Paying for that big Government ArcIMS site
This one from Slashdot, where they are reporting that Maricopa county in Arizona is putting ads on the counties ArcIMS sites. They look like pretty basic HTML viewer applications, perhaps someone should suggest a ColdFusion upgrade with all those adverstising dollars…I am not sure how other government sites would warm to the idea of Ads on their GIS holdings…defence maybe, say Northrup, Boeing…hmm
Java Connector Manipulation Examples
I am finally testing some of the CF connections through the Java Connector. Does anyone have a good example of generating an Acetate layer through and/or Layer Manipulation ? Iam just getting my head around manipulating the objects and I can’t quite get how to call other object methods (such as Acetate) and have them work within the same map image. Thanks.
CFMX in Production or Still Waiting ?
I am planning the upgrade of our production box to CFMX for J2EE. We are still thinking of waiting for the next release of CFMX aka “Red Sky” as the upgrade will be a major step for us — and not without a reasonable level of nervous anxiety. Our test machine has been quite happily running CFMX for J2EE on JRUN with ArcIMS 4.0.1 and in my opinion this is the most stable configuration to date.
So I was wondering how many out there have to CFMX on their production servers ? Stats I have seen tossed around suggest that about 30% of CF people have made this move up to now.
I have been hearing more and more from the ESRI rumour mill about ArcGIS 9 — and the jump to ArcIMS 9 that is planned for the big announcements in San Diego. The rumours are:
— ArcGIS 9 will have a server based object model — into which the different client applications hook into — they are calling this “G .Net” — as in “Gee, that sounds a lot like Microsoft’s web services architecture”.
— ArcIMS 9 will be totally different from the current ArcIMS which will soon be called “ArcIMS Classic” — as in, “do people drink more Coca-Cola or Coca-Cola Classic ?”
— ArcIMS 9 will hook into the ArcGIS 9 server and will thus provide some low-level access to the ArcGIS 9 object model functions.
So, given that all UC attendees will be in the thick of the hype-fest, it would be great to pin one the ESRI cherleaders down and get the skivy on what the future of ColdFusion and ArcIMS will be. I think that the document they have released on ColdFusion and Java integration is very telling of things to come, but this could always be yet another false lead. I look forward to seeing some posts about this from the conference.
Posted by Kirk at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
There were some comments previously about getting Flash Comm Server for the UG. I think that this is impractical given the time allotments and Jason’s workload just getting prepared for the meeting. However, it would be good to get a/some powerpoint(s) as a re-cap of the meeting up on Breeze for the user group.
Ross McCabe from Sinclair, Knight, Merz in Canberra is coming down to Hobart for a visit next week and to look at some CF + ArcIMS code with me.
I tracked down Ross via the aforementioned WALIS (Western Australian Land Information System) and the Australian Natural Resource Atlas. Both applications are ArcIMS and CF sites. I am looking forward to going through some of that code with him.
Web Mapping/Web Services Contest
Directions Magazine’s First Annual Web Mapping/Web Services Contest is now accepting entries.
You can submit your sites at: http://www.directionsmag.com/web.mapping.contest/
Three lucky winners get an XBox (I wonder, could we swap ’em for a Playstation instead?)
It would be great to see an ArcIMS/ColdFusion app as a finalist!
Good luck
ESRI UC Fast Approaching
Hmm…Lets see. The user conference is fast approaching and 2 things are apparent:
-I have done almost nothing to prepare for our first meeting
-I haven’t even thought about writing my paper/presentation
Here are the details on the meeting:
So…should we write up something official? Or maybe just a get to know you session? Slightly off topic here, but Phish is playing in San Diego Wednesday, July 9th during the conference. Anyone interested?
Geography everywhere
while i’ve never seen an arcIMS developer wearing a black beret, if these links are any indication, i guess geography’s becoming trendy. an article on Full As A Goog got me started on this.
geoURL is a reverse directory of location to url (how cool is that).
here’s an interesing application of geoURL (yes i’m easily amused but its a nifty idea nonetheless).
interesting story on the geography of the internetin the economist
ditto for the guardian
these sorts of applications ought to be a breeze w/arcIMS & cf. maybe something for the use group to consider?
Tip: Get Client Timezone
I often need to get clientside timezone info for time sensitive data. One simple way is to use Dan Switzer’s Client/Server Gateway JSAPI to grab the client’s timezoneoffset via js, falling back (or also using) a select populated with data from java.util.SimpleTimeZone. More info (including code) can be found here.
Rumour or Fact ? CFMX Enterprise to become CFMX for J2EE
Since CFMX for J2EE has solved my problems, and I am liking it more and more, I have been pondering the question as to whether or not CFMX Enterprise may in future be converted into CFMX for J2EE. The two stumbling blocks preventing this were (and for many still are) the installation — or rather the deployment of CFMX for J2EE and the change of directory structures in CFMX for J2EE — which we are still waiting to see an elegant fix for — that is CFMX for J2EE runs as a “web application” under J2EE and as such follows more rules as to where files are placed – as opposed to mapping a folder in standalone. If MM can crack this difficulty then there is no reason to keep standalone Enterprise hanging around — as long as they can convince hosting providers to take it up, which in my opinion is the key to a successful upgrade, because if your “Joe Bloggs” can’t get his site hosted then there is not enough grunt in the expansion of ColdFusion – which is in all of our best interests.
Anyway, if you haven’t yet, I recommend giving CFMX for J2EE a bit of testing.
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