OpenLayers, an open source web mapping library for browsers, is 99% web mapping goodness.  We took a look at the library, and found that we could almost use it in our projects to provide a robust mapping interface.  The extra 1% that we really needed was support for ArcIMS and ArcGIS Server.

So we fixed it.

Jeff added support for ArcGIS Server, and I added support for ArcIMS (in addition to a subset of ArcXML).  These are tickets in the OpenLayers tracking system, under the monickers #1749 and #213, respectively.  ArcGIS Server has made it into the trunk, and we are anxiously awaiting the incorporation of ArcIMS/ArcXML support.  It looks like they are both on track to make it into OpenLayers v2.8, so we are excited.

We’ve been running production applications with the patches we’ve provided to the OpenLayers community for months now, so it’ll be wonderful to make it ‘official’.