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Using OGC services as map layers
Release 9.3 Last modified August 6, 2010	Print all topics in : "Using OGC Services"

Note: This topic was updated for 9.3.1.

You can use many Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), services that are available on the Web using ArcGIS Desktop—for example, you can use WMS, WFS, and WCS services in ArcMap. In addition, you can use ArcGIS Desktop to publish Web services using a variety of OGC protocols.

The major OGC interfaces supported by ArcGIS include the following:

The OGC Web Mapping Service (WMS), which is used to serve georeferenced map images
The OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS), which is used to serve raster data and cell values (such as elevation values from a digital elevation model [DEM] or pixel values from a multiband image)
The OGC Web Feature Service (WFS), which is used to serve feature geometry and attributes using any Geography Markup Language (GML) profile (for example, using the Simple Features GML profile that is preferred for interchange with ArcGIS)
The OGC catalog services for the Web (CS-W), which is used to serve metadata

One of the key uses is to add OGC layers in ArcMap, ArcScene, and ArcGlobe. These are most often WMS, WFS, and WCS data sources, which are described in this part of the help.

For more information regarding OGC WMS specifications, see the OGC Web site at www.opengeospatial.org/standards.

Using OGC services as map layers