ArcGIS Development & Deployment Options

Developers can customize ArcGIS Desktop with COM-compliant languages, such as Visual Basic. The extensive Windows-based user interfaces for the ArcGIS Desktop limit development to COM and .NET environments.

With ArcGIS Engine and ArcGIS Server, developers also have the ability to deploy ArcGIS solutions as independent applications on the desktop or in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) across the Intranet or Internet.

ESRI offers developers flexibility in selecting a development platform for ArcGIS. ArcObjects is at the core of these choices, offering an integrated collection of GIS software objects written in C++. Developers can choose from three deployment platforms (ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Engine, and ArcGIS Server), four development environments (Java, .NET, C++, and COM), and deploy applications on a variety of Windows and UNIX operating systems.