2025-03-18 TIL: GeoParquet and .NET MAUI HybridWebView Control

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GeoParquet

Geospatial data in Parquet. Apache Parquet is a powerful column-oriented data format, designed as a modern alternative to CSV files. While Parquet excels at storing large and complex datasets, it lacks native geospatial support—which led to the creation of GeoParquet.

GeoParquet is an incubating Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard that introduces interoperable geospatial types (Point, Line, Polygon) to Parquet.

• Establish a robust geospatial format for columnar workflows
• Introduce columnar data formats to the geospatial world
• Enable interoperability among cloud data warehouses

HybridWebView

HybridWebView is a new control introduced in .NET MAUI 9 that enables hosting HTML/JS/CSS content in a WebView while allowing two-way communication between JavaScript (inside the WebView) and C#/.NET (the host application).

For example, you can embed an existing React JS application within a cross-platform .NET MAUI native app, using C# and .NET for the backend.

• The entire app, including web content, is packaged and runs locally on the device.
• The web content is hosted within a native WebView and functions within the app’s context.
• The app can access external web services but does not require them.

Did you know?

With ArcGIS Earth Mobile, you can navigate below the surface to explore subway systems, underground utilities, or geological formations—perfect for urban planning, infrastructure management, and environmental analysis!

🛠️ How to Enable Underground Mode

1️⃣ Activate Underground Navigation

• Tap the Toolbox 🧰 → Select Underground Mode 🌏.
• The terrain adjusts automatically, allowing seamless subsurface navigation.

2️⃣ Explore & Interact with Underground Features

• Pan, tilt, and zoom to navigate below the surface.
• Identify subway systems, pipelines, and underground structures.

3️⃣ Adjust Transparency for Clarity

• Open the Underground Panel to fine-tune ground transparency for better visibility.
• Overlay aboveground and underground layers for a comprehensive spatial view.

🚀 Pro Tips

1️⃣ Overlay 3D layers for a seamless transition between aboveground and subsurface data.

This morning, I woke up feeling extremely drowsy, only fully shaking it off after Hamer finished using the bathroom. At breakfast, she accidentally bit her loose lower lateral incisor, making it painful and uncomfortable to eat. She was also anxious about getting to school before 8 AM, and we ended up rushing out.

I walked to work in strong winds. My day was spent refining the Streaming Control logic, extracting the information display section.

In the evening, one colleague asked me about MAUI, and since I wasn’t familiar with it, I felt a bit frustrated—a reminder that I still have more to learn.

On a whim, I decided to pick up Xiaoyan from the airport. After putting Hamer to bed, I showered and headed out, only to realize the airport express had stopped running. I took a taxi instead, dozing off on the way. At the terminal, I wandered around, ate, and watched Severance until Xiaoyan arrived. Filming her as she walked past, I followed quietly—she was completely shocked when she finally noticed me.

In the morning, Hamer made hamburgers again, even packing one for her classmate. After breakfast, we finished Win or Losein a cozy, darkened room. Later, we played with her classmate at The Temple of Earth Park, enjoying jump rope and workout areas filled mostly with girls. The fun continued with badminton in the evening, but by night, Hamer was feeling down, wondering why weekends couldn’t be school days instead.

Did you know?

ArcGIS Earth Mobile lets you record real-time GPS tracks, replay routes, and share them as KMZ files. Perfect for fieldwork, navigation, and detailed route analysis!

🛠️ How to Record & Share GPS Tracks:

1️⃣ Configure Your Tracking:

• Tap the Toolbox 🧰 → Track 📍.
• Adjust GPS accuracy and streaming frequency in Settings ⚙️.
• Choose your tracking style (line/footprint) and enable Z-values for elevation.

2️⃣ Record & Manage:

• Tap Start ▶️ to begin. Pause ⏸️ and resume as needed.
• Tracks record in the background. Stop ⏹️ to finish and save.

3️⃣ Analyze Your Track:

• Access saved tracks in “My Tracks.”
• View detailed stats: origin, distance, duration, speed, and elevation profiles.

4️⃣ Share Your Data:

• Export as KMZ for offline use.
• Upload to ArcGIS Enterprise/Online for collaboration.
• Create a shareable card with a snapshot and elevation profile.

🚀 Pro Tips:

• Use background tracking for seamless recording.
• Import tracks into ArcGIS Earth Desktop for advanced 3D analysis.

Today, Hamer and I joined the slightly chaotic Hot Chocolate Run in Chaoyang Park, where we ran with Doubao, and the kids had a blast. We had lunch nearby with friends.

