WMS:Introduction to ArcObjects

ArcObjects is a development platform provided by ESRI that allows developers of other applications (such as WMS) to incorporate ArcView/ArcGIS® capability directly within their application. WMS has the ability to use some parts of ArcView® as an integrated part of the WMS application. This allows users to access some of the same functionality in WMS that is available in ArcView®, but this is only providing you are running on a computer that has a current license of ArcView®. Without a license, much of the same functionality is available, the primary differences being that only the shapefile format is supported, and many of the selection and display capabilities are minimal.

Enabling ArcObjects

The Data | Enable ArcObjects command queries the ESRI license manager for ArcView/ArcGIS® to see if a license for version 8.x exists. If a valid license is found then the ArcView® functionality within WMS is enabled and you will be allowed access. If a license is not found then the ArcView® functions remain dimmed, but you are still able to do many of the same things, the primary limitation being that only shapefile format is supported for reading GIS data.

ArcObjects not Enabled

Without a license to ArcView®, the display capability of shapefile layers is minimal. The primary intent of using the shapefile layers is as a temporary holding place to convert your data to feature objects. As such, the full symbology capability of ArcView® has not been implemented within WMS. All shapes are displayed using black lines.

ArcObjects Display Options

With ArcObjects enabled you have access to the ArcView® Layer Properties dialog. This dialog can be used to specify the symbology of GIS data layers and is accessed by right-clicking on the layer from the Project Explorer and choosing Properties.

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When displaying GIS layers using ArcObjects the properties and symbology defined in the Layer Properties dialog are used by ArcObjects to render the GIS layer. ArcObjects renders the features and passes a bitmap to WMS. WMS then renders the rest of the current data (e.g. DEMs, TINs, feature objects, etc.) on top of the data displayed by ArcView®.

Transparency can be defined for a layer, but it will only affect the display that is rendered by ArcObjects, and not the rest of the data rendered by WMS.

Related Topics

• GIS Module