The second CAST sponsored competition for #EASTcon22 is the Mapping App Competition.

The Mapping App Competition is open to any Web Mapping Application built within ArcGIS Online, including Story Maps, Configurable or Instant Apps, Web AppBuilder, or a Dashboard. EAST students and/or EAST project teams can submit multiple Mapping App Competition applications for 2022.

Submission DEADLINES for all EAST Conference competitions are 3pm CST Feb 8, 2022.

EAST students or an EAST lab project team can only submit one Go Map 22 project into our online reporting form for this Go Map 22 competition, located here: https://tinyurl.com/gomap22

A student or EAST project team must submit their final StoryMap by 3pm CST on February 8, 2022. Your final project submission should be in the form of a publicly visible StoryMap that clearly explains the project scope and community impact. It should also include maps, applications or other ArcGIS platform-related technologies that supported this community outreach or support effort.

The full details of the Go Map 22 competition or the Mapping App Competition can be reviewed on the #EASTcon22 Competitions page on the EAST Conference 2022 website. All EAST Conference Competitions are due by 3pm CST on Tuesday February 8, 2022.

Mimi Reagler said, “The GoMap Twenty-One map competition gave her a good relationship with the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies program at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.”

– The Sentinel-Record, April 5, 2021

“I want to stay in EAST. I would like to continue to use that relationship for future projects,” Reagler said.

John Anderson | The Sentinel-Record, April 5, 2021

The EAST Geospatial Support Team at CAST would like to thank all of our 2021 GoMap Twenty-One Competition participants. The response to this years ArcGIS activity competition was a pleasant surprise and there were many EAST programs and participants using their ArcGIS skills effectively and making positive impacts within their communities.

One way to celebrate Earth Day (today) is to review this REAL-TIME ArcGIS dashboard of important Environmental Health indicators of our planet! It leverages LIVE data feeds from the ArcGIS Living Atlas!

Esri has gathered near real-time information within the ArcGIS Living Atlas from many data-contributing partners such as: NOAA, UN Environment Programme, and the US Geological Survey to create this ArcGIS Living Atlas Indicators of the Planet. This ArcGIS application was launched in July 2020 and organizes an impressive collection of indices into a dashboard gallery of Environmental conditions for our planet. Earth Day 2021 is the perfect time to review these Earth Indicators and possibly plan activities to help mitigate these impacts. Simply planting a tree, or picking up litter in a local park could make a lasting difference!

ArcGIS Living Atlas Indicators of the Planet was developed using the ArcGIS Experience Builder and is in its Beta release while additional capabilities are being implemented. This Experience Builder template can be customized for your own topics of interest. All of the underlying layers, maps, and apps are available from this Content Group.

The ArcGIS Online Assistant – An ArcGIS online tool for managing ArcGIS content created by ArcGIS Online users.   Copy, Move, or Manage ArcGIS Online Items using a web browser.  – use this ArcGIS Swiss Army knife.

The ArcGIS Online Assistant – An ESRI web browser tool for managing AGOL content for all ArcGIS Online users.   Copy, Move, Manage ArcGIS Online Items using a web browser.  *Make sure you have the content owners’ username and passwords (for each organization) so that you can MOVE or COPY ArcGIS online content (maps/apps/surveys/feature services) from one organization to another. You can transfer content ownership, too!

1. Navigate to the ArcGIS Online Assistant website (use a Chrome or Firefox web browser.)

https://ago-assistant.esri.com

• Log in using the content owner’s username/password for each AGOL organization. *Don’t forget to specify your organization, it’s required for portal/enterprise accounts not managed by ArcGIS.com.

Click to download the step-by-step ArcGIS Online Assistant tutorial created by Brian Culpepper for EAST facilitators and students.

