Portal for ArcGIS 10.4.1 is a maintenance and quality improvement release. For a list of issues fixed in 10.4.1, see the 10.4.1 Issues Addressed List.
Review the deprecation notice to determine if your hardware and software components are still compatible with version 10.4.1. To review which earlier ArcGIS product versions are compatible with Portal for ArcGIS 10.4.1, see Portal compatibility with earlier versions of ArcGIS.
What's new in Portal for ArcGIS 10.4
For a summary of changes in the software at 10.4, see the following sections.
Perform analysis
Whenever you look at a map, you inherently start turning that map into information by finding patterns, assessing trends, or making decisions. This process is called spatial analysis, and it's what your eyes and mind do naturally whenever you look at a map. But many patterns and relationships aren't always obvious from looking at a map. In some cases, there may be too much data to present coherently. The way you display the data on the map can change the patterns you see. Spatial analysis tools allow you to quantify patterns and relationships in the data and display the results as maps, tables, and charts. At 10.4, these tools are available in Portal for ArcGIS.
The tools you'll use to perform spatial analysis are actually hosted as a series of tasks in ArcGIS Server. To expose the tools to your portal members, you'll need to set up a hosting server for your portal and grant members privileges to perform analysis. The hosting server performs the work of processing analysis requests, storing the results in the ArcGIS Data Store, and returning results to members in the portal website. For full instructions, see Configure the portal to perform analysis. Additional utility services can also be configured with the portal to enable certain analysis tools.
Use custom print layouts
You can now provide custom layouts for printing from the map viewer. Layouts are based on what's provided in the organization's print service. When you configure the portal to print maps, you can configure the print layouts for a more customized experience in the map viewer.
Set a default role for new members
Specify which role newly added portal members are assigned. By default, all new members are assigned to the User role. If you want all new members assigned to a different role—for example, if you create a custom role that allows all members to create content—you can set that as the default role.
Share vector tile packages
Vector tile packages you create in ArcGIS Pro 1.2 can be uploaded to your portal and published as hosted tile layers. Vector tile packages deliver cartographic content in a compact binary format that includes both geometry and metadata. Tile layers created from vector tile packages take less time to create, require less disk space compared to raster tiles, and can be rendered in multiple styles.
See Share a package in the ArcGIS Pro help for information on creating a vector tile package.
Publish layers to your portal's federated servers using ArcGIS Pro
At 10.4, you can use ArcGIS Pro 1.2 to publish layers to your portal's federated servers. When you publish these layers, a corresponding item is created in the portal. You can publish map image, feature, imagery, and WMS layers to federated servers. See Layers published to your portal's federated servers for details. These layers can reference datasets that are registered with the server, meaning your data is not copied to the server when the layer is published. Layers published in this manner reference the data directly from your registered workspaces.
As with earlier releases, you can also publish hosted feature and tile layers using ArcGIS Pro. When you publish a hosted layer, your data is copied to your portal's hosting server.
See Understanding sharing web layers in the ArcGIS Pro help for more information.
Store standards-based metadata
Members of the portal Administrator role can enable metadata for items, and configure the metadata editing and viewing experience with a supported standard.Standards-based metadata allows you to provide more information about an item than what is available on the details page. It also applies a style to support a metadata standard such as FGDC CSDGM Metadata or North American Profile of ISO019115 2003.
Remove multiple languages from search results
By default, Portal for ArcGIS includes content for every supported language. When you or members of your portal search for content, results may be returned that do not apply to your specific language. At 10.4, you can configure your portal to remove Esri-provided content from specific languages from search results. When you do this, search results are limited to the languages you selected.
You'll use the ArcGIS Portal Directory to remove languages from search results.
Simplified configuration of a highly available portal
Portal for ArcGIS no longer uses the portalha tool for creating a highly available portal. Instead, there is a new step in the process of setting up Portal for ArcGIS: with one machine, you create a portal. The second machine then joins this newly created portal. See Configuring a highly available portal for more information.
New utility for changing the Portal for ArcGIS account
You can change the Portal for ArcGIS account using the new configureserviceaccount utility. This tool sets the account to run the Portal for ArcGIS service and grants required privileges on Portal for ArcGIS directories used by the service. See Changing the Portal for ArcGIS account for details.
New tool for web GIS disaster recovery
A new tool—webgisdr—is available in the Portal for ArcGIS tools directory that lets you export a single file containing related parts of a web GIS deployment. The exported file contains portal items and settings, hosted web layers, federated and hosting server settings and, if you use ArcGIS Data Store, hosted feature layer data (a relational data store) and hosted scene layer tile caches (a tile cache data store). Store the exported file in a secure place and use it to restore a web GIS deployment, or you can use the file to replicate your web GIS to a standby deployment that you can bring online if the primary deployment fails.
Security fixes and enhancements
Portal for ArcGIS 10.4 includes several fixes and enhancements that improve the security of the software. It's recommended that you upgrade to 10.4 to help protect your Portal for ArcGIS infrastructure.
Scan your portal for security best practices
Portal for ArcGIS 10.4 comes with a Python script tool that scans for some common security issues. The tool checks for problems based on the best practices for configuring a secure environment for your portal. See Scan your portal for security best practices for details.
