Latest Contributions by BrianOevermann

I may be misinterpreting exactly what you want to do, but here is what I do to link scanned pdf's of our parcel plat documents. I don't think you can get around having a URL for each, but I've made it less painful to maintain over time. I'll be generalizing the names... All of the scanned plat pdf's (photos, in your case) are in a folder (or subfolder within...) on the network that the soc user has read access to. In IIS I created a virtual directory that points to the scanned pdf folder and simply named the virtual directory 'plats'. It doesn't matter what the actual file structure is since you are pointing the virtual directory to that location (i.e. my plats are in \\myserver\department\files\stored\here\scanned_plats). In my parcel layer I have three fields: PlatRoot, PlatFileName, PlatURL I globally populate the PlatRoot field with 'http://myCity.com/plats/' (no quotes but ensure the trailing '/'). The PlatFileName contains just the pdf name (including any subfolder structure--i.e. 'someplat.pdf' or 'downtown/someplat.pdf'). To populate the filename I used a "file lister" application to dump the contents of my folder (and subfolders) into a text editor.  Then I replaced the '\' delimiters with '/' and simply copy/pasted the filenames into the relevant records within ArcGIS (I have a plat name field, so I simply selected records based on the plat name, then populated all of the records with the pdf filename). I then concatenate the PlatRoot and PlatFileName fields into PlatURL using the field calculator in the attribute table window.  (i.e. [PlatRoot] & [PlatFileName])  If I ever need/want to change the virtual directory name or structure, it's simple to re-populate the PlatRoot field and then re-concatenate, hence the separate fields. I use the excellent enhanced Identify widget from Mr. Scheitlin, so I just point the hyperlink field for the parcel layer to PlatURL and the user has a direct link to the plat documents! In effect, each pdf now has a distinct URL. Admittedly, if your photos are scattered all over, this technique won't work very well. You would need to decide if it makes more sense to aggregate your photos into one location. There are probably more elegant techniques... Brian ... View more

Sargent, I am going to defer your questions to Brad (or other knowledgeable folk).  We are not yet using alias tables so I have no way to test. Question for Brad:  I may butcher this due to my limited knowledge regarding aliases tables, but what is the difference between creating an alternate name/alias table joined via a join ID and adding code to the style like Sargent has?  Is one method preferred over the other?  Or am I confusing two different concepts/uses?  We are headed in this direction so I would like to fill in the gaps of my knowledge. Brian ... View more

Lorinda, While I have not done what you are attempting to do in Python, I'll share some thoughts. I agree that the composite locator should just "work".  After all, when you create the composite locator, internally it knows which locators are participating.  But when I use a composite locator in my web apps, I must make sure that I not only publish the composite locator but also all of the constituent locators the composite uses.  Maybe there is a requirement with Python to instantiate the individual locators used in the composite? In the ArcIMS days (b.c.l. - before composite locators) I accomplished the same fall-back processing of addresses via an If-Then-Else construct, re-matching the address against each subsequent locator until I achieved success.  Maybe ESRI programmers envisioned that one would not use a composite locator and instead use a custom logical workflow such as this?  Regardless of what ESRI may have envisioned, you could still achieve the functionality you want in your tool by processing and evaluating the results against each locator in the way I described above. ... View more

Jeremy, I'm at a loss.  The only difference I noticed is that the map service you are using has your layer ID 2 as part of a group layer.  Admittedly this is a very thin hypothesis, but maybe there is a quirky sort of bug related to group layers and definition expressions? Ben's example is not directly using a layer within a group layer, but his service contains group layers. Robert's example is using a service that has no group layers present.  My example also has no group layers present.  I'm not sure if there is any merit to the idea, and I don't have the time available to exhaustively test this, but maybe you do have the time? As an exercise, I copy/pasted your code block into the v2.4 viewer I am upgrading to.  I did change the value from 'BIA' to 'FS' because I know that we have U.S. Forest Service lands in reasonable proximity to our city.  I kept zooming out and noted that there are other labels (part of the map service group layer) that indicate features that the definition expression is eliminating, so your code appears to be working correctly for me.  See the attached screen shot.  There goes the group layer bug theory! [maybe] It probably goes without saying, but you are using this tag against API 2.4 and not an earlier version, correct?  Just trying to cover the possibilities... ... View more

