ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Java

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), Web Map Service (WMS) specification is an international specification for serving and consuming dynamic maps on the web. You can consume WMS services in applications using ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Java.

WMS services are useful if you want to make your maps available online in an open, recognized way across different platforms and clients. Any client built to support the WMS specification can view and work with your service. Four versions of the WMS specification have been published so far. They are v1.0.0, v1.1.0, v1.1.1, and v1.3.0 (most recent).

Client applications work with a WMS service by appending parameters to the service's uniform resource locator (URL). WMS services can support the following operations:

Requesting metadata about the service (GetCapabilities)
Requesting a map image (GetMap)
Requesting information about features in the map (GetFeatureInfo [optional])
Requesting user-defined styles (GetStyles)
Requesting legend symbols (GetLegendGraphic)

It is not necessary for a WMS service to support all the operations, but it must support at least the GetCapabilities and GetMap operations to be a basic WMS and support the optional GetFeatureInfo operation to be a Queryable WMS. Both the GetStyles and GetLegendGraphic operations are only applicable in a Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) WMS service.

The maps returned by a WMS service are images only (with the exception of scalable vector graphics [SVG]). They do not contain actual data.

You can learn more about WMS services at the Open Geospatial Consortium website. Esri also maintains a Standards and Interoperability web page detailing its support for OGC services in ArcGIS.

2/7/2013