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What's new

Version 1.3

November 2009

ArcGIS API for Flex 1.3 release notes

• The Short Summary:
• Support for Flex SDK 3.4. The older 3.0 thru 3.3 are still supported.
• More styling options for InfoContainer (used by InfoWindow and InfoSymbol).
• Well-known ID 102100 (WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere) is now a supported projection for Web Mercator-based overlays (including Bing Maps). It is also used in WebMercatorUtil for projecting coordinates between geographic and Web Mercator.
• Miscellaneous API improvements and bug fixes.
• Changes:
• The parameters when creating a PictureFillSymbol have changed.
• Outline is now the default property of the PictureFillSymbol.
• The MapImage property on the GeoprocessorEvent has been removed since it was never used.
• The Extent.intersects() method now accepts any geometry as argument (not just another extent).
• The TRUE_SHAPE_WITH_MEASURE constant on the NAOutputLine has been removed since it is not supported on the server.
• For line symbols, non-solid styles are now faster than before (though solid lines are still faster than non-solid).
• It's now possible to pan and use rubberband zoom even while draw toolbar is active.
• The Web Mercator WKID has changed from 102113 (WGS_1984_Web_Mercator) to 102100 "WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere" for VETiledLayer and WebMercatorUtil.
• New event class:
• InfoPlacementEvent to help with the placement of InfoWindow and InfoSymbols.
• New methods:
• convertToJSON in FeatureSet to convert a FeatureSet into JSON.
• convertFromJSON in FeatureSet to create a FeatureSet from JSON.
• update in MapPoint.
• getPoint and setPoint in Multipoint.
• contains, insertPoint, removePoint and setPoint in Polygon.
• insertPoint, removePoint and setPoint in Polyline.
• New properties:
• minScale, maxScale and isInScaleRange on Layer.
• panDuration and zoomDuration on Map. The default has been changed from 500 to 300 milliseconds for faster panning and zooming.
• infoWindowContent on Map allows you to specify the info window content inline.
• xscale and yscale on PictureFillSymbol.
• New styles:
• borderAlpha, borderColor, borderThickness, infoPlacementMode, shadowAlpha, shadowAngle, shadowColor and shadowDistance on InfoContainer.
• New and updated samples:
• Select and zoom - shows how to zoom to a feature and makes sure the whole feature is inside the map extent.
• Creating a WMS Layer - shows how to extend the DynamicMapServiceLayer to support a WMS Map Service.
• Accessing Custom Tiles - shows how to extend the TiledMapServiceLayer to support tiles created using 9.2 ArcGIS Server (which has no REST support).
• Create a Surface Profile using execute() for this synchronous Geoprocessor task.
• Show map extent and current mouse coordinates.
• Use unique value renderers to render drivetime polygons based on an attribute.
• Create equal interval class break renderers.
• Bug fixes:
• RouteTask now sends correct accumulateAttributes, impedanceAttribute, restrictionAttributes and directionsTimeAttribute values.
• ArcIMSLayer no longer throws runtime errors for non-existing services.
• GraphicUtil.getGraphicsExtent() no longer updates the extent of the first graphic with the outputExtent.
• PictureMarkerSymbol now resizes correctly even if width and/or height is set before setting the source.

Generally all versions of ArcGIS API for Flex will work with any version of ArcGIS Server 9.3 and above. However, for certain functionality you need to use specific versions. For example, for routing, use ArcGIS API for Flex 1.2 (or later) and ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 (or later). See the API Reference for more details.

