Display differences among embedded webmap, AG Online, and AG Explorer Online

[DotHelm]

I've been struggling with the differences among embedded webmap, ArcGis Explorer Online, and ArcGis Online. This application is very simple - just a single 38-mi trail with some waypoints with pictures in popup windows. I have it set up the way I want in AG Explorer Online - single click to the waypoint icon brings up the waypoint name and picture; mousing over it gives the waypoint name. If I want the trail info, I need to click that separately, but generally wouldn't need that info.

If I try to embed the map in my website, it uses a web viewer and "View larger map" takes me to AG online. With the embedded map, if I click on an icon, I have to scroll through the list of both waypoint and trail popups, then select the popup (waypoint or trail) I want to display. Nothing appears when mousing over waypoint. Somewhat cumbersome for a simple map.

"View Larger Map" takes me to AG online (? www.argis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=....). There when I click on a waypoint icon, I get the popup window and can also scroll through the list of other popups (either the trail popup or another nearby waypoint, if I'm zoomed out). This isn't too bad.

But I could also insert the url to the AG Explorer Online map on my website, which would take them directly to the map as I'd like them to see it.

Other than a "gee whiz" factor, does it make more sense to just include that link to the AG Explorer online map rather than embedding the map? The potential viewers are John Q. Public.  I'm sure there's a reason why Explorer is not the embedded form. There's a subtlety in the differences of the 3 views that I'm not quite grasping as a newbie to the online stuff. (I'm thinking about making the embedded map "small" so it forces users to click on link for AG Explorer Online.) It may be related to needing Silverlight for Explorer? (I don't remember installing it, but I'm not getting any error messages so must have it.)

(I recognize AG is overkill for this application, but I'm using this as a learning stepping stone to figure out how best to deal with another situation where we've an AG desktop map where we're trying to make some data available to land managers and the simple stuff available to trail users. Land Managers - 4 different organizations - may or may not be able to put AG Explorer on their desktop, owing to IT folks not allowing admin privileges, which is one aspect that has forced me into the online realm.)

Thanks for any insight.

Dot

[ShellyGill2]

I dont really think this is a simple or newbie question, as figuring out what options to use in which circumstances can be tricky. Of course like you mention, you can always combine more than one approach. My own opinion would be that for your case of distributing the simplest possible experience to non-techies and the public, then using either the embedded map or opening the map in the ArcGIS Online map viewer (http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html) is a good way to go, because you dont need to be concerned with the user requiring Silverlight (see the list at the Microsoft page http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx - click on 'System Requirements').

Within that, you can choose between the two options depending on a number of factors. For example, if you actually have a website that you can embed the map in, and/or you want to include other information around the map frame itself, maybe you want users to remain within your own website, or even you have a single view of the map (one set of layers) that you want users to view), then embedding a webmap inside your site might be ideal. You can make it whatever size you want by simply adjusting the HTML snippet provided (see the iFrame Width and Height attributes - making it larger may mean that a single click on the map is finding less featues and therefore showing less popups), and you can remove the link to the ArcGIS Online map if you want.

However, if you're not happy with the user experience (like the popup windows thing you described) within the embedded map, you want to allow users to explore the data a little by turning different layers on and off or changing opacity etc, or even finding their own data to add on top of your map, then maybe you'd be better off providing links to the ArcGIS Online map viewer. It's also worth noting that if the trails are imported (e.g. a shapefile or GPX) or come from a feature service, you can avoid showing pop-ups for your trails, even if someone clicked directly on them, by turning them off (in the ArcGIS Online map viewer, click the layer in the map viewer Contents list and then click Remove Popup).

Directing your users to ArcGIS Explorer Online might be more suitable if you expect users to be more than single-time users (so it's worth their while installing Silverlight if they dont already have it, and also it's worth their while learning a little about the application - its designed to be simple to use for non-GIS users, but it does have a little more functionality and therefore a little more complexity than the ArcGIS Online map viewer). Explorer Online for example might be more used within an organization where you know that everyone has Silverlight installed because it's corporate policy. I would expect Explorer Online to be more suitable for users who are likely to make more than one or two changes to a map, like adding or removing their own layers, playing a lot with symbology etc - you can do these same things in the map viewer application, but when making more than a few changes, I prefer to work in Explorer Online - however, I'll declare my biased here because I do work on Explorer Online! One other big reason to direct users to open in Explorer Online would be if you want to use Queries or Dashboards, as both of these are not supported in the ArcGIS Online map viewer currently.

Hope this gives you some things to think about when you're deciding which way to go.

