Getting started with NA, need some advice on best way to code

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05-20-2013 11:56 AM
KevinGooss
Occasional Contributor
I'm getting ready to write some methods that I want to expose as an http endpoint (.svc or .asmx) in a service tier.
One of the methods will accept a point location and then find driving directions from the closest point features in my network to the point location. Its kind of the opposite way around - I give the point then things try to drive to it.

My question is, what is the best way to code this service tier? My main code is going to be in C# but then when i call out for Network Analyst resources should I be 1) writing that in C# modules with ArcObjects or 2) calling python from C# to execute arcpy.na calls?

I'm comfortable in either language I just want to make the right choice out of the gate. This will be in 10.1 and the data is in SqlServer so i have some flexibility to work with the Shape in sql if need be. That would lean me toward ArcObjects. But i feel like esri is pushing devs toward python and if that is the case then i will go that route.

Just don't want to box myself in if somehow the python library is richer or more likely to advance as compared to the ArcObjects library. Of course I would rather keep it all in one language so i'm leaning toward ArcObjects in C#.

Would love to hear if anyone else has insight into this issue before i jump off the ledge....
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KevinGooss
Occasional Contributor
after a little digging i think there is yet another option - just call the rest endpoint from C# passing in variables as an HttpWebRequest.
I suppose for this to work my requirements would not have to be to exotic so that the generic rest api endpoint would suffice.
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