Activity: Using ArcGIS Explorer - UConn CLEAR

Putting Maps, Images and Data on the Web

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Activity: Using ArcGIS Explorer Requirements You must have ArcGIS Explorer for this activity.

Preparation: Download ArcGIS Explorer. The link below will bring you to the ESRI ArcGIS Explorer download page. Click on the Download ArcGIS Explorer icon. Save the file to your computer. Double-click on ArcGISExplorerDownload.exe. If you get a message asking about the security of the .exe file, select OK (it's coming from a reliable source). Run the file. A setup window will open. Accept all defaults (click Next) and the License Agreement. After the program has been installed, click Finish to close the setup window. http://resources.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/index.cfm?fa=download

Activity 1. Open ArcExplorer In Windows, go to the Start Menu > Programs > ArcGIS > ArcGIS Explorer. If a File Association window opens, select NO.

2. Add a Map Service Click the File dropdown menu and select Open. An Open Content window will appear. There are a number of different data sources that can be added to ArcGIS Explorer. In this module, you will add an ArcIMS service (the CT Community Resource Inventory), a shapefile, and a KML.

Internet Map Services: ArcIMS; ArcGIS Server, WMS, GeoRss Feed

GIS data sources: ESRI geodatabase files, shapefiles, rasters

KML/KMZ


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Click on Servers on the left side of the Open Content window. Along the top of the window, you will see several different server applications listed. Click on ArcIMS.

An Add New Server Connection window will open. Type in http://clear.uconn.edu in the box next to Server: and click OK at the bottom of the window.

A list of all of the ArcIMS services being hosted by CLEAR will be listed in the Open Content window. Double-click on the service titled cri.

Server Applications


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A window titled Open Content: cri will open. This is a wizard-like interface that will allow you to establish properties associated with how the service functions within ArcGIS Explorer. On the first page, Raster Resolution, accept the default 1.00 meter minimum raster cell size. Check the box next to “Automatically zoom to the visible extent of the added data” at the bottom of the screen and click Next >. The next screen in the wizard lists all of the datasets within the CRI service. To improve the performance of the service, we’re only going to select a few layers to add to our map. Click the checkbox next to cri. This will uncheck all of the layers below it (you could also uncheck each layer one at a time). Click in the boxes next to Named Lakes, Major Roads, and Airports. All other layers will remain unchecked. Click the Next> button at the bottom of the window.

On the next page of the wizard, click the radio button next to Vector, scanned, or thematic mapping. This option best describes the type of data we’re going to add to the application. Click Next >.

On the last page of the wizard, accept the default disk cache option, “Save layer’s disk cache when saving map file”. Click Finish.


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ArcGIS Explorer will add the map service and zoom to the geographic extent of the data.

Use the geographic controls to zoom in and out, pan around, etc. The controls are very similar to the navigation tools in Google Earth. See the help section for more details about map navigation. ArcGIS Explorer also offers additional layers for Boundaries and Places and Transportation. You will see these listed in the Contents window below the cri. Try turning these layers on and off. Other tools available include tasks such as Find Place or Address, Get Driving Directions, Create Notes, and Measure features. Spend a few minutes exploring these tools. If you get lost, or are confused about the controls, refer to the Tips and Tricks section at the end of this exercise for more specific directions.


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3. Load Your Own Data in ArcGIS Explorer You can also add your own GIS layers into ArcExplorer. Go back to Open Content window by clicking File > Open from the Main Menu. Click on Shapefiles on the left side of the window. Browse to your C:\Data\ directory on your computer and select towns_index.shp. Click Open. The Open Content wizard will open again. Accept the defaults in the first three windows by clicking Next >. In the last window of the wizard, Select Symbol, click on the Black Outline option, check the box next to “Automatically zoom to the visible extent of the added data” and click Finish. The data layer will be added to your ArcGIS Explorer interface. Take a minute or two to explore the dataset.

4. Add a KML to ArcGIS Explorer Under the Contents window, uncheck the box next to towns_index and cri to turn the layers off in your map. Return to the Open Content window by clicking File > Open from the Main Menu.


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Click on KML on the left side of the window. Browse to the C:\Data directory on your computer and select NEMO_University.kml. Click Open. The KML will be added to ArcGIS Explorer and your map will fly to the geographic extent described in the KML.

Click on the KML NEMO_University under Contents. Expand the contents of NEMO_University by clicking on the + symbol to the left of it. This will show all of the placemarks contained in the KML along with the description of each. Double-click on one of them to fly to the placemark. Right-click on the placemark in the window and select Show Popup Window. This will display the description within a window in the display area. Spend a few minutes exploring the data.