[DotHelm]

Thank you sooo much for a thorough answer. As I mentioned, we were on AG desktop, then added AG Explorer for the land managers (I'm *really* trying to decentralize the info away from me), then looked at online version since the one land manager couldn't install AG explorer. I wasn't intentionally using multiple approaches, it just happened. 😉

I do prefer the AG Explorer online since, among other reasons, the popups with images are larger than the default ones with AG Online and when I click on them, I get a bit bigger image. I did remove popups from the trail where there's only one trail, which makes that experience better, but still not as nice as in AG Explorer online. I know we have some computer savvy folks out there who will love being able to play with adding their own .gpx files or estimating distance of a proposed race course or an afternoon outing with the kids using the Dashboard feature.

However, we will have users (maybe even a land manager) who won't want to or lack the skills to add SilverLight and use AG Explorer. Also AG Explorer online is slower to load.

At least I know now that I'm not thoroughly confused, and there really are multiple levels of viewing experiences.

Some further questions:
1. If I understand things correctly, with AG Explorer online I can import files from my desktop but with AG Online, it looks like I need other online sources? Or am I missing something?

2. Is there any way to import symbology from AG desktop? With AG explorer desktop, we import .lpk which contains the symbology as well as the geometry. With all the online apps, it looks like only the geometry is imported. Having to resymbolize the color coding when we import is a little annoying. Granted, once we get things figured out, it shouldn't be too much of a problem - until we update the .shp file in AG desktop.

3. Printing a map. It looks like it defaults to landscape, even when I have my printer set for portrait - and it only uses a fraction of the paper. Am I missing a setting?  AG Explorer online looks like it prints the trails with their color coding. AG online looks like it drops all the colors and makes them white - either that or when I was playing with something, something got messed up. I'll try that again later. (I've only looked at the previews, not actually printing them.)

Thanks so much for your help.

Dot

[ShellyGill2]

1. If I understand things correctly, with AG Explorer online I can import files from my desktop but with AG Online, it looks like I need other online sources? Or am I missing something?

In the ArcGIS Online map viewer, use Add, then Add Layer from File to import Shapefiles, GPX and CSV files. I''m not actually sure if you can use this to import local KML files too. But to add files that are located on a web server, like CSV or KML, then choose Add, then Add Layer from Web (same dialog box as you use to add map services or WMS).

2. Is there any way to import symbology from AG desktop? With AG explorer desktop, we import .lpk which contains the symbology as well as the geometry. With all the online apps, it looks like only the geometry is imported. Having to resymbolize the color coding when we import is a little annoying. Granted, once we get things figured out, it shouldn't be too much of a problem - until we update the .shp file in AG desktop.

Not with directly imported files - there's no support for .lpk currently. (Feature and map services of course support the symbology of the service that was defined in desktop originally).

3. Printing a map. It looks like it defaults to landscape, even when I have my printer set for portrait - and it only uses a fraction of the paper. Am I missing a setting?  AG Explorer online looks like it prints the trails with their color coding. AG online looks like it drops all the colors and makes them white - either that or when I was playing with something, something got messed up. I'll try that again later. (I've only looked at the previews, not actually printing them.)

I'm afraid the printing support in Explorer Online is pretty limited, mainly due to limitations of the Silverlight runtime we're using. It's possible that this might improve in future, but if detailed prints with control over the layout are a requirement, then I think Explorer Online is not a good option currently. I've not used the map viewer print functionality before but looking at a preview right now, I dont see any messed up colors, although my imported shapefile is not actually displayed. In the ArcGIS Online help, there is a comment:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisonline/help/index.html#//010q00000007000000
Layers that are not accessible externally, time-aware layers, and KML ground overlays and network links without refresh properties do not appear on a printed map. If you print a map using your browser print button, many other layers and logos may be missing as well. Use the Print button on the ArcGIS.com map viewer for the most complete and well-formatted maps.

[DotHelm]

Thanks, Shelly. I think I've got both maps working in a tolerable fashion from the embedded version. Not perfect, but the users should be able to get the most needed information with one mouse click.

Basically I only have one layer with popups. They can see the lines for other layers, but no id info. They click on a trail and its name and tread type pop up. They'll be able to see property boundaries, but not the name or owner (not a biggy for the general public). That's no sacrifice on the simple map; slight sacrifice on the more complicated one. By the links for "larger map" next to the embedded map, I put some explanation of what's there - basically more features, more so than larger map - at least with the size I'm using now. My goal was to minimize mouse clicks for people to find a useful map.

