For a review of new functionality available to ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 users, please read the document 'What's New in ArcGIS 9.2'.

Existing ArcGIS Desktop developers will find the following technical documents helpful in migrating existing code and applications to 9.2.

• Type Changes between ArcGIS 9.1 and ArcGIS 9.2

The following sections provide an overview of additions, enhancements, and modifications in ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 that impact developers and their work with ArcObjects.

• New libraries
• Deprecated libraries
• Enhancements to existing libraries
• Licensing modifications
• Deployment modifications

New libraries

• Animation and AnimationUI- Contain objects to work with animations in ArcMap, ArcScene, or ArcGlobe. An animation in ArcMap, ArcScene, or ArcGlobe is composed of animation tracks (AGAnimationTracks), which are further composed of keyframes (AGAnimationKeyframes) of the same type. Each keyframe stores properties of the animation objects. When an animation is played, keyframes are interpolated, and the interpolated properties are then applied to the animated objects to create the dynamic visual effect.
• ArcWeb- provides objects to access a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) based collection of ArcWeb Services. ArcWeb Services communicate with any local application that can connect to the Web and understand Extensible Markup Language (XML). ArcWeb Services use a SOAP wrapper to transfer information back and forth to a local client application using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).
• DataSourcesNetCDF- provides objects to access a netCDF file as a workspace and to create a raster layer, feature layer or table view from a netCDF.
• GeodatabaseExtensionscontains objects to aid in the creation, management, and use of terrain datasets and cadastral fabrics.

  Note: At the 9.2 release, the cadastral fabrics related objects are not yet fully implemented and we recommend that developers do not utilize them until the Cadastral Analyst extension is released.

• PublisherControls Contains two ActiveX controls (the ArcReaderControl and ArcReaderGlobeControl). The two controls can be used to create custom ArcReader applications.

Deprecated libraries

The following libraries have been deprecated at the 9.2 release:

• SurveyDataEx, SurveyExt, SurveyPkgsProvide objects used to manage survey data and processes. It is recommended that you consider holding off on development in these assemblies and instead wait to work with the application programming interfaces (APIs) that will be released with the Cadastral Analyst extension.

Enhancements to existing libraries

• Carto- provides new carto representations. Custom ArcGIS Engine applications can view and work with carto representations using an engine runtime or ArcView license, but in order to create or edit a carto representation an engine runtime with GDB update or ArcEditor license is required.

  In addition, the following layer factories have been added to the Carto library:

  • CadastralFabricLayerFactory
  • EngineCadAnnotationLayerFactory
  • EngineCadFeatureLayerFactory
  • EngineCadLayerFactory
  • EngineCoverageAnnotationLayerFactory
  • EngineIMSLayerFactory
  • EngineNetworkLayerFactory
  • EngineTopologyLayerFactory
  • EngineWMSMapLayerFactory
  • FeatureLayerFactory
  • NetCDFLayerFactory
  • RasterCatalogLayerFactory
  • RasterLayerFactory
  • TerrainLayerFactory
  • TinLayerFactory
• DataSourcesRasterincludes a new set of components that perform raster transformations such as polynomial transformation, RPC transformation, Coordinate transformation, and Spline transformation. In addition, APIs to build and retrieve raster attribute tables for all raster data sources are now available and the SaveAs capability has been extended to enable saving to raster formats such as PNG, JP2, BMP, JPG, PCRaster, X11 PixelMap, and file geodatabase.
• Displayprovides new components for editing feature class representations so that cartographic editing and finishing maps is a more convenient process. Representation is symbology stored in the geodatabase for each feature. Representation rules define how a set of features in a feature class will be drawn, using representation symbology rather than standard ArcGIS symbols. New symbols called Basic symbols (BasicMarkerSymbol, BasicLineSymbol, BasicFillSymbol) are provided with ArcGIS 9.2. In addition, methods are provided to convert standard ArcGIS symbols to Basic symbols. Basic symbols are then used along with GeometricEffects to define RepresentationRules. GeometricEffects are special processes that allow you to dynamically alter the geometry of features as they are drawn on your map, without affecting their underlying shape or spatial relationships. GraphicAttributes enable you to define attributes for GeometricEffects (width, dash style, simplify options, etc), MarkerPlacements (X, Y offsets), Basic symbols (patterns, strokes, etc), and feature class representation properties (visibility). Features can be displayed using the feature geometry or shape overrides from the representation or as a free representation graphic.
• GeoAnalyst- two new interfaces IInterpolationOp3 and IRasterNeighborhood2 have been added to this library.
• Geodatabasenew components have been added that create and manage feature class representations. Representation is symbology stored in the geodatabase for each feature. Creating new representations for a feature class results in the addition of two new fields (RuleID and Override) to the feature class. A new workspace extension called RepresentationWorkspaceExtension maintains information about representations present in a workspace. RepresentationClass, RepresentationClassName, RepresentationClassNames, and Representation are some of the new classes added to this library.
• GeodatabaseDistributednow provides components for geodatabase replication and a high level object model for using this functionality with ArcGIS Server.
• Geometrynow enables the creation of high precision spatial references and supports vertical coordinate systems to vector data, including shapefiles and feature classes.

  A spatial reference is composed of two parts. The first includes the horizontal and vertical coordinate systems. The second includes storage and processing parameters for a dataset. Prior to this release storage parameters for a dataset were defined by the domains or area of interest (xy, z, and m) and the precision or scale values. The maximum precision value was 2147483647 if a domain had an extent of 1. This type of spatial reference is now called low precision. A high precision spatial reference, new at 9.2, has a maximum precision value of over 9000 trillion (9E15). The spatial reference concept of precision is difficult to understand so a new concept of 'resolution' is now in use. The resolution is the inverse of the precision and directly reflects the data's accuracy. Tolerances values are also supported. They are used with all geometric and relational operators.

  The spatial reference coclass now supports ISpatialReferenceResolution and ISpatialReferenceTolerance interfaces. With the ISpatialReferenceResolution.ConstructFromHorizon method, you can automatically set the xy domain to the valid area of interest for a projected or geographic coordinate system. Use ISpatialReferenceFactory.ConstructHighPrecisionSpatialReference to create a high precision version of an existing low precision spatial reference.

  Vertical coordinate system metadata is now supported for vector data including shapefiles and feature classes. A vertical coordinate system includes information on the origin and linear unit of z coordinates of a dataset. The ISpatialReferenceFactory3.CreateVerticalCoordinateSystem method to instantiate a predefined vertical coordinate system. Use IVerticalCoordinateSystemEdit.Define to create a custom vertical coordinate system. Set or retrieve the vertical coordinate system on a spatial reference with ISpatialReference3.VerticalCoordinateSystem.

• SpatialAnalyst- two new interfaces, IHydrologyOp2 and ILogicalOperatorOp2 have been added to this library. All GPValue, GPDataType, GPValueTableType and GPDomain objects have been moved into the SpatialAnalyst library from the SpatialAnalystUI library.

Licensing modifications

All custom ArcGIS Engine applications must perform license initialization at application start time using the LicenseControl or the AoInitialize object. Any existing 9.0 or 9.1 custom ArcGIS Engine applications not containing license initialization will fail when run on the 9.2 platform.

Deployment modifications

ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 has been enhanced to install the .Net and Java interops if the .Net Framework 2.0 and the JRE are installed respectively. When deploying a custom ArcGIS Engine application to such a machine, there is no need to install the ArcGIS Engine Runtime.