Each ArcGIS Enterprise organization address will be unique so your address will differ than this example screenshot from ArcGIS Field Map

Field Maps was released in October 2020 and is set to replace ArcGIS collector in December 2021 so now is the time to dive into using Field Maps.   The migration to Field Maps will simplify the ArcGIS variety of ‘mobile mapping applications’ and eventually consolidate functionality into one application: ArcGIS Field Maps.   For EAST students, you have used ArcGIS Collector when field mapping or creating new geodata, such as points, lines or polygons from your mobile device, so Field Maps should feel very familiar. If you have questions, contact the EAST Geospatial Support Team (Brian Culpepper or Malcolm Williamson)

There are several excellent ESRI Blog posts that summarize what you can do with Field Maps and why it will improve your workflow; especially if you are needing to ‘work offline’ in an area with limited cellular service.  Map navigation within the Field Maps app has also improved, so let’s download it and try out these FIVE THINGS TO TRY WITH THE NEW FIELD MAPS app from Esri.   We are interested in hearing your thoughts too!

ArcGIS Online Updates: The ArcGIS online platform is scheduled for an update on April 14, 2021 but this list of Internet web browsers are the currently recommended web browsers for ArcGIS Online applications.

For the best performance within the ArcGIS Online website, use the latest version of a browser listed below. The ArcGIS platform leverages the local storage capabilities (like cookies) of the web browser. If this storage is disabled, the ArcGIS site may not function properly. To learn how to enable local storage, consult the web browser’s online documentation.

ArcGIS Online Map Viewers, StoryMaps Builder and Web Scene Viewers support the latest versions of the following browsers:
Google Chrome
Microsoft Edge
Mozilla Firefox
Apple Safari*
*Safari does not have WebGL implementation optimized for memory-intensive applications and may not work reliably when opening certain scenes.

Specific requirements for ArcGIS Storymaps: Only WebGL-enabled browsers are supported, and the browser must support JavaScript and cookies.

Note: Internet Explorer 11 and Edge Legacy are no longer supported. Please use the latest versions of the browsers listed above.

Here are some Mapping Activities that the CAST team wants to encourage:

• Demonstrate the use of ArcGIS Mapping Technologies in your EAST Project(s) but submit examples or documentation within your report.
• Complete an ArcGIS Mapping Tutorial (Online or in-person)
• Share your knowledge of Mapping Technologies with others (Survey123, ArcGIS Hub, Web Map Builder, ArcGIS Administration, StoryMaps, or Community Analyst all count in this competition.)

Multiple mapping-related activities can be submitted by using the online submission form, but we require supporting documentation for each activity report to valid your effort. Documentation may include the URL to a Survey123 form/web map application that you have created, or even a screen shot of the completion certificate from an online mapping tutorial. We simply want you to UP your MAPPING SAVVY and GoMap more in 2021! We look forward to answering questions and assisting you this year with your mapping questions. Map On!

The GoMap Twenty-One Competition officially began August 24, 2020 and the closing date for this competition was March 9, 2021.

The issue is the exported (text) format of their Last login Date attribute field within the exported user table. Importing the .csv into another Google Sheet or Office365 Excel file disables the sort by Date option that can help determine which accounts maybe dormant within the ArcGIS Online organization. Date field formatting issues are a common within Time-Enabled Data Analysis too, so I’ve provided one possible solution it this common issue. I’ll demonstrate using a ‘go to’ product for non-programmers, Microsoft Excel software has many powerful features. Although, it’s not a true database it has a lot of useful data formatting capabilities and is often used in small businesses around the world.

Goal: Use Office365 (Excel) to convert the text field (column) into a correctly formatted Date column within the Excel worksheet.

