Using the services
The easiest way to get started with Data and Maps for Server (2012) is by using the services to create a basemap. See Creating basemaps for instructions on how to use the services in this document to create an example basemap.
Using the following links, access the help for your ArcGIS application to learn how to add the services to your new and existing maps:
Explore the basemaps
You can use services from Data and Maps for Server (2012) to build powerful basemaps and globes. View some instructions for creating basemaps. You may want to use a basemap as a starting point for incorporating your own data and analysis tasks.
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The World Street Map in ArcGIS Explorer |
Use the basemaps as a framework
Most of the basemaps you can build with Data and Maps for Server (2012) are best used by adding your own content on top of the basemap information—for example, you might have an environmental or weather dataset that you want to overlay on the World Imagery basemap. See the Satellite map example for more information.
Many organizations maintain datasets and map services for only a limited range of scales and extents. You can add your data as postage stamps or small blocks of content on top of your basemaps. By wisely setting scale ranges on your content, you can configure the map so that your data overlays or replaces the basemap at the appropriate extent and altitude.
Both web GIS applications and ArcGIS Explorer provide a way for you to expose tasks to your users. For example, you can include a Find Nearby Places add-in with your ArcGIS Explorer map to allow anyone to find places of interest within a specified radius from the center point of the map. Data and Maps for Server basemaps work well for displaying the results of many tasks. For example, if you built a task for locating shelters or other facilities, you could choose to place the results on the World Street Map. Using services from Data and Maps for Server allows you to focus on developing the task and saves you the effort of authoring, caching, and serving the map.
Author your own maps
To ensure uniform, high-quality cartography, Esri has created a variety of map templates that are used by Esri and by the user community. You can download and use the map templates to author your own map to use in conjunction with the basemaps and reference layers from Esri. These map templates include map documents, sample data, and symbol style files to help create a map with your data.
The following map templates were used to create the maps included with Data and Maps for Server:
- Topographic Map Template—Medium Scales: For regional areas in basemaps
- Street Map Template: For regional and local areas in street maps
Once the map has been authored, you can generate a map cache using the ArcGIS Online/Bing Maps/Google Maps tiling scheme to match the tiling scheme of the map cache services included with Data and Maps for Server.
Then, publish the map cache to ArcGIS 10.1 for Server for use with the map cache services included with Data and Maps for Server.