PyDev and Installing New Libraries/Modules

If you use PyDev to create python scripts, and you add new libraries to your development system, you will need to update the interpreter.

To do this do the following:
1) Click on Project -> Properties
2) Select PyDev - Interpreter/ Grammar
3) Under the interpreter combo box, click on the text that says: "Click here to configure an interpreter not listed."
4) Press Apply -> It will take a couple of minutes to look through your PythonPaths -> Press Ok
5) Begin Coding

Enjoy

MVVM for Silverlight

MV-VM is a design pattern for Silverlight and WPF.  I have recently ventured into this domain, and I found a good resource to reference:
http://viewmodelsupport.codeplex.com/
Check it out and Post you own links in the comments to help other with MVVM design patterns!

Enjoy

More on Generating Excel and Word with Python

The best way to figure out what you want to do with excel and word in python is to look at the VBA object model.  Find the information here:
VBA Samples: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee692929.aspx
Excel: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa269683(v=office.10).aspx
Word: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa279125(v=office.10).aspx
 
Enjoy

MS Word and Python - Helpful links

Recently I was asked to develop a geoprocessing script that creates a MS Word Doc.  Here were some links that helped me out:
http://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2010/07/16/python-and-microsoft-office-using-pywin32/
http://libjoe.blogspot.com/2009/07/embedding-images-in-word-pythoncvb.html
http://win32com.goermezer.de/content/category/7/86/192/
http://code.activestate.com/recipes/279003/
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread129924.html

This is for excel:
http://www.python-excel.org/


Enjoy Everyone!

Web ADFs Will be Deprecated

The future of the Web AdfDF has been written on the wall.  It shall be put to rest after version 10 of ArcGIS Server.  Also, many of the new features like time awareness and feature service usage will not be supported at 10.

Check it out here.

Question for readers

I want to hear from you, leave a comment answering this question:

How do you envision GIS being used with SharePoint?

Thanks

Spatial Web Parts with Silverlight in SharePoint 2010

In SharePoint 2010 (SP2010) you can create a silverlight web part pretty easy by just creating a custom control, then deploy the XAP file to the clientbin folder.  I should note that the pre-canned silverlight web part that I am using does not allow for DCOM bridges to be used, so to communicate between multiple silverlight web parts you would have to the Messaging API, which is quite easy, but that's for another day.

Getting Started, Open Visual Studios 2010, and create an empty SharePoint Project and a Silverlight Application.  For the Silverlight Application project ensure that the "Host the Silverlight Application in the new Web Site" is unchecked.

Now we are cooking with fire, and we can create our Silverlight application.  For this example, I will just add a map and one layer to the project. 

The next step is to place the XAP file in a location that can be used by SharePoint.  Right click on the Silverlight Application we just created and select Properties.  Click on the build tab and change the output path to: "..\..\..\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\ClientBin\".  Remove the quotes when you put this into the Output Path.

Save and compile the project.  If you get any errors, it's most likely you need to reference the proper ESRI silverlight libaries.
The next step is to configure the SharePoint Project. Add a new item to the SharePoint project and select Module. Double click on the Elements.xml file.

Configure the elements file to match the above image, you need to change the path of the Url to "_layouts/clientsbin/ XAPFILENAME.XAP" and change the Path from the textfile name to the XAP file name.

Click on the module and select the Project Output Refer -> Add a member -> Choose the Silverlight Application name -> in the Deployment Type Select ElementFile -> press OK
Select Build From main toolbar -> Configuration Manager -> Uncheck all the builds except for the SharePoint Project Name and make sure the SharePoint Project has deploy checked.

Save the Project and deploy to SharePoint. 

Open your SharePoint site -> Edit Page -> Add Silverlight Web Part -> enter in the text box the following "_layouts/clientbin/XAPFILENAME.XAP".  You should now see your web part.