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5. Explore and Learn! There are many other functions in ArcGIS Explorer. Poke around the application to familiarize yourself with some of the tools available in ArcGIS Explorer. Also check out the Help documentation available from the Help dropdown menu. ESRI has put together a pretty comprehensive online help document that is useful for answering any lingering questions as well as discovering hidden functions that may enhance your map!


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Tips and Tricks – Content Supplied from ArcGIS Explorer Online Help

Using the Navigation Control At the bottom left of the display by default, the Navigator provides various ways to move around the map and control your viewing position; in addition, it indicates the orientation of the map and the degree to which it has been tilted. The Navigator has two modes. It first appears on the display in its Indicator mode. Indicator mode displays the orientation of the map, it's a dynamic graphic that shows you which direction represents North and the degree to which the map has been tilted. Note that the control is transparent and so the background you see on your map may be different. You can't interact with the Navigator when it is in Indicator mode; however when you move the mouse over its north arrow the control changes to display its Navigation mode; using the mouse you can interact with the Navigator in this mode to move around the map, change its orientation, and reset various aspects of the map to their original settings. Tooltips appear over each of the elements of the control when you are in this mode. You can disable the tooltips in the Options dialog box. To the left are the elements that make up the Navigator when in Navigation mode and the actions you can perform

using them.

Map Contents The Contents window provides you with a way to see what's on the map, including both data from a server and any local data you've added to the map with the Open Content dialog box. You can use it to turn layers on and off and change the visual characteristics of layers. You can add data to the map from several sources, including ArcGIS servers, ArcIMS servers, WMS servers, and KML. As you add this content it appears at the top of the Contents list and reflects the order in which layers are drawn, the bottommost layer draws first. You can use the Manage Layers dialog box to rearrange the drawing order of the map.

No tilt Tilt indicated


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The Contents window lists all the layers of the map. Layers are grouped by whether they are within the current scale range (In Range) or outside the current extent (Out of View), in which case they are not visible. This information is dynamic, so as you move the pointer in or around the map, the Contents page will change to show you what you are looking at. If you want to hide a layer, simply uncheck it. To show a layer, click the empty check box next to the layer name. Here are the icons that appear next to the layers you'll see in the Contents window. They represent the current status of the layer:

Layer that’s visible Layer that’s marked to not be visible Layer that’s marked as visible but is not in the current view

Layer that’s marked as visible only at certain altitudes Broken layer whose data cannot be located and is not displayed

The graphic directly below illustrates a typical scenario. It shows the Contents window and a relevant portion of the map:

You'll see that there are seven layers within the current extent of the map. The top five layers are all visible and can be seen; two layers of imagery are marked as visible but can't be seen since the layers above them are all set to have no transparency. Two other imagery layers appear in the Out of View group since they are visible at altitudes other than that of the current view. The Contents window can display layers and group layers. Group layers typically contain two or more layers whose visibility you can control collectively by toggling the check box of the group layer item or individually by toggling the check box of a specific layer. Place names is a group layer that has been expanded to show its members, one of which, Places 4M, is visible:


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Right-clicking each layer in the Contents window displays a context menu specific to the layer:

If you are working with KML or KMZ files only the topmost element in the file appears in the Contents window. You can see and manage the entire KML contents by right-clicking the node representing the KML content you added and then selecting KML Contents on the context menu that appears:


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Managing Layers You can control the drawing order and presence of layers in the map by using the Manage Layers dialog box. The dialog box shows a list of those layers and group layers that are visible in the ArcGIS Explorer map as well as layers that provide height information to other layers. The former set of layers are referred to as Draped layers; these layers are placed on top of the latter set of layers, the map's Elevation layers, obtaining their z-values (height values) from them. Note that the dialog box cannot be used to reorder result layers. Here is an example of the dialog box showing the application's default map:

To move the display position of a layer

Select the layer in the treeview and click one of the arrow keys to move the layer up or down. This action moves the layer at its current level—that is, if it's at the top level it moves within the map as a whole. If the layer is a child layer of a group, it moves within the group—but it will not move the layer out of the group.

To move a layer into the group nearest to it

Select the layer and click the right arrow button. If there is a group below the layer, the application will move the layer into the group. If there are no groups below the layer, the application will move the layer to the group above.

To move a layer out of a group

Select the layer and move it to the bottom of its group. When the left arrow is enabled, clicking it will move the layer out of the group to a position directly below.


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To remove a layer from the current map

Select the layer and click the Remove Layer button at the right of the dialog box.

To remove a layer's cache

Select the layer and click the Clear Layer Cache button at the right of the dialog box. This has the effect of fetching the most recent data of the service related to the layer.

To create a new, empty group layer

Click the New Group Layer button. Once you've performed any of the above actions and want your changes to appear in the map, click OK. To restore changes to a state before the dialog box was displayed, click Cancel. Note that when you change the drawing order of layers, the map will redraw and you may see a wireframe globe briefly.

