Beginning ArcGIS for Desktop Development using .NET

Pouria Amirian holds a Ph.D. of Geospatial Information Systems (GIS). Dr. Amirian is a developer and GIS/IT lecturer with extensive experience developing and deploying small to large-scale Geospatial Information Systems.Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that guides you through all the techniques involved.

• INTRODUCTION xxi PART I: THE BASICSCHAPTER 1: WHY GEOSPATIAL IS SPECIAL 3A Tour of Geospatial Data 4Why Geospatial Is Special 8Various Kinds of GIS Software 10Server GIS 11Desktop GIS 13Developer GIS 17Mobile GIS 18Geospatial Data Models and Storage 19Raster 19Vector 20Geospatial Data as Text or Binary File 20Geospatial Data in Georelational Models 21Geospatial Data Inside Spatial DBMS 21Geospatial Data in XML Structures 23Esri Geodatabase 30Personal Geodatabase 30File Geodatabase 30ArcSDE Geodatabase 31Summary 32CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION TO ARCGIS FOR DESKTOP APPLICATIONS CUSTOMIZATION 35Four Ways to Customize ArcGIS for Desktop 36Customizing the User Interface 37Scripting 41Desktop Add-Ins 48ArcObjects SDK 55Summary 59PART II: .NET PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALSCHAPTER 3: .NET PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS, PART I 63The .NET Framework 63The C# Language 64A Brief History of C# 64Basic Concepts 65Variables and Data Types 66Nullable Data Types 71Operations on Variables 71Arrays 75Decision-Making 76Iteration 78Object Manipulation 81Data Type Conversion 83Enumerations 85Methods 89Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming in C# 93Object-Oriented Programming in Action 94Defi ning Properties 96Defi ning Methods 98Defi ning Constructors 98Summary 100CHAPTER 4: .NET PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS, PART II 103Overview of Object-Oriented Programming Concepts 104Abstraction 104Encapsulation 104Inheritance 105Polymorphism 106Reference Types and Value Types 108Assignment Operations 108Comparison Operations 109Passing Parameters between Method Calls 109Brief Explanation of All .NET Types 111Namespaces and Assemblies 112Debugging Using Visual Studio 113Structured Exception Handling 117Casting Objects 120Aggregation Using Collections 121The ArrayList 122Generics 123Reading and Writing Files 123Summary 135PART III: ARCOBJECTS PROGRAMMINGCHAPTER 5: UNDERSTANDING ARCOBJECTS OBJECT MODEL DIAGRAMS 139What Is ArcObjects? 140Interface-Based Programming in Brief 140Understanding Object Model Diagrams 144Types of Classes in ArcObjects 145Relationships between Classes 147Members of Interfaces 149Interface Inheritance 151Wormhole 153Additional Tips for Using Object Model Diagrams 153Where to Start with ArcObjects 155How to Find an Associated Member 156Summary 163CHAPTER 6: ACCESSING MAPS AND LAYERS 165Introduction to Maps and Layers In ArcObjects 165General Properties of All Layers 175Working with FeatureLayers 179Working with RasterLayers 183Adding an Existing *.lyr File to a Map 184Adding *.lyr Files Using GxDialog 186Saving *.lyr and *.mxd Files 191Summary 194CHAPTER 7: WORKING WITH TABLES AND FEATURECLASSES 197Accessing Tables and FeatureClasses 197Adding and Deleting Fields 204Adding Existing FeatureClasses, Tables, and Rasters to a Map 207Deleting an Existing FeatureDataset, FeatureClass, Table, or Raster 215Creating Tables and Rows 215Summary 225CHAPTER 8: SUBSETS OF RECORDS 227Using Object Model Diagrams for Selecting Features and Rows 228Working with Existing Selections 229Selecting Rows and Features 233Accessing a Subset of Records 237Simple Statistics of Features 245Some Important Points about Using Cursors 251Displaying Subsets of Geospatial Data 254Summary 255CHAPTER 9: CONSTRUCTING AND USING THE GEOMETRY OF FEATURES 257Object Model Diagram for the Geometry of Features and Graphics 258Displaying Geometries on the Screen 260Creating and Drawing Points 261Creating and Drawing Multipoints 264Creating and Drawing Polylines 268Creating and Drawing Polygons 272Creating a New Feature and Editingan Existing Feature’s Geometry 276Working with Spatial Operators 281Examining Spatial Relationships 281Common Geoprocessing Operations 284Determining the Nearest Points and Distance 287Length, Area, Centroid, and Envelope of Geometries 292Summary 293CHAPTER 10: RENDERING GEOSPATIAL DATA AND USING HYPERLINKS AND MAPTIPS 295Geospatial Data Display 296Color and ColorRamp Classes 296Symbols 298Renderers for Vector and Raster Geospatial Data 300Going beyond Simple Display 318Simple and Advanced MapTips 319Hyperlinks 321Summary 324CHAPTER 11: LABELING, EXPORTING ACTIVEVIEW, AND WORKING WITH ELEMENTS 327Labeling 328Labeling with the Default Labeling Engine 329Labeling with the Maplex Labeling Engine 334Exporting the ActiveView 336Working with Elements 346Adding GraphicElements 348Adding FrameElements 352Summary 361CHAPTER 12: GEOPROCESSING WITH TOOLS AND MODELS 365ArcObjects and the Geoprocessing Framework 365Running Geoprocessing Tools 366Running Custom Tools 375Opening a Tool’s Dialog Box in Code 384Geoprocessing in the Background 389Bach Processing 397Can I Manage the Execution of Geoprocessing Tools? 399Summary 400CHAPTER 13: FEATURE DATA MANAGEMENT 403Use of GUID in ArcObjects 404Working with the Geodatabase Model 406Creating Geodatabases 407Creating FeatureDatasets and FeatureClasses 408Working with Features 418Creating New Features 418Modifying Existing Features 422Summary 426CHAPTER 14: ADVANCED TOPICS IN ARCOBJECTS PROGRAMMING AND DEPLOYMENT 429Sharing State and Functionality between Components 430Event Handling in ArcObjects 432Application Extension 435Add-In Deployment 450Preparing for Release 450Add-In File Structure 452Distributing and Installing an Add-In 453Custom Component Deployment 456Creating an Installer for Custom Component 459Summary 465APPENDIX: ANSWERS TO CHAPTER EXERCISES 467INDEX 479