This article was previously published on GeoChalkboard, and has been reproduced here with permission. GeoChalkboard is published by Geospatial Training Services who provide a range of geospatial web courses.

In the first article in our series on the ArcGIS Server API for Flex we covered some basic concepts including how to create maps and add layers. We covered both tiled and dynamic map service layers. In this brief article you will learn how to apply a definition expression to your dynamic map service layer to restrict the features displayed from a layer. For instance, in the figure below we are plotting only those counties that suffered a population loss from 2000 to 2007.

This article was previously published on GeoChalkboard, and has been reproduced here with permission. GeoChalkboard is published by Geospatial Training Services who provide a range of geospatial web courses.

Today we are beginning a new series of posts on the ArcGIS Server API for Flex. The ArcGIS API for Flex allows the creation of Rich Internet applications on top of ArcGIS Server, and is based on the free Adobe Flex framework. The Flex framework is a client-side technology that is rendered by Flash Player 9 and above, or by Adobe AIR.

The term Rich Internet Applications or RIAs has become synonymous with Web 2.0 applications. But what are Rich Internet Applications? RIAs provide desktop functionality in a web application. They are engaging, interactive, and expressive applications with easy to use interfaces. RIA provide increased productivity to end users. There is no waiting for full-page reloading after user actions. Instead, RIAs provide instant feedback to the user and are responsive to their actions. In GIS terms, RIA applications provide the ability to create attractive visualizations of geographic analysis, and the ability to interact with the data.

Previously I have demonstrated how to use Microsoft Research's MapCruncher tool to create map tiles from custom bitmaps for Bing Maps (nee Virtual Earth). That particular example used an ASTER satellite image for the EcoMapCostaRica.com project, and hosted the map tiles on Amazon's S3 service with delivery using Amazon Cloudfront. Although MapCruncher was intended for use with Bing Maps, the resulting tiles can be used for custom applications and with map APIs from competing companies. This article shows you how to use MapCruncher tiles with Google Maps.