Yes, this was the way the votes were tallied. True, it very much was a pass or fail issue. Still, I wanted to understand the distribution better. News outlets discussed age and party affiliation being factors, so I found the data pertaining to this as well.

With all this compiled I created a map depicting the shades of gray existing between what had been presented as a completely black and white issue. This map is shown below. Further, if you click on any of the counties, a popup displays metrics including median age and voter turnout. Two pie graphs are also included in the popup, one depicting the ratio between those for and against the amendment and another depicting the party affiliation in the county.

This map was created by simply putting together data from the NC State Board of Elections in ArcMap 10.1. Yes, working for Esri I have access to the pre-release software. The data was then symbolized by showing a ratio between those for and those against the amendment. This map was then published to ArcGIS.com where the map was created and the popups configured. From there, I just copied the embed code into this blog post as an iframe. The whole process took less than an hour.

ArcGIS for Desktop 10 introduced the option to embed scripts into tools. Once embedded, editing is as simple as right clicking on the script in a toolbox and selecting edit. The default Python IDE, IDLE would open and from there the script could be edited.

After installing ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1 Prerelease, I discovered when choosing to edit an embedded script, the script opened in Notepad. This was not acceptable. Fortunately setting the editor is an easy change.

To set the Python editor, from the Geoprocessing menu select Geoprocessing Options. In the Geoprocessing Options dialog, browse to the path where the desired editor executable file is located for Script Tool Editor/Debugger. For the Wing editor on my machine, the path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Wing IDE 101 4.1\bin\wing-101.exe.

If you do not know the path to your Python editor, you can get it from the Windows Start Menu. The Start menu is nothing more than a collection of shortcuts to programs. You can get the location these shortcuts reference from the shortcut properties.

To find these paths, open the Start menu and right click on the program you prefer to use for script editing. Select properties and in the dialog select the Shortcut tab. In the shortcut tab, simply copy the target field. Use this path in ArcGIS as the location of both your script editor and debugger. With these properties set in ArcGIS for Desktop, you can seamlessly use any IDE you like for editing your scripts.

Once deciding on this, another vexing conundrum presents itself. Unlike Flash and Sliverlight, which Esri has web mapping API’s for as well, there is not just a single integrated development environment (IDE) with code assist built in. Adobe distributes the Flash Builder IDE and it has some great code assist built in. Microsoft’s Visual Studio provides outstanding code assist for developing Silverlight.

The best IDE to use for JavaScript? Simply typing JavaScript IDE into Google brings up a flood of blog postings arguing this exact topic. The first hit however, above all these blog postings, is a direct link to Aptana Studio. Cross referencing to the ArcGIS Resource Center, I managed to unearth a help document with rather simple directions for using the ArcGIS JavaScript API with various editors.

One thing not directly discussed in this document is the only code editor with code assist available is Aptana Studio 2. This is important to note since the current release is Aptana Studio 3. As a result, you have to make sure to download and install Aptana Studio 2 if you want to be able to have code assist available.

With Aptana Studio 2 installed, there still are some steps to getting it set up to perform code assist. The ArcGIS JavaScript API is build on top of the Dojo Toolkit. As a result, support is needed for both Dojo Toolkit and the ArcGIS JavaScript API.

Setting up Dojo code assist can be accomplished by installing the plug-in directly from Aptana Studio. Go to Help > Install Aptana Features. In the dialog, expand the JavaScript Libraries section, check the box next to Dojo and click the Install button at the bottom of the dialog. Aptana will download and install support for Dojo. Code assist is now working for the Dojo Toolkit, but support for the ArcGIS JavaScript API still needs to be installed.

To get code assist working for the ArcGIS JavaScript API, a jar file needs to be downloaded from Esri and installed into Aptana Studio. The download and installation directions can be found on the ArcGIS Resource Center as well. There is only one problem. The directions are for setting up code assist if you have installed Aptana as part of the larger Eclipse IDE. This was not the case for me. I installed it for only myself on the computer. It took a bit of exploration to figure out how to get this installed correctly.

