WMS and ArcGIS Online: Where is the support for GetFutureInfo?

Question

Greetings, ArcGIS Online community,

I have been attempting to access a couple of bits of functionality when publishing a WMS service in ArcGIS Online; the legend, and access to attribute information.  I used a publicly available WMS service from the British Geological Society (BGS) which works well when consumed in ArcGIS 10.1  for Desktop pre-release. In ArcMap, I can identify each of the five layers included in the WMS. This provides information on the geologic strata, formations, etc, and it's done through the generation of a GetFeatureInfo request to the WMS service.  However, it seems that ArcGIS online does not support the querying of WMS layers, which is a shame.  Does anyone know if this is functionality that has been missed due to omission or if it should work and it does not because of a bug?

Any information or comments on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

PaulLohr · Answer

Zdenek,

It has been said that getFeatureInfo / pop-ups are now supported in ArcGIS Online. I have not tested this. See the section titled 'Pop-ups in OGC WMS layers' of the article linked below.

What’s New with OGC Support in ArcGIS Online (June 2016) | ArcGIS Blog

ZdeněkSoldán · Answer

Hello there!

Is the situation with supporting GetFeatureInfo on WMS on ArcGIS Online still the same? Or did Esri change the opinion?

Thanks for any newer information.

MiguelParedes · Answer

Greetings Mike,

Many thanks for the response.  I have to admit though, that I'm disappointed that Esri has elected not to support the Query of WMS.  It seems that in many cases, there are some really good services out there, but without the capability of being able to show a popup box with information on a particular feature renders the usability of the service useless. For instance, have a look at the following service WMS from the BGS, as implemented via a google maps powered viewer:http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/services/mapCreator/#customMapForm
[ATTACH=CONFIG]15100[/ATTACH]

Just adding the capability to display a popup with the information provided by the issuing of a GetFeatureInfo request would render WMS services similar to BGSs of great use to our users. Unless I'm missing something and implementing such capability is technically very difficult and not cost effective, why wasn't it included in ArcGIS online?

What are the chances of this bit of capability being reconsidered for the near future?

ScreenHunter_75 Jun. 11 15.49.jpg