{"id":172041,"date":"2010-08-19T16:47:07","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T16:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=172041"},"modified":"2018-12-18T10:41:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T18:41:18","slug":"sharing-wms-services-via-arcgis-online","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/sharing-collaboration\/sharing-wms-services-via-arcgis-online","title":{"rendered":"Sharing WMS services via ArcGIS Online"},"author":7641,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[23851,37511],"tags":[38251,26501,30431],"industry":[],"product":[36551],"class_list":["post-172041","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data-management","category-sharing-collaboration","tag-package","tag-services","tag-wms","product-arcgis-online"],"acf":{"short_description":"A question came up recently - can I share WMS services via ArcGIS Online? The answer is yes, and here\u2019s how.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>A question came\u00a0up recently\u00a0&#8211; can I share WMS services via ArcGIS Online? The answer is yes, and here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n<p>First, WMS services, unlike ArcGIS services, can\u2019t be\u00a0shared on ArcGIS Online\u00a0in their native form. Why you might ask? Not all client applications support them (at least not just yet), so\u00a0WMS services\u00a0are supported in a way that exposes them to the clients that can use them \u2013 via layer files or layer packages.<\/p>\n<p>This means the\u00a0way to share WMS services on ArcGIS Online is to use ArcGIS Desktop to create layer files or layer packages which you can easily\u00a0add to\u00a0ArcGIS Online. We should note that the upcoming release of ArcGIS Explorer (build 1500) also supports saving WMS services (and\u00a0other map items)\u00a0as layer packages.<\/p>\n<p>In this example we\u2019ll use ArcMap to connect to a WMS service and share it.<\/p>\n<p>Start ArcMap, and click the add data button as shown below:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_2533.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Choose GIS Servers from the drop-down list<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_2534.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then choose Add WMS Server<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_2535.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Enter the connection information (here we\u2019re connecting to a NOAA WMS service of stream gauges) in the next dialog. You can also connect directly to any layer in the service. You may notice that the NOAA WMS service we\u2019ve used is published from ArcGIS Server. ArcGIS Server provide you an option to publish any service as a WMS service.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_2536.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once we completed those steps, here\u2019s what the service looked like in our map.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_2532.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To share this\u00a0via ArcGIS Online we need to\u00a0save it as a layer file or a layer package. Layer packages are the easiest direct\u00a0path to ArcGIS Online since with<a title=\"Learn more about ArcGIS 10\" href=\"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/software\/arcgis\/arcgis10\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0ArcGIS 10<\/a>\u00a0you can share layer packages directly to your ArcGIS Online account.<\/p>\n<p>Right-click the layer, and choose Create Layer Package\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_2537.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re using\u00a0<a title=\"Learn more about ArcGIS 10\" href=\"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/software\/arcgis\/arcgis10\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ArcGIS 10<\/a>\u00a0and among the new features in this latest release is that ArcGIS Online is deeply integrated into the user experience. So when we create a layer package, we\u00a0have a choice of saving\u00a0it locally as a file, or adding it directly to our ArcGIS Online account.<\/p>\n<p>Below we\u2019ve chosen to share the layer package directly to ArcGIS Online. No data is copied of course, the layer package simply contains the URL reference to the WMS service.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/downloads2.esri.com\/blogs\/images\/support_2538.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>WMS services are shareable via ArcGIS Online by following these two simple steps \u2013 connect to the service, then share to ArcGIS Online as a layer package.<\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":7641,"user_firstname":"Bernie","user_lastname":"Szukalski","nickname":"Bern Szukalski","user_nicename":"bszukalski","display_name":"Bern Szukalski","user_email":"bszukalski@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-26 17:55:14","user_description":"I am a corporate technology evangelist and geo advocate at Esri, focusing on ways to broaden access to geographic information and helping customers succeed with ArcGIS. \r\n\r\nOn a good day I'm making a map, on a great day I'm on one. Email bszukalski@esri.com or connect on LinkedIn (https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bernszukalski\/).","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bern04-465x465.png' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}],"related_articles":"","card_image":false,"wide_image":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sharing WMS services via ArcGIS Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/sharing-collaboration\/sharing-wms-services-via-arcgis-online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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Email bszukalski@esri.com or connect on LinkedIn (https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bernszukalski\/).","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bernszukalski\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/author\/bszukalski"}]}},"text_date":"August 19, 2010","author_name":"Bern Szukalski","author_page":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/author\/bszukalski","custom_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Newsroom-Keyart-Wide-1920-x-1080.jpg","primary_product":"ArcGIS Online","tag_data":[{"term_id":38251,"name":"Package","slug":"package","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":38251,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":26501,"name":"services","slug":"services","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":26501,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":20,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":30431,"name":"WMS","slug":"wms","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":30431,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw"}],"category_data":[{"term_id":23851,"name":"Data Management","slug":"data-management","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":23851,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":926,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":37511,"name":"Sharing and Collaboration","slug":"sharing-collaboration","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":37511,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":424,"filter":"raw"}],"product_data":[{"term_id":36551,"name":"ArcGIS Online","slug":"arcgis-online","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":36551,"taxonomy":"product","description":"","parent":0,"count":2433,"filter":"raw"}],"primary_product_link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s=#&products=arcgis-online","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/172041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/172041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172041"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=172041"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=172041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}