Selecting layers to display

To select the layers to display in your application, you connect to one or more GIS servers and choose the map services you want to add as layers to your map. You can include map services from ArcGIS Server; ArcIMS; and Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) servers in the same web application. The map services appear as layers in the Web Mapping Application and allow users of the application to work with the individual sublayers within the map services.

Each layer in the web application has a set of properties that you can configure. For example, when overlaying layers, you can set the transparency so that you can see underlying layers. By default, the background of all but the bottom layer is made transparent. You can also set properties on the sublayers inside a layer. For example, you can adjust the field aliases and visibility, set a drawing symbol, and control how attributes display when running tasks that use the sublayer as input.

Adding layers to the map

You can add layers to the map using the Layers tab in Web Applications Manager.

1. On the Layers tab, click Add Layer.
2. Examine the list of available GIS servers. If the server containing your layer does not appear on the list, click Add GIS Server and choose the type of server you want to add. For a description of each option, see the sections below.
3. Once your server appears in the list, double-click it to reveal a list of available services. Select the service you want to add and click Add.
4. You can repeat this process to add other layers to the map.

Note:

If you are accessing a map service with antialiasing enabled and you set the image format for the web application to PNG, the application will automatically retrieve images in PNG 32 format. If the application contains other services that don't support PNG 32, then those images will be retrieved in whatever PNG format the service supports.

ArcGIS Server Internet

Connects to an ArcGIS server through HTTP. This is the recommended way to connect to ArcGIS Server, although an ArcGIS Server Internet connection cannot be used for web editing layers or any layers that will be worked with through fine-grained ArcObjects.

To make an ArcGIS Server Internet connection, you will be prompted to enter the URL of the server. This will take the form of http://<server>:6080/<instance>/services. In most cases, the instance will have the default name, which is ArcGIS.

If you're connecting to an ArcGIS Server Internet service that requires a login, click Connect to Secure Service. You can enter the user name and password at this point.

An ArcGIS Server Internet connection cannot be used for layers that will be edited over the web or any layers that will be worked with through fine-grained ArcObjects. Also, avoid using ArcGIS Server Internet connections to access nonpooled services.

In previous versions of ArcGIS Server, an ArcGIS Server Local connection type was included in Web Applications Manager for layers that would be edited over the web or services that would be used to access fined-grained ArcObjects. Local connections are not available in ArcGIS 10.1 for Server. To achieve web editing functionality, you can use a feature service in an application you build with the Esri web APIs or the ArcGIS Viewer for Flex. To access ArcObjects, you can write a server object extension or build an equivalent geoprocessing service.

ArcIMS

Use the ArcIMS option for adding ArcIMS Image and ArcMap Image Services. Feature and Metadata Services are not supported in a web mapping application.

To add an ArcIMS service, you must select either ArcIMS Server Local or ArcIMS Server Internet from the drop-down menu. For an ArcIMS Server local connection, you must specify a host and port. The host is the server where the ArcIMS Application Server resides. The port is the port used for the Application Server, and the default is 5300. For an ArcIMS Server Internet connection, you must specify the URL of the server you wish to access. For example, if the server is mymachine, the URL is http://mymachine. If you need to connect to secure services, check the box for secure services and type in a user name and password.

OGC WMS

You can add services to your map that support the OGC WMS specification. The Web ADF supports WMS versions 1.3.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.0, and 1.0.0. You must provide the URL of the service you want to add. If you are using WMS services hosted by ArcIMS or ArcGIS Server, sample URLs are shown below:

ArcIMS: http://<server>/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/<service>

ArcGIS Server: http://<server>/arcgis/services/<service>/MapServer/WMSServer

How to preview layers and set transparency

You can use the Preview tab to change the name, transparency, or position of a layer.

Changing the name, transparency, or position of a layer

1. Click the Preview tab, if it is not already active.
2. Click the layer you want to change. You can do the following:
   • Type a new name for the layer.
   • Use the slider bar to set a transparency percentage for the layer. (If there is only one layer, you cannot change its transparency using the slider bar.)
   • Use the arrow buttons to change the layer order in the table of contents.
   • Select the data frame to display.
3. After making the changes, click Apply. A preview image shows how the map will look within your application.

When you've finished adding layers

When you're done selecting layers and are ready to configure tasks for your application, click Next to move on to the next portion of the wizard.

For help with the next panel of the wizard, see Configuring tasks.