ArcIMS

ArcIMS (standing for Arc Internet Map Server) is a Web Map Server produced by Esri. It is a GIS that is designed to serve maps across the Internet. Sometimes these maps are just static images allowing simple panning and zooming, while others are more complex pages. Examples of interactive maps served with ArcIMS include maps with layers that can be turned on and off, or with features containing attributes that can be queried. A visitor to a site driven by ArcIMS needs nothing more than a web browser: the GIS and database are maintained on the server side.

The core of ArcIMS is a spatial server where most of the map related services are processed. On the server side, ArcIMS connector sits on top of web server and ArcIMS component and Application server works behind the scene. On the client side, the viewers can be thin client, custom clients or Esri desktop application like ArcMap, ArcExplorer, or ArcPad.

ArcIMS uses Esri's ArcXML to receive and respond to requests from the client. The data behind ArcIMS is usually stored in Shapefile format (an open specification) or an ArcSDE RDBMS database.

The Data Delivery Extension (DDE) is an extension to the ArcIMS product that delivers data to users in a data format and coordinate system of their own choosing, in order to have access to data in a format compatible with their local GIS applications.

According to Esri's ArcIMS product page, development of ArcIMS is now limited. Esri's server GIS development efforts are devoted primarily to ArcGIS Server.

ArcIMS Manager
The ArcIMS Manager application is a web applet that is used to author map configuration files, create and manage ArcIMS services and to build web applications. Essentially, Manager bundles ArcIMS Author, ArcIMS Administrator and ArcIMS Designer into a single web application.

ArcIMS Administrator
ArcIMS Administrator is an application that is used to manage ArcIMS services as well as site configuration; administration of virtual and spatial servers. ArcIMS Administrator is a stand alone Java-based application that communicates with ArcIMS via a web server.

ArcIMS Application Server
The ArcIMS Application Server is an application that runs as a Windows Service or Unix daemon. The ArcIMS Application Server is responsible for receiving, processing and sending various requests to the ArcIMS Spatial Server. When the ArcIMS Application Server starts, it reads configuration information from the ArcIMSSite.sez file. Once the file is read, the ArcIMS Application Server sends requests to the Spatial Server to start various services on each of the virutal servers.

The ArcIMS Application Server is responsible for handling the load distribution of incoming requests from ArcIMS clients. Because the Application Server catalogs services running in Spatial Servers, the Application Server knows which instance of a spatial server to send the request.

ArcIMS Application Server Connector
The ArcIMS Application Server Connector, otherwise known as the servlet connector, is a Web application that runs in a servlet engine which is configured with the Web server. The servlet connector is necessary in order for communication from the client application to reach the ArcIMS Application Server.

The servlet connector is necessary for users who want to use ArcIMS Administrator, ArcIMS Designer, or to use the following applications as ArcIMS clients; the HTML Viewer, ArcMap, ArcPad and ArcExplorer Java.

Example ArcIMS Internet Map Sites

 * Live maps from around the world
 * Texas General Land Office ArcIMS Viewers
 * NOAA Coastal Services Center's Historical Hurricane Tracks Tool