Using the WMS Connector Administrator

The WMS Connector Administrator handles all WMS administration.

Logging in to the Administrator

Before you are allowed access to the Administrator, you must follow these steps.

  1. Open a Web browser.
  2. Enter the URL for the Administrator, which is accessed through a URL similar to the following example:

    http://<hostname>/<deploy_name>/index.htm

    where

    • <hostname> is the URL domain name for your site such as www.esri.com or a fully qualified machine name.
    • <deploy_name> is the name you assigned to the Web application when you deployed the WMS Connector. The recommended deployment name is "wmsconnector".
  3. In the page that appears, type your user name and password.

    If this is your first time logging in to the Administrator, you are prompted to create a new username and password and to confirm your password by typing it again. This user name and password is required for all future sessions.

  4. Click Login.

Setting WMS Connector properties

The WMS Connector Properties page allows you to set up or update the WMS Connector environment. The following properties are set on this page.

Enable WMS

This property specifies whether the WMS Connector is enabled or disabled. When enabled, WMS requests can be made through the connector. When disabled, all WMS services still exist along with their Capabilities files, but they are inaccessible to WMS requests. The only allowable command is "connectorPing", which tests communication with the WMS Connector. An example URL to test a connectorPing is

http://<hostname>/<deploy_name>/com.esri.wms.Esrimap?CMD=connectorPing

where

ArcIMS Host Machine

Name of the machine on which the ArcIMS Application Server is running. If your site has more than one machine with an Application Server, select the primary machine.

ArcIMS Client Port

The port on which the ArcIMS Servlet Connector communicates with the ArcIMS Application Server. By default, the port is 5300. If your site uses more than one port, use the port number that matches the port for the primary host machine.

Default Service

Sets the default ArcIMS service the WMS Connector recognizes. The WMS Connector can support many services. Non-default services are accessible by including the service name in the URL or by using the SERVICENAME parameter in a request. SERVICENAME is a vendor-specific parameter, and the default service is available without using this parameter.

Capabilities Directory

The location where the WMS Capabilities files get placed. A Capabilities file specifies the contents of a WMS service. Capabilities files are created for each WMS-enabled ArcIMS service.

The directory can be placed anywhere on your network that is visible to the host machine. It does not need to be in a location accessible to the Web server. If the directory name you choose does not exist, a new directory is created.

If you have other versions of the WMS Connector on your site, this Capabilities directory must be unique and should not be in the same location as any other Capabilities directory. For more information on compatibility with different version of the WMS Connector, see WMS Connector Compatibility.

Note: If a new directory is created when setting the Capabilities directory, this directory can be only one level down from an exsiting directory. For example, if c:\wms already exists, you can create a new directory called c:\wms\capabilities. However, you cannot create a new directory called c:\wms\capabilities\new.

Charset

Charset is available for international users who need to set a character set value. For example, a common charset for Japan is shift_jis. Once this value is set, the WMS Connector will work properly with international data and locales. The default is UTF-8.

Reaspect

Specifies whether to reaspect the returned image. When reaspect is TRUE, the pixel height and width ratio stay the same. At full extent, the map may not fill the entire viewing area. When reaspect is FALSE, the pixel height and width are stretched to fill the entire viewing area. The default is FALSE.

The WMS specification requires reaspect to be FALSE. Although you have the option to set reaspect to TRUE, it is recommended that you keep reaspect set to FALSE. A GetMap request is the only operation that has been designed to work with a reaspect value of TRUE. GetFeatureInfo requests may not work properly when reaspect is set to TRUE.

Known limit: ArcMap Image Services always have reaspect set to TRUE and cannot be set to FALSE. Image Services do not have this limitation.

Debug

Specifies whether logging is enabled. The default is false.

Error Log

Errors and messages can be logged in one of two files:

If the Debug property is false, this property is ignored, and there is no logging. The default value is servlet.

PNG Format

ArcIMS supports both PNG 8-bit and PNG 24-bit for image output. The WMS specification allows for only PNG. You can select which format you want for your output images.

Submitting the parameters

When you have filled out all the parameters on the page, click Submit. The information is registered automatically by the WMS Connector.

A note about the WMSEsrimap_prop property file: Once you have submitted the parameters in Administrator, a property file named WMSEsrimap_prop is updated. This file is located in the expanded WAR file's WEB-INF/classes directory. The location of the expanded WAR file directory varies depending on the servlet engine you are using. However, the structure of the expanded WAR file is always the same.

<Application Name>
      |__WAR
         |__WEB_INF
            |__classes
               |__WMSEsrimap_prop

where

You should not edit WMSEsrimap_prop in a text file. Instead, you should use the Administrator. If you do edit WMSEsrimap_prop, you must manually restart your servlet engine for the changes to take effect.

Changing the password

You should occasionally change your password to the WMS Connector Administrator. To do this:

  1. From the WMS Connector Properties page, click the Change Password link.
  2. In the page that appears, type your username and new password. You must confirm the password by typing it again.
  3. Click Login.

Enabling and disabling WMS services

After you have logged in and set properties for the WMS Connector, you will see the main Services page. This page lists all ArcIMS Image and ArcMap Image Services available for your server. You can enable some or all of these services for WMS.

Service column

This column lists all ArcIMS Image and ArcMap Image Services available on the server.

WMS Enabled? column

When the ArcIMS Monitor or Application Server is not running, you may see some unexpected behavior when enabling or disabling services. Services can be disabled as usual, and the Capabilities files are deleted. When you try to enable a service, you will get an error message:

The service could not be enabled for WMS. There was a problem creating one or more capabilities file.

When you see this error, check that the ArcIMS Monitor and Application Server are running.

Capabilities column

Map column

When a service is enabled for WMS, you can view the full extent of the map by clicking View Map. The map appears in a pop-up window.

Navigation links

Errors and warnings during administration

If a problem arises during administration you will receive an error or warning message. An error message indicates the process was unsuccessful. A warning message indicates that the process was successful but the results may be incorrect.

The following table lists some common error and warning messages when using the Administrator.

Problem Error message
ERR3002 An error occurred communicating with the ArcIMS Application Server. The Service List could not be generated.

Check if the Application Server is running. If not, restart it. After restarting, you may need to click Update Service List to see the list of services.

ERR3006 One or more capabilities file(s) for this service could not be deleted.

Check if the files are read-only or are being used by another application such as a text editor.

ERR3007 The directory containing the capability files for this service could not be deleted.

Check if the directory has permission to be deleted, is not being shared, or is locked by another process.

ERR3009 The service could not be enabled for WMS. There was a problem creating one or more capabilities file.

Check if the ArcIMS Monitor and Application Server are running. If they are, check if the ArcIMS service is running.

WRN3001 The map configuration file used as input to a service has no projection information. FILTERCOORDSYS and FEATURECOORDSYS are missing in the PROPERTIES section of the map configuration file.

The capabilities files are built with the following information:

  1. The SRS (Spatial Reference System) values for the service and the layer are listed as EPSG:NONE.
  2. All layer LatLonBoundingBox values are set to -180, -90, 180, 90.

Check if you have included FILTERCOORDSYS and FEATURECOODSYS in your map configuration file. For more information, see Knowledge Base article 26877 at http://support.esri.com. Additional information is also available in the ArcIMS Programmers Reference Guide.

WRN3002 ArcIMS services that use custom projection strings are handled in a special manner.

The capabilities files will include the following information:

  1. The SRS value for the service and for each layer is listed as EPSG:4326.
  2. The SRS list of valid spatial references for the service does not include the customized spatial reference string from the map configuration file.

Related topics

Overview of administering the WMS Connector