What's new for developers at 10?

In this topic

• Integrated ArcObjects SDK
• Architectural modifications
• Supported platforms
• New features
• ArcGIS Engine concurrent licensing
• Customizing ArcGIS Desktop using add-ins
• New Eclipse plug-ins
• ArcObjects code validator
• Server object extensions
• New environmental variables
• Map automation using Python
• Background execution of geoprocessing tools
• GraphicTracker for moving objects
• Basemap layers for improved map navigation and display
• Visualizing spatial datasets in ArcGIS
• ArcMap editing enhancements
• Display expressions for advanced MapTips
• Attribute-driven symbology
• PNG and alpha-blending bitmap support for icons
• Enhancements to the Java-COM interop
• New VisualBean mode architecture
• Performance improvements
• New packages for arcobjects.jar
• Enhancement to existing packages
• arcmapui
• carto
• controls
• datasourcesraster
• display
• framework
• geodatabase
• geometry
• location
• networkanalyst
• schematic
• systemUI
• Deprecated or removed
• Eclipse documentation plug-in
• arcgisant
• RegTool
• arcweb package
• Survey Analyst extension

Integrated ArcObjects SDK

• Building extensions for ArcGIS Desktop
• Building stand-alone applications 
• Developing server object extensions (SOEs) with ArcGIS Server

Architectural modifications

import java.io.File;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLClassLoader;

public class Main{

    public static void main(String[] args)throws Exception{
        bootstrapArcobjectsJar();
        ApplicationName.main(args); 
            //Replace ApplicationName with your application's main class.
    }

    public static void bootstrapArcobjectsJar(){

        //Get the ArcGIS Engine runtime, if it is available.
        String arcObjectsHome = System.getenv("AGSENGINEJAVA");

        //If no runtime is available, exit application gracefully.
        if (arcObjectsHome == null){
            System.err.println(
                "You must have the ArcGIS Engine Runtime installed in order to execute this application.");
            System.err.println(
                "Install the product above, then re-run this application.");
            System.err.println("Exiting execution of this application...");
            System.exit( - 1);
        }

        //Obtain the relative path to the arcobjects.jar file.
        String jarPath = arcObjectsHome + "java" + File.separator + "lib" +
            File.separator + "arcobjects.jar";

        //Create a file.
        File jarFile = new File(jarPath);

        //Test for file existence.
        if (!jarFile.exists()){
            System.err.println(
                "The arcobjects.jar was not found in the following location: " +
                jarFile.getParent());
            System.err.println(
                "Verify that arcobjects.jar can be located in the specified folder.")
                ;
            System.err.println(
                "If not present, try uninstalling your ArcGIS software and reinstalling it.");
            System.err.println("Exiting execution of this application...");
            System.exit( - 1);
        }

        //Helps load classes and resources from a search path of URLs.
        URLClassLoader sysloader = (URLClassLoader)ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader()
            ;
        Class < URLClassLoader > sysclass = URLClassLoader.class;

        try{
            Method method = sysclass.getDeclaredMethod("addURL", new Class[]{
                URL.class
            }
            );
            method.setAccessible(true);
            method.invoke(sysloader, new Object[]{
                jarFile.toURI().toURL()
            }
            );
        }
        catch (Throwable throwable){
            throwable.printStackTrace();
            System.err.println("Could not add arcobjects.jar to system classloader");
            System.err.println("Exiting execution of this application...");
            System.exit( - 1);
        }
    }
}

import java.io.File;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLClassLoader;

public class Main{

    public static void main(String[] args)throws Exception{
        bootstrapArcobjectsJar();
        ApplicationName.main(args); 
            //Replace ApplicationName with your application's main class.
    }

    public static void bootstrapArcobjectsJar(){

        //Get the ArcGIS Desktop runtime, if it is available.
        String arcObjectsHome = System.getenv("AGSDESKTOPJAVA");

        //If no runtime is available, exit application gracefully.
        if (arcObjectsHome == null){
            System.err.println(
                "You must have ArcGIS Desktop installed in order to execute this application.");
            System.err.println(
                "Install the product above, then re-run this application.");
            System.err.println("Exiting execution of this application...");
            System.exit( - 1);
        }

        //Obtain the relative path to the arcobjects.jar file.
        String jarPath = arcObjectsHome + "java" + File.separator + "lib" +
            File.separator + "arcobjects.jar";

        //Create a file.
        File jarFile = new File(jarPath);

