Using ArcWeb Explorer
ArcWeb Explorer demonstrates online mapping in a vector environment. Use it to view different types of maps (including data maps), find locations, build routes, and create demographic reports. You can print, share, and even access the code behind ArcWeb Explorer to build your own Web-based mapping applications.
Widgets and the header bar are the easiest way to use ArcWeb Explorer. TIP: To quickly open a widget, right-click the map and choose a widget name.
Navigation
 See a demo
Use the Navigation widget |
- Zoom in or out by moving the slider or clicking the + or - icons
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You can also navigate with your keyboard
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To pan the map:
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- click and drag the map image in the direction you want to move
- click the arrow keys in the direction you want to move.
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To zoom in or out:
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- press the Shift key and drag the map area to zoom in
- use + and - keys on the keyboard
- TIP: to zoom out to the initial world extent, right-click the map and choose World Map.
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To browse your previous maps:
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- click your browser's back and forward buttons
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Find
| Use the Find widget to locate street addresses, postal codes, cities, states, countries, provinces, and continents. In addition, you can enter phone numbers and URLs. TIP: You can only find United States street addresses and phone numbers. |
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Click the 'Find this computer' button to locate your computer's IP address on the map. TIP: The result is often IP address of your service provider and not the exact current location of the computer.
See a demo |
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Click the 'Location on map' button then click the map to see the address of a point on the map. TIP: If address location is not available for your point, then you see its latitude and longitude coordinates.
See a demo |
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Use the 'Find in an Excel file' button to locate addresses you have stored in an Excel file.
See a demo |
 Uploading an Excel File
You can map data contained in an Excel file in ArcWeb Explorer. To upload your file, in the Find widget, click Find In An Excel file. Browse to the file on your computer, and click OK. ArcWeb Explorer maps the locations in the file. TIP: You can upload one file per ArcWeb Explorer session. Each time you launch a new ArcWeb Explorer session (or refresh your browser) you can upload one file. Each Excel file should contain no more than 200 points.
The Directions widget uses the Name field in the Excel file as the label for each stop. If a Name field does not exist, ArcWeb Explorer uses the next best candidate.
To map correctly, your Excel file must provide enough information to determine the map locations, such as addresses, phone numbers, URLs, or map coordinates. Each type of information must be in a column in the Excel file and the column must have the correct heading.
Valid Excel column headings
Excel Column Header |
Maps to This |
y |
Y-coordinate |
ycoord |
lat |
latitude |
x |
X-coordinate |
xcoord |
lon |
long |
longitude |
code |
ZIP (Postal) code |
postalcode |
postal |
zip |
zipcode |
zone |
addr |
Street address |
address |
street |
city |
City |
state |
State |
prov |
province |
ph |
Phone number |
phone |
phonenum |
tel |
telephone |
email |
Email address |
id |
Name |
name |
busname |
ip |
Internet address |
ipaddress |
isp |
isp_provider |
inet_addr |
destination |
Sample Excel file
Reuse location results by dragging them to the map and other widgets.
- The map zooms in on the location
- Directions widget uses location results as stop points for a route.
- Reports widget can use location results as a center point for a report area.
Clear location results on the map with the Find widget.
- Click Clear clears all your results on the map
- Select the location result you want to delete (shift click for multiple items) and press Delete
Directions
See a demo
Use the Directions widget to create route maps and driving directions.
- Drag up to 15 stop locations from the Find widget.TIP: Select more than one location by pressing the Shift key and clicking multiple entries (only works in Internet Explorer.).
- TIP: Rearrange the order of the stops by dragging a location up or down in the Directions widget.
- Click Go when you ready to build your route. Driving directions with total distance (in miles) and estimated time appear in the Directions widget. The map displays your route.
- TIP: Zoom to specific turns by dragging a line of directions from the Directions widget to the map.
- TIP: Print your route and driving directions with the Print button.
Map Types
See a demo
Use the Map Types widget to select a base map.
 Street maps contain lines, points, and areas that represent features on the earth such as roads and lakes.
 Satellite maps show actual images of the earth from aerial photographs.
 Hybrid maps combine street and satellite maps into one.
 Data Maps lets you see information about a specific topic in the United States such as population density.