I took Hamer for a stroll on Yifan Street, which led to new discoveries and buying burger buns for homemade burgers.

In the evening, heavy snowfall surprised us and made us happy. Hamer and I ended the day with homemade burgers and Win or Lose TV.

Last night, I had nasal congestion, waking up twice. Saline spray helped. Daytime was symptom-free, but evening brought eye discomfort.

Work was bug-fixing and cross-testing, lacking enthusiasm. I did a short gym session at noon.

Hamer and her classmate played happily, even tried ballet this evening.

I’m exploring Google Gemini, curious about its features, after hearing about the new Flash release.

Did you know?

ArcGIS Earth Mobile lets you build engaging, interactive tours using geotagged photos and placemarks? Document your travels, showcase locations, or guide viewers through spatial data – and even record your tour as a shareable video!

🛠️ How to Create a Tour in ArcGIS Earth Mobile:

1️⃣ Add Tour Stops:

• Open the Toolbox 🧰, select “Tour,” and add Tour stops.
• Choose from existing placemarks or search for locations.
• Use geotagged photos from your album or capture new ones (location data required).

2️⃣ Customize & Preview:

• Rename your tour and add a detailed description.
• Use “Overview” to see all stops on a 3D map, or “Play” ▶️ to preview and adjust viewpoints and playback duration.
• Edit stops: reorder, add text, and customize path colors.

3️⃣ Save & Share Your Tour:

• Export as KMZ for sharing or upload to ArcGIS Enterprise.
• Tap “Share” to record your tour as a video and save it to your album. (Note: Globe interaction is disabled during recording).

🚀 Pro Tips:

1️⃣ Utilize tours for guided fieldwork, immersive virtual storytelling, or detailed trip documentation. 2️⃣ Combine stunning 3D views with photos and text for a truly engaging experience.

Today’s work focused on resolving code freeze issues and minor fixes, particularly in Survey123 and the attribute table.

Hamer woke up before her alarm, eagerly getting out of bed once it rang. We shopped online for a jump rope in the morning, and when it arrived in the evening, she was thrilled. After school, she played with her classmate, had dinner with them, and stayed at her home late doing homework, only coming home around 9 PM.

After work, I tried a Chengdu-style clay pot restaurant and was impressed. While checking Xiaoyan’s location in Thailand, I came across the Garuda, the national emblem, and also discovered the Highway Gothic, a typeface designed for federal highways.

Did you know?

With ArcGIS Earth Mobile, you can analyze visibility and obstructions in real time using Line of Sight and Viewshed Analysis—essential for urban planning, security assessments, and terrain evaluation!

🛠️ How to Use Line of Sight & Viewshed Analysis

1️⃣ Open the Analysis Tools Tap the Toolbox 🧰 → Select Line of Sight 👁️ or Viewshed 🌎.

2️⃣ Perform a Visibility Analysis

• 📍 Line of Sight – Set an observer point, then add one or more target points to check visibility.
• 🌍 Viewshed – Place an observer location to visualize areas that are visible or obstructed based on elevation and terrain.

3️⃣ Adjust Parameters for Accuracy

• ✅ Green = Visible areas | ❌ Red = Obstructed areas
• Modify observer height, visibility distance, field of view, direction, and tilt for precise analysis.

🚀 Pro Tips

1️⃣ Use Line of Sight to determine if a landmark, building, or terrain feature is visible from a specific location. 2️⃣ Apply Viewshed Analysis to evaluate coverage areas for security, urban planning, or telecommunications networks.

2025-03-12 TIL: Model Context Protocol (MCP) and OpenAI new tools for building Agent

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Model Context Protocol (MCP)

MCP is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. Think of MCP as a USB-C port for AI applications—just as USB-C offers a standardized way to connect devices to various peripherals, MCP provides a universal way to link AI models with different data sources and tools.

MCP helps you build agents and complex workflows on top of LLMs, ensuring seamless integration with data and tools. It provides:

• A growing list of pre-built integrations that LLMs can directly plug into.
• Flexibility to switch between LLM providers and vendors.
• Best practices for securing data within your infrastructure.

🔗 Resources:

• A collection of MCP servers
• Find Awesome MCP Servers and Clients

OpenAI New Tools for Building Agents

A new set of APIs and tools specifically designed to simplify the development of agentic applications:

• Responses API – Combines the simplicity of the Chat Completions API with the tool-use capabilities of the Assistants API.
• Built-in tools – Includes web search, file search, and computer use.
• Agents SDK – Orchestrates both single-agent and multi-agent workflows.
• Integrated observability tools – Enables tracing and inspection of agent workflow execution.