Successfully installing this jar file requires unzipping the zipped archive, copying the jar file into the Aptana plugins folder and enabling it in Aptana. If like myself and installing Aptana for only the current user, the plugin folder can be difficult to locate. Instead of being located in the C:/Programs directory where all other programs installed on a Windows computer are, Aptana is installed in C:/Users/<loginName>/AppData/Local/Aptana Studio 2.0. Inside this folder is located inside the Aptana folder at C:/Users/<loginName>/AppData/Local/Aptana Studio 2.0/plugins. Copy the jar file from the zipped archive downloaded from Esri into this directory.

With the jar file copied into the plugins directory, enable the plugin from within Aptana Studio. Go to Window > Show View > References to open the References dialog. In the References Dialog, open the Global References and check the box next to ArcGIS JSAPI.

This is what it takes to get an IDE with code assist for working with the ArcGIS JavaScript API: download and install Aptana Studio 2, enable the Dojo plugin, download the jar file from Esri, copy the jar file into the plugins directory and enable the JSAPI plugin. Although it takes a bit of tinkering to get it done, the upside is this IDE is completely free and provides code assist for the API I prefer to learn.

Today I created a custom JavaScript web mapping application depicting piracy trends in the Arabian Sea without writing a single line of code. To create the same type of map, all you have to do is create three maps on ArcGIS.com, save them in your profile and use one as a starting point to create an application.

First, create up to four maps you will be using in your JavaScript application. Access the map by clicking on the Map link from the front page.

Next create your map by selecting a basemap and adding your own data layers. There are a number of basemaps to choose from. I am partial to the Community Maps and OpenStreetMap basemaps for larger scales. For smaller scales I like Light Gray Canvas, National Geographic and Oceans depending on what I am working on.

With your basemap selected, add the relevant layers to the first map you will be using. ArcGIS.com offers a few options for creating these. For my purposes, I am lucky enough to have some services available from an ArcGIS for Server instance.

Once you have your first map created, save and add information about the map. Although it can seem irritating, take some time and consideration to fill the dialog arguments out. The title will be used in the eventual web mapping application, as will the description as shown below.

For each separate view needed for the final web mapping application a separate map needs to be created. In my case, I repeated this process three times. Once finished creating the last map, the mapping application can be created. To start creating the mapping application, click on share button while still viewing the last web map. From the share dialog, click on the Make a Web Application button.

This will present the Make a Web Application dialog. This dialog presents available templates available for creating web applications. Each has their own capabilities for functionality and configuration. The one I used is the Multiviewer found on the second page (21 Mar 2012). Below each template the option is presented to either download or publish to ArcGIS.com using the template. If wanting to host the application locally, the template can be downloaded and configured locally, all still without having to touch a line of code. For this demonstration though, the application was created on ArcGIS.com using the publish option.

The next dialog presents arguments to describe the application. These will be used as the default properties for the application, displayed in the splash screen.

Finally, the dialog presents a last screen with further directions and options. This dialog presents a link to go directly to the configuration of the newly created application, which is needed when first created to include the other maps.

Pay particular attention to the Web Map IDs part of the configuration. This is where the other maps are included. These map codes are found when viewing your maps in the ArcGIS.com map viewer. It is the last part of the URL. Copy and paste this code to include up to four maps in the application.

Once finished adding maps and setting other properties, save the application and it is finished. All of the code behind the map can be examined by looking at the source while viewing the application in a web browser if you are like myself and want to learn how things are done.

This is all there is to creating a custom JavaScript web mapping application without ever having to touch a line of code. Create the needed maps on ArcGIS.com and use these to create a web application either locally or on ArcGIS.com. It really is that easy.

# Return list all permutations of field in input feature class or table

def getValueList (inputTable, field):



    valueList = [] # array to hold list of values collected

    valueSet = set() # set to hold values to test against to get list

    rows = arcpy.SearchCursor(inputTable) # create search cursor



    # iterate through table and collect unique values

    for row in rows:

        value = row.getValue(field)



        # add value if not already added and not current year

        if value not in valueSet:

            valueList.append(value)



        # add value to valueset for checking against in next iteration

        valueSet.add(value)



    # return value list

    valueList.sort()

    return valueList

To perform this analysis, first I need to establish what I am interested in, then find the data, prepare the data, analyze the data and finally output the results. The first part is easy, I know what I want to investigate. What areas are affected by the capabilities of Iran’s missile program?

