against enabling custom JS functions in public surveys. Esri will not enable execution of custom JS functions in public surveys if they compromise security. Q: When would I use a custom JS function instead of a webhook? A: The “when” and “what” will help define if we should use a custom JS function or a webhook: When: A custom JS function is invoked while the form is being completed by the end user. A webhook is executed after the form has been submitted. You want to use a custom JS function if you want the end user to have immediate feedback while completing the form. For example, to run a validation rule or to calculate a value that must be presented to the user or used somewhere else in the form. Custom JS functions can be invoked multiple times while the form is completed by the user. For example, if you invoke a JS function as part of the calculation of a question, your JS function will be invoked anytime a question used by your calculation changes. What: Custom JS functions are best used to perform short and simple operations, for example, to do a quick query against a feature layer, to process elements within a repeat, parse the output of a QR code, etc. If you need to automate notifications or integrate with other business systems, webhooks will be a better choice as tools like Microsoft Power Automate and Integromat will do that job easier. Q: What is the best way to store the latitude-longitude vales of a geopoint question using custom JS functions? A: The use of a custom JS function is not necessary to extract and store the latitude/longitude values of a geopoint question. Check this blog post for details. Q: How can I assign a preferred IDE to use with Survey123 Connect? A: Simply configure your operating system to open .js files with your favorite IDE.  Once this is done, Survey123 Connect will let you open your Survey123 custom JS files from your IDE. Q: When does a custom JS function get invoked? A: Depends on where you insert the pulldata(“@javascript”) call. For example, if you use your JS function in a calculation, Survey123 will invoke your code any time the value of your question needs to be re-calculated. Q: Can I use a custom JS function to populate a list of choices? A: No. However, you can use the search appearance to populate a list from a feature layer query. Check the details in the Survey123 Early Adopter Community. Q: If my JS function outputs JSON, can I parse that JSON using XLSForm? A: Yes. Using pulldata(“@json”). Q: Where can I find more details about using webpack.js.org in my custom JS functions? A: Watch this YouTube video.   If you were not able to catch this webinar, no problem! We have a recording of it, as well as the slides that you can review. Recording: https://youtu.be/_AS7EgSLrF8 Slides: See attached We have more ArcGIS Survey123 webinars in the month of June and will follow each one up with a blog post. For more webinars coming, please see our GeoDev events page. ... View more