Skip To Content

Use available WMS service properties

This topic explains the properties available when using a system-generated capabilities file for WMS services.

Access WMS service properties in Manager

You can populate or modify the properties of a WMS service in ArcGIS Server Manager. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Open Manager and log in. If you need help with this step, see Log in to Manager.
  2. Click Services > Manage Services.
  3. In the Manage Services module, locate your service and click Edit Edit. If you don't see your service in the list, it may be in a subfolder under the Site (root) folder.
  4. In the Edit module, click Capabilities.
  5. In the capabilities list, click WMS and verify that WMS is enabled.
  6. In the WMS Configuration list, choose Enter service properties below.
  7. Populate or modify the WMS service properties.
  8. Click Save and Restart. The edits to your service are applied immediately.

WMS service properties

The following table lists the properties available for WMS services and a description of each:

PropertyDescription

Name

The OGC service type. This property is automatically populated by ArcGIS Server and should not be modified.

Title

The name of the map or image service that was used to create the WMS service. This property is automatically populated by ArcGIS Server and should not be modified.

Abstract

A narrative description that provides additional information about the WMS service. For example:

WMS service maintained by Acme Corporation. Contact: webmaster@wmt.acme.com. High-quality map showing eagle nests and possible nesting locations.

Keywords

A list of keywords or keyword phrases describing the WMS service that aid in catalog searching. For example:

map, bird, eagle, nest, site

Online Resource

The OnlineResource property lists the URL of the WMS service. It is necessary for a WMS client to communicate correctly with your WMS service. This property is automatically populated by ArcGIS Server and should not be modified.

ContactPerson

The primary contact person for the WMS service. For example:

John Smith

ContactPosition

The position of the contact person for the WMS service. For example:

IT Analyst

ContactOrganization

The organization that created the WMS service. For example:

NASA

Address type

The address type used by the organization that created the WMS service. For example:

postal

Address

The address of the organization that created the WMS service. For example:

380 New York Street

City

The city in which the organization that created the WMS service resides. For example:

Redlands

StateorProvince

The state in which the organization that created the WMS service resides. For example:

California

PostCode

The postal code in which the organization that created the WMS service resides. For example:

92373

Country

The country in which the organization that created the WMS service resides. For example:

USA

ContactVoiceTelephone

The telephone number where the primary contact person for the WMS service can be reached. For example:

+1 909 793-2853

ContactFacsimileTelephone

The fax number where the primary contact person for the WMS service can be reached. For example:

+1 123 456-7890

ContactElectronicMailAddress

The email address where the primary contact person for the WMS service can be reached. For example:

user@host.com

Fees

Text describing the fees imposed when accessing the WMS service. For example:

none

Access constraints

Text describing the restrictions and legal prerequisites for accessing and using the WMS service.

For internal use only. Do not distribute.

SLD Path or URL

SLDs allow you to publish multiple styles for each WMS layer. If you are binding an SLD file to the current WMS service, you need to enter the SLD path or URL property, network share, or physical location of an SLD XML file. The ArcGIS Server account must have access to the location for ArcGIS Server to properly read the SLD XML file.

To learn more about SLDs, see Using Styled Layer Descriptors with WMS services.

Additional spatial reference systems

This property can be used to add spatial reference systems to WMS services. By default, WMS services only list two spatial reference systems: EPSG:4326 (or CSR:84 for WMS 1.3.0) and the spatial reference of the map service on which the WMS is enabled.

To list additional spatial reference systems, separate the spatial reference systems with a comma (,). For example, EPSG:4267,EPSG:4269,EPSG:102113. The EPSG namespace (for example, EPSG) and the EPSG ID (for example, 4267) must be separated by a colon (:), or the spatial reference will be ignored by the server.

Custom spatial reference systems

The listCustomCRS property allows you to define a custom projection or well-known text (WKT) representation of a projection in a WMS service. This means publishers and consumers of the WMS can do the following:

  • Assign IDs to custom projections and advertise them through the WMS capabilities file.
  • Overwrite an existing projection with a WKT string.
  • Request a map in a particular projection by directly specifying the well-known text.

Identify tolerance (pixels)

This property allows you to define a tolerance (in pixels) in which the GetFeatureInfo operation will return feature information to the client when they click the screen. For example, if you define a pixel tolerance of 10 for your WMS, the information will be returned to the client as long as they click within 10 pixels of the feature on the screen.

Use layer names from the map document

By default, this option is unchecked, meaning that layers in the WMS service will be represented with zero-based integers, indicating their position in the table of contents from the top down.

Starting at version 10.8, there are no restrictions to the characters that can be used in a layer name, and WMS server will generate a unique identifier for the name when necessary.

Note:

The server assigned name will not affect the title.

WMS server will assign a unique name by character substitution (replacing characters with an underscore) and by adding a numeric suffix. This will occur in the following instances:

  • A map contains two or more layers with the same name.
  • A layer name begins with a number.
  • A layer name contains spaces or special characters, including ?,&,=,+,`,#,%,^,{},[],<>,,,|,"

Note:

The suffix number is a computed value based on the original string and is not random. As such, it will remain the same as long as the layer name is unmodified. For example, if there are two layers named Layer "1" and Layer [1], both would be converted to Layer__1_. To differentiate between the two, a unique number would be appended as a suffix to the modified string. In this example, the modified layer names would be Layer__1_1234 and Layer__1_1256, respectively.

Force map re-aspect based on width and height

This property determines whether the map is re-aspected. By default, this option is deselected, which means that the pixels representing the map area are stretched to fit into the height and width requested by WMS clients.

If this option is selected, the pixel height and width ratio will stay the same. When a map is requested at full extent, it may not fill the entire viewing area.

Assign a name identifier to a layer

By default, WMS services do not assign a <Name> to group layers. The namedLayersMode property allows you to control how layers in a WMS service are assigned a Name identifier. If the property is set to allLayers, a Name identifier is assigned both to group layers and to their sublayers. If it is set to subLayers or left unspecified, a Name identifier is only assigned to the sublayers of a group layer. This means clients cannot include a group layer in a GetMap request, but have to specify each individual sublayer inside the group layer.

Set properties in the Administrator Directory

Most properties can be configured using ArcGIS Server Manager. If a property cannot be modified using Manager, it can be modified or added using the ArcGIS Server Administrator Directory.

To edit properties using the directory, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Administrator Directory in a browser and log in. The typical URL to the directory is https://gisserver.domain.com:6443/arcgis/admin/.
  2. Click services.
  3. On the Folder page, click the name of the WMS-enabled map service that you want to edit. If you don't see your service in the list, it may be in a subfolder under the root folder.
  4. On the service's page, scroll to the bottom and click edit.
  5. On the Service Properties dialog box, locate the "typeName": "WMSServer" section.
  6. In the properties section, add the properties and specify the desired parameters, for example:

    "properties": {
       "name": "SampleWorldCities",
       "title": "WMS",
       "abstract": "",
       "keyword": "",
       "onlineResource": "",
       "contactPerson": "",
       "contactPosition": "",
       "contactOrganization": "",
       "address": "",
       "addressType": "",
       "city": "",
       "stateOrProvince": "",
       "postCode": "",
       "country": "",
       "contactVoiceTelephone": "",
       "contactFacsimileTelephone": "",
       "contactElectronicMailAddress": "",
       "fees": "",
       "accessConstraints": "",
    
       "customGetCapabilities": "false",
       "pathToCustomGetCapabilitiesFiles": "",
    
       "pathToCustomSLDFile": "",
       "listSupportedCRS": "",
       "listCustomCRS": "",
       "identifyToleranceInPixel": "10",
       "inheritLayerNames": "false",
       "reaspect": "true",
       "namedLayersMode": "subLayers",
    }

  7. Click Save Edits.

The properties are added to your WMS.

Special characters in service properties

The following characters cannot be included in any of the service properties: &, <, >, ", '. If you need to use one of these characters, you must substitute the appropriate escape sequence from the table below:

CharacterCharacter substitute

&

&amp;

<

&lt;

>

&gt;

"

&quot;

'

&apos;

Use external capabilities files with WMS services

Each WMS service exposes service-level metadata through its capabilities file. The capabilities file is the XML response that clients receive when they make a GetCapabilities request on the service. Configuring external capabilities files gives you the flexibility to do the following:

  • Add metadata about the service.
  • Add metadata about each layer.
  • Customize the legend information for each layer.

To use external capabilities files with WMS services, you'll need to create the files and configure the files for use with your WMS services. The sections below describe this process.

Note:

By using external capabilities files for your WMS service, you are responsible for validating your capabilities files against the DTD or XML schema from OGC. You also assume responsibility for all the synchronization between your capabilities files and the source map document from which your WMS service is published.

Create external capabilities files

To configure a WMS service to use external capabilities files, you must prepare at least one WMS capabilities file. You can create the file from scratch, but it's often easier to use a system-generated capabilities file as a template.

By default, system-generated capabilities files are created automatically every time you send a WMS GetCapabilities request to the service. To use a system-generated capabilities file as a template, you need to manually send the GetCapabilities request and save the response as XML. If you want your WMS service to support different versions of WMS protocol—for example, 1.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, and 1.3.0—you must have one capabilities file for each version of WMS you want to support.

Complete the following steps to create external capabilities files for your WMS service:

  1. If you haven't done so already, publish a map or image service and enable the WMS capability. For more information, see WMS services.
  2. In a web browser, provide the URL of your WMS service. The URL is formatted as follows:

    https://gisserver.domain.com:6443/arcgis/services/folder/service/service type(can be MapServer or ImageServer)/WMSServer

  3. Append ?service=wms&request=GetCapabilities&version=1.0.0 to the end of the service URL and press Enter. The XML displayed in the browser is the WMS version 1.0.0 capabilities file for your service.
  4. Save the results as an .xml file. The file name must follow the format <prefix><WMS version>.xml. For example, when you save the result .xml file from a WMS version 1.0.0 GetCapabilities request, the file must use a common prefix (such as Roads) followed by the three-digit WMS version number (100). The resulting file is Roads100.xml.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each WMS version you want to support, for example, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, and 1.3.0.
  6. Configure and customize metadata information for the WMS layers in each capabilities file.
  7. Move all of the capabilities files into a common folder accessible through HTTP. Typically, this will be a virtual directory on your organization's web server.

Configure a WMS service to use external capabilities files in ArcGIS Server Manager

To configure your WMS service to use external capabilities files, you'll need to update the WMS service to reference the URL of your capabilities files in ArcGIS Server Manager.

  1. Start ArcGIS Server Manager and sign in as an ArcGIS Server administrator. If you need help with this step, see Log in to ArcGIS Server Manager.
  2. Click Services > Manage Services.
  3. In the Manage Services module, locate your service and click Edit Edit. If you don't see your service in the list, it may be in a subfolder under the Site (root) folder.
  4. In the Edit module, click Capabilities.
  5. In the capabilities list, click WMS.
  6. In the WMS Configuration list, choose Use external capabilities files.
  7. In the Specify the location and prefix text box, specify the URL of the folder where you placed your capabilities files plus the common prefix you used for the files. For example, if the URL to the folder that contains your files is https://webserver.domain.com/arcgis/WMS/services and the common prefix you used is Roads, the URL you specify in the Specify the location and prefix text box is https://webserver.domain.com/arcgis/WMS/services/Roads.
  8. Click Save and Restart.