What kind of layer is the Bing Aerial Map

Question

I am using ArcObjects in ArcMap to select a Bing aerial layer in the Table of Contents of ArcMap. I want to find out information about the service, such as the service name and URL. But I am having trouble figuring out what interface the Bing aerial service implements. Here is what I have so far: pLayer = (ILayer)mxDoc.SelectedItem; // Get the selected layer from the ArcMap TOC IBasemapLayer bmLayer = (IBasemapLayer)pLayer; ICompositeLayer bmCompositeLayer = (ICompositeLayer)bmLayer; IBasemapSubLayer bmSubLayer = (IBasemapSubLayer)bmCompositeLayer.get_Layer(0); ILayer innerLayer = bmSubLayer.Layer;‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ But once I get to the actual inner layer of the Bing aerial service, I can't figure out what other interface this implements that might have information such as the URL or service name. So I basically have two questions: 1. What interface does the Bing aerial service implement that might provide useful information about that service, and 2. Is there an easier way of figuring out what interfaces a layer implements rather than a bunch of "If" statements asking: Is it this interface? No. Is it this? No. Is it this? No. It was a real guessing game just getting the few lines of code above. Thanks.

TomFlahive · Answer

Thanks for the reply Duncan, and providing some code.  Unfortunately, the code is not working for Bing layers.  It works for the World Imagery, but not the Bing imagery.  I looked into it some more, but have still not been able to figure out the Bing interface that would give me the URL for Bing layers.

If anyone else has some knowledge of what interface the Bing aerial implements, that would be appreciated.

Hornbydd · Answer

I cannot answer your question about bing maps as that requires some sort of license to view in ArcMap. Below is some VBA code showing you how to access properties of the ESRI imagery basemap. Public Sub test() Dim pmxd As IMxDocument Set pmxd = ThisDocument Dim pMap As IMap Set pMap = pmxd.FocusMap Dim pLayer As ILayer Set pLayer = pMap.Layer(0) Dim pMapServerLayer As IMapServerLayer Set pMapServerLayer = pLayer Dim pAGSServerObjectName As IAGSServerObjectName Dim sLocation As String Dim sMapName As String pMapServerLayer.GetConnectionInfo pAGSServerObjectName, sLocation, sMapName Debug.Print pAGSServerObjectName.Name Debug.Print pAGSServerObjectName.URL End Sub‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ As you can see it is reporting name and URL