About this Book

The ArcGIS API for JavaScript is a library built to work hand in hand with ArcGIS Server technologies. It’s designed to provide a wide range of tools that allow a developer to build everything from the simplest web-mapping application to a heavily used and feature-rich tool. What you decide to build is up to you and the needs of your users, but it’s been my experience that the ArcGIS API for JavaScript can meet most expectations.

This book, ArcGIS Web Development, is an introduction to the ArcGIS API for JavaScript, with a little bit of extra information thrown in to get you up to speed with the Dojo Toolkit that the API is built on.

There are a variety of web-mapping libraries available, and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript is designed to take advantage of the technology provided by ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Online, both of which will be discussed in this book.

Roadmap

ArcGIS Web Development is divided into two parts: “ArcGIS JavaScript Foundation” and “A Sample Use Case.” If you’re already familiar with GIS and just want to learn how to use the ArcGIS API for JavaScript, you may be tempted to skip Part 1 entirely. I strongly recommend, though, that you at least familiarize yourself with chapter 3, which covers the ArcGIS REST API.

The first part of the book is an introduction to some core concepts of GIS and terms used throughout the book. By the end of part 1, you’ll have a solid understanding of the ArcGIS Server REST API, which is the driving force for ArcGIS web technologies and core concepts of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript.

• In chapter 1, you’ll learn how GIS can be used as a tool and the significance of spatial applications.
• In chapter 2, you’ll build your first map and learn the basics of spatial data and how to query that data.
• In chapter 3, you’ll learn the basics of the ArcGIS Server REST API and be given a sample of how to use it to build a custom legend widget. This is also the first dive into using the Dojo AMD loading system.

The second part of the book walks you through a sample field collection application, which also provides some tips on disconnected editing for mobile applications. In part 2 you’ll learn how to structure a scalable application, build a mobile-friendly data-collection application, and even learn some advanced techniques for disconnected editing:

• In chapter 4, you’ll set up an ArcGIS Online account and learn how to use Dojo to build your application.
• In chapter 5, you’ll learn how to edit features on the map and use authentication to secure your application, as well as how you can use LocalStorage to enable disconnected editing.
• In chapter 6, you’ll focus on building an application for use on a desktop browser, freeing you up from some limitations of a mobile environment. You’ll also learn how to use OAuth 2.0 with ArcGIS Online and store your credentials to allow users to log in and out. This chapter also covers how to integrate data collected in the field with some non-spatial data.
• In chapter 7, you’ll be introduced to more advanced subjects and techniques. You’ll learn about the ArcGIS WebMap specification and how to use it to configure your map. You’ll also learn how to build your entire application from a single JSON file that will configure your widgets for you. This chapter will also describe an alternative to disconnected editing using a library called PouchDB.

Finally, there are three appendixes that contain supporting information. Appendix A provides some development environment options available for writing and running the code in this book. Appendix B is probably the most valuable appendix in this book, as it covers basics of the Dojo Toolkit that are indispensable for using the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. Appendix C discusses how to use the proxy files provided by Esri in your application and explains why you will probably need them.

Code conventions and downloads

All source code in listings or in text is in a fixed-width font like this to separate it from ordinary text. Code annotations accompany many of the listings, highlighting important concepts. In some cases, numbered bullets link to explanations that follow the listing.

Source code for the examples in the book can be downloaded from the publisher’s website at www.manning.com/ArcGISWebDevelopment.

Author Online

Purchase of ArcGIS Web Development includes free access to a private web forum run by Manning Publications, where you can make comments about the book, ask technical questions, and receive help from the author and from other users. To access the forum and subscribe to it, point your web browser to www.manning.com/ArcGISWeb Development. This page provides information on how to get on the forum once you are registered, what kind of help is available, and the rules of conduct on the forum.

Manning’s commitment to our readers is to provide a venue where a meaningful dialogue between individual readers and between readers and the author can take place. It is not a commitment to any specific amount of participation on the part of the author, whose contribution to the book’s forum remains voluntary (and unpaid). We suggest you try asking him some challenging questions, lest his interest strays!

The Author Online forum and the archives of previous discussions will be accessible from the publisher’s website as long as the book is in print.

About the cover illustration

The figure on the cover of ArcGIS Web Development is captioned “La Demoiselle de Compagnie,” a young woman who serves as a companion to an older and more well-to-do woman from the aristocracy or bourgeoisie; or as a chaperone for a young, unmarried woman, who could not go out unaccompanied. The illustration is taken from a nineteenth-century edition of Sylvain Maréchal’s four-volume compendium of regional dress customs published in France. Each illustration is finely drawn and colored by hand. The rich variety of Maréchal’s collection reminds us vividly of how culturally distinct the world’s towns and regions were just 200 years ago. Isolated from each other, people spoke different dialects and languages. In the streets or in the countryside, it was easy to identify where they lived and what their trade or station in life was just by their dress.

Dress codes have changed since then and the diversity by region, so rich at the time, has faded away. It is now hard to tell apart the inhabitants of different continents, let alone different towns or regions. Perhaps we have traded cultural diversity for a more varied personal life—certainly for a more varied and fast-paced technological life.

At a time when it is hard to tell one computer book from another, Manning celebrates the inventiveness and initiative of the computer business with book covers based on the rich diversity of regional life of two centuries ago, brought back to life by Maréchal’s pictures.