7 replies to this topic

[david17tym]

hello all,

i'm trying to launch an mxd from a hyperlink i've created on a web page.

this web page acts as a very simple table of contents to navigate a dataset i'm supplying to clients on cd linking to tables, figures, text documents and (hopefully) mxds and pmfs.

i have no problems linking to word and acrobat and i have managed to launch a blank arcmap session, but i can't find a way to open a specific mxd.

i guess i could approach from another angle and use a pdf as the main table of contents viewer.

any help would be appreciated,

dave

[benbakelaar]

good question, some initial google and esri searches didn't turn anything up for me. i'm looking into this.

[Hans van der Maarel]

good question, some initial google and esri searches didn't turn anything up for me. i'm looking into this.

If I'm not mistaken, if a link to a file format not supported by the browser is clicked, the browser will ask the user what to do with it. This 'kinda' works in Firefox (depends on local settings, I believe).

[Charlie Frye]

ArcMap can be launched via the command prompt.

The trick is that if ArcGIS\bin is not in the $PATH environment variable, you'll need to know the full path to ArcMap.exe

Launch your command prompt and type:

c:\progra~1\arcgis\bin\arcmap.exe <full path to one of your map documents>.mxd

I can't remember for certain as it's been a while since I did something like this, but you may also need the cmd prefix in your call to the OS to launch ArcMap.

If you want the map to show in the browser, then the best you can do is use ArcReader which has a browser option and you'll have to use the Publisher extension to publish each .mxd into a .pmf.

[Adam Wilbert]

In my limited trials in similar situations, I've found that a simple hyperlink to the file itself is usually the best option. The browser will prompt the user to download or "open with..." but it seems to universally work, and choosing "open with" will open the file correctly in Arc. With other solutions, they may offer a more streamlined experience for some, but they force you to make several assumptions about your end user, including the install path to arc on their system, and in some cases the browser that they'll be using to view the HTML. IE sometimes throws several scary security warnings when linking to files from a CD based source, so watch out for that too. The same HTML source running off a CD, off a hard drive, and off the web can give three entirely different results.

[david17tym]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions,

I settled on Charlie's to link to pmfs from the browser to view the maps, and include the mxds for clients who want the extra functionality.

I agree with Adam's points too, hard coding paths to the executable and data is not really an option.

I did come across an interesting new (for me) development concerning GeoPDF format. It essentially combines ArcReader functionality within a PDF, I think it could prove useful in the future.

GeoPDF developer's website: http://www.terragotech.com

Cheers from an unseasonably frosty UK,

Dave

[benbakelaar]

GeoPDF is a great product, but it being priced at $1195 really annoys me. That certainly places it outside the realm of possibility for most non-profit use. I have already been producing layered PDFs from ArcGIS using Illustrator as a converter, but you still can't include the table data that way. I'm going to look into an open source solutions for this.

UPDATE: OK, I didn't realize that in addition to their exporting product, they have the "toolbar" which interacts with the GeoPDF file to display all the extra data. But still, $1000+ software irks me. But I can appreciate that making a toolbar interact with Adobe via a web browser requires a substantial amount of development work.

[bill3648]

We used GEOPDF and it is a great tool. ESRI PDF export has alot of bugs mainly with symbols, Geopdf fixes all those issues. The price isn't that bad, I think Avenza Map Publisher is overpriced.