        //Test for file existence.
        if (!jarFile.exists()){
            System.err.println(
                "The arcobjects.jar was not found in the following location: " +
                jarFile.getParent());
            System.err.println(
                "Verify that arcobjects.jar can be located in the specified folder.")
                ;
            System.err.println(
                "If not present, try uninstalling your ArcGIS software and reinstalling it.");
            System.err.println("Exiting execution of this application...");
            System.exit( - 1);
        }

        //Helps load classes and resources from a search path of URLs.
        URLClassLoader sysloader = (URLClassLoader)ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader()
            ;
        Class < URLClassLoader > sysclass = URLClassLoader.class;

        try{
            Method method = sysclass.getDeclaredMethod("addURL", new Class[]{
                URL.class
            }
            );
            method.setAccessible(true);
            method.invoke(sysloader, new Object[]{
                jarFile.toURI().toURL()
            }
            );
        }
        catch (Throwable throwable){
            throwable.printStackTrace();
            System.err.println("Could not add arcobjects.jar to system classloader");
            System.err.println("Exiting execution of this application...");
            System.exit( - 1);
        }
    }
}

Supported platforms

New features

ArcGIS Engine concurrent licensing

Customizing ArcGIS Desktop using add-ins

• Button—Simplest form of functionality that executes some business logic when the button is clicked.
• Tool—Requires user interaction with the application's display first, then executes some business logic based on the action.
• Combo box—Used to provide a set of choices from which a selection can be made and acted upon. A combo box can also allow the user to add a value that can be acted upon.
• Toolbar—Container for buttons or tools, menus, combo boxes, and tool palettes. Toolbars can be floating or docked in the aforementioned desktop applications.
• Menu—Container for buttons and additional menus.
• Tool palette—Container for tools.
• Dockable window—Can exist in a floating state or be attached to the main application window.
• Application extension—Provides users with additional geographic information system (GIS) functionality. Typically, functions that perform a specific task can be grouped into and made available through an extension.

New Eclipse plug-ins

• ArcCatalog add-in project
• ArcGlobe add-in project
• ArcMap add-in project
• ArcScene add-in project

ArcObjects code validator

Server object extensions

• SOEs can be exposed as a Web Service and consumed through a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
• Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) based tools are provided to generate standard Web service artifacts, such as Web Service Description Languages (WSDLs) and client stubs.
• SOEs support use of Java and ArcObjects types as parameters and return types in operations exposed by a SOE based Web service.
• Developers can extend from a base class that handles processing of SOAP requests and response for them.
• Developers do not need to explicitly create instances of an SOE in a context. The SOE is created by the GIS server when the Server Object instance is created.
• If the functionality that is exposed by an SOE can benefit from some caching logic, it is possible to implement such logic, because the cache remains for as long as the Server Object instance remains in the pool.
• SOEs can utilize ArcGIS Server log files to provide status and troubleshooting content, like other ArcGIS Server components.
• ArcGIS Server extensibility framework also allows developers to add custom behavior to their SOE at different points in its life cycle, so that their SOE has the following: 
• Can have custom behavior when a ServerContext is created and released.
• Can have properties that can be modified to change the SOEs runtime behavior. These properties can be modified using ArcCatalog or ArcGIS Manager. For example, the SOE can be configured to work with a different layer in the associated MapServer object.
• Can have functionality declared in custom interfaces creating ArcObjects types to be implemented by SOEs.
• Can have "operations" that can be configured for access based on security rules.

New environment variables

• AGSDEVKITJAVA—Points to the location of the developer kit install location on disk.
• AGSDESKTOPJAVA—Points to the location of ArcGIS Desktop install location on disk.
• AGSENGINEJAVA—Points to the location of ArcGIS Engine runtime install location on disk.

