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Esri Advances Its Development Platform
Esri made several big announcements at its Developer Summit in Palm Springs, CA, in March 2019. ArcGIS for Developers is a suite of developer tools and resources specifically for the creation of web-based and native applications. New features include:
- ArcGIS Notebooks will allow developers to create and run code with notebooks supporting a variety of models and data libraries.
- The JavaScript API now supports new formats such as EXIF headers from photos.
- GeoJSON is now supported via the API.
- 3D visualizations and integration with BIM data.
- Support for deep learning models for applications like object detection.
- ArcGIS Runtime is a set of SDKs for developing native on-device applications.
- Dot Density mappings to represent data.
- Vector Tile Style Editor for creating custom basemaps.
- Webhooks for delivering event-driven information to other applications via an HTTPS request.
- Ongoing commitment to open-source libraries and apps via GitHub.
Esri is a leading provider of geographic information system (GIS) solutions and is incredibly popular among Info-Tech’s members. These announcements underscore Esri’s commitment to the developer community. It currently ranks second (of five vendors) in Info-Tech’s SoftwareReviews Geographic Information Systems category with a composite score of 7.7 and likeliness to recommend rating of 80%.
Source: Esri ArcGIS at SoftwareReviews
Our Take
Esri is pushing aggressively into the future by recognizing that it is no longer just about its GIS tools. Instead, it offers a collection of resources and repositories for the creation of location-aware applications. Info-Tech anticipates that Esri will continue to develop tools specifically for developers and that its data models will be OEM’d into other applications. We will be watching to see how Esri leverages its capabilities into emerging opportunities such as autonomous vehicles, equipment operator augmentation via heads-up displays, and other uses of remote sensing data.
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