Book Image

ArcGIS Blueprints

By : Donald Eric Pimpler, Eric Pimpler
Book Image

ArcGIS Blueprints

By: Donald Eric Pimpler, Eric Pimpler

Overview of this book

This book is an immersive guide to take your ArcGIS Desktop application development skills to the next level It starts off by providing detailed description and examples of how to create ArcGIS Desktop Python toolboxes that will serve as containers for many of the applications that you will build. We provide several practical projects that involve building a local area/community map and extracting wildfire data. You will then learn how to build tools that can access data from ArcGIS Server using the ArcGIS REST API. Furthermore, we deal with the integration of additional open source Python libraries into your applications, which will help you chart and graph advanced GUI development; read and write JSON, CSV, and XML format data sources; write outputs to Google Earth Pro, and more. Along the way, you will be introduced to advanced ArcPy Mapping and ArcPy Data Access module techniques and use data-driven Pages to automate the creation of map books. Finally, you will learn advanced techniques to work with video and social media feeds. By the end of the book, you will have your own desktop application without having spent too much time learning sophisticated theory.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
ArcGIS Blueprints
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Creating the ArcGIS Python add-in


With the user interface complete for Parcel Viewer, we need a way to display the dialog box for the user input. The easiest way to accomplish this in ArcGIS Desktop is to tie the interface to an ArcGIS Python Add-In Wizard. In this step, we'll create a Button add-in that will display the user interface when clicked on:

  1. In Chapter 3, Automating the Production of Map Books with Data-Driven Pages and ArcPy, you learned how to use the ArcGIS Python Add-In Wizard to create add-ins. If you need to refresh your memory on this topic, refer to the Exporting the map series with ArcPy Mapping and Automating the Production of Map Books with Data-Driven Pages and the ArcPy section in the same chapter.

  2. Create a folder in C:\ArcGIS_Blueprint_Python\ch6 called ParcelViewer. This will be the container folder for the Python add-in.

  3. Start the ArcGIS Python Add-In Wizard and add the settings shown under the Project Settings tab in the following screenshot:

  4. Click on the Add-In Contents...