Getting Technical - March 2020
What free GIS resources are available to support your organization’s COVID-19 response? How can you prepare for the next major ArcGIS Online security advancement now? How can you customize the ArcGIS Enterprise App Launcher? Find out these and more in March’s Getting Technical blog post.
COVID-19 Resources
This GIS Hub is provided by Esri Canada to share information about the coronavirus pandemic. Get maps, apps, data and other resources that aid with monitoring and analyzing the outbreak across Canada and around the world and increase overall preparedness to respond to COVID-19.
FAQ: Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis with Free ArcGIS Hub Resources
How do I mobilize spatial data fast to help my organization communicate about our ongoing COVID-19 response efforts? What free tools is Esri Canada providing to help? How do I jumpstart my response today? In this blog post, you’ll find the answers to these and related questions to help you deploy your response now.
Don’t Get Bitten by GhostCat Tomcat Vulnerability
If you deploy Apache’s Tomcat separately to support your ArcGIS platform deployment, please take two minutes to read this summary concerning a critical vulnerability spanning 13 years of Tomcat versions using the default install. While Esri embeds Tomcat within some of its products, we disable the Apache JServ Protocol (AJP) connector, so deploying our products does not expose you to the GhostCat vulnerability.
Prepare for the Next Major ArcGIS Online Security Advancement Now
While all ArcGIS Online organizations established after September 2018 only allow HTTPS communication (encrypted), we still have many pre-existing organizations who have chosen not to utilize HTTPS only for their web services. If your ArcGIS Online organization is already utilizing HTTPS and you don’t have any external systems making requests to HTTP-based services, then this change will be a non-event for you. For customers who do not yet enforce HTTPS, please begin preparing now for when ArcGIS Online enforces HTTPS Only for all organizations with the March 2020 update of ArcGIS Online. This change is being made to improve ArcGIS Online web security communication and to meet security requirements mandated by customers, such as site-wide enforcement of HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). Visit Trust ArcGIS site to access the “ArcGIS Online Security Advisor” tool (top right corner of web page) which includes a check for HTTP references in an ArcGIS Online subscription. Please run this tool against your ArcGIS Online Organization. The ArcGIS Online setting of allowing access to the organization through HTTPS only is not linked to ArcGIS Hub at this time. Check here for details on how to set a Hub site to HTTPS.
ArcGIS Pro & cloning Python environments; common issues and resolutions
With the release of ArcGIS Pro 2.2, any modification to the Python environment used by ArcGIS Pro requires that the default environment be cloned, as that environment is read-only and cannot be modified. When cloning the default environment within the Python Package Manager inside of ArcGIS Pro, you may experience problems. This blog post covers those most common problems and suggests potential workarounds to those problems.
FAQ: How can your GIS department respond to COVID-19?
A staggering wealth of geospatial information has emerged regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. Dashboards, near real-time services and GitHub repositories have built the foundation for an extraordinarily transparent response effort. Using ArcGIS Business Analyst, this infographic specific to COVID-19 response can quickly be generated for any community.
Hot tip: Customizing the ArcGIS Enterprise App Launcher
Want to find your favourite apps with fewer clicks? With a few easy steps, your frequently used web applications such as: Survey123 for ArcGIS, out-of-the-box web apps and custom applications will be at your users’ fingertips. The App Launcher for ArcGIS Enterprise is a painless and convenient way to open the various web apps available through your ArcGIS Enterprise portal.
Video: Coronavirus Response – Getting Started with the Solution Offering
Follow @EsriCanada on Twitter and check out more technical videos using the hashtag #HowtoArcGIS
Announcements
Update to ArcGIS Enterprise Product Lifecycle
Huff Model Calibration with ArcGIS Business Analyst Pro
Virtualization of ArcGIS from the Cloud and On-Premise platforms to support Higher Education
Dev Summit 2020: Use raster analytics and the Python API to monitor coral bleaching
PerfQAnalyzer: New 10.8/10.8.x Version (Build 173) Available for Download
Introducing ArcGIS Hub Python API for Sites
Introducing the Upcoming ArcGIS Dashboards Beta
What’s new in App Templates for AppStudio 4.2
Measure Cannibalization with ArcGIS Business Analyst Pro
Whats new in ArcGIS QuickCapture (March 2020)
ArcGIS Experience Builder Developer Edition Final Release
Target Marketing with ArcGIS Business Analyst Pro
Introducing ArcGIS Dashboards: A Solution for Everyone
What's New in ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8: Portal Administration
What’s New in AppStudio for ArcGIS 4.2 (February 2020)
What's new for ArcGIS Enterprise Sites at 10.8
What's New in ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8
ArcGIS Business Analyst Pro Blog Series - Evaluate Sites
Add your comments to ArcGIS Blog
View more announcements in the ArcGIS Blog | My Esri Blog on GeoNet
Service Packs, Patches & User Resources
Location Referencing 10.8 Issues Addressed
This announcement contains the list of issues addressed with the release of Pro 2.5, Desktop 10.8 and Server 10.8 specific to ArcGIS Pipeline Referencing and Roads and Highways.