To ascertain this requires knowing what ballistic missiles Iran possesses and what their capabilities are. This requires flexing my Google-fu. It does not take long to locate a relevant Congressional report, a report from the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and MissileThreat.com. Together, these contain information of what Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities are. The only other needed data is an outline of Iran. This is easy to locate by grabbing a world country data set off ArcGIS.com.

After assembling the data together, it is time to ensure my analysis environment is set up. ArcGIS requires data to be projected to perform spatial analysis. Projecting data distorts data. Depending on the projection, it typically will preserve one aspect of shape, area, distance or direction at the expense of the other three. In this case, I needed to preserve distance, so in the properties of my data frame, I set the spatial reference to the Equidistant Conic projection available in ArcGIS 10 for Desktop.

With my data procured and the analysis environment set up, it is time to analyze. The capabilities’ of the ballistic missiles listed on these sites are used as the input into the Multiple Ring Buffer tool. Entering the ranges of all the ballistic missiles into this tool yields the output show in this map layout.

Twenty minutes is all it took to create an answer to the question, what areas are affected by Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities. All it takes is a quick internet search followed by using a geoprocessing tool with consideration given to spatial reference. The result is interesting and quite sobering. It makes it very obvious why Israel is quite vocal in their disapproval of Iran’s suspected arms programs.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up an iPod Shuffle for the mountain bike and the downriver boat. After pulling my bike out of the back of the truck and clipping it was time to try out the new toy. After queuing up the iPod and clipping in, I was off. The tunes for today were organized into a new playlist called Angry Irishmen.

My tastes in music, they have not changed dramatically over the years. As a general rule I like country, rock and country that rocks. As of late though, this has taken somewhat of a different direction. As previously mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, I have started indulging in slightly different varieties of music. The Nashville sound has grown old. Every, “new,” artist sounds the same as the last 20 or so to come out of Nashville since I was in high school. As a result, I have started digging around and really enjoying a lot of the sounds coming out of Austin. This is only half of the story though. On this day, I was not listening to country.

Owen Donahue and Mike Larson, two college teammates, they enlightened me on the world of what was described years later by a friend as, “angry white boy music.” Mostly this meant playing Mettalica as loud as possible… all the time. Mettalica has yet to become a resident in my iTunes library. In fact, most angry white boy music has not made it into my library. As of late however, I have started to feel a need for a soundtrack with some more intensity to it… intensity reminiscent of Mike, Owen and Mettalica. Still, I was not looking for exactly Mettalica, but something along those lines of intensity. I needed something that rocks.

Sniffing around in the depths of the internet, which mostly means entering in anything I can think of into Pandora and seeing what else cycles through, I stumbled over a band I was first introduced to at the Teton Science School during junior high over 20 years ago now. An Irish foreign exchange student introduced me to the Pogues on his walkman. The Pogues, 20 years later, were just what I needed. The Pogues led me to The Young Dubliners, Dropkick Murphys and Dubliners. They are all grouped together into a decidedly Irish version of angry white boy music, a playlist I call Irish Fury.

For quick mountain bike lunches, plugging into Irish Fury is perfect. Plug in, clip in and let it rip through the singletrack. Thus far, this combination has contributed to landing on my head just once.

Keep in mind, this was the first time my parents have ever been out of the country before. For those of you who know my parents, you can easily imagine there were most definitely some interesting and entertaining moments.

The last tally was one dislocated shoulder, three broken toes, a day long case of montezuma’s revenge and one case of bronchitis. The trip was considered a complete success by all.

After the break are some of the pictures I took on the trip. These are much smaller than the originals. Please let me know if you are interested in full size photos of these. Also, this is just a start. I am slowly getting though all the photos from the trip, cleaning them up and picking my favorites to share. Please check back as I keep adding more.