REST links to "view in ArcGIS Explorer" never work

Question

Hi,

I would like to be able to provide users with simple links to view my map services in ArcGIS Explorer, and the "view in ArcGIS Explorer" link in REST would be perfect if it worked. I've never gotten this to work, regardless of map service projection, dynamic vs cached, different builds of AGS or Explorer, etc.

When you click on one of these links (like http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Street_Map/MapServer?f=nmf) you get an error message like "The file 'World Street Map' cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents."

Why provide that link on the REST page if it never works? I can open Explorer, connect to the map server, and add the service manually, then save the map, but doing that for every service is a huge pain. For example, since 10 doesn't support "-" in the instance name and our server uses a dash, our REST links are all changing. If I could just do a quick find/replace on a bunch of hyperlinks that would be no big deal. Rebuilding an nmf or nmc for every service just isn't worth it.

So are there any plans to either fix this functionality, or just stop teasing us and remove it from the REST page?

AndreiIvanov · Answer

Anyone know what's wrong with firefox? Most of my users use firefox, so it would be great if there was a fix. The odd thing is that I get the error from Explorer, not from firefox, so maybe firefox is messing up the file creation process?

FireFox downloads the file into Temp folder. That's the main problem. We've fixed it and it should be available in the upcoming release.

JonFisher · Answer

Huh, it looks like it's a firefox issue. I spent a lot of time messing with different map service properties and tried several AGX builds (using 1500 now) but it didn't occur to me to switch browsers for some reason.  Looks like IE7 and Chrome work at least.

Anyone know what's wrong with firefox? Most of my users use firefox, so it would be great if there was a fix. The odd thing is that I get the error from Explorer, not from firefox, so maybe firefox is messing up the file creation process?

MichaelBranscomb · Answer

Jon,

It should work fine - if I click on this example (http://sampleserver1.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Louisville/LOJIC_LandRecords_Louisville/MapServer) i'm prompted by Chrome to save the nmf then when I select the downloaded nmf it fires up Explorer and the map is added as expected.

Can you provide an example of one that doesn't work? Are you using Explorer 1500?

Regards

Mike