m_regparams.SetHostURL( " http://<your IP>/scripts/esrimap.dll " );

Introduction

While ESRI provides excellent documentation and tutorials for MapObjects + IMS applications, I find that all of these documents are written with only Visual Basic in mind.   While the fundamental procedures are the same for Visual C++ , there are a number of small development environment-based differences which may be difficult for a C++ programmer to grasp.   Thus, I’ve taken the time to write my own tutorial for developing a MapObjects application for ArcIMS in Visual C++.

This tutorial assumes you are familiar with C++ and the Visual C++ environment.   This tutorial has been tested only with MapObjects 2.1 and ArcIMS 4.0.

Step 1: Create a new project with MapObjects and WebLink

1. Open Visual C++ and Select "New..." from the "File" menu

2. Click the "Projects" tab

3. Select "MFC AppWizard (exe)"

4. Give your project the name "IMSTutorial"

5. Click "OK"

6. Select "Dialog based" for your application type and click "Finish"

7. Click "OK" when the "New Project Information" window pops up

8. Click the "Project" menu, select "Add To Project", and click "Components and Controls"

9. Browse to the "Registered ActiveX Controls" directory

10. Select "MapObjects 2.1 Map Control" and click "Insert."   Click "OK" when it asks "Insert this component?"

11. Click "OK" in the "Confirm Classes" window – this adds all the MapObjects header and implementation files to your project.

12. Select "WebLink Control" and click "Insert."   Click "OK" when it asks "Insert this component?"

13.     Click "OK" in the "Confirm Classes" window – this adds the WebLink header and implementation files to your project.

14.     Click "Close" in the "Components and Controls Gallery" window

15.     The MapObjects and WebLink controls should now be on your Controls toolbar

16.     Click the "TODO: Place dialog controls here" label and delete it.   Add both a MapObjects and a WebLink control to the form by dragging each icon onto it.   Resize the MapObjects control to be a bit bigger.

17.     Next, we’re going to declare each of these components as member variables in the dialog class.   Click the "View" menu, and click "ClassWizard"

18.     Click the "Member Variables" tab.   This shows a list of all the controls on the dialog form.

19.     Double-click "IDC_MAP1"   For the variable name, type "m_map" (without quotes) and click "OK"

20.     Double-click "IDC_WEBLINKCTRL1"   For the variable name, type "m_weblink" (without quotes) and click "OK"

21.     Click "OK" in the ClassWizard window

22.     Test your project by pressing the F5 key.   The dialog window should pop up, and the weblink control should be invisible.

23.     Save your project

Step 2: Configuring MapObjects

1. Add MapHelper.   In the MFC Common samples directory (default is C:\Program Files\ESRI\MapObjects2\Samples\MFC\Common) are three files that we need:

• MapObjects2.h
• MapHelper.h
• MapHelper.cpp

Using Windows Explorer, copy these files from this directory and paste them into your Visual C++ project’s directory.

2. Add these three files to your project by clicking the "Project" menu, select "Add To Project", and click "Files…"   Select those three files listed above and click "OK"
3. Open up your "stdafx.h" file from this project and add the following two lines after the existing #include directives:

#include "MapObjects2.h"

#include "MapHelper.h"

4. Next, we’re going to add map data to the MapObjects Map Control.   Find the body to the OnInitDialog() member function in the CIMSTutorialDlg class and find the following line:

// TODO: Add extra initialization here

            Immediately below this line, add the following line of code:

                        AddLayer(m_map, "C:\\Program Files\\ESRI\\MapObjects2\\Samples\\Data\\World\\country.shp", moGreen);

     The exact path to this data varies by installation.   (two backslashes are used because the backslash is an escape character)         

5. Test the application by pressing F5.   You should see the country boundaries in the MapObjects control

Step 3: Configuring WebLink

1. Go back to the form editor (Click the ResourceView tab in the left pane, expand "IMS Tutorial Resources", expand "Dialog," double-click IDD_IMSTUTORIAL_DIALOG)
2. Right-click the WebLink control and select "Properties."   Then click the "Control" tab.
3. For LocalIP, enter the IP address of your computer.   Do not enter the localhost address (127.0.0.1) as it will not work correctly if you do so.
4. For WebPort, enter 5062
5. In the body to the OnInitDialog() member function in the CIMSTutorialDlg class, add the following line after the AddLayer() code that we added in the previous step:

if(!m_weblink.Start())

{

     MessageBox("Could not start WebLink control");

}

     This code opens the port you specified and begins listening for connections.   If an error occurs, a dialog box will pop up.

6. Create a new virtual function OnFinalRelease() in the CIMSTutorialDlg class.   In the ClassView pane, right-click CIMSTutorialDlg and select "Add Virtual Function"

7. Double-click "OnFinalRelease" and click "Edit Existing"
8. In the OnFinalRelease() function, find the following line

// TODO: Add your specialized code here and/or call the base class

            Immediately below it, add the following line of code:

                        m_weblink.Stop();

            This code closes the port before the application quits.

9.       Finally, when the WebLink port is open and a request comes in, the application must handle it.   Open up the ClassWizard and select the "Message Maps" tab.

10.   Select the "CIMSTutorialDlg" class, the "IDC_WEBLINKCTRL1" object, and the "Request" message.   Then click "Add Function."   Accept the default function name by clicking "OK"   Then click "Edit Code"

11.     Find the following line in your new function:

// TODO: Add your control notification handler code here

            Immediately below it, add the following code:

CMoStrings args(arguments);

CMoStrings vals(values);

args.m_bAutoRelease = false;

vals.m_bAutoRelease = false;