Lab 3: ArcGIS Flex Viewer

Goal and Background

            The purpose of this lab is to expose us to the one of the techniques used when creating a web GIS application. Using ArcGIS Flex Application Builder, the steps needed to configure a web application will be outlined. In addition to teaching how to configure a web application using ArcGIS Flex Application Builder, methods for finding and using data analytical services to further develop a web GIS application will also be done. Also, the structure of Flex XML 9extensible markup language) will also be introduced to configure custom widgets using XML script.

Methods and Results

**Data for this lab exercise was provided to us in the form of a compressed .zip file by Dr. C. Wilson. Services for the second portion of this lab were located in ESRI ArcGIS REST sample servers.

Once the data for this lab had been downloaded, the next step was to connect to our personal folders on the Universities virtual server. By connecting to this server, we would gain access to the ArcGIS Flex Application Builder interface. Once connected, we were able to open ArcGIS Viewer for Flex- Application Builder where each of the applications created would be displayed. Since this was our first time opening this program, no applications were displayed because there had been no projects created. After clicking the ‘Create a New application’ tab, and following the tutorial to name, save, and add operational basemaps/ layers, we were able to create our application. For this application, census block point data containing information on our study area (City of Eau Claire) was also added. Specifically, we chose to include Census 2000 Block Population data to include the attributes of population, the number of households, and also the total number of housing units. Next we set out to configure the widgets that would be contained within the application. Included in were the draw and locator widgets.

Result: http://gistest/STUDENTS/GEOG455Fall13/toppernd/Topper_Eau_ClaireApp1/

After creating our first application to become familiar with ArcGIS Flex Application Builder, the next task for this lab was to configure Arc GIS Flex Application Builder XML config files. Since this was our first time being exposed to MXML and ActionScrip languages, only basic manipulation of the code would be done to add a custom widget to the application through the use of reference services through a Flex Application configuration file. After entering the code pictured below into Notepad++ and then adding references to the swf, xml, and png files in the config.xml file we created earlier, the custom widget was added. The resulting application can be viewed at: http://gistest/STUDENTS/GEOG455Fall13/toppernd/Topper_Eau_ClaireApp1_Config/

Figure 1: XML code that specifies the color, selected census Block Points, and configuration of the specific fields. (Dr. C. Wilson, 2013)

 

The final task for this lab was to add and configure a custom widge directly in application builder. Using a topographic basemap, a detailed counties layer was added. Once this layer had been added, a thematic widget was added to show demographics of each county within the study area of northwestern Wisconsin. The application for this section of the lab can be viewed at: http://gistest/STUDENTS/GEOG455Fall13/toppernd/Topper_Thematic1/

Sources

1. http://sampleserver1.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services (Accessed October 2013)

2. Lab3data.zip (Provided by Dr. C. Wilson)

3. Wilson. C. (2013). Lab 3: ArcGIS Flex Viewer. GEOG 455: Web GIS, UW- Eau Claire.