GEOG.455 LAB 2 Geospatial Web Services

Goal and Background

The purpose of this lab is to introduce students to the process of creating and hosting geospatial web services via ArcGIS Online for Organizations and through ArcGIS servers. Students will be introduced to numerous methods and techniques in which geospatial services can be successfully published to the web.

Methods

The first section of this lab shows us how to publish a shapefile in ArcGIS.com. ArcGIS Online allows us to upload our own data and adjust the file type and other parameters before it is published. We can also add tags during this step, which will help users find this document if they are searching online for data.

Once the shapefile is published, it is easy to edit features and adjust nearly all aspects of the map. Altering the transparency of the basemap, varying the color scheme, and thickening state and county boundaries all help to create a cartographically pleasing map. The data that we published includes information for highways, interstates, cities and counties.

The next section of the lab focused on publishing a feature hosted service using a CSV file. This process was similar to the shapefile publishing process, except this time we are only starting with a Microsoft Excel document. The first step is to open the document in Excel and save it as a comma separated value file. Now when we add the CSV file using the Add Item prompt, we want to select “Locate features using Latitude/Longitude”. This will allow us to set the POINT_X data from the document to Longitude and the POINT_Y data from the document to Latitude.

We can now publish the CSV file to ArcGIS.com. This particular data displays fires in 2004 in the state of Wisconsin. The data has been added to the map from the previous step.

In the third section of the lab, we learned how to publish a feature hosted service using an ArcMap document.  By clicking on “Share As” -> “Service” on an ArcMap document, a wizard will appear and give us many options for how we would like to publish the service. After using the wizard to add item descriptions, tags, credits, and other information, you can use the Service Editor to analyze the service. Any errors will become visible and will require assistance before the service can be published.

The next section of the lab demonstrated how to publish a tiled map service using ArgGIS Server. This process is similar to the previous process but this time we start with a raster and we will publish the service to my personal SDE Database. The raster is opened in ArcMap and shared as a service like the previous step. After completing the wizard and selecting all of the desired preferences, the service is published to my personal SDE database.

The final section of the lab addresses land use identification. The map that was created from the step above displays the different types of land use in the Chippewa Valley. By examining the legend, we can evaluate the infrastructure of the city and discover patterns that weren’t visible before.

Sources

www.ArcGIS.com