User:Lazytiger/sandbox/ArcGIS

ArcGIS is a commercial geographic information system (GIS) platform developed by Esri. It consists of applications and development tools for desktop, mobile, server, and online SaaS, enabling the creation, storage, analysis, mapping, and sharing of geospatial data. ArcGIS has over 45% of the market share for commercial GIS and is used by over 350,000 organizations worldwide. Its lineage goes back to Esri’s founding in 1969 and many of its conventions and formats have been influential throughout the existence of GIS software.

Components & License Levels
ArcGIS has several categories of components based on their intended uses.

Desktop
The traditional environment for mapping and analysis with ArcGIS is on Microsoft Windows desktops. The main application is ArcGIS Pro.

Current

 * ArcGIS Pro


 * ArcGIS Earth

Legacy

 * ArcMap
 * ArcCatalog
 * ArcGlobe
 * ArcScene


 * ArcGIS Explorer

3 license levels: Basic, Standard, and Advanced.

Server

 * ArcSDE

Mobile
"ArcGIS for Mobile" subdivided into "ArcGIS for Smartphones and Tablets"

iOS, Android, and Windows Phone have the flagship ArcGIS app. (do they have roughly equivalent features?) iOS and Android also have a Collector for ArcGIS app and other minor apps. All are free. Windows 8 app


 * ArcGIS for iOS
 * ArcGIS for Android
 * ArcGIS for Windows Phone
 * ArcGIS for Windows Mobile
 * ArcPad (Windows Mobile)

Web
"ArcGIS Online"

Development
"ArcGIS for Developers"

Runtime SDKs are available for:


 * Windows Store apps (Windows 8/RT)
 * WPF (Windows XP/Vista/7)
 * Windows Phone
 * Windows Mobile


 * OS X (OS X Mountain Lion, 10.8)
 * iOS


 * Qt
 * Java
 * Android

History

 * ARC/INFO
 * ArcView

ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo: a confusing segue from legacy applications into license levels.

Released in 1999 as Esri's next-generation GIS platform, it integrated the workstation CLI capabilities of ARC/INFO with the desktop GUI capabilities of ArcView.

Its modern GUI and unified analytic and Introduced in 1999 as a unification of the CLI-based  the analytic power of ARC/INFO  Its core components feature a modern GUI and integrated visual and analytical functionality first introduced in 1999, but its roots go back to ARC/INFO

are available for an extensive range of software and device platforms are supported for solutions across

that are Designed to run on desktop apps and extensions (windows only), server apps and extensions (windows and unix), mobile apps (ios, android, windows phone, windows mobile), development SDKs and APIs for.

Applications and extensions for desktops and servers. (full capabilities, and limited (free stuff)) Applications for mobile devices. (limited capabilities, (mostly free)) Embeddable components for 3rd-party desktop development. (and ready-made components for things like Sharepoint) Web map APIs for JavaScript, Silverlight, and Flex

desktop, mobile, and web development (JS, Silverlight, Flex, etc.)

The core components are designed primarily for Microsoft Windows desktops and servers. Mobile apps exist for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows Mobile. ArcGIS Online provides web maps and GIS

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Esri's ArcGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) for working with maps and geographic information. It is used for: creating and using maps; compiling geographic data; analyzing mapped information; sharing and discovering geographic information; using maps and geographic information in a range of applications; and managing geographic information in a database.

The system provides an infrastructure for making maps and geographic information available throughout an organization, across a community, and openly on the Web.

ArcGIS includes the following Windows desktop software:
 * ArcReader, which allows one to view and query maps created with the other ArcGIS products;
 * ArcGIS for Desktop, which is licensed under three functionality levels:
 * ArcGIS for Desktop Basic (formerly known as ArcView), which allows one to view spatial data, create layered maps, and perform basic spatial analysis;
 * ArcGIS for Desktop Standard (formerly known as ArcEditor), which in addition to the functionality of ArcView, includes more advanced tools for manipulation of shapefiles and geodatabases; or
 * ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced (formerly known as ArcInfo), which includes capabilities for data manipulation, editing, and analysis.