Displaying Information about Layers One of the basic things you can do when working with a map is to ask the simple question, "What's that?". To do this with a ArcGIS Explorer map that contains feature layers, click on a feature to display information about it, in the same way you do when you click on a result. The information presented in a feature's popup window is generally based on the tabular information associated with the feature. You can control which field values appear in the popups by choosing them in the Popup Content panel of the Layer Properties dialog as described below.

To display information associated with a feature

Click the feature. If a feature is a multi-part feature (lines or polygons) you can click any part to display the value.

To disable Popup functionality for a layer

In the Popup Content panel of the Layer Properties dialog choose the 'No popup window' option:


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To display specific fields in the popup window

In the Popup Content panel choose 'Check fields to display in popup window'. When you click the feature the popup lists the checked field values associated with the popup:

Notes

• If one of the fields you choose to display contains a hyperlink you can click it and the link will open in a separate window.

• The field values in the dialog box are based on the first feature in the tabular information for

the feature layer.

To display the target of a hyperlink field value, for example, an URL, in the popup window

In the Popup Content panel choose 'Select hyperlink content to display in popup window'. When you click the feature the popup displays the Web site page or whatever the hyperlink points to.


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Tasks In addition to inspecting the map visually as you navigate over it, you can carry out tasks that will help you find out other things about the geographic area before you. Each map you open has a set of tasks relevant to the current map you are exploring. For this reason, some of the tasks you see in one map may differ from those of another. Each task has a help topic specific to it that you can access from the Task Center. Generally, each task requires some information that you supply. In some cases, this information might be a location; in another, it might be an exclusive choice from a set of options such as whether you want directions for the fastest or shortest route; in addition, you may be presented with a list of nonexclusive options that you supply. In some cases, you can supply additional parameters, such as a search radius in the units of your choosing. Each task performs a unique operation, but you'll see that there are some common ways to supply information. For example, if the task you are working with requires one or more coordinate pairs from the map, you can use a location tool that's displayed with the other task parameters in the Task Center:

To use this tool and others like it, for example, a line or polygon tool, select it in the Task Center and then move it over the map and click the location you want; the coordinate points will be placed in the appropriate text area or sketched on the map. For some tasks, you may want to use its associated tool repeatedly; for example the Identify task. To do so without having to select the tool each time, hold down the Ctrl key while using the tool. In addition to using the location tools, you may want to use the coordinates that are associated with a location you already know about or have used another tool to find. These locations may be in the Results window. No matter where these elements are in the Task Center, you can drag and drop a result to the appropriate part of the task that requires a location. When the mouse pointer rests on a target that can accept the content of your drag operation, ArcGIS Explorer will highlight it; for example: here's the Starting Location of the Driving Directions task prior to receiving content:

The plus sign next to the pointer indicates that the dragged element can be dropped on the highlighted area.


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Still another way to supply a location parameter is to make use of a result's context menu Send To item. For more information about this technique, see the Results section immediately following this one.

Results Depending on the task performed, you will see an entry in the Results window during execution and on completion of the task. Next to the result's name, where appropriate you'll see a check box which, when toggled, will hide or show the result on the display. Next to the check box, you'll see the icon of the result — it matches the icon at the left of the task bar. For example, if you search for a place by name, you will see the text you entered; if there are several results, you can click the small plus sign to the left of this entry and expand it to see all the matches. If one location is found, the map will navigate to the result automatically. Double-clicking a result of a place finding or locating task like Find Address will navigate to the location. Some tasks return more complex results; for example, when you get driving directions, there are several items under the driving directions result; you can expand each one in turn to reveal its contents. Note that depending on the result type, a context menu will appear if you right-click the result. Here's where you can find additional actions you can perform on the result, such as flashing its location or moving to it.

As mentioned above, a result that represents a place can be the source of a drag or Send To operation. That is, you can click the result and drag it to another task that can accept a location as input to one of the pieces of information it requires or you can right-click the result and the context menu that appears will include a command, Send To, that has a submenu items that represent task parameters for which the result is valid input:


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Selecting the menu item supplies the result as the parameter for the indicated task. If the task is not already active, it is activated. Note that this functionality is present for tasks that you've added to the map and are available on a local machine or network location or from a server.

While a task is executing, you'll see an informational entry in the Results window for that task. The message will vary depending on the task type. Also when a task takes longer than 5 seconds to complete, you'll be notified by a popup window when it has finished. Results remain part of the map when you save. To delete a result, select it and press the Delete key or use its context menu to choose Delete. The Result window's context menu lets you hide, show, or float the window on the desktop.

More Information

Read more about these and other ArcGIS Explorer functions online at:

http://services.arcgisonline.com//arcgisexplorer500/help/index.htm

Documents

Activity: Using ArcGIS Explorer - UConn CLEAR