Tiles produced by the distributed tiling service, whether they are raster tiles, or vector tiles, can be automatically used by the map service without additional configuration. For a map service and an existing tile, the drawing request methods of the client are as follows:

• .flash, .flash3d, .javascript, .vector tile, .silverlight via map resource to browse the map, it is necessary to ensure that the fixed scale of the map is consistent with the scale of the existing tile, and the format and other parameters of the drawing request are consistent with the existing tile;
• Send a request to the server through the drawing resource tileImage. You can request the specified tile according to parameters such as scale, tile row and column number, and tile format. You need to confirm the consistency between the request parameters and the parameters such as the size of the tile itself;
• To access the map services through the Web client or mobile client, you can develop a map browsing script and send a request to the map services. It is also necessary to confirm the consistency of the request parameters with the size of the tile itself and other parameters.

Of course, if you modify the default storage path or have other custom settings, you can manually configure to use these tiles. UGCV5 tiles can be used by configuring map service provider , MongoDB, SMTiles, MBTiles, SVTiles can be used by configuring map service component .

Configure a raster tile using the SuperMap UGC format

Raster tiles in SuperMap UGC format can be obtained through the distributed tiling service or generated by SuperMap iDesktopX, SuperMap iObjects, with versions of 5.0, 4.1, etc. For detailed information, please refer to SuperMap UGC map tiles versions.

For the SuperMap UGC tile that have been tile, you should first make sure that the corresponding map has been published as map services, and then you can use the map tiles by configuring the map service providers, as shown in tiles for SuperMap UGC 5.0. During specific operations, service providers can be configured through the service management device, and can also directly modify XML service configuration file. Take UGC map provider as an example, open Home-> Services-> Service Assemble-> Service Provider(set)s, enter the map service providers configuration page (http://<server>:<host>/iserver/admin-ui/serviceAssemble/providers/< map service providers name>). Set the cache version in the advanced setting (i.e. SuperMap UGC format (version of map tiles). Click Add to take effect.

The SuperMap UGC format raster tile used by SuperMap iServer is stored in the image output path by default, namely 【SuperMap IServer install directory】\webapps\iserver\output\cache\, for the specific storage path of SuperMap UGC tile of different versions, please refer to SuperMap UGC map tiles versions .

You can also modify the cache output path and storage location <outputPath>../webapps/iserver/output</outputPath> of the corresponding map service provider to ensure that the map service can use SuperMap UGC tiles normally.

For UGCV5 original tiles with local profiling level, it supports using cross-version map tile (for example, a service published on version 11.3.0 wants to use tiles from other versions or tiles cut by iDekstopX). The specific usage method is as follows:

1. In the iserver-services.xml configuration file, add a new configuration <usePreGeneratedUGCV5Cache> to the parameter UGCMapProviderSetting provider. This configuration is default to false, meaning it is not effective. The specific configuration method can be referred to the map service provider.

2. After enabling the configuration, place any version of the UGCV5 cache folder (must be generated by the same workspace map) and the sci file into the map cache folder where you want to use this cache ([SuperMap iServer installation directory]\webapps\iserver\output\cache\mapName). When the tile index in the request exists in the cache, it will directly use the cached tile; otherwise, it will dynamically generate it.

Note: After configuring as described above, for manually placed tile cache files, whether the "Cache is read-only" is enabled or not, it can only limit the tile from being deleted, not limit it from being modified.

Configure map component to use other tiles

We can configure the map component to use MongoDB, OTS (obsolete), map tiles in SMTiles format, vector tiles in SVTiles format.

The map component configuration can be modified through the service management server, or by modifying the service configuration file.

General configuration mode

Open Home-> Service-> Service Assemble-> Service Component(set)s, enter the map component configuration page (http://<server>:<host>/iserver/admin-ui/serviceAssemble/components/<map component name>). Set the following parameters in the component configuration object:

• Read-only: Determines whether the cache file can be edited. If checked, the cache file is read-only and will not be modified. If not checked, the existing tile file may be dynamically updated.
• Cache survival time: Calculate tile survival time from tile creation. The time unit is minutes, and 0 represents that the cache will never expire. This configuration is only valid for SMFiles tile cache, and vector tile cache.
• Enable map tile caches: Supports MongoDB, OTS (obsoleted), and SMFiles storage formats. If you choose OTS (obsoleted) or MongoDB format, you will need to import an existing storage location or add a new storage location. If the newly added storage location is used by the map slicing service in the future, the generated map tiles will be automatically used by the current map service.
• Enable vector tile caches: SVTiles and vector tiles in MongoDB (only MVT) format are supported at present. The default storage location for is: 【SuperMap iServer install directory】\webapps\iserver\output\sqlite\.

When configuring the SMTiles format, map services will use the existing SMTiles map tiles (*.smtiles) by default when plotting. However, if that current map service and plot request match MBTiles specification and there are MBTiles map tiles (*.mbtiles) in the cache directory, map services will use the existing MBTiles.

 Note: Map services is no longer supported when multi-process is enabled SMTiles type of map tiles cache.

When deploying iServer in a cloud-native environment, it is increasingly common for multi-replica Pods to share the same storage volume (such as NFS). As of SuperMap iServer 2026, UGCV5 cache supports tile cache directory isolation and tile set dynamic refresh, which enables:

• Concurrent access to cache data by multiple replicas
• Separate use of pre-generated cache and dynamically generated cache
• Dynamic detection of newly added tile sets via cache directory refresh

Directory isolation stores pre-generated cache and automatically generated cache in separate directories:

• Root directory: Stores pre-generated cache. New scale levels cannot be added here; only tiles can be appended to existing scale levels.
• runtime_cache directory: Stores cache for other scale levels generated dynamically during map browsing.

For instructions to enable tile cache directory isolation and tile set dynamic refresh, see: Map Service Component

Configuration of distributed tiles storage

For tiles stored in the distributed tiles storage, the you can also should check "Configure to this map services" in the storage setting on the page of creating tiling task. Select the service components corresponding to the map in the tile library for quick configuration. At this point, the map service will turn on cached read-only by default.

When selecting service components:

• If there is no tile of the map component in the tile library at present, the tile will be allowed to be dynamically stored in the tile library by default after being configured to the map component;
• If a tile of the map component is already stored in the tile library, the tile library is read-only by default, that is, no modification will be made to the existing tile. If you change to a non-read-only state, it means that if the data is changed, the tiles consistent with the current data are used in the plot, and it is allowed to dynamically append the tiles that are not added to the tile library, or update the changed tiles.

When distributed tiles storage is configured to a map service, the corresponding map service will plot with the latest version of the tile set in distributed tiles storage by default.

If you need to configure to use an older version of a tile set, refer to: Configuring to use a historical version of tile .