Applications to work with feature services
Clients can access feature services using either a web application or ArcGIS for Desktop. Esri offers several resources that you can use to create web GIS applications and services. The resource that you choose depends on your experience and skill level, as well as the requirements of the application.
ArcGIS.com
If you have no prior experience with web application development, consider using the resources on ArcGIS.com to create your web applications. ArcGIS.com offers two stand-alone client viewers, the ArcGIS.com map viewer and ArcGIS Explorer Online, that you can use to create your own maps and web applications that reference your feature services. Additionally, you can add Esri-hosted content from ArcGIS Online or other content you find on ArcGIS.com to these applications. Once you have finished your web application, you can share it with others on ArcGIS.com, create groups that can exclusively view your content, join other communities to collaborate with, and export your web map to deploy on your organization's web server.
The ArcGIS.com help provides instructions on how to reference your feature services on the website, add them to the ArcGIS.com map viewer and ArcGIS Explorer Online, and share them with others.
Configurable web applications
ArcGIS Viewer for Flex and ArcGIS Viewer for Microsoft Silverlight are ready-to-deploy, configurable web applications built on the ArcGIS web APIs. Using these viewer applications, you can quickly create web mapping applications that reference your feature services without writing any code.
To learn more about the viewers, see their individual Resource Center pages:
Web APIs
Esri offers web mapping APIs for JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight. You can use these APIs to build a web application from scratch. They offer common GIS functionality and are designed to be accessible to beginning programmers. The links below contain summaries of the APIs, which in turn link to the ArcGIS Resource Center where you can read the full documentation:
Choosing an API
The APIs are functionally very similar, and when choosing an API, the most important question is not "What do you want to do?", but, rather, "Which platform are your developers most comfortable with?" If you've been working with Microsoft technologies and your developers are inclined in that direction, the ArcGIS API for Silverlight may be a good choice for you. Using similar logic, if you have a lot of past experience writing custom scripts for your ArcIMS applications, you'll probably find the ArcGIS API for JavaScript to be a nice fit.
Many beginning developers find the JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight APIs easy to learn because of their supporting resources. In the ArcGIS Resource Center, you can watch videos, read tutorials, and examine working samples that are designed for beginners. Additionally, Esri has made sample ArcGIS server sites available so that you can practice with the APIs. In fact, you can get a JavaScript mapping application running on your machine with just a text editor and an Internet connection.
ArcGIS for Desktop
In ArcGIS for Desktop, commands are provided for working with feature services in ArcMap. When a map service with feature access is added to ArcMap, the Create Local Copy for Editing command becomes enabled on the map service context menu. You pan and zoom to an area you want to edit and click this command. This copies the layers and data from the service to the client machine for the area shown in ArcMap. The layers contain the symbology and template information from the published map document. The ArcMap editor can then make edits to the local data taking advantage of the symbology and templates.
Once the edits are complete, you can use the Synchronize Local Edits With Server and Disconnect Local Copy From Server commands on the group layer context menu to apply the edits to the service.