There are also server-based ArcGIS products, as well as ArcGIS products for PDAs. Extensions can be purchased separately to increase the functionality of ArcGIS.

Product history
Prior to the ArcGIS suite, Esri had focused its software development on the command line Arc/INFO workstation program and several Graphical User Interface-based products such as the ArcView GIS 3.x desktop program. Other Esri products included MapObjects, a programming library for developers, and ArcSDE as a relational database management system. The various products had branched out into multiple source trees and did not integrate well with one another. In January 1997, Esri decided to revamp its GIS software platform, creating a single integrated software architecture.

ArcGIS 8.x
In late 1999, Esri released ArcGIS 8.0, which ran on the Microsoft Windows operating system. ArcGIS combined the visual user-interface aspect of ArcView GIS 3.x interface with some of the power from the Arc/INFO version 7.2 workstation. This pairing resulted in a new software suite called ArcGIS, which included the command-line ArcInfo workstation (v8.0) and a new graphical user interface application called ArcMap (v8.0) incorporating some of the functionality of ArcInfo with a more intuitive interface, as well as an ArcGIS file management application called ArcCatalog (v8.0). The release of the ArcGIS suite constituted a major change in Esri's software offerings, aligning all their client and server products under one software architecture known as ArcGIS, developed using Microsoft Windows COM standards.

One major difference is the programming (scripting) languages available to customize or extend the software to suit particular user needs. In the transition to ArcGIS, Esri dropped support of its application-specific scripting languages, Avenue and the ARC Macro Language (AML), in favour of Visual Basic for Applications scripting and open access to ArcGIS components using the Microsoft COM standards. ArcGIS is designed to store data in a proprietary RDBMS format, known as geodatabase. ArcGIS 8.x introduced other new features, including on-the-fly map projections, and annotation in the database.

Updates of ArcView 3.x extensions, including 3D Analyst and Spatial Analyst, came later with release of ArcGIS 8.1, which was unveiled at the Esri International User Conference in 2000. ArcGIS 8.1 was officially released on April 24, 2001. Other new extensions were made available with ArcGIS 8.1, including GeoStatistical Analyst. ArcGIS 8.1 also added the ability to access data online, directly from the Geography Network site or other ArcIMS map services. ArcGIS 8.3 was introduced in 2002, adding topology to geodatabases, which was a feature originally available only with ArcInfo coverages.

ArcGIS 9.x
ArcGIS 9 was released in May 2004, which included ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Engine for developers. The ArcGIS 9 release includes a geoprocessing environment that allows execution of traditional GIS processing tools (such as clipping, overlay, and spatial analysis) interactively or from any scripting language that supports COM standards. Although the most popular of these is Python, others have been used, especially Perl and VBScript. ArcGIS 9 includes a visual programming environment, similar to ERDAS IMAGINE's Model Maker (released in 1994, v8.0.2). The Esri version is called ModelBuilder and as does the ERDAS IMAGINE version allows users to graphically link geoprocessing tools into new tools called models. These models can be executed directly or exported to scripting languages which can then execute in batch mode (launched from a command line), or they can undergo further editing to add branching or looping.

On June 26, 2008, Esri released ArcGIS 9.3. The new version of ArcGIS Desktop has new modeling tools and geostatistical error tracking features, while ArcGIS Server has improved performance, and support for role-based security. There also are new JavaScript APIs that can be used to create mashups, and integrated with either Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

At the 2008 Esri Developers Summit, there was little emphasis on ArcIMS, except for one session on transitioning from ArcIMS to ArcGIS Server-based applications, indicating a change in focus for Esri with ArcGIS 9.3 for web-based mapping applications.

In May 2009, Esri released ArcGIS 9.3.1, which improved the performance of dynamic map publishing and introduced better sharing of geographic information.

ArcGIS 10.x
In 2010, Esri announced what had previously been thought of as version 9.4 would be version 10 and would be shipped in the second quarter of 2010. The current version is 10.1. as of June 2012.

