Announcing the Python for ArcGIS Course

Last summer was a busy and exciting season of life.  My wife and I welcomed our third child into the world, and I had the opportunity to develop the Python for ArcGIS course for Harrisburg Area Community College.  This self-paced online course is now available to purchase. The course consists of video lessons, exercises, and recommended …

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Are You Thinking About Your Map Users?

Over the past few years, I've been working on a side project to update the hiking trails map for a small camp.  Though the project has taken longer than I anticipated, it has been very rewarding.  This past week, I think we finally finished the map.  And it was during this last revision process that …

The Most Important App Might Not Be The Most Fun

I have a confession to make: my organization's most viewed and most important web map app is not my favorite app to work on.  And it's taken me awhile to realize that this app is the one that needs to be the highest priority.  The Cumberland County Property Mapper receives around 98% percent of our …

GeoDev Summit Recap

I wanted to give a recap and tell the backstory to the recently held GeoDev Summit.  The event was held on March 5 at Harrisburg University of Science & Technology.  It was a one day conference for current and future GIS Developers.  Sessions covered topics like Esri's JavaScript API, open-source web GIS technologies, and desktop scripting …

Esri Map Service Loading & Error Events in Leaflet.js

Over the summer, we were having a recurring issue where our map services on ArcGIS Server were down.  It seemed to happen at random times.  I even received an e-mail while at a picnic about a service being down.  While this was annoying, more concerning was that my web maps built using Leaflet.js and consuming …

Some Tools I Use As A GIS Developer

I'm teaming up with Harrisburg University to hold the first-ever GeoDev Summit in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  The event will be held on March 5, 2018, and will have technical sessions for experienced GIS Developers, as well as those just getting started.  As I've been considering what types of sessions to provide for new developers, I thought …

Customizing the Esri Shortlist Story Map App

The Esri Story Maps platform is pretty popular among GIS professionals these days.  I wanted to share one of the enhancements I made to the Shortlist template.  I have a fork of this project on GitHub, where I've provided the custom code for both the 1.4.9 and 2.2.3 versions of the app. At version 2.x, …

Esri Leaflet Geocoder Crash Course

I thought I’d introduce the Esri Leaflet Geocoder plugin in this post. It is one of many plugins Esri has developed to support integration with the Leaflet.js web mapping library. Although Esri states that they “provide no guarantee of individual features, nor a traditional product lifecycle to support planning,” they have integrated their technology with …

CSS Hacks for Esri’s Web AppBuilder

Note: This article was first published on 9/11/2017. It has been updated to reflect changes working with Web AppBuilder version 2.8. I've recently had the opportunity to develop a few web map apps using Esri's Web AppBuilder (Developer Edition) platform.  It's essentially a HTML5/JavaScript container that displays a web map and various widgets in a …

Converting Parcels to Address Points With a Python Script

I feel that I have grown in leaps and bounds this year with my Python and ArcPy coding skills.  A big part of this has been the various projects I've taken on helping the Pennsylvania South Central Task Force's (SCTF) GIS Workgroup with its regional data sharing.  I've also been learning a lot about ArcPy …