The following are conceptual terms and names that are found throughout ArcGIS AllSource and related applications:
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
activity | A specific action, function, or operation. |
ArcGIS Enterprise | A mapping, analytics, data hosting, and content management product that can be hosted on-premises or in your infrastructure. It can be used to create, share, and manage maps, scenes, layers, apps, services, and other geographic content; it is a secure way to access data and functionality such as geocoding and routing through web services, and provides access to unique ArcGIS basemap and layer data. Typically, this content is stored securely and managed with ArcGIS Online. ArcGIS Enterprise can be used in tandem with or in place of ArcGIS Online. ArcGIS Enterprise is composed of a portal, a server, a data store, and an ArcGIS Web Adaptor. These provide the backbone for Esri's suite of applications and also support any organizational, customized applications. |
ArcGIS Online | A cloud-based portal that connects to the ArcGIS Location Platform to provide secure mapping, analytics, and data storage. It is used to create, store, share, and manage an ArcGIS account holder's maps, location services, apps, data, and other geographic content. ArcGIS Online tools include Map Viewer Classic and Scene Viewer, used to prepare maps and edit and analyze data, and ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, containing a large library of basemaps and layers; there is also an extensive selection of services such as world geocoding and routing for use in applications. |
ArcGIS Location Platform | A Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that contains location services and tools for developers. An ArcGIS account is required to access these services and tools. The core services provide basemap layer, geocoding, routing, spatial analysis, demographic data, data editing, and offline capabilities through a REST API. Data management tools provide the ability to import, manage, and host data with data services. |
ArcGIS Pro | A professional desktop GIS application that can explore, visualize, analyze, and manage 2D and 3D data. Data can be managed and published as ArcGIS services. ArcGIS Pro is typically used by GIS professionals, who can create geoprocessing tasks and models to help automate workflows, and can extend the user interface to develop automated workflows specific to data and organizations. ArcGIS Pro is tightly coupled with the ArcGIS platform, supporting data sharing across ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise through Web GIS. |
clustered layout | In a link chart, a visualization of relationships that emphasizes connectedness and clusters of nodes. |
connected | In a link chart, when two entities have a common relationship. |
coordinate | A value that denotes the location of a point or vertex. Coordinates can represent 2D (x,y) or 3D (x,y,z) space. The meaning of the x,y,z coordinates are determined by a coordinate system. The points/vertices and coordinate system together allow applications to translate a real-world object from its location on the earth to its location on a map. |
coordinate system | A reference framework consisting of a set of points, lines, or surfaces, and a set of rules, used to define the positions of points in space in two or three dimensions. |
cotraveler | In movement analysis, two or more entities traveling together in space and time. |
directed graph | A link chart that consists of nodes connected by links, in which the links contain direction. All link charts created in ArcGIS AllSource/ArcGIS Pro are directed. |
entity | Discrete data elements that are proper nouns. All entities have a defined type. Examples include "Esri", "Jack Dangermond", "User Conference 2019". |
entity type | A specific property that categorizes an entity such as Person, Vehicle, or Account. An entity can have only one type. |
event | An occurrence with a location and a time. |
feature | A single record that represents a real-world geographic entity. Features are composed of both a geometry (point, polyline, or polygon) and attributes, and are typically stored in a feature layer or a feature class. The geometry represents the location and shape of the real-world entity; the attributes represent the fields and values that describe the entity. Applications can access features from a feature layer or a feature class to visualize the feature's geographic and attribute information, execute spatial queries, perform analyses, or make edits to the feature's data directly. Examples of features include roads, fire hydrants, and property boundaries. Features are typically stored in a feature service or geodatabase, but can also be stored in other data sources including shapefiles, GeoJSON files, and GeoPackage files. |
feature layer | A data layer that can access and display feature data with the same type of geometry (point, polyline, or polygon) and attribute fields. A feature layer's data is commonly stored, hosted, and managed in a feature service or geodatabase. Applications can query, visualize, edit, and perform spatial analysis using feature layers. |
feature service | The ArcGIS Location Platform data service that provides access to data in feature layers and tables. A feature service supports SQL and spatial relationship queries, and can return data in different formats such as JSON, GeoJSON, or XML. Client applications use feature services to access and display features in a map or scene, and to edit a feature's geometry and attributes. Feature services are created from user interaction upon data import or by creating layers through the ArcGIS Location Platform. |