Creating a data map
- Select the Data tab, select a theme, then select a topic. For example, select 'Popular' then select '2011 Average Household Income'.TIP: The topics change when you select a different theme.
- Select the Map Options tab.
- Select a color ramp for your data classes. A color ramp shows different shades of the same color.
- Select a geographic boundary for your map. You can divide the data by state, county, ZIP code, or census block. You can also leave the default 'auto' which selects the geography based on your current map extent. TIP: Some boundaries may not be available at certain extents.
- Select the number of classes for your data. You can divide the data into two, three, four, or five classes.
- Leave the legend box checked to include a data legend with your map. Uncheck the box if you don't want a legend.
- Click Apply to create your data map.
TIP: You cannot share your data map.
Reports
See a demo
Use the Reports widget to create a demographic report for a specific area in the United States.
- Define a site (center point) for your report in one of two ways: drag a location from the Find widget results or click Use Map Center to use the center point of your current map.
- Create an area to analyze around your site using current extent, overlapping rings, drive-time or a hand-drawn shape.
- Current Extent reports on everything visible in your current map. Change the map area to change the report area.
- Rings lets you creates up to three overlapping ring areas. Select the number of rings then use each ring's slider triangle to select a size (in miles). You can also type a number in the miles box. TIP: The map draws approximate rings only. The actual report uses accurately projected rings.
- Drive Time reports on an area representing how far you can drive from your center point in a given number of minutes. Drive time follows actual roadways under normal traffic conditions and speed limits. Use the slider or type a value for the number of minutes.
- Hand-drawn lets you draw your own shape for your report area. To draw, click the map at your starting point, click the map to create corner points, then double-click at your finish point.
- Select data for your report. The data for the reports comes from U.S. Census 2000.
- Select a file format for your report. You can choose PDF, Excel, or XML.
- Click Get Report to create your report.
Using the header bar |
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Hide Widgets closes any open widget on the map and removes the widget bar from the header. Show Widgets appears in the place of Hide Widgets once you've hidden your widgets. Click Show Widgets to turn on the widget bar and reopen any widgets you were working with when you clicked Hide Widgets.
Print prints your current map view. You can print maps up to 2000 x 2000 pixels. TIP: You cannot print thematic maps between 500 and 1000 pixels (width or height). Any driving directions you have displayed in the Directions widget are also printed.
Share creates permanent URLs, called permalinks, of your current street, satellite, or hybrid map and any location markers or routes you've added, including GeoRSS points. Click Copy URL to copy the current map URL to the clipboard, or click Email URL to create an e-mail message with a URL link of the map. TIP: You can also build your own permalink.
Help links to this page, Using ArcWeb Explorer.
Developer API links to samples and documentation for the ArcWeb Explorer JavaScript API .
Building permalinks to share your ArcWeb Explorer maps
You can create your own URL, called a permalink, that displays the ArcWeb Explorer map the way you want. The Share widget automatically creates permalinks based on your current map. Building your own permalink lets you bypass the application and simply write out the URL as you want the map to appear.
Parameters
Your URL can contain information about extent, layers, widgets, swf markers and routing. TIP: All parameters have defaults (meaning you do not need to specify values if you do not want to).