While I was at it, I tried some kml/kmz files. They appear to have to come from an online source, so just uploaded a couple files from my desktop. Using my website as the source worked for the the online viewer, but needed to load it to MyContent (a service) for AG Online Explorer. (that actually partly answered another question I had about "services" since I wasn't sure what they were)

Converting a shp layer to a kml using the conversion tool resulted in a layer with my trails color coded very nicely - except the legend had LineStyle009 (or whatever) instead the Trail Tread type it was supposed to be. I don't think there were any options to do any type of editting, which I *think* is a kml limitation. It was worth a try to get the symbology. I noticed there's a thing called "representations" with layers, but haven't tried that. It sounded like it might change something in the database, not just the symbols.

I also tried using a small .kmz file with embedded pictures - 3 at each of about 6 waypoints - generated by RoboGeo. The file seemed to load ok, and I saw the camera icon at the waypoints, but no pics in either the online viewer or AG Online Explorer and it only seemed to see one potential pic. IOW, I had 3 photos labelled something like 114a, 114b, 114c and only the 114a label popped up. These files do work in ArcGIS Explorer Desktop, as well as GE - just not online. I may end up not putting these online (about 80mb of pics). We're exploring options for how best to distribute information, and CDs work well sometimes.

The printing isn't essential. People should be able to do screen captures of a localized area, although I suspect the people that need it can't. It was an "inquiring minds" question.

One other question - is there some way to set the view on the embedded map so the trail is centered and not a lot of extra space. For instance, the single-trail map has a window large enough to display it with the topo lines showing, but it seems to load zoomed out so the trail is only occupying a bit over half the window. The topo is really blocky when zoomed out that far. The other one seems to be ok and opens zoomed in enough that it has the higher quality imagery and not lower resolution stuff.

Your answers have really helped direct me as to general concepts and what to expect or not. Thank you.

Dot

[ShellyGill2]

Hi Dot - glad you're finding a solution that works OK for you. A few comments/answers:

While I was at it, I tried some kml/kmz files. They appear to have to come from an online source, so just uploaded a couple files from my desktop. Using my website as the source worked for the the online viewer, but needed to load it to MyContent (a service) for AG Online Explorer. (that actually partly answered another question I had about "services" since I wasn't sure what they were).

Maybe I misunderstood your previous question about adding services? Basically when you add an ArcGIS map, feature, or image service, or a WMS service, or a KML from a URL to Your Content in ArcGIS Online as a 'service', you're adding something lik a 'favorite' link in your browser, that keeps a reference to the URL where the data is actually located, along with information like a description and tags. It's handy for you to add again, but also now you can share it with others within ArcGIS Online so they can find and easily add it too. There is another aspect of adding a service - if you add a KML/KMZ file from your local machine, then the file is uploaded onto ArcGIS Explorer Online and also referred to as a 'service'; if you could just add a local file on your machine directly to a map, then if you shared it, that same location would not work for others users. So that's why you cant add a KML file from your local machine in the Add Content panel, you have to make it into a service first. The ArcGIS for Organizations beta program also allows users to go a step further and create map and feature services where the data IS stored directly on ArcGIS Online, not on their own separate ArcGIS Server.

Converting a shp layer to a kml using the conversion tool resulted in a layer with my trails color coded very nicely - except the legend had LineStyle009 (or whatever) instead the Trail Tread type it was supposed to be. I don't think there were any options to do any type of editting, which I *think* is a kml limitation.

The legend captions are taken from the Style id attribute within the KML file, so if you can edit the KML before you upload, you can change the legend captions that way. E.g. from <Style id="LineStyle009"> to <Style id="TrailTread"> - However, as it's just a KML attribute, then it cant have spaces or punctuation in it, and of the items that draw with this symbol refer to it by id, so you have to make sure the rest of the file has the Style id changed as well e.g. <styleUrl>#LineStyle009</styleUrl> to <styleUrl>#TrailTread</styleUrl>.

I also tried using a small .kmz file with embedded pictures - 3 at each of about 6 waypoints - generated by RoboGeo. The file seemed to load ok, and I saw the camera icon at the waypoints, but no pics in either the online viewer or AG Online Explorer ... These files do work in ArcGIS Explorer Desktop, as well as GE - just not online.

Have you got an example of this sort of file? ArcGIS Online only supports some of the full range of what could possibly be in a KML file (see the Troubleshooting help topic) so maybe there's something in your file that's not supported?

One other question - is there some way to set the view on the embedded map so the trail is centered and not a lot of extra space. For instance, the single-trail map has a window large enough to display it with the topo lines showing, but it seems to load zoomed out so the trail is only occupying a bit over half the window. The topo is really blocky when zoomed out that far. The other one seems to be ok and opens zoomed in enough that it has the higher quality imagery and not lower resolution stuff.