May 2009

ArcGIS API for Flex 1.2 release notes

• New features:
• Routing using ArcGIS Server (requires ArcGIS Server 9.3.1).
• RouteTask - get routes (driving directions) from ArcGIS Server.
• Use RouteParameters for inputs.
• NAUTurn is used to set the type of u-turn restriction (RouteParameters.restrictUTurns) for use in a RouteTask.
• NAOutputLine is used to set the type of output line (RouteParameters.outputLines) for use in a RouteTask. For example, you can get a detailed polyline back or just a straight (as the crow flies) line.
• DataLayer can be used as an input for input for RouteParameters.stops or RouteParameters.barriers.
• The result comes back as a RouteSolveResult which is an array of RouteResult. In most cases, you will only get back one RouteResult, but if you are doing batch routing you will get back muliple RouteResult's.
• DirectionsFeatureSet is part of the returned RouteResult.
• RouteEvent
• Bing Maps (formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth) mapping:
• Use VETiledLayer to to display the Bing Maps from Microsoft. Requires Bing Services authentication.
• Bing Maps (formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth) geocoding:
• VEGeocoder is the "Locator" from Bing Maps. Requires Bing Services authentication.
• VEGeocodeResult is the result from a VEGeocoder and includes displayName, location, VEAddress "address object" and other properties.
• VEGeocoderEvent represents event objects that are specific to VEGeocoder.
• Renderers - use instead of a custom SymbolFunction to easily work with class breaks and unique values for thematic mapping etc.
• Renderer is the base class for all renderers - use SimpleRenderer, ClassBreaksRenderer or UniqueValueRenderer to render graphics on a GraphicsLayer. Note that all features needs to be of the same basic type, either points, lines or polygons.
• Use ClassBreaksRenderer to symbolize each graphic based on the value of some numeric attribute. Set up each range using ClassBreakInfo.
• Use SimpleRenderer to symbolize all graphics with the same symbol.
• Use UniqueValueRenderer to symbolizes groups of graphics that have matching attributes. Set up each type using UniqueValueInfo.
• Utils - useful utility classes.
• GraphicUtil.getGraphicsExtent() returns the extent for an array of graphics.
• WebMercatorUtil projects coordinates between 4326 (lat/long returned by Bing Maps geocoding) and 102113 (Web Mercator - used by Bing Maps tiled layer).
• New properties:
• textAttribute on TextSymbol. Automatically have the TextSymbol.text use any data attribute on your graphic.
• textFunction on TextSymbol. Does similar magic for TextSymbol.text that symbolFunction does for graphic.symbol.
• New styles:
• length and tickSpacing on NavigationSlider for more styling possibilities of this slider.
• New samples:
• Routing - basic routing example.
• Routing - using barriers to avoid certain locations.
• Route Directions - showing turn-by-turn driving directions.
• Bing Maps - using Bing Maps as a map layer.
• Bing Maps geocoder - showing Bing Maps geocoding. This sample shows the geocode results on a Bing Maps base map, but you could just as pick another basemap.
• Using textAttribute on TextSymbol - textAttribute is a new feature that makes it wasy to display graphic attribute as TextSymbols.
• Zoom and always show feature.
• Using Renderers (ClassBreaksRenderer) to easily change symbols based on the graphic attributes.
• Identify - more of a classic ArcMap "identify" showing all the attributes of the identified feature.
• Updated samples:
• Using UniqueValueRenderer to render different polygons.
• Changes:
• Default TextSymbol color is now black (as the documentation always claimed).
• Changed default value of Navigation toolbar's isFirstExtent to true.
• Changed constructors for SimpleMarkerSymbol and PictureMarkerSymbol- 'xoffset', 'yoffset' and 'angle' were added to the constructor after 'height'. For SimpleMarkerSymbol this means that they go in front of the 'outline' parameter. If you use 'outline' parameter in your ActionScript constructor for SimpleMarkerSymbol, you will need to adjust your code.
• TileLayer now dispatch loadError when the service is a dynamic service. In earlier version, only the developer would get this error, but it wasn't possible to get it programmatically.
• Default width and height for PictureFillSymbol is now 0x0, which is consistent with PictureMarkerSymbol.
• Bug fixes:
• numGraphics (on GraphicsLayer) now working correctly (worked in 1.0, but was broken in 1.1).
• Draw toolbar now supports all symbols, not just SimpleMarkerSymbol, SimpleLineSymbol and SimpleFillSymbol.
• Changing attributes on a graphic will invalidate it, and thus make it symbol be updated.
• mapClick events are no longer thrown when clicking inside an infoContainer.
• Graphic no longer gets redrawn while panning (which caused some graphics to be drawn in the wrong place). This also slightly improves graphic performance.
• The rotation of picturemarkersymbol and textsymbol is now working correct (no need for extra offsets).
• The backwarddiagonal fillsymbol is fixed to not be forward.
• Tile layer sometimes showed old content when switching between not visible and visible.

