WMS, Web Maps Server, is a standard protocol developed by OGC, Open Geospatial Consortium, regarding publication of georeferenced images over the Internet. In Sweden, many authorities publish their WMS services on a common platform, Geodataportalen. The protocol, from the OGC, is a standard that describes how to request a map and how the web service will respond to the request, it specifies how an interaction with a web service for map generation works.

INSPIRE is a European Directive that was created to develop a European infrastructure for geodata. INSPIRE aims to make public geodata more available via services such as WMS services on the Internet. This is so that authorities and other organizations more effectively can be able to do an exchange of data with each other. WMS-services are designed to be used for visualizing map layers and be able to access information about the objects included. Geodataportalen is the Swedish link to the European platform for geodata. All data published on Geodataportalen are not covered by Inspire.

What has been the basis for this study is the link between the WMS services, INSPIRE and the guidelines around web cartography for web map services, such as SIS, Swedish Standards Institute, have worked out. The guidelines do not include point-symbolizer, line-symbolizer and polygon-symbolizer, which is in need of development. SIS are at the moment in progress to develop these guidelines.

Tests have been done to examine how well the guidelines are followed, and during these tests have Geodataportalen, ArcGIS Desktop and QGIS Desktop been study. Additional tests have been done on how well a WMS service is visualized in both software products relative to Geodataportalen, with respect to coloration, overlap and combination of layers. These tests aim to touch on areas where guidance is given. Various tests have been made with respect to the retrieval process, appearance, metadata and editing capabilities for WMS services obtained from Geodataportalen.

The results of the tests indicates that the SIS guidelines for web cartography are beeing followed well in WMS-services that covers by the INSPIRE Directive. In those areas where guidance is missing, a study into how WMS-services visualized in Geodataportalen, ArcGIS Desktop and QGIS Desktop, and the differences that exist between them. This gave an indication that there are differences in how WMS services are presented and how the combinations of layers are being handled. A test of the program's editing capabilities showed that both ArcGIS and QGIS have the option to set the transparency of the service. A feature of ArcGIS, which is not available in QGIS, makes the background in the WMS service is transparent automatically. QGIS allows instead changing the color of the WMS service, a feature ArcGIS absence.