Geometry server error and the buffer task that won’t work…

 We finally migrated to ArcGIS Server 9.3.X end of last week, so when one of my colleagues wanted to update a previous  ArcIMS based application, I thought I would get my hot sticky hands all over it and port it to ArcGIS Server myself. Not a bad idea but the ArcGIS Server out-of-the-box tools are sparse to say the least. For example, BUFFER… I’m all kinds of wishing that I had Geocortex Essentials to port this app. Could seriously use some of those extra tools.

I spent the last couple of days of my work life trying to get a sample buffer tasks to work. Man the WebADF is a beast. I followed install instruction for the task to the letter and at first I got an error saying that I did not set the “max buffer distance.” Several searches and downloads later I opened up Visual Web Developer Express, found the offending value in the default.aspx file and took care of the problem. I’m no programmer so this took me a few hours to find, download, and fix. Next time I ran the buffer task again, error number 2… “The Geometry Server is not pointing to the right place…” Crud took care of that real quick. I was playing with ArcGIS Server Manager all day so I remembered where this was. Finally, I ran the buffer task again! This time to my utter annoyance I received the same error I did yesterday late evening… something about Identity needing the proper permission, object variable not set, blah blah! I rolled my eyes something awful and went back to my DBA work… I think at this point I will wait for my programming buddies to take a shot at that one. They all did the sensible thing and left the office for the holidays. There I was being all inspired… at least now I have a greater empathy and appreciation for my programming friends who have to deal with the WebADF all day long. To the programming elves at Fountain Spatial (you know who you are) thanks alot!