help understanding basic concepts with ArcGIS for Flex

[RickCheney]

Hello, I appreciate any help and information you can offer me.  I am new at this and trying to learn fast.

I can view a topographic map on a website online and when I right-click the webpage it reads "Arc GIS API for Flex..." and the source code reads: "This application was built using Adobe Flex".    I zoomed in all the way and I was able to locate a separate URL for a 256x256 tile that seems to be a .jpg file.  There are separate URLs for each image, each with a distinct path.  I would like to download a small area of the topo map and set it up on a different server.  I don't have access to the server that the topo map is on.  I can download individual .jpg files and stitch them together but I assume the map is not really .jpg raster files, what format are the original topographic tiles?   How can I find the vector data?

[MattiasEkström]

Hi!

Your question/problem is actually not related to ArcGIS for Flex, it's about an ArcGIS Server cached map service. This topographic map is (probably) served from an ArcGIS Server and in this case used in a web application based on ArcGIS Viewer for flex, but it can also be used in other web applications built with other technology.
The URL to that .jpg image I guess would look something like http://servername/arcgis/rest/services/foldername/servicename/MapServer/tile/6/177/143/filename.jpg

if you remove "tile" and everything after it (like http://servername/arcgis/rest/services/foldername/servicename/MapServer/)  you can view that service in the "ArcGIS REST Servcie directory" if the service provider hasn't disabled this.
The service is used to provide a map service as cached tiles, not to provide vector data, you might be able to extract some vector data from the service by making different queries if this is allowed, but it would require some knowledge about ArcGIS Server and how to handle the JSON-responses.

The map service I guess you could say is .jpg raster, but they are likely created from other vector data sources but this vector data sources is not accessible through the service.

[RickCheney]

Thanks Mattias,  so if I setup a ArcGIS server, do I just put all the .jpg files in a folder named "tile" and then in sub-folders with the level number?

[MattiasEkström]

Not really, if you can't use the existing map service and have to setup up your own ArcGIS Server, I recommend to get some vector data (or raster) and create your own cached map service.

It is possible to copy caches (pull all the .jpg-files and folders and some config-files) but you have to set up a map service with a tiling scheme that match the copied cache. I'm not sure if you can do this from a server that you don't have full access to.