Customizing the Web Mapping Application

You can open the Web application generated by Manager in the Visual Studio IDE and continue to customize it to meet your specific needs. The Web Mapping Application is also integrated with Visual Studio 2005 as a template. Whether created in Manager or Visual Studio, a Web Mapping Application contains standard web page design elements, plus web controls. These web controls include both standard ASP.NET web controls, as well as ESRI ADF-specific web controls.

There are two general levels of customizing a Web Mapping Application available to you:

Modifying properties of Web controls and making basic HTML modifications. If you have customized an ArcIMS HTML Viewer in the past, this is equivalent to modifying ArcIMSparam.js and making basic HTML modifications. This level of customization requires no programming.
Programming against different application programming interfaces (API's).

Notes:

"Manager" in this topic refers to both ArcIMS Web Manager and ArcGIS Server Manager.
In versions of ArcIMS prior to 9.2, ArcIMS included a Manager, which allowed you to author ArcIMS services, design Web sites, and manage services and servers. This Manager was removed from ArcIMS 9.2. For authoring services, use ArcIMS Author. Use ArcIMS Designer to design Web sites using the HTML Viewer, Java Custom Viewer, or Java Standard Viewer. Use ArcIMS Administrator or the ArcIMS Service Adminstrator to manager services and servers. ArcIMS Web Manager is a new application and is part of the Web ADF installation.

Comparing Manager with ArcIMS Designer

In order to better understand the functionality available in Manager, the following table compares functions in ArcIMS Designer and the corresponding function in Manager. In many cases, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the two, although the format and order is different.

Action	Designer	Manager
Set Web application name	Type in name.	Same
Set title for application	Type in title.	Same
Add services	ArcIMS services only. The HTML Viewer allows for only one service per viewer. The Java Custom and Java Standard allow more than one ArcIMS service per viewer. Access to service is through HTTP(S).	ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server, WMS, ArcWeb services. Services can be accessed from one or more sites. Access to ArcIMS services is through HTTP or TCP.
Set map extent	Intial Extent based on the extent of the service or by a layer in the service. Extent Limit is the maximum extent allowed by service or layer.	When multiple services are included, select which service extent to use
Select overview map	Any Image or ArcMap Image Service on the same server as the map.	Limited to list of services previously selected for map display.
Select scale bar	Set data source and scale bar units	Set scale bar units and color.
Select toolbar (See below for more details on tools and tasks.)	Select which tools to include in toolbar.	Select whether to include toolbar or not.
Select tasks	N/A	Pick from Search, Query, Find Address, and Find Place tasks.
Select north arrow	Included by default.	Selection provides look and feel for navigation tool.
Select table of contents	Legend and layerlist included by default.	Select whether to include TOC, to include service in TOC, and to include swatches.
Select look and feel	N/A	Part of page elements.
Add Web links in title bar	N/A	Part of page elements.
Choose Web application location	Default is virtual directory established during post-install.	Default is wwwroot directory.
Modify output	No	Yes

Tools and tasks

Many of the operations in the HTML Viewer, Java Standard Viewer, and Java Custom Viewer that are handled through the toolbar are also in the Web Mapping Application. However, in some cases, a new approach has been taken to handle some of the operations. One big difference is the use of tasks. The task framework offers a standard way to deliver GIS functionality in your Web Mapping Application. Besides making the out-of-the-box functionality easier to use, you can also use the model to build your own custom tasks. Each task is a unit of work where there is often a dialog requiring user interaction. For example, in the HTML Viewer, when a user clicks the Find tool, a dialog appears where the user can type in a search string. In the Web Mapping Application, there is no equivalent tool in the toolbar. Instead, a Search task can be configured that allows users to type in a search string. In addition to a Search task, other tasks available for ArcIMS users are Query, Find Address, and Find Place.

The following table compares the tools available in the HTML Viewer, Java Standard Viewer, and Java Custom Viewer toolbar and the equivalent tool or task in the Web Mapping Application.

HTML Viewer, Java Custom Viewer, Java Standard Viewer	Web Mapping Application
Toggle between legend and layerlist	Table of contents (TOC) includes layers and swatches together and are included in a collapsible, dockable panel.
Toggle overview map	Included in collapsible, dockable panel.
Zoom in, Zoom out, Pan	Included on toolbar. Users can also use the scroll wheel or keyboard strokes.
Zoom to full extent	Included on toolbar.
Zoom to active layer	N/A. No concept of an active layer.
Back to last extent	Available, but must be added manually.
Pan north, south, east, west	Navigation tool allows users to pan the map.
Identify	Included on toolbar.
Query	Included as Query task.
Find	Included as Search task.
Stored query	Use a Query or Search task.
Measure	Included on toolbar.
Set units	Included as part of measure dialog.
Buffer	See Footnote 1.
Select by rectangle, select by line or polygon	See Footnote 1.
Find address	Included as Find Address task.
Clear features	Features are highlighted by turning on each selected feature individually. They are cleared by turning off each feature.
Print	See Footnote 2.
N/A	Magnify tool on toolbar.
N/A	Find place task.

Footnotes:

Buffer and Select Features are not included on the toolbar. ArcGIS Server users can create a Geoprocessing Task to support these operations. ArcIMS users can customize the Web Mapping Application to add these operations.
Print functionality is not available as part of Manager. ArcGIS Server has a Layout control that supports printing. ArcIMS users can customize the Web Mapping Application to support printing.

The ArcIMS Java Custom and Java Standard Viewers have the same tools as listed for the HTML Viewer. They also have some additional tools:

Java Custom or Standard Viewer	Web Mapping Application
Open Project, Save Project, Close Project	No equivalent when using a Web Mapping Appication. However, you can save, close, and open maps using ArcGIS Explorer.
MapTips	Not available as part of Manager, but a MapTips control is included with the Web ADF for the Microsoft .NET Framework.
Layer Properties	Not available as part of Manager, but a Web Mapping Application can be customized to support this functionality.
EditNotes	An Edit Task is available when using ArcGIS Server Advanced Edition.
MapNotes	Not available as part of Manager, but a Web Mapping Application could be customized to support similar functionality.

Layout of a Web Mapping Application

A Web Mapping Application created by Web Manager or Manager looks similar to the following. For users familiar with the HTML Viewer, this application should be intuitive to use even though the user experience is different.

Web Mapping Application

Customizing Web Mapping Applications

Details about customizing Web Mapping Applications can be found in the Developer Help under the topic "Customizing the Web Mapping Application".