January 2009

ArcGIS API for Flex 1.1 release notes

• Changes:
• The intersects() method on Extent returns a boolean, instead of the intersecting extent. The new method intersection() returns an extent.
• Keyboard navigation is supported even when the toolbars are active.
• New class:
• MapMouseEvent supports easier click-on-map functionality without having to check whether the click is a pan, or converting the global stage coordinates to a map point. The MapMouseEvent contains the MapPoint of the click location. Map has a matching mapClick event.
• New events:
• mapClick on Map fires when user clicks on the map.
• tilesUpdated on tiled layers, which fires when all the tiles have either been completed or have errored. This is also fired if no new tiles need to be loaded.
• New properties:
• fadeInFrameCount on TiledMapServiceLayer.
• extent on Geometry (and through inheritance also on MapPoint and Extent).
• layers on Map.
• map on Navigation.
• containerStyleName on InfoSymbol allows you to specify a non-default containerStyleName.
• New methods:
• addZoomInZoomOutComponents, dispatchZoomIn and dispatchZoomOut in Navigation class.
• changeHandler and extentChangeHandler in NavigationSlider to allow for more control when extending it.
• containsExtent in Extent to indicate whether one extent contains another extent.
• New styles:
• crosshairAlpha on Map to adjust the transparency of the cross hair.
• panSkinOffset on Map to adjust the offset of the pan buttons.
• lowerLeftRadius, lowerRightRadius, upperLeftRadius and upperRightRadius on InfoContainer.
• New samples:
• Extending Navigation creates a reverse zoom slider where moving the slider up zooms out, similar to maps.yahoo.com.
• Only show some scales
• The InfoSymbol sample has been replaced, and enhanced, with three separate samples: View basic InfoSymbols, InfoSymbol Styling and InfoSymbols with States
• How to show points with tooltips based on a query result. Also shows how to keep adding not-yet-added results as graphics as you zoom and pan.
• How to project an extent.
• How to read URL parameters from your Flex application.
• Getting better label placement using labelPoints() in GeometryService (new in ArcGIS Server 9.3 Service Pack 1).
• Checking spatial relationships using relation() in GeometryService (new in ArcGIS Server 9.3 Service Pack 1).

In addition, the following have been updated:

1. General updates to code hinting and using design view inside Flex Builder.
2. General updates to API Reference in Resource Center.
3. The name property on Layer is no longer overridden.
4. Map:
• The Map.addLayer() method takes an additional, optional second argument to set the layer index. The default is -1 which places the layer on top of existing layers.
• Map.scale is correct and consistent. It does not change when panning and returns the exact scale for LOD.
• Rubberband crosshair lines up with the rubberband corners.
• Tiles are properly garbage collected even in AIR.
• Logo can be turned off when connecting to ArcGISImageServiceLayer or GPResultImageLayer. Earlier this was only possible with dynamic and tiled map services.
• The smooth zoom works even if the tile server doesn't have a crossdomain file.
5. Controls:
• Navigation constructor is now empty. Use the new "map" property instead.
6. Geometry:
• Faster graphics. Improved performance of symbols means faster graphics.
• MapPoint.toString() message say it is a MapPoint, not Point.
• All geometries have extent. For single points like MapPoint and Multipoints with one point the extent is null.
7. Symbols:
• Point and line symbols are faster.
• Color and alpha can now be specified when styling non-solid SimpleFillSymbols, as was already possible with solid fills.
• Extent now supports, like polygons always did, all fill styles. Solid patterns always worked for both.
• CartographicLineSymbol.CAP_BUTT correctly ends lines with square end points.
• Empty composite symbols can be created.
• Drawing of polygons has been improved.
• The infoPlacement of InfoSymbol repositions itself when it starts to go out of view.
8. Tasks:
• Tasks supports returning tokens. All "task" methods now return mx.rpc.AsyncToken instead of void. No code changes are needed.
• BaseTask no longer catches errors un-related to this API. Developers are responsible for catching their own "errors".
• Multipoint features in responses from Find, Identify and Query are supported.
• The FindParameters "contains" default property has changed to "true". This is consistent with earlier documentation as well as with the ArcGIS JavaScript API.
• The IdentifyParameters "tolerance" property is optional. The default is two pixels. In version 1.0 this was a required parameter.
9. Toolbars:
• The activate method on both toolbars takes an additional, optional second argument, enableGraphicsLayerMouseEvents, which when enabled allows GraphicsLayer to listen for MouseEvents while toolbar is active. The default is not enabled. This is useful if you want tooltips on graphics to show while in "activate" mode.
• Incomplete graphics are removed when Draw is deactivated.
• The Draw drawStart event is fired correctly for polyline and polygon, even the first time around.
• The Navigation extentChange listener runs before all other listeners.

