Manage map image layers

Owners of map image layers with publishing privileges and administrators can manage a layer's configured settings and stop and start the service exposed by the layer.

Start and stop services

Starting and stopping services are common actions you'll need to perform when administering map image layers. For example, you may stop a service to update its properties and start it for your changes to take effect.

Start a service

Starting a service makes it available for client access. When you start a service, the server initiates the minimum number of instances you specified. As clients request the service, the server returns an available instance. If none are currently available, the server initiates more instances to meet demand until the maximum number of instances is reached. At this point, any new clients that make a request for the service are placed in a queue for the next available instance.

To start a service, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to an organization as the item owner with publishing privileges or an administrator.
  2. Open the item details page for the item.
  3. Click the Settings tab.
  4. Scroll to the Map Image Layer section.
  5. Click the Start button.

    The service you selected in the module starts. If the Start button is unavailable, the service has already been started and is currently running.

Stop a service

When you stop a service, the server immediately removes all instances of that service from the server. This frees up any machine resources that were dedicated to the service. Clients that were using the service may fail to work properly because the service is no longer available.

To stop a service, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the organization as the item owner with publishing privileges or an administrator.
  2. Open the item details page for the item.
  3. Click the Settings tab.
  4. Scroll to the Map Image Layer section.
  5. Click the Stop button, then click the Stop Service button in the pop-up window.

    The service you selected in the module stops. If the Stop button is unavailable, the service is currently stopped.

Configure layers

Follow these steps to configure map image layer settings:

  1. Sign in to the organization as the item owner with publishing privileges.
  2. Open the item details page for the item.
  3. Click the Settings tab.
  4. Scroll to the Map Image Layer section and expand the Configuration heading.

    Under Operations, the Map, Query, and Data options are turned on by default. These operations are described in the following table:

    Map

    The Export Map, Generate Renderer, Generate KML, and Query Legends methods can be used. This operation cannot be turned off.

    Query

    The Identify method can be used.

    Data

    The Find, Query, and Query Related Records methods can be used.

  5. Optionally, uncheck the Data and Query boxes to turn off these operations.
  6. Optionally, under Dynamic workspace, uncheck the Allow per request modification of layer order and symbology box.

    Unchecking this box prevents users from changing the appearance or drawing behavior of the web layer. For example, users cannot change symbology, labeling, or the order of component layers.

  7. Under Layer drawing, choose how the map image layer will be drawn:

    Dynamically from data

    Data is retrieved and drawn each time it is requested. This is the default option.

    Use tiles from cache

    Data is drawn from cached images generated at map scales you define.

    For more information, see Map caching.

    If you use tiles from cache, additional settings may become available.

    1. Optionally, under Visible range, use the slider to set the map scales for which tiles are generated.

      A default scale range is provided. Depending on the purpose of your map and the estimated cache size, you may choose not to cache very large or small scales.

    2. Under Tiling scheme, review the settings determined when you published the service. These settings cannot be modified from the layer's item details page.

      • Set your tiling scheme—The tiling scheme determines the scale levels, tile dimensions, and tile origin of the cache.
      • Image format—If all sublayers in the web layer have vector data sources, the default setting is PNG. If one or more sublayers has a raster data source, the default setting is MIXED.
      • Compression—Compression is available only if the format is JPEG or MIXED. PNG formats are not compressed. You can use values between 0 and 100. Higher values result in larger file sizes with higher-quality imagery. Lower values result in smaller file sizes with lower-quality imagery. The default value is 75.

    3. Under Tiles, expand the Tile details heading.

      Review the current tile range defined on the layer and the tile status.

    4. Optionally, check the Allow this layer to be downloaded and used in offline mode box.
    5. If you have enabled the layer to be downloaded and used in offline mode, optionally set a limit to the tiles that can be exported.
    6. Optionally, check the Create tiles on demand box.

      Description

      Not checked

      Tiles are built only through caching, either automatically or manually. This is the default.

