How to Add A Legend to the Esri Story Map Tour App

In this article, learn how to add a map legend to the Esri Story Map Tour web application.

Reflections on Building Web Maps With Esri JS API From a Leaflet.js Fanboy

When I was in graduate school, I gave myself the goal of one day creating interactive web maps. This was in 2010. About five years later I was ready to learn a platform. Still new to JavaScript, I decided to give the Esri JS API a try. I think I got as far as creating …

How to Access The Web Map in StoryMapsJS

I wanted to share how you can configure the underlying web map when working with the StoryMapsJS platform. I didn't find any documentation on how to do this. I only figured this out because I spent some time examining the source code.  17,000 lines into the storymap.js file was my access point into the web …

How To Improve Image Accessibility for Esri Map Tour StoryMap Application

Providing the most accessible websites and browser-based applications should be a goal for every web developer.  Most of my work is with web mapping applications.  And while I consider myself relatively new to web accessibility, I am taking steps on improving this within my organization. In this article, I wanted to share my solution for …

My Attempt To Make The Map Series StoryMap “More Maps” Button More Intuitive

Ever since Esri released the StoryMaps platform, I was a fan.  I remember working with the Lancaster County Planning Commission thinking about how we could deploy one of these for the Northwest River Trail.  When I took the opportunity to work as a GIS Specialist with Cumberland County, I built my first StoryMap showcasing the …

How We Developed a Print Widget Solution for Esri Web AppBuilder

The Property Mapper is our most popular web mapping application.  It allows users to search for properties and get information for tax records.  People might use this website when searching for a new house, or working on a tax assessment appeal (to reduce their property taxes). A few years ago, we migrated this site from …

Building A Leaflet.js Map App With A jQuery UI Date Picker

From 2010 to 2018, Cumberland County was the fastest growing county in the state of Pennsylvania. For a more detailed look, you can check out the Pennsylvania State Data Center's report (pdf). With that growth, comes many subdivision and land development plans that need to be reviewed by the County's Planning Department. They review these …

My Experience Contributing to Open Source Projects

2019 is only two and a half months in, but I've already been more active in the open source community than I had anticipated.   During this short period of time, I've pushed code to the Esri Leaflet Doc, Esri Leaflet Vector, and Esri Leaflet Geocoder libraries.  I don't state this to boast in myself, but to …

Why I’m Building a Blog Site With Jekyll

The subtitle for this article should be "A Novice's Journey of Building Multiple Websites."  And I understand the immediate irony of reading an article on WordPress about building a blogging site using Jekyll.  But over the course of this article, I'll share some experiences I've had building websites on a few different platforms.  And I'll …

Using ArcPy Search Cursors to Perform Spatial Analysis by Each Record in a Jurisdictional Dataset

Cumberland County is in the process of updating our Hazard Mitigation Plan.  Our GIS Department is focused on developing a web map series application, and performing various spatial analyses to support the plan. One of the first analyses we were asked to complete was to get a count of the number of structures in the …