In Lesson 4, I enjoyed the hands-on experience using Javascript. Beginning with ArcGIS Maps SDK sample code definitely helped me grasp the concepts of incorporating script into an html webpage. I find it interesting that the whole webpage content can be crafted in your js file, with the html file serving as the simple container. The CSS file is also important to help with reusing styling code efficiently. Frankly, both parts of this assignment were challenging at first. While it may not be the only way, I chose to store the coordinates for my "myPoint" object and set my MapView center property as "myPoint". For part II, after locating a decent example, I crafted a popup without issue. If I understand it correctly, the Graphic class is versatile enough to have built in functionality to display popups. This is what I gathered from this comment in the sample code: "// autocasts as new PopupTemplate()". I'm excited to see how we can dynamically utilize attributes in these webmaps.

Above, you'll find my mapping application showcasing a subset of Chicago Parks. This Scene View opens with a slightly tilted camera toward the city. Park types are symbolized using a UniqueValueRenderer, with different colors for their Park type. Interact with each park to learn more. The popups will provide park name, location, and acreage. To me, Lesson 6 was a great introduction into layer visualization. I feel I've learned the tools to create a mapping application that is visually appealing. I find it very interesting that I can pull in a hosted Feature Service or Map Service layer and render them in seemingly endless ways. While I've had some experience handling REST services in my current role, I haven't had any opportunity to create an end product like a purpose-built app. I feel confident in utilizing map services in a javascript environment to render a simple app. Not only can they be rendered by unique attributes or by classification, I can also choose to display them in 2D, 3D, flat, volumetric and with numerous layers of visualization. I hope to experiment more with creating 3D features, like Extrude symbols and Path Symbols. With ESRI's javascript SDK, I now know how to configure several interactive elements into my app, including popups derived from feature attributes, legends, and 3D Camera views. It was fairly challenging and tedious in figuring out the structure of my function to add symbols and a render to my park classes. Using an if, else if, and else statement, the syntax caused issues. After some time researching examples, I resolved my issue.

Lesson 7
National Park Service | Assignment 7

For Assignment #7, I chose to create an app for the National Park Service. A number of interesting topics I learned this lesson include the application of a Search widget and a Query widget. While these weren't required for the assignment, I expect to find these useful for the upcoming final project. In fact, I started to implement a Search and Query widget to accomplish the task of finding the specific Park regions. Of course, I did realize I needed to stick with the prompt() class. I feel more experienced using the UniqueValueRenderer, in which I implemented additional properties like "defaultSymbol" and "defaultLabel" to handle all other park types' symbology and legend display. Eventually, I'd like to utilize a more effecient mechanism to render the unique values (if there is one). I can imagine an application similar to this in my workplace since one team works with agricultural land use and soil assessment. I can host these layers and develop interesting ways to interact with parcels overlayed with landuse and soil layers for our clients.

FINAL PROJECT - DIVVY BIKESHARE

Lesson 6