The Server is a program that provides dynamic access to geographic and alphanumeric data through an ODBC connection to the Author. It also manages the security settings that have been established by the Author. The front-end of the software, with which a user interacts, is the Viewer.

The architecture of the on-line GIS

It enables users not only to view data but also to interact with the maps, modifying or querying theme layers.
In order to link the spatial data with the textual data, including such information as grid location and structure type, an association between the two will be created using ASP technology, already employed for the textual retrieving system. Each entity, such as an excavation grid, will be associated in the tabular data with an URL address, containing ASP-generated codes linking directly with the textual search engine. The results generated by this query will be visualised as HTML documents.

MapGuide is highly suited for displaying archaeological data as it can easily handle all the vector and georeferenced raster files created in other systems. The limitation of this software in terms of its GIS functionality is that it is not possible to conduct complex spatial analysis or load surface interpolations, such as TINs or viewshed maps, an important aspect of an archaeological study. However, it is possible to separately provide 3D TINs generated in ArcView across the Internet, through the use of the export VRML format (.wrl). These models can be visualised by the user, although it may be necessary to download a browser.