Map automation using Python

Background execution of geoprocessing tools

GraphicTracker for moving objects

Basemap layers for improved map navigation and display

Visualizing spatial datasets in ArcGIS

ArcMap editing enhancements

• UI—The editing environment in ArcGIS Desktop has been redesigned to provide a more simplified and streamlined workflow. The workflows for the edit task, edit target, and sketch tools have been supplemented by templates, edit tools, construction tools, and shape constructors. The majority of changes and additions to the editor assembly support these user experience changes.
• Templates—Feature templates are a central concept in the editing environment in ArcGIS. Creating features using the editor relies on the use of feature templates. Feature templates provide an easy way to simplify and streamline the creation of features using the editor. Because a number of the properties required to set up the editing environment and attribute the feature are predefined, the user can easily select a template, and a number of steps are performed automatically making the user's task easier. For more information, see Using feature templates.
• Snapping—A new snapping environment that can be used by ArcMap and ArcGIS Engine developers is available. This snapping environment allows you to enable snapping in all your custom tools, not just those used with the editor.
• TOC customizations—The TOC window and TOC views have been re-architected. TOC views, such as display and source, now appear as icons on the TOC toolbar rather than as tabs, as in previous versions. The TOC window is now also part of the dockable window framework allowing it to slide, pin, and dock with other windows in ArcGIS. Custom TOC views can be created by implementing the IContentsView3 interface, which exposes two additional methods including the getBitmap() method for the icon and a getToolTip() method, which returns a string.
  
  Existing custom views should only be migrated to the new TOC framework if they directly manipulate or are associated with the layers on the map. If you were previously using the TOC framework to host custom views for their docking capability, you should create a proper dockable window instead. To migrate existing custom views to the new framework, implement the IContentsView3 interface in your class, and update the bitmap and ToolTip attributes using the methods previously mentioned.

Display expressions for advanced MapTips

Attribute-driven symbology

• Rotating point features—Existing rotation renderer has been improved to provide support for applying rotation to point features based on a rotation value specified in an attribute field or by using an expression. You can rotate points randomly within a 0-360 degree range. The IRotationRenderer2 interface provides methods for rotating points in maps, as well as in 3D views, such as scene and globe. In scene and globe, rotation is supported for the x-, y-, and z-axes. However, in map, the rotation is only supported in the 2D plane.
• Size of point features—Size renderer interface allows you to size point features based on a size value specified in an attribute field or by using an expression. You can also size points randomly within a range. The ISizeRenderer interface provides methods for sizing points in map, as well as in 3D views, such as scene and globe.

PNG and alpha-blending bitmap support for icons

Enhancements to the Java-COM interop

New VisualBean mode architecture

Performance improvements

• The new VisualBeans mode architecture eliminates the need for COM marshalling and vastly improves performance for fine grained ArcObjects calls in visual Java applications. This performance optimization is applied by default for all Java applications that have been initialized in "VisualBeans mode" (EngineIntializer.initializeVisualBeans();).
• An optimized mode of casting has been introduced. This optimized mode of casting uses metadata within arcobjects.jar to determine whether or not to attempt wrapping ArcObjects proxies into corresponding Java classes, thereby enabling normal Java casts and the use of the instanceof operator to succeed. Earlier, the Java-COM interop always attempted to wrap proxies into corresponding classes, even though the wrapping and pre-casting would have failed anyway. Your Java code needs to opt-in to take advantage of this optimized casting feature. To get optimized casting, set the runtime property before calling Engineinitializer with the following code example:

System.setProperty("ARCGIS_OPTIMIZED_CASTING", "");
EngineInitializer.initializeEngine();

You can also set this property using java -DARCGIS_OPTIMIZED_CASTING or by passing it in as a VM argument. A side effect of this benefit is that developers must pay careful attention in their use of the instanceof and casting operators when programming with ArcObjects. In particular, Java casts and instanceof operators will not work for ArcObjects that have a non-deprecated constructor (a constructor that takes an object as its only argument to convert that object to the type of that ArcObjects).

To help quantify some of the performance improvements, see the following illustrations that show the performance improvements observed in representative applications:

New packages for arcobjects.jar

• com.esri.arcgis.enginecore—The engine core package contains APIs that allow you to build and manage collections of graphics in a map or globe using the GraphicTracker class.
• com.esri.arcgis.schematiccontrols—The schematic controls package contains the schematic control commands, which are a set of commands that works with the ArcGIS Engine controls and enable you to build schematic applications. All the schematic related commands in the com.esri.arcgis.controls package have been moved to schematic control commands.

