Managing KML network links

All map services you publish with ArcGIS Server have the Keyhole Markup Language (KML) capability enabled by default. Network links are an effective way to expose that KML to others. A KML network link is a way of making dynamic KML available on your server in a format that is easy to consume. The network link uses KMZ, a compressed form of KML.

KML network links can be consumed by clients such as ArcGIS Explorer or Google Earth. KML network links are useful because they reference dynamic KML rather than static KML that never changes or updates.

In ArcGIS Server Manager, you can use the Applications tab to view the current list of network links available on your server. To add network links to your server, you have two options:

• Create a network link from an existing ArcGIS Server map service.
• Publish to your server an existing network link that you created using ArcGIS Explorer or Google Earth.

Creating a KML network link from a map service

ArcGIS Server supports creating KML network links from an existing map service if the service's KML capability is enabled. By default, the KML capability is enabled on all new map services.

Learn more about the KML capability

You can create KML network links that include both vector and raster layers contained in the map service. Vector layers can be rasterized or returned as folders of placemarks within the KML.

A network link has several properties which you can define. These include the following:

• Name
• Snippet (short description)
• Description
• Layers
• Drawing options
• Refresh and view parameters
• Hostname (for use when using in a Reverse Proxy environment)
• Snippet behavior

Manager only provides support for creating network links that are based directly on content from published map services. If you want to create a network link containing multiple KML services, you can use Google Earth. Once you've created the network link in Google Earth, you can save it as KMZ, then use Manager to publish it back to your server.

How to create a new KML network link from a map service

Follow these steps to create a new KML network link:

1. Click the Applications tab in Manager.
2. Click KML Network Links.
3. Click Create Network Link.

4. Specify the name of your link. The name will be embedded in the Name tag in the file and will also be used as the file name. Optionally, you can provide a short and long description. The long description allows embedded HTML tags and URLs.

   When you've finished typing names and descriptions, click Next.

5. Choose the map service for which you want to create a network link. Map services for which you have disabled the KML capability are not available.
6. Check the layers from the service that you want to include in your network link. By default, all layers are checked.
7. Specify how the layers should draw. The first two options will return rasterized representations of your vector features. The third option will return the actual vectors. Once you've finished setting this property, click Next.
8. Set the Refresh, View, and Hostname options according to the way you want the network link to behave. The default options are sufficient for many network links.
9. Optionally, use Google Earth to edit the link, enhance its properties, or embed it within a new link. You can save the enhanced link as KMZ, then use the steps below to publish it back to your server.

Note: If you do not set the refresh interval to On Request or After camera stops, data will not be retrieved when the network link is first added to Google Earth.

Publishing an existing KML network link

In addition to creating a KML Network Link, you can publish an existing network link file that was created externally, for example, in Google Earth.

1. Click the Applications tab in Manager.
2. Click KML Network Links.
3. Click Publish Network Link.
4. Browse to the KML network link (.kmz or .kml) and click Upload. The name of the KMZ or KML file will be used to populate the Name column in the list of KML network links.
5. Optionally, click Upload another file to publish another link. Otherwise, click Return to list.

Publishing an existing link in this way copies the KMZ file to the server. The original, local copy of the KMZ file is not affected. It is possible to simply copy a KMZ file directly into the http://myserver/arcgis/KML folder. Manager will automatically list the file.