Introduction
GeoCat is working on a follow-up of Bridge for ArcMap, geared towards Esri® ArcGIS Pro™ users.
The final release of Esri ArcGIS Desktop™ is 10.8. Esri has announced that the End Of Life (EOL) of ArcMap™ will be on March 1st, 2026. Already after February 2024, ArcMap will no longer receive any software updates or patches. ArcMap is currently in the "Extended Support" phase.
As a result, GeoCat will no longer issue any updates or patches for Bridge for ArcMap after February 2024 either. Effective immediately, GeoCat will no longer add any new features to the old product, because all resources are invested into the development of Bridge for ArcGIS Pro.
This document provides an outline of the features that customers may (not) expect in the first stable release of Bridge for ArcGIS Pro towards the end of Q1 2024 (final date to be announced).
Development Releases
Since 2023, GeoCat provides pre-release (alpha, beta) versions of Bridge for ArcGIS Pro upon request. These versions are unstable and not feature-complete.
These release previews are only available to GeoCat Enterprise or Live customers. Please let us know if you are interested in trying out the software.
Bridge is provided as an ArcGIS Pro Add-in (.esriAddinX file) and can be installed by all users.
ArcGIS Pro Compatibility
The most recent version of Esri's ArcGIS Pro is 3.2. Because GeoCat realizes that not all Esri users may use the latest version yet, we will make sure that the initial release of Bridge for ArcGIS Pro is compatible with ArcGIS Pro 3.0 or higher.
GeoCat will not support ArcGIS Pro 2.x or older, as these versions still require the now outdated .NET Framework (as opposed to .NET Core for ArcGIS Pro 3.x).
Software Features
Migrated Features
For the first stable release of Bridge for ArcGIS Pro, GeoCat will make sure that the following features of Bridge for ArcMap have been migrated to the new product:
- GeoServer support:
- PostGIS (by reference or import) and file-based datastores
- Vector (GeoPackage, PostGIS) and raster (GeoTIFF) layer publishing
- SLD 1.0 map styles with symbols and/or fonts
- Metadata links
- GeoNetwork support:
- Publication of metadata records in ISO 19139 format*
- OWS service links (WMS, WFS, WCS)
- Other features:
- Basic authentication and/or JSESSIONID support
New Features
Besides the migrated features above, the first stable release of Bridge for ArcGIS Pro will see the following new features:
- Data Manager (to explore GeoServer workspace contents)
- Style Viewer (to preview converted SLD layer symbology)
- Redesigned user experience (UI/UX)
- Conversion to SVG for all vector symbols
Unavailable Features
Some features of Bridge for ArcMap will not be available in the first stable release of Bridge for ArcGIS Pro:
- MapServer support will be added back in a future release of Bridge for ArcGIS Pro (to be announced).
- Metadata contact and data license management: Bridge for ArcMap included a metadata editor, which will not be migrated. ArcGIS Pro already has a powerful (but somewhat hidden) metadata editor that is very flexible, which can be customized to the users needs. GeoCat advises its customers to use this editor, although it may mean that users have to "upgrade" their metadata to the Esri format. Esri metadata will be exported to ISO 19139 before publication.
- Oracle support will be dropped on the publication side (e.g. GeoServer).
- The Bridge Command Line Interface (CLI) will not be migrated. For automation purposes, GeoCat has other plans. Please contact us for more information.
- OpenID Connect (OIDC) login and Single Sign-On (SSO) will arrive later in 2024.
- Support for other metadata profiles (e.g. FGDC, HNAP, etc.) will be added in future releases (to be announced).
- Support for MapLibre vector tiles (open source alternative to MapBox VT) has been postponed.
