Latest Contributions by BrianBaldwin

Experience Builder recently (in the last release) included the ability to have a few different URL parameters. Honestly – URL parameters are nothing that I have used… but I’ve found that they can be really valuable to provide a targeted way to drive viewers to a specific feature or location. If you want to look at the current URL parameters for Experience Builder, the documentation can be pulled up here: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/experience-builder/latest/build-apps/url-parameters.htm If you peruse this list, you’ll see it’s short on map specific URL parameters. Notably, one of the questions/needs I had from a user was related to loading up a feature at a specific zoom scale. Currently, Experience Builder does not include a URL parameter for an ‘extent’ or ‘scale’ – so it seemed that there was no way to load a selected feature and then ‘zoom to’ with a URL. Yet, using the ‘pages’ functionality of Experience Builder – there is a workaround for creating a standard app that also has a ‘url parameter zoom to specific feature’ functionality. In my example – I have a basic web application showing the street network of San Bernardino County. The app works, but I also want the ability to send users to specific street segments when the app opens. So… how can I do it without the ‘zoom’ url parameter? Here is the link to my app – feel free to play around with the parameters/URL as well: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/29285b535d614faaa60b599fc111d775/     The first trick – is to use the ‘page’ functionality that is found in Experience Builder. After I have my application built out, I just duplicated it under the pages section.     You can then rename your pages, which will be used in the URL. After you have your second page created, go to the settings for the map object and modify the initial view of the map. It doesn’t matter where you focus on, just what zoom scale you use.     After you have done this, you are basically done. You can save and publish your app. The first URL parameter is simply the ‘page’ parameter – my original/normal app can use the default URL, or the URL to the specific page as shown here: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/29285b535d614faaa60b599fc111d775/page/Full But if I want to drive users to a specific feature at the zoom scale I pre-defined, I need to use the other page that I created along with the details of the specific feature. For my app, the data, and my feature, that would look something like this: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/29285b535d614faaa60b599fc111d775/page/Zoom?data_id=3b8b7d779d3c4a89ab16e79f931f6d3b-185a75f919f-layer-86%3A50965 If I want to change the feature that gets selected in the map, I can modify it manually, or you could do this programmatically as well. If you want to play with it manually, just modify the last characters in the URL following the ‘A’ character. This is the ObjectID for the feature. For example, take the URL: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/29285b535d614faaa60b599fc111d775/page/Zoom?data_id=3b8b7d779d3c4a89ab16e79f931f6d3b-185a75f919f-layer-86%3A50965 Then replace ‘50965’ at the end of the URL string with ‘50089’, ‘32219’, or try any number!     That's it! Hopefully this helps a few people utilize URL parameters and a little Experience Builder trickery to create an experience that is tailored to your users needs. ... View more

ArcGIS Knowledge is an enterprise graph store, that enables users to explore and analyze spatial, nonspatial, unstructured, and structured data - and it's now included with Education Institution Agreements! This blog will not be exploring/explaining 'what' ArcGIS Knowledge is (well, maybe a little bit), but letting you know how you can get started with it. So... what is ArcGIS Knowledge? ArcGIS Knowledge provides users with a new way to store, visualize, and analyze data, based on a graph model.  Leonhard Euler famously founded graph theory with his 1735 proof featuring the bridges of Königsberg Prussia (now Kaliningrad).  The question was simple. Was it possible to traverse the 7 bridges of Königsberg only once? Euler took the question and boiled it down into nodes (or entities) and edges (or relationships) and proved it was actually not possible.  Within a relational database (RDBMS), there is an ability to create relationships between different objects or features (via joins), but nested relationships are difficult to query and visualize.  One of the big values that I have experienced with a graph database, is the ability to have a range of attributes or properties on the relationships (edge). In the example below, the 'People' entity could have properties (ex. Bill, 35, Asian-American), but the relationships to the City, Office, and Company can also have properties which can be queried, analyzed, and visualized.   How can I enable ArcGIS Knowledge for my university/school? ArcGIS Knowledge requires a deployment of ArcGIS Enterprise (single or multi-machine). There are a range of different options for how you can install and support the 2 additional components: ArcGIS Knowledge - server site ArcGIS Data Store - graph store The documentation for configuring ArcGIS Knowledge can be found here: https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/knowledge/latest/introduction/configure-arcgis-knowledge.htm  If you are looking for licenses for ArcGIS Knowledge, they can be downloaded via MyEsri.   How do users access it? After you have ArcGIS Knowledge licensed in your ArcGIS Enterprise instance, you then need to ensure users have the correct role to use it. If your users are licensed as GIS Professionals, they also have the proper role to use and access ArcGIS Knowledge. Currently, the primary client is ArcGIS Pro. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out or drop them here!   ... View more

Long gone are the days when one textbook can fully support the needs of a GIS course. With updates to technology happening so quickly and the need to create more timely and relevant content, a text can provide a strong foundation, but it will still need to be supplemented with additional resources, exercises, and materials. Below are a few texts that were recently released that I recommend faculty take a look at to supplement their course. To browse through these and other publications, visit the Esri Press website here: https://www.esri.com/en-us/esri-press/browse  To request copies of any of these texts – please go to VitalSource: https://www.vitalsource.com/educators You can also visit this blog from Esri Press for more details: https://community.esri.com/t5/esri-press-books-blogs/how-to-request-a-desk-copy-from-esri-press/ba-p/889470 Getting to Know Web GIS, Pinde Fu This is the 5th edition of this text, and the updates include mentions of more recent Esri web applications and frameworks. The text can be a nice supplement to a more ‘traditional’ GIS course that is focused heavily on desktop GIS, as it includes a wealth of lessons on creating maps, configuring applications, mobile data, etc. in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise. The one potential gap for faculty is a 'bridge' between ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online. While the text discusses the roles of ArcGIS Pro and desktop GIS, the 1st chapter dives right into Web GIS - so faculty looking for 1 text that includes both web and desktop content, will need to supplement. Switching to ArcGIS Pro from ArcMap, Maribeth Price This text can be used for introductory GIS classes that are starting with ArcGIS Pro (for users that have no context with ArcMap), but one thing to be aware of is that there are lots of references to ArcMap (ex. “Geoprocessing in ArcGIS Pro is much like geoprocessing in ArcMap.”) which could come across as superfluous or confusing to users that have never used ArcMap. Yet, all of the exercises, the screenshots, and directions do provide a great introduction to ArcGIS Pro. The included chapters cover a lot of the core fundamentals of using a desktop GIS: Tables, Layouts, Managing data, Editing, etc. Introduction to Human Geography Using ArcGIS Online, Chris Carter This text was recently introduced to me by an Esri colleague. What I love about this text is the applied nature of the lessons – and the fact that they are all based in ArcGIS Online. The text includes lessons for each chapter (all hosted in ArcGIS Online) – so you can simply direct students to those maps and layers to start on the exercises. As with Fu's Web GIS text - the potential pain-point for some faculty will be the omission of ArcGIS Pro or desktop GIS. Close What did I miss? What texts are you currently using? What would you like to see? Please let us know in the comments below! ... View more