What format is used for sharing map services in ArcGIS Enterprise?

The format used for sharing map services in ArcGIS Enterprise is REST (Representational State Transfer). REST is a web service architectural style that allows for interoperability between systems and is particularly suited for the web. In the context of ArcGIS, REST APIs provide a simple way to communicate with GIS services and publish mapping and geospatial data.

ArcGIS Enterprise utilizes RESTful services to facilitate access to maps, layers, and other resources. This approach offers several advantages such as ease of use, compatibility with web-based applications, and the ability to perform a range of operations like querying, updating, and analyzing spatial data through standard HTTP requests. The REST API provides a clear structural method for accessing these services, allowing developers and users to interact and interact more intuitively with mapping resources.

In contrast, the other formats mentioned do not align with the primary method used in ArcGIS Enterprise. SOAP is more complex and generally used for more rigid, formalized web services, which is less common in modern web applications. XML is a markup language that can describe data, but it does not serve as a format for sharing services. WMS (Web Map Service) is a standard for serving georeferenced map images over the Internet but is not specifically the format utilized in the inherently