Customisation - GIS and Mapping - Lecture Slides, Slides of Geology

Download Customisation - GIS and Mapping - Lecture Slides and more Slides Geology in PDF only on Docsity! Customisation • The GUI in most GIS applications is sufficient for most needs. However, situations arise where you want either to: – Modify the interface, or – Add new functionality • We will focus on ArcGIS, but similar principles apply to other systems. Docsity.com GUI Changes • Modifying the interface can be achieved without any programming. • Basically involves adding, deleting or moving objects in the GUI using drag and drop operations. • The changes are initiated from the Tools | Customize menu. • We will look at examples in the practical class. Docsity.com External Programs • ArcObject functionality can also be incorporated into your own programs in an external environment. • Any COM-compliant or .NET-compliant high level programming language, such as Visual Basic, Visual C++ or Python may be used. • Programs require a licence. Docsity.com Python • Python is arguably the language of choice. • It is an interpreted high-level language – simple to learn, yet very versatile. • It is object-orientated, yet lends itself to procedural programming. • In the ArcGIS context it can be used both for scripting and writing standalone applications. • It is open source and available for free from the Internet. • ArcGIS 9.x comes with Python 2.5.1, but this is not compatible with Python 3.x. Docsity.com Visual Basic for Applications • We will use some VBA macros in the practical class, so it may be helpful to say something about VB. • A block of code that can perform a specific task is referred to as a procedure. A collection of procedures is known as a module and a collection of modules is referred to as a project. • Procedures may be private or public. A private procedure can only be called or used by another procedure in the same module; public procedures are available to procedures in other modules in the same project. Docsity.com