Maps with Esri ArcGIS

[Tony Gravagno]

Google Maps are great for browser-based applications but not for server-side solutions, static images, emailing, storage, etc. So after some research it looks like I might be using the ArcGIS API from Esri to create maps from database data, with polygons, lines, markers, and other artifacts. I was wondering if anyone here was familiar with this solution and could offer any comments?

To implement I intend to try a couple different methods depending on the APIs, performance etc. In short: D3 will provide a set of coordinates to a middle tier program, whether in BASIC or C# or PHP or Java, doesn't matter. That program will format the data for a web call. A call is made to Esri to retrieve "tiles" or a static image. Then (already done) BASIC is used to generate a PDF with PrintWizard, with text and data explaining the image, along with a simple reference to the image file. The result is a PDF with the map. Finally, the PDF gets emailed out (probably with NebulaMail).

So the only thing do do now is the map generation from the server. Any thoughts? Questions? Code to share?

Thanks!
T