geocode | The process of converting text for an address or place to a complete address with a location—for example, converting "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, DC" to -77.03654 longitude and 38.89767 latitude. The resulting locations are output as geographic features with attributes, which can be used for mapping or spatial analysis. |
geodesic | The shortest distance between two points on the surface of a spheroid (also known as an ellipsoid). Any two points along a meridian form a geodesic line. This is similar to the great circle method, which models the earth's surface as a sphere. |
geodatabase | A spatial data storage format that can contain multiple datasets of geographic features and nonspatial tabular data, as well as attachments, field domain definitions, and relationships between layers/tables. |
geometry | A geometric shape that contains one or more coordinates and a spatial reference. Points contain a single set of coordinates, lines contain two or more coordinates, and polygons contain three or more coordinates. Geometries are used to define the shape and position of graphics and features. |
geopackage | An OGC spatial data storage format that can contain multiple datasets of geographic features, nonspatial tabular data, and raster data. Geopackages are frequently used as an interchange format for geographic data, and can be copied to a device or downloaded to a device and used by offline applications that provide rich mapping and location-based functionality without requiring a network connection. |
geoprocessing | A GIS operation that is used to manipulate data. A typical geoprocessing operation takes an input dataset, performs an operation on that dataset, and then returns the result of the operation as an output dataset. Common geoprocessing operations include geographic feature overlay, feature selection and analysis, topology processing, raster processing, and data conversion. Geoprocessing is used to define, manage, and analyze the information needed to form decisions. Geoprocessing tools can be used to create a sequence of operations, feeding the output of one tool into another tool; automate jobs (for example, overnight processing); or solve complex problems using models. |
graph | A collection of networks, entities, relationships, and their properties. |
GraphML | An XML-based format for storing and transferring graphs. ArcGIS AllSource exports a link chart to a .graphml file for use in other applications. http://graphml.graphdrawing.org/ |
hierarchic layout | In a link chart, a visualization of hierarchical relationships in a consistent direction, from top to bottom, or left to right, and so on. |
incident | See: event. |
Keyhole Markup Language (KML) | An XML-based format for describing geographic entities. Developed and popularized for use with Google Earth, the KML specification is now maintained by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Users can add a .kml or .kmz (compressed) file, or a URL pointing to a KML file as the source for a layer in an ArcGIS application. |
lane | In a timeline, lanes are used to visually separate different time-enabled layers or categorized field values in a single time-enabled layer. By separating layers or categories into separate lanes, it is easier to see the sequence features, especially for densely packed layers. |
layer | A reference to a collection of geographic data that can be accessed and displayed in a map or a scene. There are basemap layers and data layers, and their format is either vector or raster. The data source for a basemap layer is typically the basemap layer service, and the source for data layers are data services, but could be a variety of different formats including files, streams, databases, and others. |
link | A relationship with a defined symbol visualized in a link chart. Links must include a starting (or source) and an ending (or target) node. Links can contain attributes or properties, to include weights. Weights can represent a variety of factors such as distance, amount of goods transported between nodes, and a variety of factors. |
link analysis | A data analysis technique used to evaluate relationships (connections) between entities. |
link chart | A link chart is a visual representation of entities and relationships presented to the user as nodes and links. |
map | A collection of layers that are displayed in 2D. It is typically composed of a basemap layer and one or more data layers. |
meeting | A defined location with at least two participants over a given time period. |
meeting area | A defined location that can contain one or more meetings. |
meeting details | A movement analysis output detailing the time, duration, and participants of an individual meeting. |
movement analysis | A data analysis technique that infers relationships based on space-time proximity. |
movement data | Data that can be organized into tracks that contain at a minimum a geometry, a time stamp and a unique identifier. |
node | A node is an entity with a defined symbol visualized in a link chart. Nodes can be generated from categorical values and often represent unique concepts. These values can represent people, objects, units, phone numbers, equipment, and a variety of other objects or ideas. Nodes can contain attributes or properties. |
Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) | An international consortium of companies, government agencies, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial and location-based services. Interfaces and protocols defined by OpenGIS specifications support interoperability and seek to integrate geospatial technologies with wireless and location-based services. https://www.ogc.org/ |
organic layout | In a link chart, a visual representation of entities that emphasizes the ability to see node links. |
participant | An entity defined with a unique identifier that is a member of a meeting. |
place-name | The name of a geographical location or region. Place-names can be the name of a city, such as "Berlin, Germany", or a mountain range, such as "Rocky Mountains", or a country, such as "Canada". |
polygon | A type of geometry containing an array of rings and a spatial reference. Each ring in a polygon contains an array of point coordinates, where the first and last point are the same. In most cases, a polygon is composed of a single ring of points, but it can also contain many rings representing independent areas or holes. To create a topologically correct polygon, exterior rings are oriented clockwise, and interior rings (holes) are oriented counterclockwise. Point coordinates are expressed as x,y values. Each coordinate can also optionally include a z-value for height and/or an m-value for measure (commonly used for linear referencing). When a ring in a polygon is selected, all rings are highlighted. |
polyline | A type of geometry containing ordered point coordinates and a spatial reference. A polyline typically contains a single ordered sequence of points, but can contain multiple sequences that represent individual parts of the entire polyline (these sequences are sometimes referred to as parts, paths, or segments). Each point coordinate is expressed as x,y values but can optionally also include a z-value for elevation and/or a numeric m-value, commonly used for linear referencing. |
projection | A projected coordinate system based on a map projection such as transverse Mercator, Albers equal area, or Robinson, all of which (along with many other map projection models) provide various mechanisms to project maps of the earth's spherical surface onto a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate plane. Projected coordinate systems are sometimes referred to as map projections. |
proximity | Nearness of entities in space and/or time and/or relationship. |
raster | A matrix of cells (or pixels) organized into rows and columns (or a grid) where each cell contains a value representing information, such as temperature. Rasters include digital aerial photographs, imagery from satellites, digital pictures, and scanned maps. |
relationship | Connections between entities that are represented as verbs. All relationships have a defined type. Examples include "owned by", "works at", "met with". |
relationship type | A specific property that categorizes a relationship such as "works at", "owns", "met with". |
scene | A collection of layers that are displayed in 3D. It is typically composed of a basemap layer of streets or satellite imagery, an elevation layer, and additional data layers from a wide range of sources including scene services. Scenes can display real-world 3D object representations such as buildings, trees, and vehicles. |
shapefile | An Esri vector data storage format for storing the location, shape, and attributes of geographic features. A shapefile is stored in a set of related files and contains one feature class. |
spatial reference | A set of parameters that define the coordinate system and spatial properties for geographic data. Applications use a spatial reference to correctly display geographic data in a map or scene. Spatial references ensure that geographic data from different sources can be used together for accurate viewing or analysis. |
symbol | Defines the properties used to display a geometry or text. Symbol properties include color, stroke width, and background color. There are many types of symbols, such as simple symbols, marker symbols, line symbols, and polygon fill symbols. |
time-enabled | When a map or scene layer has a time field or fields set. The layer may have a single field representing an individual temporal instance, or two fields representing a time span (starting time and ending time). |
time slider | An interactive visualization tool in ArcGIS AllSource that animates time-enabled layers in a map or scene. |
time span | In a timeline or in the time slider, when an individual feature in the map or scene has a time duration from a starting time to an ending time. |
timeline | A timeline is a visualization of a sequence of temporal events, from earliest to latest, from one or more time-enabled layers in a map. |
vector | A coordinate-based data model that represents geographic features as points, lines, and polygons. Each point feature is represented as a single coordinate pair, while line and polygon features are represented as ordered lists of vertices. Attributes are associated with each vector feature, as opposed to a raster data model, which associates attributes with grid cells. |
velocity | Speed of an object or feature. Usually calculated between two point locations with different time stamps. Units are in linear units per time unit, such as meters per second, or miles per hour. |