MCP vs. OpenAI’s Tools

Similarities:


• ✔️ AI Integration – Simplifies external data & tool connections.

• ✔️ Modular Design – Expandable & adaptable.

Differences:

• MCP is a protocol, OpenAI’s are proprietary tools.
• MCP is open-source for cross-platform use; OpenAI’s tools optimize for its ecosystem.
• MCP requires a custom server, while OpenAI’s tools offer easier direct integration.

This morning, while making a mango breakfast, Hamer accidentally cut her finger, but she handled the bleeding surprisingly calmly.

Xiaoyan left for Thailand today—her second trip there. She had really wanted me to join her, but I hesitated and ultimately declined, which left her a bit frustrated.

I spent most of the morning restructuring the KMZ saving function and wrapped it up in the afternoon before adjusting the UI.

I also explored MCP technology, realizing I had overlooked its potential, and briefly checked out OpenAI’s new Agent tool.

Did you know?

With ArcGIS Earth Mobile, you can measure locations, distances, areas, and 3D distances in real time—perfect for quick field analysis!

🛠️ How to Measure in ArcGIS Earth Mobile

1️⃣ Open the Measure Tool & Select a Measurement Type

• 📍 Measure Location – Get longitude, latitude, and elevation at a point.
• 📏 Measure Distance – Measure the length of a path by adding points.
• 📐 Measure Area – Calculate the surface area of a polygon.
• 📊 Measure 3D Distance – Find the direct, vertical, and horizontal distances between two points.

2️⃣ Perform a Measurement Move the crosshairs to a location and tap Add ➕ to place points. You can also Undo to remove the last point or Complete to finish.

3️⃣ Save & Copy Results Tap Copy 📋 to store the result for future use.

🚀 Pro Tips

🏗️ Use 3D Distance to analyze height differences between terrain, buildings, or infrastructure.

2025-03-11 TIL: GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio 2022

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Code with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio 2022

• Commit & PR Message Generation & Customization
• Using Extensions to generate Mermaid Charts
• Analyzing and improving code while debugging
• Analyzing Exceptions with GitHub Copilot

Cursor Chat

A unified AI interface that combines Ask, Edit, and Agent modes to help you write, edit, and understand code directly in your editor. The interface offers three modes, selectable from the mode picker:

• Agent: AI assistant that uses tools and reasoning to perform coding tasks with minimal supervision. (Agent can make up to 25 tool calls before stopping.)
• Edit: Make single-turn edits to your code with precision and clarity.
• Ask: Ask questions about your code, get explanations, and explore your codebase.

Lately, my dreams have been unusually vivid. Last night, I dreamed of Xiaoyan searching for her classmates before a movie, only for everyone to regroup in front of a barbershop.

The morning was packed with meetings, and I even forgot one due to being so focused on planning. I felt a bit down afterward, but a round of table tennis and casual chats with colleagues lifted my mood.

In the afternoon, I tackled data storage issues, upgraded Visual Studio, and fine-tuned GitHub Copilot. Using Cursor and Claude 3.7 Sonnet, I implemented a UI design from a mockup with great results.

In the evening, Hamer and her classmate played at home until 8:30 PM, reluctant to say goodbye.

Did you know?

With ArcGIS Earth Mobile, you can draw, edit, and share geospatial features—including points, lines, and polygons—to enhance your spatial data collection and visualization. Whether marking key locations, sketching routes, or defining areas of interest, the drawing tools provide a simple yet powerful way to capture geospatial insights on the go!

🛠️ How to Create & Edit Drawings in ArcGIS Earth Mobile

1️⃣ Open Drawing Tools & Choose a Drawing Type

• Tap the Toolbox 🧰 on the home screen, then select the Draw ✏️ tool (default: Point).
• Choose from the following:
  • 📍 Point – Mark a specific location.
  • 📏 Line – Draw paths, routes, or boundaries.
  • 📐 Polygon – Define areas with multiple vertices.

2️⃣ Enhanced Editing & Interaction

• Tap a drawing to open a pop-up menu for editing attributes, adjusting styles, or deleting features.
• Modify Shapes – Drag to adjust the position or reshape a feature.
• Navigation Integration – Tap Navigate to open a third-party navigation app (e.g., ArcGIS Navigator, Google Maps, Apple Maps) for directions to your drawing.

3️⃣ Sharing & Exporting Drawings

• Manage Drawings – View all drawings in the Drawings tab in the Table of Contents.
• Control Visibility – Show/hide individual drawings for a clutter-free map.
• Save & Share as KMZ
  • 📂 Save as a Local KMZ File – Export selected drawings into a .kmz file.
  • ☁️ Share Across Devices – Upload to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise for continued editing on desktop.