      Checked

      Tiles that are not cached are created on demand (that is, when a client application requests them). This occurs mainly in the following situations:

      • Tiles are cached automatically on the server, and you specified an area of interest for the cache extent. In this case, tiles are cached only for the area of interest. Tiles are created on demand for the rest of the map extent.
      • You cache tiles manually on the server. In this case, tiles are cached for the scales selected in the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool. Tiles are created on demand for scales that are not selected.

  8. Click Save to apply the changes you have made.

Configure parameters

Map image layers have a number of configurable parameters. Parameter settings apply to the map image layer and to any other layers and capabilities you add.

  1. Sign in to the organization as the item owner with publishing privileges.
  2. Open the item details page for the item.
  3. Click the Settings tab.
  4. Scroll to the Map Image Layer section and expand the Parameters heading.
  5. Under Properties, specify a value for Maximum records returned by server.

    This setting determines the maximum number of records returned by a user query. A large number may result in slower performance. The default value is 2,000.

  6. Expand the Advanced heading to set the following parameters:

    • Enter a value in the Maximum number of coded domains box to specify the maximum number of domain codes returned from fields, subtypes, layers, and tables. The default value is 25,000.
    • Specify values in the Maximum image height and Maximum image width boxes. These values represent the maximum height and width in pixels of images the map service can export. The default for both values is 4,096.
    • Enter a value in the Maximum sample size box to specify the maximum number of records that is sampled when a class breaks renderer is computed. The default value is 100,000.

  7. Optionally, disable schema locking.

    The Enable schema locking option is turned on by default to prevent modifications to datasets that are used by reference in the map image layer.

  8. Optionally, enable identify relates.

    The Enable identify relates option is turned off by default. When enabled, information from related tables is returned when a feature is identified. If disabled, information from related tables is not returned.

  9. Optionally, under Date Fields, click the Time zone of the data drop-down arrow and choose the time zone in which your date values are stored.

    Specifying the time zone in which the dates are recorded allows date and time values to be converted correctly when users interact with the map image layer.

    Note:

    You only need to choose a time zone if your map contains layers with date fields. If you don't specify a time zone, the dates are assumed to be stored in UTC.

    If you choose Unknown, date and time values will not be converted. Choose this option if your date fields do not have a known time zone or if multiple time zones are represented in the data. Unknown time zones do not apply to editor tracking date fields. Editor tracking date fields in UTC will remain in UTC even when the service's time is set to unknown.

    1. If you choose a time zone other than None (Assumed UTC) or Unknown and you want the time zone to account for daylight saving time, check the Values are adjusted for daylight savings box.
  10. If you chose a time zone other than None (Assumed UTC) or Unknown, optionally click the Preferred time zone drop-down arrow and choose a time zone to use when displaying queries from the map image layer.

    If you don't specify a time zone, date fields will be displayed in UTC.

    1. If you choose a preferred time zone other than None (Assumed UTC) or Unknown and you want the preferred time zone to account for daylight saving time, check the Values are adjusted for daylight savings box.
  11. Optionally, under Anti-aliasing settings, click the Anti-aliasing drop-down arrow and choose the anti-aliasing mode.

    None

    No anti-aliasing is performed.

    Fastest

    Minimal anti-aliasing is performed, optimized for speed.

    Fast

    Some anti-aliasing is performed, optimized for speed, with better quality than to be achieved with Fastest. This is the default.

    Normal

    A good balance for speed and quality.

    Best

    The best quality for anti-aliasing. This option takes the longest to render.

  12. Optionally, click the Text anti-aliasing drop-down arrow and choose an anti-aliasing text option.

    None

    No text anti-aliasing is performed.

    Normal

    Text anti-aliasing is performed as determined by the font type. Each font has parameters created by the font author that define at which sizes the font should be drawn for anti-aliasing.

    Force

    Text is always drawn with anti-aliasing, regardless of font parameters. This is the default and recommended setting.

  13. Click Save to apply the changes you have made.

Additional layers and capabilities

When publishing map image layers, you can enable WCS and KML to provide your layer with additional capabilities. You can manage these properties from the item details page of map image layers with WCS or KML enabled. To learn more, see the following:

You can also enable WMS and WFS as additional layers. To learn more, see the following:

Note:

These additional layers and capabilities are not available for map image layers published from cloud data warehouse data.