Enhancements to existing packages

arcmapui

carto

controls

• A new ControlsFindRouteCommand class has been added. This command opens the Find Route dialog box, which lets you find routes between points using a variety of methods. You can find an optimized route, which is the most efficient travel route between the points you select. You can set the points or stops, by clicking the map, by adding them from a layer, or by geocoding them.
• In previous releases, an ArcGIS Engine Developer Kit license is (and has been) required to develop applications that embed ArcGIS Engine Java VisualBeans, such as SceneBean, GlobeBean, TOCBean, and ToolbarBean only. At ArcGIS 10, an ArcGIS Engine Developer Kit license is also required to develop applications using MapBean and PageLayoutBean as well.

datasourcesraster

• The following classes that can manage a large collection of images and provide dynamic image processing capabilities are new at 10:
• The FunctionRasterDataset class is a special type of raster dataset that encapsulates RasterFunction (a class that describes the required arguments for the operations) together. When it is accessed, the FunctionRasterDataset creates an output raster at run time by applying the raster function to the input data, which provides a mechanism for dynamic raster processing. A set of raster function classes have been added that includes HillShadeFunction, ClipFunction, ConvolutionFunction, SlopeFunction, StretchFunction, ArithmeticFunction, and PanSharingFunction.
• MosaicDataset is a new raster data model that is used to manage a large collection of images with multiple formats and multiple sensors. It is supported in file geodatabases, personal geodatabases, and enterprise geodatabases. The RasterType class and a set of raster builder classes, such as LandsatBuilder, QuickBirdBuilder, and IkonosBuilder, have been developed to support various sensor types. A number of mosaic dataset operation parameter classes, including AddRasterParameters, BuildBoundaryParameters, and DefineOverviewsParameters, have been added to be used when authoring a mosaic dataset. (The MosaicLayer class, for displaying mosaic datasets, has also been added to the com.esri.arcgis.carto package).
• The following classes were added to support sensor camera models:
• LSRXform (local space rectangle transform)
• FrameXform (standard frame camera transform)
• The following interfaces have also been added:
• IRasterColormap3—Used to read and write color map files (.clr).
• IRawBlocks—Used to read and write pixel blocks based on storage blocks.

display

• ServerStyleGalleryItem supports the IStyleGalleryItem2 interface. IStyleGalleryItem2 provides access to methods that define items in the style gallery. Symbols and map elements are stored in the style gallery. Symbol or map element tables within a style have a new field and tags that contain references to the graphic properties of each symbol. Tags can be read from the item in the style gallery using the getTags() method from IStyleGalleryItem2.

framework

• IDockableWindowInitialPlacement—Specifies where a dockview appears the first time it shows.
• IDockableWindowImageDef—Associates an icon with the dockview.

geodatabase

• The workspace editing event model has been extended to include the IWorkspaceEditEvents2 interface. This interface exposes an event method, onBeginStopEditing(), that is triggered when client code calls the stopEditing() method on the IWorkspaceEdit interface and allows custom behavior to occur before the edit session has stopped. This is in contrast to the onStopEditing() method on the IWorkspaceEditEvents interface that is triggered after the edit session has already been stopped.
• IQueryDef2 interface has been added to allow for support of postfix clauses, such as Order By and Group By, through the postfixClause attribute; prefix clauses, such as Distinct, through the prefixClause attribute and recycling cursors, through the evaluate2() method. The IQueryFilterDefinition2 interface has also been added to query filters to support prefix clauses.
• Several triangulated irregular network (TIN) related interfaces, such as ITinAdvanced3, ITinEdit2, ITinImporter, and ITinSurface3, for data management and analysis have been added. New terrain related interfaces, such as IDynamicSurface3, ITerrain2, ITerrainDataSource2, ITerrainEdit3, ITerrainEmbeddedDataSource3, and ITerrainFieldStatistics, for data management and analysis have also been added.
• NetworkForwardStar—The INetworkForwardStarEx interface has been added to support the new barrier types (polygon, polyline, and point barriers that do not block the whole edge). INetworkForwardStarEx also centralizes the setup and querying used for network traversal that was previously spread across the INetworkForwardStar and INetworkForwardStarSetup interfaces.
• Network dataset—The DENetworkDataset class has a new IDENetworkDataset2 interface that allows you to specify new properties added to the network dataset, such as the elevation connectivity model and traffic data. There is a new NetworkEdgeTrafficEvaluator class that allows a network attribute to return travel time values that vary based on the time of day. The NetworkAttribute class has a new property that indicates whether the attribute is time aware and the network elements have new properties that allow you to query attribute values for a specific time of day. This might be of interest to developers using NetworkForwardStar.