October 2008

If you have been using the beta version of this API, refer below for the changes.

New functionality since beta:

• New packages:
• infoClasses for styling and skinning of InfoWindow and InfoSymbol.
• navigationClasses for styling and skinning of ZoomSlider, NavigationMinusButton and NavigationPlusButton (see sample).
• New classes include:
• CompositeSymbol allows you to easily combine existing symbols, for example if you want a point that has multiple markers (see sample) or you want your line to have symbols for both the line and its nodes (see sample).
• GPDateUtil for easy parsing of geoprocessing dates.
• InfoPlacement replaces Anchor.
• ArcGISImageServiceLayer and ImageServiceParameters for connecting to ArcGIS Image Service.
• InfoContainer, InfoSymbolContainer, InfoWindowCloseButton and InfoWindowLabel replaces InfoTemplate.
• New method exportMapImage() added to ArcGISImageServiceLayer.
• New methods, removeAllLayers() and removeLayer(), that removes layers from a Map and matching layerRemove and layerRemoveAll events.
• New property, concurrency for BaseTask to handle the behavior of multiple requests at the same time.
• New property, disableClientCaching, on ArcGISDynamicMapServiceLayer, ArcGISImageServiceLayer and BaseTask, that if true prevents the request from being loaded from the browser's cache.
• New properties, autoMoveToTop and checkForMouseListeners, on Graphic.
• New property, map, added to all layers that provides a reference back to the Map the layer is in.
• New property, openHandCursorVisible, added to Map that when set to false does not use the open hand cursor.
• New property, lods, added to Map that allows developers to set custom zoomSlider levels for Tile and Dynamic layers.
• New property, units, to specify the units of the Map.
• New event, DrawStart, for the Draw toolbar.
• Extending symbols is now easier.
• Support for permalinks to specific samples. Simply click the "Direct link to sample" button and you can bookmark that specific sample, or copy the URL from the address bar.

In addition, the following have been updated:

1. Graphics now move to the top automatically when you mouse over them. Set autoMoveToTop on your graphics to false to prevent this.
2. Graphic now supports extent Geometry type
3. The Draw toolbar now returns a Graphic instead of Geometry. This makes it easier to send it as input to a task.
4. InfoWindow has been moved from com.esri.ags package to com.esri.ags.controls.
5. InfoWindow.title has been renamed to InfoWindow.label.
6. The casing of Map property rubberbandZoomEnabled (no longer rubberBandZoomEnabled) is now consistent with the rubberband properties for Map.
7. Anchor has been renamed to InfoPlacement, and moved from com.esri.ags package into com.esri.ags.controls.infoClasses. It now contains nine placements options instead of four.
8. InfoTemplate functionality (on Graphic) has been replaced with InfoWindowRenderer.
9. Query is no longer a child of QueryTask. This means that in mxml the Query tag needs to be outside of the QueryTask.
10. Names of Geometry constants have changed: GEOMETRY_ENVELOPE is now EXTENT, GEOMETRY_POINT is now MAPPOINT, GEOMETRY_MULTIPOINT is now MULTIPOINT, GEOMETRY_POLYGON is now POLYGON and GEOMETRY_POLYLINE is now POLYLINE.
11. Better support for using Flex components on top of the map component.
12. The default size of SimpleMarkerSymbol have been increased from 5 to 15.

The following items have been removed and/or deprecated:

• The refresh() method on Map has been removed. Instead call refresh() on the individual layers.