Lets say I have a Map Service, published using ArcGIS Server, of the US State Boundaries. I can add this Map Service as a Layer to ArcMap and I see all of the US State Boundary features. Now I need to restrict which states I can see by adding a where clause or definition expression, something like NAME = 'OHIO'. Right now this is not possible using ArcMap 9.3.1 and ArcGIS Server 9.3.1.
This is possble using the ArcGIS Flex API, REST, and the ArcGISDynamicMapServiceLayer (and its layerDefinitions property) we are able to dynamicaly add layers to our Flex application and only show a subset of features by using a where clause. Plus the server does all the heavy lifting of building the image for that layer. I need to do the same thing using ArcMap insdead of Flex.
I believe this is a gap in the capability of ArcMap and ArcGIS Server vs. Flex and ArcGIS Server. This can be done using a web browser with Flex and REST but not with ArcObjects and ArcMap. If this enhancment is made it should also work in ArcGIS Explorer too.
