The field applications

The two field applications that come with ArcGIS for Windows Mobile include one application for Windows tablet or notebook devices and another application for Windows Mobile or Windows Embedded Handheld devices. Though slightly different in appearance and functionality, each delivers a task-based workflow for use by field workers.

Task-centric applications

The field applications work seamlessly with Mobile Project Center, a component of ArcGIS for Windows Mobile which you use to author, configure, and deploy mobile projects. When a mobile project is created and deployed, your field workers can use the field applications to open it and perform the tasks configured for the project in Mobile Project Center. These tasks include the following:

• View Map—Displays the map of the study area.
• Collect Features—Collects point, line, and polygon features and their attributes. Existing features can be edited or deleted.
• Search—Searches for features using either predefined or on-the-fly queries.
• View Work List— Shows the features added to the work list by the field crew for inspection.
• Manage Edits— Lists the features added, modified, or deleted during the field work session. It also shows additional functionality such as cancelling edits.
• Synchronize—Synchronizes edits to operational data between office and field. This function is only available if your operational data consists of services.

You can also use ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Windows Mobile to develop custom tasks and include them in individual projects. The following images show the default tasks in the applications on Windows tablet or notebook devices and Windows Mobile devices. Any custom tasks you create are added to the list. For more information, see Tasks and capabilities.

Configurable applications

While most of the configuration of your project takes place in Mobile Project Center, you can also configure some of the application settings from within the applications themselves, as shown in the following images. Most of the settings that are configurable in the field are at the application level, affecting map settings, for example, while a limited number of them are project level, affecting settings such as data synchronization. The ArcGIS for Windows Mobile field applications are designed with the non-geographic information system (GIS) field worker in mind—one who uses mobile projects as opposed to configuring them.

Note:

The project source setting is also available on a Windows Mobile device but is not listed here. For more on this topic, see Setting Project Source

As with custom tasks, you can use the ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Windows Mobile to build your own custom capabilities and include them as additional settings.

Differences between the two field applications

Both of the field applications are task-centric but differ in functionality and form factors to suit their supported field devices. The differences between the two applications are described in the following table:

Functionality	Windows Mobile device	Windows device
Supports geometry editing on existing features.	Yes	No
Supports switching from one geometry collection method to another (e.g., from Global Positioning System [GPS] location to map sketching) within an edit session.	Yes	No
Supports editing of geometry, attributes, and attachments within one form.	Yes	No
Supports simultaneous attribute collection when collecting polygon or polyline features using GPS streaming.	Yes	No
Requires GPS settings during first application startup.	Yes	No
Shows GPS information on map view.	Yes	No
Supports different coordinate formats.	Yes	No
Supports way point navigation to specific locations.	Yes	No
Supports additional project and basemap folders.	No	Yes
Supports different map panning and zooming modes.	No	Yes
Supports Zoom to Initial Extent function.	No	Yes
Form factors
Supports daytime and nighttime skin.	No	Yes
Adjustable brightness of application and support of visual animation.	No	Yes
Adjustable brightness of basemap.	No	Yes