Microsoft recently announced that SQL Azure will support working with native spatial data in June of this year. This is great news, and significantly enhances the usability of SQL Azure as a geographic data respository. As a result, many folks may want to start utilizing spatial data in their Azure hosted Web applications. Working with SQL Server spatial data in a .NET application usually involves working with the SQL Server Spatial (SqlServerSpatial.dll) and Types (Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll) libraries included with the SQL Server System CLR Types feature pack. The technical capabilities of the SQL Server Spatial library have been established in numerous blog posts, conference sessions, forums, and in the product documentation. Basically the library offers a standard, light-weight set of spatial operators built on geometry and geography spatial data types that are relatively easy to use and integrate in a .NET application. You can download, install, use, and distribute these libraries as needed. The latest edition of the SQL CLR Types was released in November 2009 for SQL Server 2008 R2. If the .NET application that uses the SQL spatial libraries is installed on a local machine or hosted on a local server, you have complete control over the environment in which it operates. However, if you choose to deploy an ASP.NET application as a Windows Azure web service, you will encounter a limitation. The platform for Windows Azure is a flavor of 64-bit Windows Server 2008 prior to the R2 release. The Nov 2009 SQL Spatial library is dependent on the system library MSVCRT80.dll which is not included with this operating system. As a result, when you attempt to use the SQL Spatial library in your Azure hosted ASP.NET web service, you'll likely see the following error:
Unable to load DLL 'SqlServerSpatial.dll': The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800736B1)
MSVCR80.dll is required by the SQL Spatial library and must be installed/configured on the host operation system, it cannot simply be dropped in the same directory. In addition, you cannot install features and components in your Windows Azure workspace. So how can you use the SQL Spatial library in an Azure hosted application? Simple, include a SQL Spatial library from a SQL Server 2008 (not R2) edition of the CLR Types. The functionality is basically unchanged.
Here are the steps:
1) Download the 64-bit SQL Server 2008 edition of the SQL Server CLR Types feature pack. I used the October 2008 download successfully.
2) If you don't want to install the feature pack, or you don’t have a 64-bit system on which to install, you can extract the 64-bit version of this library using the following command:
msiexec /a SQLSysClrTypes_64bit.msi /qb TARGETDIR="C:\MyFolder"
3) Copy the Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.dll and SqlServerSpatial.dll into the bin of your Web application. I was able to successfully deploy and use SQL Server Spatial logic in Windows Azure service using the February 2010 edition of the Azure SDK.
Now let's change gears and chat about ESRI's foray into the SQL Server Spatial and Azure world. Currently ESRI has a product named MapIt which includes an ASP.NET Web service, the Spatial Data Service, that uses the SQL Server Spatial library to work with native spatial data in SQL Server 2008. The Spatial Data Service can be deployed as a Windows Azure service and work with spatial data in SQL Azure or any third party that hosts spatial data in SQL Server 2008 (e.g. Discount ASP.NET). You can see the SDS in Windows Azure in action here: http://mapit.cloudapp.net/. To deploy your own SDS as a Windows Azure service, use the Azure deployment utility on the MapIt resource center.
As a parting thought, keep in mind that Microsoft will likely update the Windows Azure platform to include the foundational libraries necessary to support the SQL Server 2008 R2 edition of the spatial library. Hopefully the information in this post will suffice until that time.
Showing posts with label mapit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mapit. Show all posts
Friday, April 30, 2010
Sunday, December 6, 2009
ESRI's European User Conference 2009 - Asides and Slides
In October 2009 HNIT-Baltic hosted ESRI's European Users Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania. I attended as an ambassador for ArcGIS Server, its Web APIs, and MapIt. This was my first foray into eastern Europe, and it turned out quite simply fantastic. Discussions with users and partners were spirited and exciting, and attendees in my sessions were engaged. The folks I met that work at HNIT-Baltic were exceptionally knowledgable and courteous, and simply ready for the next challenge.
The city itself was inviting, fresh, and personal. And I discovered a few things during my adventure: Lithuanians enjoy pizza with ketchup, because I was told it "adds flavor"; shopping malls look like factories on the outside, but they rival the best of So Cal on the inside, with better prices; and if you see a glass of water on a table at a party... it's probably vodka.
I've included a montage of a few photos I snapped with my trusty iPhone while in Vilnius (press "P" to pause).
If you attended the EUC in Vilnius or just want to view the conference materials, you can view and download the plenary and paper session materials from HNIT-Baltic.
To peruse the technical sessions I presented, I've made PDF versions of the session slides available below:
Building Mashups with ArcGIS Server
Building Great Web Map Applications
Whats New in ArcGIS Server 9.3.1
Thursday, September 24, 2009
"Price check on Bing Maps"
Over the past couple months, I've chatted with a number of people interested in using Bing Maps services in their applications; map-centric and otherwise. If they had any questions or wanted to purchase a license, I always mentioned that they could contact Microsoft directly. This got me wondering, if someone did contact Microsoft with questions about purchasing a Bing Maps license, what would they experience? Simple enough to try – so I called their contact number listed on their licensing page.
I was directed to the voice mail of someone on the sales staff. His voice mail greeting provided his email address, so I decided to send him an email with a single question to get the ball rolling. Literally 7 minutes later I got a response… I was impressed. He needed more information, so I provided it and waited for a response. The following day I sent an email asking for an update and he called me within 5 minutes. Evidently he called my main work number and made his way to my desk… quick, resourceful… again I was impressed. After a lengthy conversation, a few interesting details about the licensing and cost of Bing Maps became apparent. Let’s start with the first question:
After the 90-day evaluation period, do I have to purchase a license to continue using Bing Maps imagery, geocode, and route services?