When you save a map, it should open at the same extent it was last saved at. But if you consider that the map might be opened with the browser window being a different size or aspect ratio, or on a different machine with a different screen resolution, by a different user, you may not always find the map contains exactly the same image. If you open a map from a Shared link, then you should be able to see that the extent is encoded into that link - that's the minimum extent that will be shown, although you might find the actual extent is slightly larger if the aspect ratio doesnt match that of the map. Possibly the difference you see can be explained by these factors?

[DotHelm]

Maybe I misunderstood your previous question about adding services? Basically when you add an ArcGIS map, feature, or image service, or a WMS service, or a KML from a URL to Your Content in ArcGIS Online as a 'service', you're adding something lik a 'favorite' link in your browser, that keeps a reference to the URL where the data is actually located, along with information like a description and tags. It's handy for you to add again, but also now you can share it with others within ArcGIS Online so they can find and easily add it too. There is another aspect of adding a service - if you add a KML/KMZ file from your local machine, then the file is uploaded onto ArcGIS Explorer Online and also referred to as a 'service'; if you could just add a local file on your machine directly to a map, then if you shared it, that same location would not work for others users. So that's why you cant add a KML file from your local machine in the Add Content panel, you have to make it into a service first. The ArcGIS for Organizations beta program also allows users to go a step further and create map and feature services where the data IS stored directly on ArcGIS Online, not on their own separate ArcGIS Server.

Thanks, Shelly. I actually hadn't asked about this yet since I wasn't sure what my question was. So thanks for reading my mind and giving me some helpful hints. 🙂

The legend captions are taken from the Style id attribute within the KML file, so if you can edit the KML before you upload, you can change the legend captions that way. E.g. from <Style id="LineStyle009"> to <Style id="TrailTread"> - However, as it's just a KML attribute, then it cant have spaces or punctuation in it, and of the items that draw with this symbol refer to it by id, so you have to make sure the rest of the file has the Style id changed as well e.g. <styleUrl>#LineStyle009</styleUrl> to <styleUrl>#TrailTread</styleUrl>.

All my tread captions have spaces in them, so that might be what caused the confusion. I'll have to go back and play with that.

Have you got an example of this sort of file? ArcGIS Online only supports some of the full range of what could possibly be in a KML file (see the Troubleshooting help topic) so maybe there's something in your file that's not supported?

Since it came from RoboGeo, I'm not sure all what might be in there other than a geotagged photo with a 4 character title. I didn't include any captions with these. Here's my simplest file with 3 photos, one at each of 3 distinct waypoints. It does open correctly in desktop versions of ArcGIS Explorer and Google Earth.
http://www.arcgis.com/sharing/content/items/24838818069f45b28868e98562b20100/data?token=GKlDmatN0oeu...

When you save a map, it should open at the same extent it was last saved at. But if you consider that the map might be opened with the browser window being a different size or aspect ratio, or on a different machine with a different screen resolution, by a different user, you may not always find the map contains exactly the same image. If you open a map from a Shared link, then you should be able to see that the extent is encoded into that link - that's the minimum extent that will be shown, although you might find the actual extent is slightly larger if the aspect ratio doesnt match that of the map. Possibly the difference you see can be explained by these factors?

Thanks. That's what I was expecting. Maybe I need to edit the extent before I embed? That internal coding seems to be lost once I embed it (google sites).
Here's what I saved in ArcGis online http://bit.ly/yUFByc
Here's what shows up when embedded: http://www.respassultras.org/trail-maps-1/test-map

(This will be the actual page:
http://www.respassultras.org/trail-maps-1)

It's not that big a deal, but it's nice to have clean topo or imagery when a person first goes to a page, without having to zoom in one level. Where this becomes significant is that in Alaska many images and topo are still poor, but in some places you get improved quality when zoomed in. That shift point is right about the break point on these maps. I got the more complicated one to work, although I had to clip off some of the bottom. This one is being stubborn.

Thanks again.
Dot

[DotHelm]

I'm not sure if google sites is having problems tonight or what is going on. I tried figuring out the extent I wanted for the map (using measuring tools in online pgms to get coordinates), but I could never get a map to display when I modified the .html code for embedding. Then my original maps wouldn't display, and I'm pretty sure I didn't touch those pages. Now google sites won't let me sign in - doesn't complain about bad id or anything, just doesn't do anything. (It might be telling me to back off for awhile.) Clicking on "view larger map" does take me to ArcGIS online and displays the map, so it's not on ESRI's end.

Anyway, I thought I'd start with the extent parameters, and maybe try the zoom parameters, but was clueless to how to alter those. The map just needs to be zoomed out once, and there's space for it.

