Tutorial: Creating a Web application
You can use ArcGIS Server Manager to create and deploy a fully functional Web mapping application. Manager steps you through the process of selecting which services to display, configuring tasks, and choosing the look and feel of your Web application. Once you've created the application, you can return and edit it in Manager. If you want to make advanced customizations, you can open the application in an integrated development environment (IDE) such as Microsoft Visual Studio.
Creating a Web application with ArcGIS Server Manager
The steps below will help you use Manager to create a simple Web application that displays one map service. Before you start, you need to have a map service running. You can find instructions for that in Tutorial: Publishing a map service.
To create a Web application in Manager, follow these steps:
- Log in to Manager or, if you're already logged in, click the Home tab. The account you used to log in must be in the agsadmin group, and it must be an administrator on the machine to create the Web application. If you're not sure if your account is an administrator on the machine, consult your system administrator or use the operating system tools to view the Administrators group.
- Click Create a web application.
- In the Name text box, type a name for your application. This is the name by which you will see your application listed in Manager. Optionally, type a Description. Click Next.
- Now you will choose the map service that your application will display. First, you need to establish a connection with a GIS server. Click Add Layer, click Add GIS Server, then choose ArcGIS Server Internet as the connection type.
- Type the URL of the ArcGIS Server you want to connect to. The URL will take the form http://<server>/<instance>/services. For example, if connecting to a machine named myServer using the default instance name of arcgis, the URL would be http://myServer/arcgis/services.
- When you have entered all the connection information, click Add. A list of map services from the server you just added appears.
- Choose a map service and click Add to move it into the Current Layers list. Click Close to return to the list of layers. Then click Next.
- This screen allows you to add tasks to your application. Configuring tasks is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but you can find information on working with tasks in Manager in the topic Configuring tasks. Tasks are optional, so for now, click Next to move to the next screen.
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Set the values for Title text, Theme, and Web page links.
- The Title text will appear across the top banner of your application and in the title bar of the browser window.
- The Theme specifies the top banner graphic and the color scheme of your application's menus.
- The Web page links will appear in the top corner of your application. You can remove or edit the default links or add your own.
When you finish setting these properties, click Next.
- Choose which map elements will be enabled in your application. Available elements are Table of Contents, Overview Map, Toolbar, Navigation, Scale Bar, Zoom Level, and Map Copyright Text. Each element has a Properties window where you can adjust how the element will look and function in your Web application. For example, you can choose an icon or image that will be used for the Navigation control.
- When you finish configuring the map elements, click Next to review some information about the application that will be created. Take note of the URL so that you can access it later. You'll also be able to see this URL on the Applications tab of Manager.
- Click Finish to create the Web application. By default, it will open in a new browser window. If you want to change any of the settings you selected, you can now access the application from the Applications tab in Manager.
To make more advanced edits to your application, you can use an IDE. The Developer Help contains many topics on how you can use the programming libraries included with the Web Application Developer Framework (ADF) to further customize your Web applications.