A basic ArcWeb Explorer peramalink might look like this (parameters in bold for easy viewing):
http://www.arcwebservices.com/awx/index.jsp?c=-75.11785|40.00475&sf=740000&glt=vectorGroupLayer&
sp=-75.1642|39.9522&sl=|http://www.arcwebservices.com/awx/images/home_icon.png&
st=Philadelphia,PA&sd=left||&w=fi|500|62
Map |
Parameter |
Description |
Valid and default values |
c (x|y)
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Map center point in x|y coordinates |
| Value |
Description |
| x|y |
The x coordinate of the center point and the y coordinate of the center point in geographic coordinates (long/lat), separated by a pipeline (|). |
| default |
0|0 (Africa) |
| if invalid |
0|0 (Africa) |
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| sf |
Geographical scale of the map |
| Value |
Description |
| long |
Only use the number to the right of map scale colon (for example, in a 1:20000 scale, use 20000). |
| default |
world extent or most appropriate for center point |
| if invalid |
world extent or most appropriate for center point |
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| glt |
Group layer type |
| Value |
Description |
| vectorGroupLayer |
Street map type |
| rasterTileGroupLayer |
Satellite map type |
| hybridGroupLayer |
Hybrid map type |
| default |
vectorGroupLayer |
| if invalid |
vectorGroupLayer |
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Widget |
Parameter |
Description |
Valid values |
w (widgetname|x|y)
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Displays widget in a specific location on the map
TIP:You can add multiple widgets. |
| Value for widgetname |
Description |
| nv |
Navigation widget |
| fi |
Find widget. TIP: You can enter text to appear in the entry box through the f parameter |
| ul |
Upload widget (part of Find) |
| mt |
Map Types widget |
| dr |
Directions widget |
| re |
Reports widget |
| default |
no widgets appear at start up |
| if invalid |
widget does not appear |
| Value for x|y |
Description |
| x |
vertical location in pixels. Origin is upper left hand corner |
| y |
horizontal location in pixels. Origin is upper left hand corner |
| default |
widget appears at a default location |
| if invalid |
widget appears at a default location |
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f |
Text for Find widget entry box.
TIP: The Find widget displays a list of candidates based on your entry. |
| Value |
Description |
| string |
Text that displays in the Find widget. For example, Redlands, CA TIP: If you do not display the Find widget (through w=fi parameter value), your text string only appears if the user opens the Find widget. |
| default |
"Address, city, state, zip, phone, or URL" (and no candidate list) |
| if invalid |
"Address, city, state, zip, phone, or URL" (and no candidate list) |
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Marker |
Parameter |
Description |
Valid values |
sp (x|y)
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Location of the map marker.
TIP: This parameter is required if you want to set the other marker parameters |
| Value |
Description |
| x|y |
The x coordinate of the center point and the y coordinate of the center point in geographic coordinates (long/lat), separated by a pipeline (|). |
| default |
no marker |
| if invalid |
no marker or related marker properties such as label |
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sd (align|bgcolor|textcolor) |
Alignment, background color, and text color of the marker. |
Value for align
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Description |
| TIP: values are lower case |
| left |
Aligns text or image within marker bubble to the left |
| right |
Aligns text or image within marker bubble to the right |
| center |
Centered text within marker bubble |
| default |
center |
| if invalid |
center |
Value for bgcolor
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Description |
| hexadecimal |
Sets a background color for the marker |
| default |
white |
| if invalid |
020000 (black) |
Value for textcolor
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Description |
| hexadecimal |
Defines a text color for the marker |
| default |
black |
| if invalid |
020000 (black) |
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| sl |
Marker label
TIP: You can use text or an image |
Value
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Description |
URL to image file or string for text
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To display an image, ArcWeb Explorer must be able to access your image through a valid URL. |
| default |
no label |
| if invalid |
no label |
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| st |
Text that appears when mouse rolls over the marker |
Value
|
Description |
| string |
Text appears exactly as you type it. |
| default |
no text |
| if invalid |
no text |
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| se |
Text, images, and/or SWF elements that appear when user marker expands (when you click the marker).
TIP: You can add up to ten elements. |
Value
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Description |
| URLs and/or strings |
Separate each URLs and/or string with a pipeline (|). |
| default |
marker does not expand |
| if invalid |
marker does not expand. |
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Route |
Parameter |
Description |
Valid values |
rs (x|y|label)
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Route stop. You can set between 2 and 15 stops.
TIP: View driving directions for your route by rolling your mouse over the lower part of the Directions widget.
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| Value for x|y |
Description |
| x|y |
The x coordinate of the route point and the y coordinate of the route point in geographic coordinates (long/lat), separated by a pipeline (|). |
| default |
no route stop |
| if invalid |
no route stop |
| Value for label |
Description |
| string |
Label for the route stop |
| default |
no label |
| if invalid |
no label |
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Developing with ArcWeb Explorer Javascript API
You can use the ArcWeb Explorer JavaScript API to quickly build your own mapping application.
The API lets you create maps, find locations, show markers, and more, all without spending a lot of time developing code. The API includes a series of quick-start and quick-start plus samples and a complete programmers reference guide.
Learn more about ArcWeb Explorer JavaScript API
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