LAUSR

The second chapter provides more information on AGO layers, maps and apps. Fu introduces best practices of web GIS app design, including using available base maps from AGO. He also shows adding layers from eight different formats, and identifies the tools provided by AGO. He discusses how the user design should be fast, with the use of caching, database tuning, partitioning and load balancing; easy, with an intuitive GUI and not too many buttons and layers; and fun, with the integration of photos, charts, videos and animation (41–42). The tutorial for this chapter provides a CSV file. Because the book advocates the use of Excel “to create and edit your CSV data” (9), at this point, I suggest that he reference the recent article by Buckley and Rojas in ArcUser magazine (48–49), “Always and Never When Formatting Excel Tables.” As someone who has had to repeatedly deal with GIS users who improperly format their Excel spreadsheets, the caveats in that paper should be required reading.