The other thing that occurred to me is that .kmz file that wouldn't display in the more complex map had embedded images from my desktop. That could be an issue. BUT, what I can try is rather than loading the description (table from a .shp file but loaded via .kmz) is just using a .csv file with url's to the pics in the media part. That's how I did the simple map. I had used .kmz mainly because it was a byproduct of RoboGeo geotagging some images. But that may not be the best way to add images. (I'm also not convinced I really want to load all 239 images or if it's even useful to anyone but me, but wanted to see how to do it so we know what the capabilities are.) The simple map was just a .gpx file for the trail itself and .csv file with waypoint lat/long, text, urls to online photos (just happened to have a couple online already to test).

[ShellyGill2]

Hi Dot - that's funny, I was just replying when your second post popped up.

Anyway, I thought I'd start with the extent parameters, and maybe try the zoom parameters, but was clueless to how to alter those. The map just needs to be zoomed out once, and there's space for it.

Yes, I see the difference on your maps here - if it's more level of detail you want rather than a specific extent, I think you might be able to play with the parameters of the link and get what you want - try the 'level' parameter in conjunction with the 'center' parameter - see the
Using URL Parameters section of the Developing with Web Maps help topic.

The other thing that occurred to me is that .kmz file that wouldn't display in the more complex map had embedded images from my desktop. That could be an issue. BUT, what I can try is rather than loading the description (table from a .shp file but loaded via .kmz) is just using a .csv file with url's to the pics in the media part. That's how I did the simple map. I had used .kmz mainly because it was a byproduct of RoboGeo geotagging some images. But that may not be the best way to add images. (I'm also not convinced I really want to load all 239 images or if it's even useful to anyone but me, but wanted to see how to do it so we know what the capabilities are.) The simple map was just a .gpx file for the trail itself and .csv file with waypoint lat/long, text, urls to online photos (just happened to have a couple online already to test).

Yes, I suspect that the only type of images that would be supported would be references to URLs, so if you can put URLs to the JPEGS on your web server as the content of the pop-up windows, instead of ending up with local file references, then I think that would work fine.

Interesting map by the way - I know a few people who do Ultras, and it's always an amazing feat!

[DotHelm]

Yes, I see the difference on your maps here - if it's more level of detail you want rather than a specific extent, I think you might be able to play with the parameters of the link and get what you want - try the 'level' parameter in conjunction with the 'center' parameter - see the
Using URL Parameters section of the Developing with Web Maps help topic.

All was well this morning when I opened things up, including the change of extent, which put the map almost exactly where I wanted it. Yes, level of detail was what I was after most, but both maps were so close to fitting on a page, I wanted to try for both extent and detail. What I'd noticed when zooming in and out with these things, is that it tends to go in steps, and I'm wondering if that's what corresponds to the 'level' parameter. IOW, I might have to depend on the extent.

Yes, I suspect that the only type of images that would be supported would be references to URLs, so if you can put URLs to the JPEGS on your web server as the content of the pop-up windows, instead of ending up with local file references, then I think that would work fine.

Interesting map by the way - I know a few people who do Ultras, and it's always an amazing feat!

The reason I thought the .kmz file might work, is that it does work on other desktops, so I've got the relative location aspect correct. But the photos apparently do need to be someplace online (besides the .kmz file) for this to work. I can fix that. Now that I've seen how to work with these things, I just have to figure out the best approach for what's needed - without these becoming projects that expand to fill all available time. 😉

FWIW, here's the more complex map - main point is to get the trail names out there when there's knots of trails. Popups are saviors for this.
http://www.matanuska-greenbelt.org/trail-maps/larger-map-test-agn-with-shp
I'll probably move the "larger map" text up top with explanation about Silverlight, etc. 3 yrs ago we had no maps or directional signage on about 33mi of trail and 2500+ acres (actually we didn't know how many miles or acres back then). And agencies with no time to do anything about it. With volunteers and managers working together, we now have reasonable maps (always being improved upon), 88 posts with 239 directional signs, a dozen maps dispersed throughout the system, and about half done our trailhead signs. It's all based in ArcGIS desktop.

Yea, I know at least one of the ESRI folks up here through running. She runs, and her husband both runs and bikes. He's done the RP50 and 100 many times. It was at a runners' party just after thanksgiving when she suggested some online approaches. At that point, I was still struggling with Explorer desktop.

Thanks for all your help. I'm waiting for some feedback from the land managers on the MGT map. I know 2 of the 3 active ones have been able to access it ok, but I haven't heard from the 3rd yet. At least now I know what's reasonably feasible (at the point and click level vs needing to program an app) and how to get some additional information on those.

Dot