Openlayers with WMS service problem Resource interpreted as Image but transferred with MIME type application/vnd.ogc.wms_xml

Question

I added a WMS layer

var wmslayer = new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS("Cities",{http://someip.com/ArcGIS/services/BurkeMcDowell2013_06_26FORGOPI/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS", { transparent: true },{isBaseLayer: false});}

And the URL which OpenLayers generated and call is:

{someip.com/ArcGIS/services/BurkeMcDowell2013_06_26FORGOPI/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS&SRS=EPSG%3A900913&TRANSPARENT=TRUE&VERSION=1.1.1&STYLES=&FORMAT=image%2Fpng&BBOX=-10018754.17,2504688.5425,-7514065.6275,5009377.085&WIDTH=256&HEIGHT=256}

But it's not returning images but a message in console:

Resource interpreted as Image but transferred with MIME type application/vnd.ogc.wms_xml: http://someip.com/ArcGIS/services/BurkeMcDowell2013_06_26FORGOPI/MapSe
X=-10018754.17,009377.085,-7514065.6275,7514065.6275&WIDTH=256&HEIGHT=256". OpenLayers.js:460)
OpenLayers.Tile.Image.OpenLayers.Class.setImgSrc OpenLayers.js:460
OpenLayers.Tile.Image.OpenLayers.Class.initImage OpenLayers.js:460
OpenLayers.Tile.Image.OpenLayers.Class.renderTile OpenLayers.js:456
OpenLayers.Tile.Image.OpenLayers.Class.draw OpenLayers.js:456
OpenLayers.Layer.Grid.OpenLayers.Class.initGriddedTiles 
OpenLayers.js:480
OpenLayers.Layer.Grid.OpenLayers.Class.moveTo OpenLayers.js:469
OpenLayers.Layer.OpenLayers.Class.redraw OpenLayers.js:265
OpenLayers.Layer.HTTPRequest.OpenLayers.Class.redraw 
OpenLayers.js:451
OpenLayers.Map.OpenLayers.Class.addLayer OpenLayers.js:230
Objs.adddlayer CreateMapMediator.js:1531
f.event.dispatch jquery-1.7.2.min.js:3
h.handle.i

Can anyone help me solve it? (I added someip.com coz I can't add a numeric IP there)

Answer 1

The answer is in the question! The request you included in your question is a GetCapabilities request. This returns an XML response detailing which layers and coordinate systems are available in your service. A WMS client would use this information to then construct a GetMap request, providing arguments including layer IDs (or names), a bounding box, optional styling information etc.

I suggest you look for an introduction to the basic concepts of WMS online (and I don't mean the OGC spec). You would also benefit from looking at the request structure in one of the OpenLayers WMS demo applications.