Geodatabase
Older Esri products, including ArcView 3.x, worked with data in the shapefile format. ArcInfo Workstation handled coverages, which stored topology information about the spatial data. Coverages, which were introduced in 1981 when ArcInfo was first released, have limitations in how they handle types of features. Some features, such as roads with street intersections or overpasses and underpasses, should be handled differently than other types of features.

ArcGIS is built around the geodatabase, which uses an object-relational database approach for storing spatial data. A geodatabase is a "container" for holding datasets, tying together the spatial features with attributes. The geodatabase can also contain topology information, and can model behavior of features, such as road intersections, with rules on how features relate to one another. When working with geodatabases, it is important to understand about feature classes which are a set of features, represented with points, lines, or polygons. With shapefiles, each file can only handle one type of feature. A geodatabase can store multiple feature classes or type of features within one file.

Geodatabases in ArcGIS can be stored in three different ways including as a "file geodatabase", "personal geodatabase", and "ArcSDE geodatabase". Introduced at 9.2, the file geodatabase stores information in a folder named with a .gdb extension. The insides look similar to that of a coverage but is not, in fact, a coverage. Similar to the personal geodatabase, the file geodatabase only supports a single editor. However, unlike the personal geodatabase, there is virtually no size limit. By default, any single table cannot exceed 1TB, but this can be changed. Personal geodatabases store data in Microsoft Access files, using a BLOB field to store the geometry data. The OGR library is able to handle this file type, to convert it to other file formats. Database administration tasks for personal geodatabases, such as managing users and creating backups, can be done through ArcCatalog. Personal geodatabases, which are based on Microsoft Access, run only on Microsoft Windows and have a 2 gigabyte size limit. Enterprise (multi-user) level geodatabases are handled using ArcSDE, which interfaces with high-end DBMS such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2 and Informix to handle database management aspects, while ArcGIS deals with spatial data management. Enterprise level geodatabases support database replication, versioning and transaction management, and are cross-platform compatible, able to run on Linux, Windows, and Solaris.

Also released at 9.2 is the personal SDE database that operates with SQL Server Express. Personal SDE databases do not support multi-user editing, but do support versioning and disconnected editing. Microsoft limits SQL Server Express databases to 4GB.

Components and product levels
ArcGIS consists of Desktop GIS products, as well as GIS products that run on a server, or on a mobile device.

Product levels
ArcGIS for Desktop is available at different product levels, with increasing functionality.


 * ArcReader (freeware, viewer) is a basic data viewer for maps and GIS data published in the proprietary Esri format using ArcGIS Publisher. The software also provides some basic tools for map viewing, printing and querying of spatial data. ArcReader is included with any of the ArcGIS suite of products, and is also available for free to download. ArcReader only works with preauthored published map files, created with ArcGIS Publisher.


 * ArcGIS for Desktop Basic, formerly known as ArcView, is the entry level of ArcGIS licensing offered. With ArcView, one is able to view and edit GIS data held in flat files, or view data stored in a relational database management system by accessing it through ArcSDE.


 * ArcGIS for Desktop Standard, formerly known as ArcEditor, is the midlevel software suite designed for advanced editing of spatial data published in the proprietary Esri format. It provides tools for the creation of map and spatial data used in GIS, including the ability of editing geodatabase files and data, multiuser geodatabase editing, versioning, raster data editing and vectorization, advanced vector data editing, managing coverages, coordinate geometry (COGO), and editing geometric networks. ArcEditor is not intended for advanced spatial analysis.


 * ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced, formerly known as ArcInfo, allows users the most flexibility and control in "all aspects of data building, modeling, analysis, and map display." ArcInfo includes increased capability in the areas of spatial analysis, geoprocessing, data management, and others.

Other desktop GIS software include ArcGIS Explorer and ArcGIS Engine. ArcGIS Explorer is a GIS viewer which can work as a client for ArcGIS Server, ArcIMS, ArcWeb Services and Web Map Service (WMS).


