The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) determined a need to upgrade the Historic Architecture and Archaeological Information System to the compatible current technology. The original application, developed by Great Arc Technologies in 2002, was a web-based application developed in .NET using Esri ArcIMS technology.

Great Arc developed an application using industry standard technology, Adobe Flex Builder 4 and the Esri Flex API for ArcGIS Server. The basic functionality of the original application was maintained, and enhancements were made in the following areas.

We implemented a user-friendly display including icons and buttons for the various tools and a larger map display. Users can quickly find map features using the locate tool or the search tool, allowing a modernized version of the original search functionality. User can also build searches using the query builder, which allows any of the attribute fields to be used to locate records in the HARGIS database. Search results are returned in a data grid for easy review, and the user can click a record to zoom to its spatial location or get more information.

The user can customize the map display by selecting the visible layers which can be toggled in the map layer list, and the user can choose any of several basemaps, including Streetmap, Aerial, Hybrid, Satellite, and Topographic. Users can bookmark spatial locations for later use, and can print or save a map display as an image.

In addition, Great Arc created an administrator application to allow IHPA staff to access and update the HARGIS data. Through a tabbed interface, authorized users can search properties, view information, view photos, edit information, view on the map, and edit the spatial location on the map, as well as add new locations and photos.