Author: fefox

Chapter 3: This chapter really shows how easy WebGIS is compared to the desktop version (in my opinion). WebGIS allows us to create our own web experiences using flexible layouts, content, and widgets that interact with both 2D and 3D data. We can start with templates for mobile-adaptive apps, modify template layouts for a custom design on different screen sizes, or even build apps from scratch. The ability to do those things adds to the availability of this application and how easily one can understand it. When using these applications, you follow a little pattern on how to complete the maps. It goes: pick a template or start from scratch, pick a theme, add your data, add and move around your widgets, refine your layout, and finally save and share your maps! A widget is a JavaScript and HTML component that encapsulates a set of focused functions. Experience Builder provides two types of widgets: basic and layout. Basic widgets can perform as app tools. Basic widgets include map, legend, layers, query, filter, edit, chart, elevation profile, survey, and more. Layout widgets help organize widgets on your pages or windows. Layout widgets include section, column, row, fixed panel, sidebar, and more. One important thing about widgets is that you need to pay attention to your version of ARCGIS because the ArcGIS Online edition doesn’t allow custom widgets; the Portal for ArcGIS edition allows the deployment and use of custom widgets; the developer edition allows the creation, deployment, and use of custom widgets. Overall, just be aware of your GIS and the different things you can do with it

Chapter 4: This chapter talks about mobile GIS and how beneficial that is. I think that offering a mobile version is amazing as it increases the availability of ArcGIS, giving more people the opportunity to learn it. However, there are a few disadvantages to mobile GIS; the small size of mobile devices imposes limitations on speed, memory size, battery power, bandwidth and network connections, screen size, and keyboard size. As an “owner” of a hosted feature layer, you’re also able to be an editor tracker. Editor tracking is the ability to track who has changed the data of a feature layer and when the change was made. Editor tracking can help create more accountability and quality control over the edited data. This is, if you choose to enable it on your layers. A feature layer can contain a feature template, which you can define in ArcGIS Desktop or Map Viewer in ArcGIS Online. A feature template defines the types of data items that users can add to a layer. A template ensures data integrity and makes editing easier for your users. There are also 3 different approaches that can be taken with mobile GIS: browser-based, native-based, and hybrid-based. ArcGIS provides a suite of apps for field operations as well, including ArcGIS Field Maps, ArcGIS Survey123, ArcGIS QuickCapture, ArcGIS Navigator, ArcGIS Companion, ArcGIS Earth, ArcGIS Mission Responder, and ArcGIS Indoors mobile viewer. 

One application of what was talked about in these 2 chapters would be the ability to create a map of tornado locations in Ohio over the past 5 years to see if there is a recurring pattern within those locations.

This week, I read chapters 1 and 2!

Chapter 1: The beginning of this chapter talks about the multitude of applications WebGIS has. One that really stuck out to me was when the book talked about the global outreach of WebGIS; this is because sharing information is so important, and allowing these maps to be shared globally can have so many different advantages. This chapter also talked about “The Science of Where” and how it has two definitions: one meaning is that GIS is itself a science, as the scientific basis for GIS technology, and the other meaning is that GIS has been used for science as an effective tool for making scientific discoveries. This chapter also talks about the many different groups that can use WebGIS and how each of them could use it, like the Government and just people in their daily lives. This chapter also talks about how WebGIS is opening up a new “gateway” for GIS as it allows for organized, secure, and facilitated access to geographic information products. Also, how GIS servers allow you to create maps and ready-to-use content, such as ArcGIS, which provides tens of thousands of data layers and maps. And finally, how users can search, discover, and use the layers, maps, and apps on desktops, in web browsers, and on mobile devices anywhere, anytime. GIS is an ever evolving field, and by increasing the access people have to GIS programs, more people can familiarize themselves with this amazing application

Chapter 2: The start of this chapter talks about feature layers: the most common type of operational layers. There are a few different types of hosted layers as well. A hosted layer is just the data that has been populated and saved to WedGIS. The types are: hosted feature layers, hosted web service layers, hosted tile layers, hosted vector tile layers, hosted web map tile service layers, hosted scene layers, hosted image layers, and hosted map image layers. Each one of those hosted layers holds different information about your map layers. WebGIS also introduces us to a thing called “Smart Mapping.” Smart mapping enables us to visually analyze, create, and share professional-quality maps easily and quickly with minimal cartographic or software skills. Smart mapping uses intelligent defaults, data-driven visualizations, and innovative workflows. It delivers continuous color ramps and proportional symbols, improved categorical mapping, heat maps, and new ways to use transparency effects to show additional details about your data through a streamlined and updated user interface. Unlike traditional software defaults that are the same every time, smart mapping analyzes your data quickly in many ways, suggesting the right defaults when you add layers and change symbolizing fields. This smart mapping technology can make mapping easier for every user, especially those who did not take GOEG 291 and have to deal with making all those maps from nothing. 

With what was talked about within these 2 chapters, one could map the continuous timeline of buildings on Ohio Wesleyan’s campus. I think that would be a super cool thing to look at and see the addition/destruction of buildings throughout this campus’s history.

Hi my name is Faith Fox and I am a sophomore majoring in Environmental Science and Pre-Law. For this week, I took the quiz and scheduled my meeting for both week 2 and 3.

I did all of the other requirements and the ArcGIS stuff for this week back in GEOG 291!