General Questions re: ArcGIS Runtime SDK for iOS

[JamesMinnihan]

I am currently working on a US government project using ArcGIS on mobile devices, and I have some general development questions regarding ArcGIS Runtime SDK for iOS and how it compares to the other available SDKs. e.g. ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Android, ArcGIS API for Flex, ArcGIS API for JavaScript.

1. I noticed that the Flex and JavaScript APIs have built in Drawing Tool classes for freehand drawing on a map while iOS only has point-to-point drawing, will these freehand drawing classes be implemented in future versions of iOS SDKs by ESRI?

2. If the answer to question 1 above is "No" or "No, can't disclose that to you" or "Its a gonna be a long way off until we've finished", which classes do we need to subclass in ArcGIS and/or Cocoa Touch to accomplish this for iOS, and how do you suggest we proceed in our design and development? Do you suggest we use an Objective-C category to accomplish the subclassing? Are there any current ESRI examples of code for doing this?

3. Can we use a non-ArcGIS based feature server to call for implementing our own map feature layer for proprietary or secret data? If so, how would you suggest we proceed in our design and development? Is there an current example or snippet of code that you can provide?

4. Can we use a non-ArcGIS based server to process our own geo query tasks of proprietary or secret data? If so, how would you suggest we proceed in our design and development? Is there an current example or snippet of code that you can provide?

5. Is there anyway to select and highlight a drawn map pin (i.e. substituting the PictureMarkerSymbol) either from direct touch, or from direct touch of an associated list of map pin items? If so, can you direct me to an example or snippet of this in code?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Kind Regards,

Jim

[Anonymous User]

Jim,
Thanks for the post.

�?� Unfortunately the freehand drawing feature for iOS will not be on the next release of the ArcGIS Runtime SDK for iOS 10.2. It�??s a feature that has been requested only a few times.  I would suggest you to submit it to http://ideas.arcgis.com/ as a feature request to the iOS runtime.

�?� For a non ArcGIS feature service, what are you referring to? If the feature service does not use the ArcGIS Rest protocol, you�??ll have to write your own implementation and then convert the results to AGSGraphics to display them on a graphics layer. Makes sense? The same way, Esri provides an SDK to work on their ArcGIS Feature Service, any other provider will give you an SDK you an use to make requests. Otherwise I recommend to look at the specification document of that non ArcGIS feature service and write your own HTTP requests and parsers.

�?� You can highlight any symbol by adding a subtle halo around its edges. This is especially useful for picture marker symbols because you no longer have to replace the entire picture or symbol to visually communicate that a feature was selected or highlighted. Refer to thesetSelected:forGraphic: method on AGSGraphicsLayer http://developers.arcgis.com/en/ios/info/what-s-new-10-1-1-.htm

Hope this helps
Cheers
Al