 * ArcGIS Online is a free web application allowing sharing and search of geographic information, as well as content published by Esri, ArcGIS users, and other authoritative data providers. It allows users to create and join groups, and control access to items shared publicly or within groups.


 * ArcGIS Web Mapping APIs are APIs for several languages, allowing users to build and deploy applications that include GIS functionality and Web services from ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Server. Adobe Flex, JavaScript and Microsoft Silverlight are supported for applications that can be embedded in web pages or launched as stand-alone Web applications. Flex, Adobe Air and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) are supported for desktop applications.

Components
ArcGIS for Desktop consists of several integrated applications, including ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox, and ArcGlobe. ArcCatalog is the data management application, used to browse datasets and files on one's computer, database, or other sources. In addition to showing what data is available, ArcCatalog also allows users to preview the data on a map. ArcCatalog also provides the ability to view and manage metadata for spatial datasets. ArcMap is the application used to view, edit and query geospatial data, and create maps. The ArcMap inferface has two main sections, including a table of contents on the left and the data frame(s) which display the map. Items in the table of contents correspond with layers on the map. ArcToolbox contains geoprocessing, data conversion, and analysis tools, along with much of the functionality in ArcInfo. It is also possible to use batch processing with ArcToolbox, for frequently repeated tasks.

Extensions
There are a number of software extensions that can be added to ArcGIS for Desktop that provide added functionality, including 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst, Network Analyst, Survey Analyst, Tracking Analyst, and Geostatistical Analyst. Advanced map labeling is available with the Maplex extension, as an add-on to ArcView and ArcEditor and is bundled with ArcInfo. Numerous extensions have also been developed by third-parties, such as ST-Links PgMap XTools and MAP2PDF for creating georeferenced pdfs (GeoPDF), ERDAS' Image Analysis and Stereo Analyst for ArcGIS, and ISM's PurVIEW, which converts Arc- desktops into precise stereo-viewing windows to work with geo-referenced stereoscopic image models for accurate geodatabase-direct editing or feature digitizing.

Other products
ArcGIS Mobile and ArcPad are products designed for mobile devices. ArcGIS Mobile is a software development kit for developers to use to create applications for mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablet PCs. If connected to the Internet, mobile applications can connect to ArcGIS Server to access or update data. ArcGIS Mobile is only available at the Enterprise level

Server GIS products include ArcIMS (web mapping server), ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Image Server. As with ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Server is available at different product levels, including Basic, Standard, and Advanced Editions. ArcGIS Server comes with SQL Server Express DBMS embedded, and can work with enterprise DBMS such as SQL Server Enterprise and Oracle. The Esri Developer Network (EDN) includes ArcObjects and other tools for building custom software applications, and ArcGIS Engine provides a programming interface for developers.

Sales
ArcGIS Desktop products and ArcPad are available with a single-use license. Most products are also available with concurrent-use license, while development server licenses and other types of software licenses are available for other products. Single-use products can be purchased online from the Esri Store, while all ArcGIS products are available through a sales representative or reseller. Annual software maintenance and support is also available for ArcGIS. While there are alternative products available from other traditional vendors such as MapInfo, Maptitude, and Intergraph, Esri has a dominant share of the GIS software market with approximately a 36 percent share of the GIS software market worldwide as of 2002. The ARC Advisory Group estimated in 2010 that ESRI's market share now exceeds 40%.

Criticisms
Esri's change to the ArcGIS platform rendered incompatible an extensive range of user-developed and third-party add-on software and scripts. A minority user base resists migrating to ArcGIS because of changes in scripting capability, functionality, operating system (ArcGIS Desktop software was developed exclusively for the Microsoft Windows operating system), as well as the significantly larger system resources required by the ArcGIS system. Esri has continued support for these users. ArcView 3.x is still available for purchase, and ArcInfo Workstation is still included in a full ArcGIS ArcInfo licence to provide some editing and file conversion functionality that has not been included to date in ArcGIS. Other issues with ArcGIS include high prices for the products, proprietary formats, and difficulties of porting data between Esri and other GIS software.