Jeremy, Can you post the config code that isn't working?  Like Robert, I have been able to get this to work.  My example is below.  I used a service whose feature class has a joined table, so I needed to fully qualify my field name.  Since you are able to query successfully via the REST dialog you have probably taken care of that if it is necessary.             <layer label="General Data" type="dynamic" visible="true" alpha="0.4"                    url="http://myServer/ArcGIS/rest/services/General_Mapservices/general/MapServer">                    <sublayer id="0" definitionexpression="myDB.COI.SiteAddress.BusinessName='TARGET'"/>             </layer> ... View more

Ben, Aside from the attribute value quoting, it appears that you simply haven't "closed" the layer tag, although you may have simply not included it in your code sample. <operationallayers>      <layer label="Tacoma M7.1" type="dynamic" visible="true" alpha="0.75" preload="open"                    url="http://140.160.114.190/ArcGIS/rest/services/Seismic/Tacoma/MapServer">       <sublayer id="1" definitionexpression="countyname = 'King'" popupconfig="popups/PopUp_DBs_EF_CareFlty.xml"/>      <sublayer id="2" popupconfig="popups/PopUp_DBs_UTIL_OilFlty.xml"/>             </layer> ... View more

Brad, I am not seeing the fractional field in your edit of my style.  Is it possible that you attached your version of the style to the post instead? ... View more

Thanks, Brad.  I had guessed that the explanation would not be short and sweet--geocoding styles don't really lend themselves to nice, short explanations. Final question: Does the latest fix require v10 SP2 to work properly or will it function in v10 SP1 as well?  We are still rolling over to SP2 so I want to be aware of any "gotchas". Thanks again for your time in answering questions/tweaking styles.  I know you are a busy person. ... View more

Brad, For my education, can you tell me where I went astray?  If you can explain things without writing a book I would appreciate knowing what I need to look out for in the future if I am modifying a style. Also, thank you for taking a look at my version of the style and taking the time to make the corrections! Any chance this style and yours could be included in the next version of ArcGIS? It is long overdue... ... View more

Is the fraction in a separate field?  It looks like there are two reasons that BrianO needed to add fractional types of addresses. 1. It looks like there was a need to support house numbers like 100 A1/2 main st.  Do you also require support for alpha characters in front of the fraction?  If not, the style should handle addresses like 100 1/2 main st. 2. It looks like the reference data that was being used had the fractional house number in a separate field as well which needed to be added to the style OR concatenation to the house number before the locator is built. I just want to clarify our address structure. Regarding item #1, we don't have alpha character in front of the fraction but we do have alpha characters in our fractional field. (i.e. we may have a 100 A main st or a 100 1/2 main st, with the "A" or the "1/2" located in our fractional field). Brad is correct on item #2.  We have a separate field which contains the fractional house number (the "A" or the "1/2") and I needed to add it to the style to get it recognized. Sargent, your experience with the "W" vs. "West" is what I see as well, so it doesn't seem to be your data in particular.  My hypothesis was that the locator ideally wants all of the fields filled in when it does a match and knocks off a few points of confidence for each field that isn't present.  If the code blocks between my version and Brad's version are the same, I wonder if adding the fraction field upset some nuance of operation?  Maybe Brad's trained eye could take a quick look at my style and see if something is immediately at issue? Brad, you say that your SingleHouseWithUnits style should support fractional house numbers.  Is that only if I first concatenate my house number and fractional fields?  If I recall, I couldn't get it to match with my fractionals before. ... View more

Brad, Thank you for the latest style sample.  It definitely filled in the gaps that the customization white paper fails to cover.  My functional style file is attached.  It honors fractional address fields as well as separate unit type and unit number fields.  I hope folks find it useful if their data is structured in a similar way!  Share it far and wide and please, ESRI, polish it and include it as a default in 10.1!  I never want to have the need to do this customization again! You need to place this style file in the locator directory of your ArcGIS install.  The default location is: C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\Locators Our site address data layer uses the following fields: Address Address Fractional (i.e. the "A" or "1/2" in "80 A Main St" or "80 1/2 Main St") Prefix Direction Street Name Street Type Suffix Direction Unit Type (i.e. Unit, Ste, #) Unit Number City ZIP Code State The style has not been tested in any other configurations. EDIT:  We are currently on SP1--no testing with SP2 has been done! Enjoy, Brian ... View more

