ArcGIS REST & JS API, The Real Deal?

Well, shut my mouth!

After complaining & proclaiming loudly that there was no way anything coming out of Redlands was going to be good semantic REST or true http goodness, I seem to have been proven dead wrong.

The REST & JS API examples released by ESRI today really look good. I’m impressed by what I’ve seen so far. I’m not alone as James Fee & Sean Gillies have already written up very approving posts as well.

I got my 9.3 private beta invite last night and am looking forward to taking these once sorely missing pieces out for a test drive.

Where does that leave the ArcDeveloper.Net REST for AGS project? I can’t speak for the others involved, but I for one would still like to proceed ahead. Not for the primary reasons stated before, frustration with the Web ADF & lack of faith for ESRI to produce semantic REST, but mainly for having .Net versions of TileCache & FeatureServer combination. The intention never was to couple it very tightly with AGS. Therefore having this program available when Python under IIS is just not an option, would still be a great benefit to the community. Additionally, for those not upgrading to AGS 9.3 anytime soon, such a program could allow them the lightweight interactions missing from 9.2.