GIS Software Component Library

ArcGIS Engine developers have access to a set of visual controls that provide an excellent starting point for an ArcGIS application. ArcGIS Engine has none of the ArcGIS Desktop applications, such as ArcMap, or any user interface components except for the developer controls. Although a simple application can be built with only the developer controls, practical applications with ArcGIS Engine require knowledge of the object libraries that compose ArcGIS Engine.

Object libraries are logical collections of the programmable ArcObjects components, ranging from fine-grained objects (e.g., individual geometry objects) to coarse-grained objects, which aggregate logical collections of functionality (e.g., a MapControl object to work with map documents). Programmers use a number of standards-based APIs (COM, .NET, Java, and C++). These same libraries are used to program ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server.

ArcGIS Engine	ArcGIS Server	ArcGIS Desktop

The ArcGIS Engine object libraries include ArcObjects components that provide base services, data access, map presentation, map analysis, and developer controls.

Visit the ArcGIS Developer Online Web site for more information on each library in ArcGIS Engine.