No, but the use case is very limited. You can continue to use Bing Maps staging services beyond the 90-day evaluation period if the application is:
1) available publicly, on the Internet, without restriction
2) completely non-commercial, meaning you make no money on its use, directly or indirectly
Note you still have to abide by the limits defined for the 90-day evaluation. So this pretty much covers soccer moms trying to organize team events on a map or allows your friendly fantasy football commissioner to show folks how to get to his house for the draft. Granted the Bing Maps imagery services will still have “Staging” plastered on each tile, so the map may not be very pleasing. Outside of this, all other scenarios require a license. This includes all internal applications (commercial or non-commercial, Web or desktop), all commercial applications, and all government applications. Logically this leads to the next question…
How much is a license to use Bing Maps?
Short answer…the standard package is $8000 for 1,000,000 transactions. This is the minimum to get started. The transactions sit a pool for use with all Bing services: imagery, geocode, routing, search, etc. So…
What is considered a transaction?
It depends on the service. The best place I’ve found to get detailed information on this is the transaction report description for Bing Maps. In general, use the following as a guide:
8 map tiles = 1 map transaction
1 geocode = 1 transaction
1 route = 1 transaction
In the end, I was both impressed and satisfied with the responsive Bing Maps customer service. The guy I spoke with was clear, concise and real; he knew the technical details and presented it well. I’m definitely more comfortable referring folks to Bing Maps now that I know first hand what they’ll experience. I still find it interesting that if you are using a licensed ArcGIS product or API you can purchase access to Bing Maps through ArcGIS Online for significantly less - $2500 for 1,000,000 transactions (see the price sheet). The only difference is ESRI customer service provides you with a Bing Maps account and you can purchase transactions in smaller blocks (100,000). In your application you still work with Bing services directly. We'll see what happens moving forward, but for now ESRI customers appear to have some options when buying into Bing Maps.
I was directed to the voice mail of someone on the sales staff. His voice mail greeting provided his email address, so I decided to send him an email with a single question to get the ball rolling. Literally 7 minutes later I got a response… I was impressed. He needed more information, so I provided it and waited for a response. The following day I sent an email asking for an update and he called me within 5 minutes. Evidently he called my main work number and made his way to my desk… quick, resourceful… again I was impressed. After a lengthy conversation, a few interesting details about the licensing and cost of Bing Maps became apparent. Let’s start with the first question:
After the 90-day evaluation period, do I have to purchase a license to continue using Bing Maps imagery, geocode, and route services?
No, but the use case is very limited. You can continue to use Bing Maps staging services beyond the 90-day evaluation period if the application is:
1) available publicly, on the Internet, without restriction
2) completely non-commercial, meaning you make no money on its use, directly or indirectly
Note you still have to abide by the limits defined for the 90-day evaluation. So this pretty much covers soccer moms trying to organize team events on a map or allows your friendly fantasy football commissioner to show folks how to get to his house for the draft. Granted the Bing Maps imagery services will still have “Staging” plastered on each tile, so the map may not be very pleasing. Outside of this, all other scenarios require a license. This includes all internal applications (commercial or non-commercial, Web or desktop), all commercial applications, and all government applications. Logically this leads to the next question…
How much is a license to use Bing Maps?
Short answer…the standard package is $8000 for 1,000,000 transactions. This is the minimum to get started. The transactions sit a pool for use with all Bing services: imagery, geocode, routing, search, etc. So…
What is considered a transaction?
It depends on the service. The best place I’ve found to get detailed information on this is the transaction report description for Bing Maps. In general, use the following as a guide:
8 map tiles = 1 map transaction
1 geocode = 1 transaction
1 route = 1 transaction
In the end, I was both impressed and satisfied with the responsive Bing Maps customer service. The guy I spoke with was clear, concise and real; he knew the technical details and presented it well. I’m definitely more comfortable referring folks to Bing Maps now that I know first hand what they’ll experience. I still find it interesting that if you are using a licensed ArcGIS product or API you can purchase access to Bing Maps through ArcGIS Online for significantly less - $2500 for 1,000,000 transactions (see the price sheet). The only difference is ESRI customer service provides you with a Bing Maps account and you can purchase transactions in smaller blocks (100,000). In your application you still work with Bing services directly. We'll see what happens moving forward, but for now ESRI customers appear to have some options when buying into Bing Maps.
Friday, August 14, 2009
ArcGIS Silverlight/WPF API and ESRI MapIt blogs up and running
The ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF and ESRI MapIt, two new products in the ESRI suite, were released during the 2009 Users Conference in early July. Now, each has it's own blog hosted by ESRI.
Silverlight/WPF Blog: http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/silverlightwpf/
ESRI MapIt Blog: http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/mapit/
Both are available their respective resource centers as well (Silverlight/WPF, MapIt).
I'm the lead product engineer for both products, so I've been busy working with a group of extremely talented developers at ESRI to build and get them out the door. The ESRI blogs should provide you with some great information about both products... good times ahead for sure.
Silverlight/WPF Blog: http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/silverlightwpf/
ESRI MapIt Blog: http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/mapit/
Both are available their respective resource centers as well (Silverlight/WPF, MapIt).
I'm the lead product engineer for both products, so I've been busy working with a group of extremely talented developers at ESRI to build and get them out the door. The ESRI blogs should provide you with some great information about both products... good times ahead for sure.
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