General Application Developer Question

This question is focused to developers that create custom modules with the API and HTML5 SDK.

 

 

 

For the past few weeks, I've been struggling to construct a custom module. I found that the API and online samples are a great start. However, I feel I must be missing something and I’m not sure if it’s my inexperience or I’m not looking in the right place (or both). A large part of my problem is understanding how everything is interwoven and troubleshooting errors.

 

 

 

For instance I have been trying to add a featureset (graphics/attributes) to the map as new layer that one can use the identify tool upon, change the visualization properties, zoom to the full extent of all the features, etc. I figure out that I need to create a “Feature Layer” and place it within a “Feature Layer Service” and add it to the map using the AddMapService command. The only way I can add it to the map was by including a URL of a completely unrelated map service. Without the URL, it wouldn’t load at all. However, now the identify tool is having an issue with it. The error that I get doesn't say much either, other than something is undefined.

 

 

 

My troubleshooting process is largely dreaming up ideas, trying them out, then analyzing the results. Even as I write this, I just stumbled across the GraphicsUtils module in the SDK. Perhaps I should load the featureset that way instead. Doing a search on the support center or developer documentation for GraphicsUtils doesn’t return any results. Other than reading the contents in the entire SDK, I’m not sure how else one would know about this module.

 

 

 

Overall, I admit, this is a rather an inefficient process. For those that create custom modules, how you do it? What am I missing?

 

 

 

Mike