Esri ArcGIS App Augmentation for a GIS Economic-Development Platform
The Client
The client is a software company providing solutions for economic developers to attract new business and retain and expand existing business within their community. Its platform is built natively on Esri's mapping software. Using ArcGIS Online, it assures business and government leaders of a community's economic potential by sharing compelling, data-driven maps and reports in the application. The app provides data on workers, customers, and locations to help diversify business — drawing interest from tech, retail, healthcare, and more — and functions as a resource that gathers, manages, and analyzes neighborhoods in terms of needs, trends, and spending habits.
The platform includes a site-selection module that simplifies data selection and sourcing across thousands of demographic data variables, and a web-map storytelling capability that integrates topographical depictions, legends, text, photos, and video with functionality such as swipe, pop-ups, and time sliders so users can explore the content — delivering presentation-ready reporting with consistent demographic data across users.
The Requirement — Esri ArcGIS App Augmentation
The client's vision was for users to view their competitive standing by logging into the application as a prospect would. This perspective helps businesses monitor their listing in real time, analyze how to improve, and gain advantage over other businesses. To support the new feature, the client also requested an upgrade of the Esri ArcGIS API for JavaScript from version 4.4 to 4.8. INNERLUXES augmented the backlog of the application and merged code with the client's developers.
How INNERLUXES Ensured Success
The INNERLUXES team analyzed the development environment, the source code of the existing database, and the architecture of the application. We wrote the TypeScript code and fixed TypeScript deployment issues, set up the client's Azure database into a local database, and developed the ring-buffer area-of-observation on the Esri map integration. Our team also diagnosed and corrected a map-design issue through TypeScript modifications.
During development, the team used Visual Studio 2017, SQL Server 2017, the ASP.NET Boilerplate framework, Entity Framework, TypeScript, .NET Core, Team Foundation Server (for configuration management), and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript 4.8.
The Impact
- A new competitive-standing feature that lets users log in as a prospect would to monitor their listing in real time.
- Esri ArcGIS API for JavaScript upgraded from version 4.4 to 4.8.
- A ring-buffer area-of-observation developed on the Esri map integration.
- TypeScript deployment issues and a map-design issue resolved.
- Backlog augmentation and code merged seamlessly with the client's in-house developers.
Technologies and Tools
Esri ArcGIS API for JavaScript 4.8, ArcGIS Online, TypeScript, .NET Core, ASP.NET Boilerplate framework, Entity Framework, SQL Server 2017, Azure, Visual Studio 2017, Team Foundation Server.