• This tutorial walks you through Excel’s Import Text to Columns tool (within the Data Tab) to import the text formatted Date column values into three (new/empty) columns within the same Excel worksheet. 
• Then, I demonstrate using a DATE function to convert those three columns (Month, Day, Year (txt)) into a proper Date format using the DATE function within an Excel formula.
• In this example, I’ve already exported the ArcGIS Online Users Report into a .csv from within an AGOL Organization I administer. I then imported it into Excel (Office365) and used File> Save As to create a new copy of the data in a proper, Excel Worksheet file (.xlsx)

Below, you can see the originally formatted (Last Login Date) column within the imported Excel file. btw- It works perfectly well within ArcGIS Online, but once its exported, the sorting by Date/Time is often lost, and this DATE formatting issue is a very common data problem for scientists/data developers everyday so I thought I’d share this solution with my EAST peers.

• Once Imported into Excel and saved as an .xlsx format, Insert three empty columns between the Last Login Date and the Date Created columns.

• Switch to the Data Tab within the Excel menu and look for the Text to Columns wizard.

• Next, Left-click to select the Last Login Date column within the Excel worksheet

• Then, the Text to Columns Wizards (3-steps) opens; choose the Fixed Width option within the first step.

• Move to the (3 of 3) Step within the Wizard, and then Select each COLUMN within the “Preview of selected data:” and ignore the unwanted  Weekday, TIMESTAMP and UTC  columns within the preview; those are not needed so they’re not imported.  Import ONLY the Month, Day(number), and Year as TEXT format.

• Make sure to DEFINE the Destination of these parsed values by “click-n-dragging to select those 3 empty columns you created earlier”.   (review the image below to see what I mean)
• Make sure to select the TOP ROW of the worksheet too, so that the partial header/ text gets written into that row!  you can rename those column headings, anyway.

• You can rename the column headings for those three new/imported columns and it should look something like this after you’ve clicked Finish on the Import Text to Columns wizard.

• Next Step use the FIND/REPLACE tool to update all of the 3 character MONTH abbreviations (LastLoginMonth) into the number for each month.  There is likely a better way to do this(! via python), but I’ll use the Excel Find & Select tool to accomplish that column value conversion.  It is on the Home tab of Excel 365 under the Find & Select tool.

• Now, we can use these three columns to calculate an actual Date value for the Last Login by using the DATE function within Excel.   Review your ribbon view within Excel to the Formula tab, then SELECT the first row within a new column you insert after these three newly imported text values. (like below)

** Format the NEW excel worksheet column into the DATE format, prior to performing the next calculation using the DATE formula.    (yes, I misspelled formatted too, sorry about that typographical error.)

– the Author

• From the Date & Time button on the Data Ribbon within Excel365, choose the first Function DATE so that it’s dialog opens.   Fill in the Function Arguments  by clicking within the argument setting within the dialog box and then selecting the corresponding column within the SAME ROW as your formula your creating for your new DATE value…

• The resulting column properly formatted (and correctly spelled) with the Date each user Last Logged Into our ArcGIS Online organization.

• Whew! That export format (and this DATE conversion methodology) will most likely need to be updated.
• I hope this Excel tutorial on Date field reformatting may help you overcome this common data processing obstacle. 
• I’ll be patiently waiting for you to provide a simple python script or new to me export/import option that illuminates this multi-step process.

Take care; be well and share what you know with others.

– Brian Culpepper

You can use our Public Survey123 application to contribute Public or Free WiFi access locations within Arkansas.   These Free Wifi locations are shared with Arkansas Public School students and citizens that may not have internet access at home.  Your assistance may help Arkansas students or their families locate free internet access nearby! Over 148 Wifi hotspots have been collected by volunteers since March of 2020. Click here to learn more or to complete our Survey123 for ArcGIS form.

Potter County (PA) is home to many mammals, birds, amphibians and fish, but their most common wildlife includes black bear, white tailed deer, opossum, raccoon, red squirrel, various songbirds, wild turkey, and many more!

-Emily Shosh – Potter County (PA)Conservation District

If you’re enrolled within an EAST program/school and would like to discuss how ArcGIS Storymaps or other ArcGIS mapping applications could help support or engage your community leaders, visit our ArcGIS Geospatial Hub or drop us an email: east_support@cast.uark.edu