ArcGIS 10.8 Issues Addressed List
This page contains the list of issues addressed in ArcGIS 10.8.
ArcGIS (Desktop, Engine, Server) 10.7.1 Spatial Analyst Patch
This patch addresses quality and performance issues with ArcGIS 10.7.1 Spatial Analyst extension in the Hydrology and Distance toolsets.
Esri Maps for Salesforce Documentation
Esri Maps for Salesforce works directly with your organization's ArcGIS subscription to allow you to access geographic content to enhance your business data. Your subscription includes a number of service credits, which are the currency of ArcGIS, and are used in exchange for most of the ArcGIS services used within your organization.
ArcGIS GeoEnrichment Server Upgrade Preparation Patch
This patch rebuilds indexes for data installed to GeoEnrichment Server to prepare it to be compatible with ArcGIS Enterprise version 10.8 and future versions. This patch is required for 10.7 and 10.7.1 and must be installed prior to upgrading GeoEnrichment Server to the next version.
Web Watch –White Papers, Blogs and Useful Resources
Story map: Age and Social Vulnerability in the Context of Coronavirus
This story map explores US populations that may experience a punctuated need for healthcare in the spring of 2020.
How to Launch a Coronavirus Response Website Today
In the last few weeks, organizations around the world have started using ArcGIS Hub to share information and resources about COVID-19 with their communities. Examples include the Missouri Coronavirus GeoHub, State of Maryland, the City of Durham and Durham County, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and the Indonesian GIS portal for Coronavirus.
To help even more organizations share critical updates about local response efforts, the Coronavirus Response template from ArcGIS Hub is now available to all ArcGIS Online customers.
Coronavirus Downloadable Malware Map App Clarification
Updated March 13, 2020 – An increasing number of articles have been published on the Internet with unclear and sometimes misleading information concerning one of the primary dashboards for awareness concerning the spread of the Coronavirus. To be clear, the online map posted by Johns Hopkins University at https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html does NOT contain any malware (and NEVER contained malware). This popular dashboard web application is hosted by Esri as part of our ArcGIS Online offering.
App of the Month: Open Data Prince George
March’s App of the Month – Open Data Prince George – is a hub site that the City has built to share all its data in one location. Not only does it provide access to open data, it also showcases maps and apps relevant to the public and dashboards monitoring the progress of municipal projects and events that are occurring in the city.
Announcing the New ArcGIS Pro Virtualization White Paper
ArcGIS Pro in Virtualized environments is easy to implement on various platforms, both on-premise, and from Cloud Hosting venders. These options continue to expand and offer new solutions as the technology evolves. Many solutions are available backed by the major virtualization vendors such as VMWare and Citrix, cloud providers Amazon and Microsoft, and the GPU vendors NVIDIA and AMD.
Critical Microsoft Windows Cryptographic Vulnerabilities and Esri Products
The National Security Agency (NSA) has taken the unusual step of notifying Microsoft about a significant vulnerability (CVE-2020-0601) which Microsoft released a patch for in January. As part of our FedRAMP authorization for ArcGIS Online, we pay close attention to Binding Operational Directives and Emergency Directives issued by the Department of Homeland Security. Due to the publicity of the concern, we have had several customers reach out to us to understand if our offerings are vulnerable, resulting in us posting this summary.
Training
System Architecture Design Strategies
This course covers GIS system architecture design strategies and infrastructure architecture patterns that support successful enterprise operations. Learn comprehensive guidelines for planning and selecting the system solution to meet your organization's needs. This course also covers performance validation and system capacity planning techniques for enterprise GIS deployments.
Upcoming Webinars
The Community Map of Canada and the Living Atlas of Canada – Unlocking a Treasure Chest of Data
Mar. 24, 2020
How to Unify Your Transportation Management Data for Powerful Insights
Mar. 26, 2020
The Fantastic Four Apps: Which Builder is Best?
Apr. 30, 2020