In reading Jack Dangermond’s responses to the upcoming ESRI International User Conference’s questions and answers, I ran across the following question: “Will ESRI support Javascript APIs for mashing up ArcGIS Server with other Web applications?” Here’s tidbits from Jack’s answer, emphasis mine:
- “Yes, at 9.3 it will be possible to expose ArcGIS Server services (i.e., mapping, geocoding, spatial analysis, etc.) as REST services for use in JavaScripting environments and for mashup style applications.”
- “ArcGIS Server services can be mashed up with other mapping sites (e.g., Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, etc.)”
- They will provide three APIs:
- “An ArcGIS Server/ArcGIS Online JavaScript map control and API.”
- “A Microsoft Virtual Earth map control and API with ESRI JavaScript add-ons.”
- “The Google Maps JavaScript map control and API with the ESRI JavaScript add-ons.”
This announcement is a biggie, and is very timely for my organization. We’ve been working a lot lately with the Virtual Earth API, and – depending on the implementation (and I’m sure we’ll find out more about it at the User’s Conference) – this could very well influence some decisions that we are looking to make shortly.
Actually, this falls right into a post that I’m currently working on, titled “GIS’ Changing Paradigm”. I’ll have it up shortly.
Here’s the link…
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Very interesting news. I would point out that ESRI products getting a full REST API is not paradigm changing. It is a reflection that the paradigm has changed and that large, stable, industry apps have seen it worthwhile to embrace this particular shift.
Also, hopefully it will be more than just a Javascript API – as that is just one query/response syntax and an actual REST API could expose multiple q/r interfaces (esp. XML via HTTP which would allow for any language to build a light-weight wrapper)
Good point. The post I referenced discusses more than just this new development with ArcGIS Server, though. I’m referring to the changing paradigm of standards starting to drive the industry (and not just the GIS industry), transparency at behemoth, historically closed companies, and a move towards lightweight web clients that is being driven by “non-GIS” companies and users.