State Cartographer's Office
State Cartographer's Office

Wisconsin Geospatial News

Hayden’s Tech Corner – Do Esri Services Support WMS and WFS?

By Hayden Elza

In short, yes, Esri services support OGC standards.

  • Map Server = WMS
  • Feature Service = WFS
  • Raster Tile Service = WMTS

Background

Despite Betteridge’s law of headlines the answer to the title is actually yes! I originally had this question when I was familiarizing myself with Esri’s service types. I had come from the world of open source and was already familiar with the WMS and WFS standards; by mapping my previous knowledge to this new-to-me ecosystem I was able to quickly organize Esri’s collection of service types in mind.

Recently, I was reminded of my notes on this topic after an audience question at the Esri Dev Summit and I thought I’d share them here. I mostly pull the information from a presentation called ArcGIS Enterprise: Best Practices for Layers and Service Types by Witt Mathot and Philip Heede from Esri UC 2019.

Skip to the end if you want tips on what to call these services in everyday conversation.

Esri Service Types

Map Service (Dynamic), i.e., Esri Map Server

  • Powers the Map Image Layer
  • ArcGIS Enterprise only
  • User managed data (not hosted)
  • Key Capabilities:
    • Server-side rendering
    • Supports dynamic layers and rendering
    • Supports identify and query
    • Supports OGC standards (WMS)

Is it possible to host a dynamic map service in ArcGIS Online?

No. It is not possible to host a dynamic map service in ArcGIS Online. A map service is limited to ArcGIS Server. A map service must be published on an ArcGIS Server site, but a map service hosted on the server site can be used in ArcGIS Online with the map service URL. ArcGIS Online cannot host map services as ArcGIS Server, but can consume these services.

Quote source: Esri Techical Support FAQ

Alternatively, you can publish a hosted tiled map service or a vector tiled service from ArcPro.

Map Service (Tiled or Cached), i.e., Raster Tile Service

  • Powers the Tiled Layer
  • ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise
  • ArcGIS or user managed data
  • Key Capabilities:
    • Server-side rendering
    • Cached using tiles (pre-create or on demand)
    • Supports taking data offline
    • Supports OGC standards (WMTS)

Vector Tile Service

  • Powers the Tiled Layer
  • ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise
  • ArcGIS managed data only
  • Key Capabilities:
    • Client-side rendering
    • Cached using tiles (pre-created only)
    • Pre-generalizes features, clips to tile
    • Visualization only, not identify or query
    • Supports taking data offline

Feature Service

  • Powers the Feature Layer and Table
  • ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise
  • ArcGIS or user managed
  • Key Capabilities:
    • Client-side rendering
    • Supports identify and query
    • Supports generalization (on-demand)
    • Supports editing
    • Supports taking data offline
    • Supports some OGC standards (WFS)

Controlled Vocabulary

Since controlled vocabulary aids in effective communication, here is my suggested shorthand for referring to each service:

  • “feature service” or “feature layer”: Esri Feature Service. More specifically:
    • feature service for server
    • feature layer for client
    • Bonus: “sublayer” for a layer within a feature layer
  • “raster tiles”: Esri Map Service (ArcGIS Online), a.k.a. Esri Raster Tile Service
  • “vector tiles”: Esri Vector Tile Service
  • “Esri map server”: Esri Map Service (Enterprise), a.k.a. Esri Map Server

Or just use the OGC standard names if talking to a broader audience such as when delivering a presentation.

Resources: