Links and Resources
7. Final Thoughts
The demo and exercise on the previous pages are designed to make the client-server interaction in geospatial web services transparent, to better understand what usually is happening without the user even noticing, 'behind the scenes'.
In practice, common desktop and web GIS will directly interact with WMS, WFS and other services discussed below. We need to be aware, though, that depending on the type of service used characteristics like performance, flexibility and security will differ.
To look at a more direct interaction with a web service open a New Map in ArcGIS Online, and go to Add | Add Layer from Web, and paste this string
https://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/arcgis/rest/services/World_Countries_(Generalized)/FeatureServer
This will access a WFS and display a generalized map of world countries on your map. When searching for keywords or browsing the Living Atlas we follow such a link automatically, without even thinking about such a server URL, the type of service or its characteristics. Still, these are important for many uses - and in particular when establishing our own services.