Ever wonder what “Blending” in the browser or web tier really means with respect to the Java Web ADF?
The topic is somewhat mysterious. The confusion is understandable, as the discussion hasn’t necessarily been brought to the forefront of the Java ADF documentation. The question is often asked: “Where does the application blend the images together from different map resources?”.
This image “fusion” can take place either in the web browser or it can happen in the web server.
The answer is that if your application contains at least one tiled/cached map resource, along with any others, then this “blending” takes place in the web browser. If a tiled/cached map resource is not present, then all exported images from the ArcGIS Server are assembled at the Web Server level.
Now, does this really matter? Well, it could have an effect on performance, obviously. If the web server is busy “fusing” away for all concurrent users, application response times could be impacted. If the blending is off-loaded to your user’s web browser, the web server is free to do more work.
I’m hoping this clarifies things a bit!
