MarkLogic ArcGIS Pro Addin

This project aims to provide Esri's ArcGIS Pro the capability to access and search a MarkLogic database straight from within the desktop application. It is built using the .NET platform and the ArcGIS Pro SDK.

Prerequisites

The add-in requires the following to operate:

• A Koop server running the MarkLogic provider

The add-in relies on Koop to serve features and act as a proxy to the MarkLogic database backend. Please refer to the Working with the ArcGIS Pro add-in section for details on configuration and setup.

Installation

The add-in can be deployed to a Windows machine, virtual or otherwise, with an existing installation of ArcGIS Pro. It can be install for a single user or as shared for all users (more common).

Single User

To deploy the add-in for a single user:

• Download the zip file for the release you want to install (this would have been done by you or someone else when a release was created).
• Copy the archive to the destination machine and extract the files into a temporary directory.
• Open Windows Explorer, navigate to the directory, and double-click on the file MarkLogic.Esri.ArcGISPro.Addin.esriAddinX.
• The Esri ArcGIS Add-In Installation Utility prompt will appear to confirm the installation. Click Install Add-In.
• Open ArcGIS Pro. Confirm the add-in installation by looking for the Add-in ribbon tab containing the MarkLogic tab group.

Note: This process will overwrite an older version of the add-in if it exists.

Shared Use

The add-in can be deployed on a machine for multiple ArcGIS Pro users. This process installs the add-in to a location that makes the add-in files publicly accessible for all of the machine's users.

Part 1

To setup the home location of the add-in for all machine users:

• Download the zip file for the release you want to install (this would have been done by you or someone else when a release was created).
• Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your system disk (usually C:) and the directory path Users/Public/Public Documents.
• Create directories that follow the path ArcGIS/AddIns/arcgis-ml-addin.
• Copy the archive to the destination machine and extract the files into ArcGIS/AddIns/arcgis-ml-addin.

To update the add-in, simply download a new build, delete all files under ArcGIS/AddIns/arcgis-ml-addin, and extract the new files into the directory.

Part 2

To setup a machine user to use the add-in:

• Open ArcGIS Pro. In the main screen, select Project in the upper-left hand corner of the window.
• Select Add-In Manager then open the Options tab. Click on Add Folder... and select the Users/Public/Public Documents/ArcGIS folder.
• ArcGIS Pro may indicate the need to restart for the changes to take effect. If so, restart ArcGIS Pro.
• Go back to Add-In Manager and verify that the MarkLogic tab group is present in the Add-in ribbon tab.

MarkLogic Configuration

Koop relies on Geo Data Services for accessing data stored in MarkLogic. Additional configuration is required to enable it to work with the add-in. Refer to this page for more details on how the add-in interacts with Geo Data Services and the required changes to service descriptors.

Server Registration

You will need to register your Koop server before the add-in can connect, if you have not done so before.

• Open ArcGIS Pro. In the main screen, select Project in the upper-left hand corner of the window.
• Select Options and then the MarkLogic tab.
• Under Servers, click on Add....
• Fill up Name with a description or name of your server, e.g. "My Koop Server".
• Fill up Host and Port with your Koop server's host and port. Check Use SSL if you have it enabled.
• Press OK to add your server to the list, and OK again to save your settings.
• Head back to your project and open the MarkLogic Search dock pane. Your server should now be listed under Connect to a server.

Connecting to a server

You must use your MarkLogic user credentials when prompted to login.

Development

Follow these instructions if you want to develop new capabilities for the add-in.

Dependencies

This solution has the following external dependencies:

• ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET
• Json.NET
• .NET Framework 4.6.1

Download and install Visual Studio 2019 (Community or higher edition). Ensure that at least the .NET desktop development workload is selected when choosing your installation configuration.

Install both ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET Visual Studio Extensions by following the instructions here.

Building the Project

via Visual Studio

Open the arcgis-ml-addin.sln solution file in Visual Studio.

Under the Build menu, select Rebuild Solution.

Note: The ArcGIS Pro SDK assembly references persist themselves as absolute paths in the .csproj project file. If you encounter unresolved assembly reference errors when building, this can be remedied by taking the following steps:

• In Solution Explorer, find and right-click on the MarkLogicAddIn project file.
• Select Pro Fix References. This will update the project file with the correct local paths.
• Rebuild the solution.

Testing it out

To use the add-in you must have a valid installation of ArcGIS Pro of at least version 2.4.

Building the solution automatically registers the add-in on your local ArcGIS Pro application.

You can run ArcGIS Pro normally or start it via debugging Debug -> Start Debugging or pressing F5 in Visual Studio.

Create a new project in ArcGIS Pro. If the project has no map, add a new map.

Open the Add-In ribbon tab located at the top of the application and click on Search. This will open a new dock pane called MarkLogic Search (to the right by default).

Enter a query in the search box, for example ISIS or ISIL.

The add-in will connect to MarkLogic (proxied through Koop) and will display the points from the search on the map. If this is the first time the add-in will establish a connection, it will prompt the user for credentials.

Type in a layer name under Save to New Layer and press Save. This will save the recently search results into a feature layer.

Release

Build the solution using the Release configuration.

Notes on Debugging

Sometimes you wish to inspect the HTTP requests the add-in makes while debugging. Web debugging proxy tools like Telerik Fiddler are useful in this situation, but won't always work with .NET apps (read here) without making application or machine-level configuration changes. This usually happens if the app is executed using an account different from the current user, which applies to the add-in. Regardless of other settings, .NET will generally bypass proxies if the URL has localhost.

To enable the web proxy to intercept the add-in's requests, the best workaround (with least system impact) is to use your local computer's name in lieu of localhost as host when registering your MarkLogic app server in the add-in.