After the installation you can start Esri ArcGIS Desktop® to use the extension.
Check under Customize > Extensions that the extension is installed and enabled:
Activate extension
ArcMap toolbars
Bridge toolbar
The Bridge toolbar is shown.
Wizard welcome screen
When you enable the extension for the first time, a configuration wizard appears to help you to configure Bridge. You can skip screens in case you do not have all the information at hand. It is possible to re-run the Configuration wizard from the Bridge toolbar at a later stage.
Proxy server
If you use a proxy server to access the Internet, provide the proxy configuration to allow Bridge to connect to the Internet.
License key
To use the Bridge extension you must have a valid license key. Enter the license key for validation. The validation process requires an Internet connection. If Bridge is unable to connect to the license server GeoCat also provides a license file based activation, see license file activation.
Add or edit connections
Here you can add or edit your default GIS server connections, click on 
to add a GIS server connection. Or click on 
to edit an existing connection. Of each server type you can configure one instance in the wizard, if you need to configure multiple connections of each type (premium license only) open the Server Configuration menu after the wizard setup, Server configuration.
GeoServer connection configuration
Fill in the connection parameters for your GeoServer connection.
Select type of GeoServer datastore
Choose either to store your data in:
Note
Shapefiles have 10 character limit on the attribute name. Both options use shapefiles to upload the data to GeoServer, that is why Bridge will always shorten the attribute names in the styling when uploaded to GeoServer, provided you do not have the GeoPackage extension for GeoServer installed.
GeoServer datastore configuration
Fill in the connection parameters for your PostGIS datastore. Note that the connection parameters are relative from your GeoServer instance. The datastore will be created on your GeoServer instance, so GeoServer should be able to connect to the PostGIS database with the provided connection parameters.
MapServer connection configuration
Fill in the connection parameters for your MapServer connection. Click on Use default MS4W values if you are running MapServer 4 Windows. Browse to the MS4W installation folder and Bridge will fill in the connection parameters.
MapServer data configuration
Configure the data connection to MapServer, you can either configure:
| [1] | For this it is required to configure a ftp service on the machine that is running MapServer |
MapServer PostGIS configuration
Fill in the connection parameters for your PostGIS connection.
GeoNetwork connection configuration
Fill in the connection parameters for your GeoNetwork connection. The metadata profile field only shows up in the premium version and determines the metadata profile that Bridge uses to publish metadata to GeoNetwork.
Metadata configuration
Here you can enter the default metadata contact, license and language. When a layer does not have any metadata defined Bridge will use these values while publishing to the map and catalog servers.
Configuration summary
Overview of the server configurations. Click to edit a server configuration and click to add a server configuration if you have not configured a server yet.
Configuration complete
When Bridge is unable to connect to our licenser server due to your network configuration, we provide the option of activating GeoCat Bridge with a license file. Email to support@geocat.net to obtain a license file to activate Bridge.
License file activation
In the configuration or license wizard select the option “I received a license file” and browse to the received license file.
Short code
Email the generated short code to GeoCat support (support@geocat.net). GeoCat support will send an activation file to you, select this activation file and click next.
Activation success
If activation is successful this window is shown.
Manual