Internet Map Server - a Quick Start Primer

The ARC Internet Map Server (ArcIMS) is a program for displaying and querying maps over the Internet. The maps are interactive - a user can zoom in and out of maps, with different amounts of detail being presented at different spatial scales. IMS allows different kinds of map layers (roads, land use, water bodies) to be turned on or off, so customized maps may be created. A user can also perform interactive queries to collect information about different items on the map. It is thus a fairly powerful way to distribute GIS data over the Internet.

The following primer covers the basics of using IMS - how to get and retrieve information.

The IMS Display

The following figure shows the IMS display for the City of Duluth, Minnesota. The screen has four primary sections:

• The Toolbar located along the left column, performs various map operations. You can hover over the Toolbar elements in the figure below to obtain a description of their functions - this feature works in the actual IMS session as well.
  
  
• The central map viewing frame displays the visible layers. This map can be manipulated (zoom, pan, query) using the Toolbar tools.
  
  
• The two windows on the right presents an interactive legend that allows different map elements to be loaded, viewed and queried. The top window contains the legend of the map layers that are currently visible in the map. The bottom window allows the user to add or remove additional layers from the map.
  
  
• The information window below the map returns results from map queries.
  

• If the user would like to add or remove layers to the current map. The user must click on the headings, (Administrative features, Planning Districts, etc...) to view the other datasets that are available. This will expand each heading to show all of the potential layers that are available to display. The visible checkbox determines which layers are displayed. The user must hit the Refresh Map button on the bottom to redraw the map and view the new map.

• Useful things to know: Map layers composed of lines, such as roads and streams, overlay quite easily. Layers which are based on polygons that cover the map, such as land use or soil types, however, can only be viewed one at a time. For this reason, a map layer may be 'hidden', i.e. the layer might be turned on, but you won't be able to see it. By convention, IMS draws layers at the bottom of the legend first. In the figure above, the Land Use map is drawn first, followed by the Parks layer, followed by Game Refuges, etc. If a layer seems hidden, turn off the layers above it to make it visible.

• In order for the user to Identify a feature on the map. The user can use the Identify Tool . But before doing so, the user must select what layer they would like to identify. For this example we'll identify Canal Park Dr in Duluth, MN. First the user needs to check the box next to the Streets layer, and then hit the Refresh Map button. The user can then zoom in to the Canal Park area of Duluth. The user will then click on the word Streets to activate the layer. The message 'Streets is now the Active Layer' will appear in the window at the bottom of the screen.

• The user can use the Identify Tool by clicking on the button on the toolbar and then click on a street to determine what it is called. The name of the street will appear in the window at the bottom of the screen.

 

More Help

Further information on using IMS can be found at the ESRI web site under http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=software.filteredGateway&PID=16l