SpatialKit

Spatial Kit is make that was an add on for ArcGIS that allows direct access to PostgreSQL PostGIS and Microsoft SQL Server data

I tested it with PostGIS.

Where to get it

It was at http://st-links.com/ which is gone now.

Requirements

• PostGIS 1.5
• PostgreSQL 8 or 9 (I am testing with 9)
• .Net Framework 3.5

version 3 ArcGIS 9.3 or 10 or 10.1

version 4 only supports ArcGIS 10.x

Testing so far

I imported data into PostGIS to use for testing with Spatial Kit. That is covered in my PostGIS page.

2011

19-Oct-2011 (and before) -- I was able to load data from a PostGIS file but encountered a show stopper, ArcMap would not re-load an MXD once I had saved a pgMap connection in it!

During this lull while waiting for a response from ST-Links support, I tried out ArcMap 10.1 Beta. It let me load a PostGIS feature class READ ONLY. This is very cool!

Then I discovered I had to have an ArcGIS Server license and an ArcInfo license to be able to WRITE to a PostgreSQL, this is so not cool! Furthermore I had to install part of ArcGIS Server into my PostgreSQL server in order to "enable" the database. My database is already quite "able" when used with other software, thank you very much!

Now I am hoping that SpatialKit will be available in ArcGIS 10.1 !!

Note, I actually _have_ licenses for ArcInfo and ArcGIS Server, so I can test, because I work for an ESRI developer. But my _clients_ don't always nor can the little ones ever afford it! Further, I use other software, so maintaining PostGIS for some things and then being FORCED to make duplicate copies of the data to use ArcMap is very disappointing. ESRI gets so CLOSE to making things real and then throws up barriers.

26-Oct-2011 -- First attempts uncovered a problem with projection I used. ST-Links released a new version in 2 days, remarkable. About to try it.

Time passes... other work intervenes

2013

24-Feb-2013 -- Back again.. testing things for the very same client! Now testing with ArcGIS Desktop 10.1

25-Feb-2013 -- I installed Spatial Kit 4.0 today and it worked flawlessly to import a table from PostGIS and display it. Tomorrow I will try editing. I have some layers coming in via WMS from GeoServer. With WMS I apply the style in GeoServer instead of in ArcMap. Also interesting to me is that I can query the layers using ArcMap's Identify tool.

Commentary

http://www.inigis.org/402/pgmap-arcgis-extension-for-connecting-to-postgis-without-arcsde.html/

Download site http://st-links.com/Download.aspx

Google Group

I started a Google Group in order to facilitate support for SpatialKit.

SpatialKit

Visit this group

Whois st-links.com

The ST-Links crew keeps a low profile. The domain name registration is

Tech Name............ Chun Huan Xu
Tech Address......... Calgary
Tech Address......... CANADA

This makes sense since the pricing for a license is in Canadian dollars.