feature service

A feature service is a data service that provides access to spatial and non-spatial data stored as features. Feature services can contain feature layers (with spatial data), feature layer views (with subsets of feature layer data), and tables (with non-spatial data). Client applications can use a feature service to query and edit data attributes, geometry, related data, and attachments, as well as to access and display features in a map or scene. A feature service supports querying data using both SQL and spatial relationships, and query responses in different formats such as JSON, GeoJSON, or XML. Feature services are created by importing data or by creating new feature layers through ArcGIS client APIs and tools.