What type of ArcGIS should I use?

[Ying_HongWong]

I'm doing a system using ASP.NET on Visual Studio 2013 for Missing Person Recovery. The map should enable users to pin-drop sighting information. It should also enable analysis on density of missing cases. What type of ArcGIS should I use?

[OwenEarley]

Your project will have a couple of options. On the server-side you will either need access to an ArcGIS Server ($$$) or an ArcGIS Online account so you can publish a feature service. The feature service will allow you to store the location of sighting information.

For the client side application the best option (in my opinion) is the ESRI JavaScript API. Then you can use some renderers to show density:

• Dot density renderer
• Heat map renderer

[Ying_HongWong]

Owen Earley‌,

Thank you so much for your useful information.

With your wisdom in GIS field, I believe the questions below are silly. However, your kindly assistance in solving my doubts would be greatly appreciated.

1. Is it possible to publish feature for users to input sightings if I use ArcGIS Server?

2. I learned that using Dynamic Layer will allow connection to ArcGIS Server but what service should I post if I have no data currently? Should I publish a simple map service with no layer so that I can use Javascript API to add feature layer(sightings)?

3. Where is the information stored if all the inputs (sighting information) are from online users? Is it possible to save all the sighting information in database?