Mapdex is featured in the Winter 06 version of ArcNews. 

Quite a bit has changed since the article was written.  For one thing we currently have indexed close to 1,800 servers, serving approximately 33,000 map services, containing over 500,000 layers.  We have built a REST service, an ArcMap Toolbar, a Mozilla search plugin, a Flash Mapdex viewer, and a service that allows you to display map services on Google Earth.

I have to say that I have been very lucky to work with some outstanding people on this project (Praveen, Asif, Amber, Kurt, Ken, & Keith to name a few).  I successfully conned them into working on this hair brained idea!

There is more to come.  Stay tuned....

Jeremy

I am reprinting a post from last August that deals with ArcIMS projection metadata.  If you are an ArcIMS server administrator and you don't set your projection in your map service you are really doing yourself and others a disservice.  The numbers have gotten better since then, but still only 36.5% of the map services have a valid projection. 


From 22 August 2005:

One of the most disturbing things I have found out from building Mapdex is the lack of proper projection information set for mapservices.  It turns out that about 56.5% of mapservices lack a projection or cannot be assumed to be geographic.  Only 31.3% of mapservices have a valid projection while 12.2% can be assumed geographic. 

What happens if you don't have a valid projection set?

• You cannot use your mapservice within ArcMap with other data layers outside of your projection;
• All of your data layers in your mapservice have to be in the same projection;
• You cannot publish your mapservice to the National Map or to GOS;
• Other groups cannot use the valuable data within your mapservice within their data and/or applications;
• Your mapservice cannot be searched spatially within Mapdex or other map search engines.

There is a nice article in ArcUser about georeferencing ArcIMS services.  I encourage you to check it out.

http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0205/files/georef_arcims.pdf

Cheers,

Jeremy

I have been playing around with ArcIMS image overlays in Google Earth.  I like the ease of laying a single image down over the viewing window, but I don't like the loss of continuous panning that I get when I move the globe just a bit.  Whatever happens when the camera stops GE goes out and makes the new request for the image.  There is no buffer.  I can make the image bigger, but that makes the actual image less detailed.  I thought I would explore mutliple network links wrapped in a GE Folder.  Give this a try:  http://www.mapdex.org/GE_KML_LINK_TILE.cfm?servername=hercules.kgs.ku.edu&mapservice=lawrence_Imagery

I have fused together 4 network links and taken advantage of the cookie element on the networklinkcontrol element. 

I have broken up the single overlay into four parts.  It is sort of hack that allows continuous panning (because each image extent goes farther than what GE requests).  I use the cookie tag as a way to use the previous image if the user only pans a little bit.  It still seems a bit tacked on...And I am not sure the extra download time is worth it.  

What do you think? 

FYI:  Here is the same service with the traditional single image overlay.

http://www.mapdex.org/GE_KML_LINK.cfm?servername=hercules.kgs.ku.edu&mapservice=lawrence_Imagery

Jeremy

I love historical maps.  I have a box full of early to mid 20th century National Geographic Maps.  One of the powers of GIS is the ability to take historical documents, scan them, georeference them, and serve them through map services.  If you search in Mapdex for historical maps you will find some real gems.  Here are a few that caught my attention.

From the digitized_colton1855 map service on the gis.uta.edu server.



An historical 1921 Shaghai Postal Map from the shanghai map service on sig.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr server.




Here is a historical geologic chart of the Mexican Republic.



Cheers,

Jeremy

Hi all-

We have made a few changes to the Mapdex site.  Here is a rundown...

Raster () and Vector () layer identification.



Selection of either the Raster or Vector thumbnail image will take you to our new layer info page.  From this page you can get a quick preview of the layer.  If scale dependency is an issue for a layer you can randomly try and zoom to the appropriate geographic envelope to view the high resolution gis layer.  Praveen has done a nice job with this page.



This page also allows you to launch the layer and its associated map service into the new Mapdex map viewer.  If the projection is set, then you can also launch the layer into Google Earth. 



As you from the above image, the new Mapdex viewer is Flash based.  Flash is a very nice environment for creating interactive mapping application.  My colleague, Asif I., is the Flash wiz in our group.  Send me an email if you are interested in finding out more about the application.  We still have a few bugs to tweak so let us know if you see something that could perform better.

Cheers,

Jeremy