Brad, I used the White Paper to create my own locator .lot file for units as well as my address fractional field. I have some questions that I hope you can answer. Overall, when I use a locator built on this .lot, it returns all of the valid addresses (i.e. ALL of the unit points within the apartment complex). This also happens with the successful matches with addresses having a fractional (i.e. 80A N Main St).  How do I "force" the locator to push the record with the actual unit or fractional match I am searching for to the very top? Also, regarding the fractional field, I have been unable to match a "half" address (i.e. 440 1/2 N Main St).  If I simply locate 440 N Main St, the system returns the "half" record.  I think I am missing something really basic in the formatting but I'm stumped. I compared my .lot with the version you posted and mine gets around the persistent "#" sign by using our UnitType (unit, ste, #) field along with the UnitNumber field.  But I realize not everyone maintains their data in this way. I am running SP1 at the moment, and I've attached my .lot. Thanks for any insight, Brian ... View more

Charles, The tool that Meghan's link references is great if you are using the Web Mercator projection that is used by all ESRI map services.  But if you are using a different projection in your application, such as a State Plane projection relevant to your locale, that tool will not return the proper coordinates. I am using the Enhanced Bookmark Widget available in the code gallery. http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=ed4d8dbef33d400499d2cc6475f24a4e This widget allows you to create your own bookmarks based on the current extent and also has functions to save them to a file or email them to someone.  You can load that file into the widget as well, but the created bookmarks are really only "local" to the creator or anyone possessing the saved/emailed file. When I want to create bookmarks that will become the "default" for everyone, I create the bookmarks within the widget, then save/email them.  I then open that file in a text editor and copy/paste the <bookmark> (singular) tags into my BookmarkWidget.xml configuration file.  The bookmarks then become visible to everyone. ... View more

I'll throw in a few thoughts based on my recent experience with getting a test service up and running using our Server instance sitting entirely behind a firewall (no public-facing capability).  I haven't had a chance to explore the editing side, so I cannot speak to that. I connect via the built-in VPN capability of the iPhone, so a third party VPN client should be purely optional.  In the ArcGIS app, set up your ArcGIS Server connection by clicking the 'Add ArcGIS Server' button.  You need to make sure you are actually connected to your network via VPN! In the address field, I needed to use the IP address instead of our internal name for the host (i.e. 55.55.55.55/arcgis/mobile). Using the pdf discussing publishing your map services, I created a text file containing the JSON code for the basemap and operational layers in my test service.  My stumbling block was using the internal name for our server rather than the IP address because I simply copied the map service URLs from my flex app configuration files.  Once I corrected that bonehead mistake I was able to actually view the service in the app.  Follow the pdf instructions for taking the JSON code and publishing it. I realize after playing with my map service in the app that I will need to create specialized mobile-centric map services.  For example, some of my existing map services have a few layers within them--some visible by default, others not visible.  In my flex app, the user has the ability to check and uncheck the visibility of layers within map services, but the ArcGIS app appears to not have that ability.  The takeaway is that whatever map services you present for this app need to structured such that you can provide data visibility at the map service level (the app allows you to turn on/off various individual map services, but not the layers within those services). Hope this helps.  I look forward to hearing more about users' experiences with the editing aspect of the app. ... View more

Zlatko, I believe your stumbling block is the UNC path to your pdf.  Because this is a web application, the path to your pdf should be a valid URL.  Hopefully all of these documents are in an organized location on your network and not spread all over the network.  For our City's plats (and the links to them), a folder was created on the network and the plat pdf's are in subfolders within.  In IIS, I created a virtual directory to this plat folder.  As an example, let's call it 'plats'.  The 'root' portion of the URL that all of the pdf's are at would be:  http://my.domain.com/plats/ and you would add your pdf filename (including .pdf) (and also including any subfolder as well) to this 'root'. As Eric has found out, spaces in your URL can create problems.  We went through our plat folder and added underscores wherever spaces existed, both in the folder names and the filenames.  Extra work, but big dividends in that everything works like we want it to with no "works with this but not with that" hassles. UNC paths are a nice solution within ArcGIS ArcMap, but I haven't found a way to utilize them through the flex viewer.  If anyone knows how, I would love the info! ... View more