Image services

Local (DCOM) connections are only supported for ArcGIS Server versions prior to 10.1.

About image services

An image service can be published from a mosaic dataset, a new geodatabase raster data type for managing large collection of images, and a raster dataset. It can also be published from their corresponding layers.
If registered with the Image Server, compiled service definition files (ISCDef) can also be published as image services. An image service published from a mosaic dataset provides a mosaic image view, as well as a catalog view of the large collection of images. An image service published from a raster dataset or an image service definition file only supports the mosaic image view.
At ArcGIS 10, image services offer the following capabilities:
  • Query image service information, including spatial reference, extent, pixel size, pixel type, number of bands, and band statistics.
  • Get image pixels for a given image description.
  • Get catalog item count and catalog items for a given selection.
  • Download the selected original images.
  • Get image orientation information and read raw pixels in image space from each individual image.
Images are returned in a byte array and arranged in a band interleaved by pixel format plus a NoData mask. The byte array can be optionally compressed using Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG [plus transparency]) and LZ77 compression. Images can also be returned in a well-known format as Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) data, or a uniform resource locator (URL). The supported well-known image format includes JPEG, Portable Network Graphics (PNG), bitmap (BMP), and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF).
Catalog items are returned as a RecordSet. The items in the RecordSet contain footprints and other visible fields in the image service catalog, but do not contain actual raster values. The corresponding raster values can be returned through GetImage or ExportImage with a Lock Raster mosaic method or through the Download method that downloads the original images.
In general, a raster refers to an individual image (raster) in a raster catalog item and a row in a raster catalog. A raster ID (RID) is the ObjectID of the raster catalog item containing the raster.