Services Directory is the HTML view of the Spatial Data Server REST API and is frequently used to obtain information about data sources when developing client applications. It allows you to browse, query, and edit feature layers in feature services hosted by a Spatial Data Server. Feature layers represent spatially enabled tables or views in a relational database.
Services Directory helps you do these things:
Browse the contents of a Feature Service
You can navigate a series of links to view information about the layers in your feature service.
Get information to help you develop applications
When you develop applications you will use URLs to query and edit spatial data hosted by an Spatial Data Server. Services Directory provides an interactive way for you to construct those URLs and test functionality.
Services Directory works using REST. REST is an architectural style that allows a server to reveal a hierarchy of information about itself through endpoints, or URLs. When you use Services Directory, you navigate through a series of links to discover information about services and layers. Every time you click a link, you see a new page that reveals additional information about what's available on the server and in the database. The information that you see on the page was retrieved through REST using the page's URL.
When you open Services Directory, you first see the home page, which lists all feature services currently running.
Click on a feature service name to get a list of layers. Click on a layer and you will see metadata (e.g. field and spatial reference) about the contents of the spatially enabled table or vieGetting information for development
Services Directory can help you get information that you need when developing
applications. Web, mobile, and desktop applications can utilize REST services by working with standard URLs. For the Spatial Data
Server, that URL will usually involve a query which returns spatial and attribute information in JSON format.
For example, using the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF, you use the Spatial Data Server to display spatial data in a table by adding a feature (i.e. graphics) layer to a Map using the following XAML:
<esri:FeatureLayer ID="MyFeatureLayer" Url="http://myserver/arcgis/rest/services/USA/FeatureServer/0" />
How do you know what the Url property should be set to? Use Services Directory. Using Services Directory, you can browse through the contents of
your server until you reach a layer of interest. You can then copy the URL out of
the browser and paste it in your code. The Spatial Data Server returns JSON results to a client, thus the client is responsible for rendering geometry. Note, in this case a where clause requesting all data ("1=1") is included for you by the client API. You can refine the attribute and spatial query parameters further using the client API.