🚀 Pro Tips

1️⃣ Use GPS 📍 to place points precisely at your current location. 2️⃣ Long-press a drawing for quick options like edit, delete, or share. ✨

2025-03-10 TIL: Arcade Expression

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ArcGIS Arcade

ArcGIS Arcade, a basic scripting language from Esri, helps you map the values you need or create completely new data values in minutes.

• Arcade is a portable, lightweight, and secure expression language used to create custom content in ArcGIS applications. Like other expression languages, it can perform mathematical calculations, format text, and evaluate logical statements. It also supports multi-statement expressions, variables, and flow control statements.
• Arcade’s power lies in its portability across different ArcGIS applications. It provides a consistent syntax that can run on desktop, web, and mobile devices.

Example: Constructing an ArcGIS Earth App Link from a Feature Popup:

var geom = Geometry($feature);
var x = geom.x;
var y = geom.y;

// Handle the Z-coordinate, defaulting to 500 if null or empty
var z = DefaultValue(geom.z, 500);

// Function to convert Web Mercator to WGS84
function WebMercatorToWGS84(pt) {
    var x = pt.x / 20037508.34 * 180;
    var y = pt.y / 20037508.34 * 180;
    y = 180 / PI * (2 * Atan(Exp(y*PI / 180)) - PI / 2);
    return { 'x': x, 'y': y };
}

if (geom.spatialReference.wkid == 102100) {
    var coords = WebMercatorToWGS84(geom);
    x = coords.x;
    y = coords.y;
}

url = "[www.arcgis.com/home/item...](https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=7de2582460bb47e284b2adc5e6a6753b)";

url = UrlEncode(url)

var earthLink = "[earth.arcgis.app](https://earth.arcgis.app/?viewpoint=cam:)" + x + "," + y + "," + z + ";" + "" + "," + "" + ";&url=" + url;

return earthLink;

This evening, Hamer was unusually energetic, laughing as her grandma helped her with a bath. She had eagerly insisted on her grandma’s help after finishing her homework.

My day was mostly spent refining and recording the demo. I organized data in the morning, then customized popups with Arcade expressions in the afternoon, allowing elements to auto-generate ArcGIS Earth App Links. Later, I finalized the recording.

Xiaoyan suggested a spontaneous trip to Thailand after her business trip, but I hesitated—I prefer well-planned travel over last-minute getaways.

Did you know?

Exploring spatial data has never been easier! With ArcGIS Earth Mobile, you can seamlessly browse 2D and 3D content, whether you’re online or working offline.

🛠️ How to Add Data in ArcGIS Earth Mobile:

1️⃣ There are four easy ways to add data in ArcGIS Earth Mobile:

• Enter a URL – Add services like KML, Map, Image, Feature, or Scene Services by entering a web link.
• Access ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise – Browse and add organization-wide content.
• Load Local Files – Import KML, GeoPackage, Mobile Scene Packages, Raster, and 3D models directly from your device.
• Scan a QR Code – Quickly add data by scanning a QR code—no typing required!

2️⃣ Enhanced Viewing & Interaction:

• Toggle visibility – Tap the View button to show or hide layers.
• Quick Actions – Long-press a layer to Share or Delete.
• Identify Features – Tap a feature to view its attributes in a pop-up.

🚀 Pro Tips

1️⃣ Use touch gestures to zoom, pan, tilt, and rotate your 3D content for a fully immersive experience. ✨ 2️⃣ Try AR Mode – Long-press a layer to visualize data in Augmented Reality mode. 📡

Today was physically exhausting, and without a nap, I’m completely drained.

We all slept in until 9 AM, then Hamer and I met her classmatte for basketball. She was shy at first but gradually warmed up, running with the ball and having fun.

In the afternoon, we joined Xiaoyan at Urban Green café, where she wrote, Hamer drew, and I read—quiet but enjoyable. Later, I taught Hamer some badminton techniques before we all went out for luosifen.

In the evening, Hamer eagerly helped fix a door handle, showing a growing interest in DIY projects.

I started the day early with lingering thoughts about yesterday’s demo but quickly shifted focus to home tasks. Noticing a broken light, Hamer and I went out to buy bulbs.

We attended Into Ballet at Tianqiao Theater, where she was surprised to recognize moves she had practiced. The Butterfly Lovers rehearsal was mesmerizing, so I got tickets for the full performance in April.

After a delicious Hunan meal, I relaxed at home while Xiaoyan and Hamer went dancing and shopping. A long nap didn’t shake my fatigue—I’ll need an early night.