The Web Application Developer Framework (ADF) provides a generic framework to integrate multiple data sources into a single application. This framework, the Common Data Source application developer framework (API)—called the Common API—is a set of classes and interfaces that provide an extendable architecture for custom data source developers. The out-of-the-box data sources supported by the Web ADF are essentially custom in the sense that they implement parts of the Common API to expose data source capabilities for use by the Web ADF controls and APIs.
The Common API classes and interfaces are contained in the ESRI.ArcGIS.ADF.Web.DataSources assembly. The type and capabilities of the data source determine how the Common API is used. For data sources that provide map data, the following data source types are available:
- Map feature data—Features stored, managed, and rendered in the Web tier. When a map image containing the feature data is created, the Web-tier application must provide the logic to generate the image. In the Web ADF, this is accomplished by the Graphics resource.
- Map image data—Data stored, managed, and rendered in the Server tier. A remote server either generates a new map image (dynamic) or provides a pre-generated map image tile (static).
The Common_CustomDataSource sample shows the implementation of both custom data source types.