geometry

• The IConstructClothoid interface has been added to support clothoid curves. A clothoid curve (or Euler spiral) is often used in railway and highway engineering to allow gradual transition between tangents or circular curves. Also at ArcGIS 10, 3D polylines can support vertical line segments.
• The IPolycurveGeodetic and IConstructGeodetic interfaces have been added to support the construction of densified approximations of geodetic curves. These interfaces allow you to construct circles and ellipses that are defined using geodesic distance. Also, you can now compute distance between points on geodesic, loxodrome, great elliptic, or normal section curves.
• The IGeometryServer2 interface provides access to more standard operations on arrays of geometric value objects. Similar to IGeometryServer methods, the input geometries are never modified by these operations.

location

• ISingleLineAddressInput—Used to determine if a locator supports single line geocoding. It contains the singleLineAddressField attribute, which specifies the field that the locator uses to geocode addresses in a single line format. It also contains the defaultInputFieldNames attribute to determine which field in an address table contains the full address for single line geocoding.
• IGeocodingProperties2—Used to specify the end offset distance as a double and specify end offset distance units as esriUnits for locators that were built using ArcGIS 10 and above.
• ESRIGen2AddressLocator—A locator (class) that uses the ESRI geocoding engine introduced in ArcGIS 10. This address locator supports single line input for geocoding.
• IBatchGeocoding—Implemented by every locator and contains a subset of the methods that IAdvancedGeocoding contains. Use IBatchGeocoding instead of IAdvancedGeocoding when there is no need to access standardization methods or when a locator does not support standardization. IAdvancedGeocoding contains the rematchTable() method, while IAdvancedGeocoding2 contains the matchRecordSet() method.

networkanalyst

• Location-Allocation solver—A new Network Analyst (NA) solver, NALocationAllocationSolver, has been added. The Location-Allocation solver is often used to locate a set of warehouses to minimize transportation costs or to locate a set of locations, such as fire stations, to provide the best coverage in a specified travel time, or to locate retail outlets to best capture market shares in presence of competitor locations using a Huff model.
• Polygon and polyline barriers—To provide support for polygon and polyline barriers, NALocationRangesObject, NALocationRangesFeature, and NALocationRanges track the lists of junctions and edge ranges, with the associated geometry, that make up barriers. The INALocator3 and INALocatorAgent3 interfaces have been added to use shapes and rows from feature classes to generate the location ranges associated with polygon and polyline barriers. The INAClassDefinition2 interface has been added to the NAClassDefinition class to help you find the location range field in the barrier NAClasses.
• Locating—Sometimes, when locating analysis objects, it is important to exclude elements that are restricted due to network attributes or barriers. CacheRestrictedElements and ExcludeRestrictedElements have been added to INALocator3 to restrict the NALocator location queries from returning network locations that fall on restricted network elements.

schematic

• Database objects—All schematic elements are now stored as point, polyline, or polygon feature classes. You can take advantage of the standard ArcGIS Symbology and Labeling to represent the schematic elements in a schematic diagram (SchematicDiagram).
• In-memory objects—Schematic diagrams can now be edited. When a schematic diagram is edited, the diagram, as well as its features are loaded as in-memory objects. When the edits are saved, the changes are automatically reported on the corresponding schematic objects in the schematic database.
• Schematic events—Schematic events are now managed from the ISchematicDatasetEvents interface.
• Schematic controls—All the schematic related commands have been moved from the Controls package to the new com.esri.arcgis.schematiccontrols package. Also, a set of new commands that manage schematic diagram editing and managing layer properties have been added. Some of them are as follows:
• ControlsSchematicImportLayerPropertiesCommand
• ControlsSchematicPropagateLayerPropertiesCommand
• ControlsSchematicRestoreDefaultLayerPropertiesCommand
• ControlsSchematicSaveEditsCommand
• ControlsSchematicStartEditCommand
• ControlsSchematicStopEditCommand

systemUI

Deprecated or removed

Eclipse documentation plug-in

arcgisant

RegTool

• To deploy extension JARs for ArcGIS Desktop, use <AGSDESKTOPJAVA>/java/lib/ext as the well-known location.
• To deploy ArcGIS Engine runtime, use <AGSENGINEJAVA>/java/lib/ext as the well-known location.
• To deploy ArcGIS Server, use <AGSSERVERJAVA>/java/lib/ext as the well-known location (<AGSDESKTOPJAVA>, <AGSENGINEJAVA>, and <AGSSERVERJAVA> are new environment variables introduced at ArcGIS 10 to point to the install location of each run time, respectively).

arcweb package

Survey Analyst extension