1. City of Santa Cruz Embraces AGS/Flex
Rich Westfall, GIS Coordinator

2. GIS Web Implementation
Specific City Business Need Identified
Goals Developed
Map Choice Made
Zoning Viewer
Team
Development – Proxy Server in DMZ
GIS
Map Choice
CIP
Utilities/Pavement Management
Zoning by Property

3. Our Goals Create mapping website that’s: Simple to use/Intuitive
Meaningful
Targeted audience
don’t compete with Google Maps
Attractive
ROI – Com Dev front desk phone support - $15-$25 a hour depends on who is on call. Average - $ phone calls a day, average 20 of them are related to property info. Average 15mins per call. Current cost per call - $ $23,400 per year spent in staff time on the phone. ORIGIN’s goal is a 30% reduction in calls. Savings of $7020 per year. Will show a return in the beginning of the 2nd year just from the reduction in calls in Community Development.

4. Staff Strategy GIS Coordinator – Planning Staff –
Handle graphics, Flex (web application) development, coordination of all technical aspects, cartography (map authoring), ArcGIS Server (services/caching/tweaking)
Planning Staff –
Identify data to serve, oversight of cartography and tools.
IT Network Administrator –
Handle proxy architecture in DMZ

5. Development Process 6 months from Idea to Live Flex Builder
Development system architecture set up
ArcGIS Server set up
MXD’s developed
Lots of Feed back
Testing
Systems
Performance
Aesthetics
Versions
Alpha – Internal to IT
Beta 1 – Internal to select city staff
Beta 2 – External to select group in user community
Release 1 – General Public Release
Maintain Project Goals
FLEX Builder – Demo downloaded
FLEX builder purchased
Cartography – lots of meetings
Proxy – Reverse proxy using Varnish (open source on a linux server)
Testing environment vs live
ArcGIS Server – Caching, on the fly caching, live data, etc.
Reviews – Front End look and feel
Other sites
buttons
movement

6. Architectural Schematic
Santa Cruz City GIS
SCUSI System Architecture

7. Bringing the Pieces Together
SCUSI
Santa Cruz Urban Services Information

8. SCUSI Map Original Scope To Reach a Bigger Audience
Request: Public to view city zoning by property
Business Need: Reduce public phone calls to Planning staff requesting the zoning by property
GIS Needed
parcels, zoning, addresses find & property ID
To Reach a Bigger Audience
Added More City GIS Data & County Assessor Data
Tie to Santa Cruz County Assessor Data
Sensitive Habitat/Sensitive Species
General Plan Designations and Planning Areas
Flood zones
Historic/Archeological data
Aerial Imagery in Color
Development of and/or use of:
Transparency slider bar for aerials
X/Y coordinate display
Measurement tools
Google Street View
Bing Birds Eye
Census Tools
Zillow.com

9. What is CCJDC GIS Up To? Who currently owns ArcGIS Server (AGS)?
Actively using ArcGIS services?
Have you used Adobe Flash? Of course you have!
How many ArcIMS users?
How many .NET Web ADF users?
Are you looking to get an ArcGIS server based web map up and running soon?

10. ArcGIS Server and Flex: Here’s the Scoop

11. What is Flex
Adobe development platform based on Adobe Flash Player client
End users require web browser and Adobe Flash Player (most computers have Flash installed)
Flex Builder IDE
IDE based on Eclipse Java IDE
Actionscript - JavaScript based scripting language
MXML – Proprietary XML based user interface markup language
Similar technologies
Microsoft Silverlight

12. Why Flex Web 2.0 – “software-applications entirely through a browser”
Relatively straight forward development process
Easy to deploy applications
Well integrated with ArcGIS Server
Other alternatives (ArcIMS, Web ADF, MS Silverlight)

13. Flex and ArcGIS Server Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
Must have ArcGIS Server Running and exposing services
All transactions between the Flash Player Client and AGS (ArcGIS Server) happen via REST based service endpoints exposed by the server
Example REST service endpoint (map service)
Flash is a client platform. Only requests to AGS leave the client.
There is no server component to Flash/Flex Platform
REST is the actual service architecture used between the the Flash Client and the AGS server

15. Steps to get Going Install ArcGIS Server, create map services
Download Adobe Flex Builder
Free for 60 days ($250+/- to buy)
Download AGS API for Flex library
Free
Add AGS Flex API library (.swc file) to project
Create application

16. Tips and Tricks Read the ArcGIS API for Flex Overview
Utilize ESRI Samples
Learn “Flex in a Week”
Build components instead of building single file monster

17. SCUSI Demo

18. Did We Accomplish Our Goals?
Goals Checklist
Provide requested property information to Santa Cruz resident
Show map and aerial views
Provide selected 3rd party services
Google Street View
Bing’s Birds Eye
Zillow
Fast
Attractive
Intuitive

19. Things to Consider Setup a well oiled deployment mechanism.
Application:
Meet your business need
Don’t try to be everything for everyone in one application
Flex can be simple or complex depending on:
How big your application gets
How many customized controls you need to create (moveable, closable panels)
Maps and map services
Put in the time and attention into the details
Symbology, labeling, caching, etc…
Setup a well oiled deployment mechanism.
Local development PC testing
Internal testing server
Public production server
needed to create nice maps that symbolize and label correctly at the scale levels you decide for your map caches. If you want a high quality product, this will take as much time as the application development.

20. Impressions Recommendations Favorable Customer Feedback - yes
High productivity – yes (Water Infrastructure Map in a week)
Rich toolset to work with - yes
Recommendations
If you have ArcGIS Server, some programming skills and a web presence, then Flex may be for you.

21. Questions