Configure trusted servers
The map viewer, Web AppBuilder, and the configurable apps now fully support editing feature services secured with web-tier authentication. To take advantage of this support, administrators can configure trusted servers that allow Portal for ArcGIS to automatically pass through credentials.
Fine-grained access control of federated servers
10.4 introduces a new security option for federated servers. You can update a federated server to control which portal members have administrative and publisher access to the server. See Administer a federated server for more information.
Improved federation experience
At 10.4, the experience of federating your portal with ArcGIS Server has been improved. Portal for ArcGIS now provides more informative error messages and portal logs when problems are encountered with federation.
Language changes in the portal website
- The website can now be viewed in Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) and Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong) languages.
- The name for simplified Chinese in the language drop-down list has changed from Chinese (Simplified Han) to Simplified Chinese.
Microsoft Windows 10 support
Note:
Windows 10 is supported for basic testing and application development use only. It is not recommended for deployment in a production environment.
Portal for ArcGIS
At 10.4, you can install Portal for ArcGIS on Microsoft Windows 10. For details, see system requirements.
ArcGIS Web Adaptor (IIS)
At 10.4, you can install ArcGIS Web Adaptor (IIS) on Microsoft Windows IIS 10. For details, see system requirements.
Microsoft Edge browser
At 10.4, you can access the portal website using the Microsoft Edge browser. You can also use this browser to access the ArcGIS Portal Directory.
Changes for ArcGIS Server on Amazon Web Services
ArcGIS 10.4 includes changes for the ArcGIS for Server Amazon Machine Images and new CloudFormation templates. See What's new for ArcGIS Server on Amazon Web Services for details.
Changes for the scene viewer
3D content can be displayed within two different scene environments—global or local. In global scenes, you can display 2D and 3D content on a sphere. Global scenes are well suited for data that extends across large distances and where curvature of the earth must be accounted for, such as global airline traffic paths or shipping lanes. Also, global scenes can display data at a city level or even down to a building site level.
In addition, now you can create local scenes that have a fixed extent in which to work. Local scenes allow you to display layers in projected coordinate systems and are better suited for small-extent data, such as a college campus or a mine site. Local scenes can also be effective for scientific data display, where the relative size of features is a more important display requirement than the physical location of the content on a sphere.
Additional scene viewer changes include the following:
- Collaborate on scenes within your organization with group capabilities for updating items.
- The scene viewer lets you experience the starry sky at night and watch the sun rise and set on your scenes.
- You can add outlines to point symbols and set outline color, width, and transparency.
Review address placement
If your portal's hosting server uses ArcGIS Data Store, you can review and place addresses that Portal for ArcGIS couldn't locate on the map when you publish a hosted feature layer from a CSV file containing addresses. You can also review the accuracy of the addresses that Portal for ArcGIS did place on the map. This helps you improve the accuracy of your hosted feature layers.
New options for hosted feature layers
You can now export hosted feature layers to feature collections. This is useful if you want to create a copy of the features saved as part of the map. Changes made to the feature collection are only reflected in the map and do not affect the hosted feature layer from which you exported it.
You can also export hosted feature layers to a GeoJSON file, which you can download and share with others. They can add the GeoJSON file to their own portal and publish it as a hosted feature layer.
When you add a CSV file to your portal, you now have the option to publish the CSV as a table. This allows you to create layers containing nonspatial attribute information, and also allows you to publish CSV files that do not contain spatial information such as addresses or x, y coordinates.
Owners and administrators of hosted feature layers can open the layer in the map viewer and edit even if the layer does not have editing enabled.
If your portal's hosting server uses ArcGIS Data Store, owners and administrators of hosted feature layers can now use a table in the map viewer to calculate values.
Create groups that allow members to update shared items
You can create groups that allow members of the group to update items shared with that group. These groups are useful for shift workers in operations centers who need to update maps underlying their apps and dashboards and other situations where multiple people need to update the same item. Updates to an item can include changes to the item details and updates to the content. When members share an item to such a group, they remain the owner of the item. Other group members can update the item. For example, they can add layers to a map and save the map with the updated content. Only the item owner can delete the item and change the sharing properties of the item.
With this new group capability, members of these groups can edit hosted feature layers that have been shared to the group with full editing control even if the layer is not editable. For example, you could have a public hosted feature layer that isn't editable, and members of the group would have full editing control of the layer.
New and improved map styles
Three new map styles are available in the map viewer. These styles perform calculations based on the attribute fields you specify to illuminate differences or trends in your data.
- Use the Color & Size style to illustrate the convergence of two numeric attributes using increasing symbol size (for count values) and different shades (for rates). For example, symbol size could vary depending on the number of homes built before 1970, and be shaded differently based on rates of childhood neurological disorders. You choose the color and size of the point symbols.
- Use the Unique symbols & Size style to map a count attribute (such as number of owner occupied households) but using a unique color for each value found in another field (such as a county name). With this style, you choose a text or numeric field with unique values, and a numeric field, and adjust each attribute's map symbol settings as needed.
- Use the Compare A to B style to map the ratio between two numbers, such as percentages, indexes, or simple ratios. For example, you may want to see the ratio of households with cable television subscriptions to households with satellite television subscriptions. Or, you may want to see the ratio of people with a college degree to those without one, on the map. With this style, you choose the attributes in your data, and adjust the sliders in the histogram as desired to make the comparison.
In addition to the new map styles described above, histogram sliders have improved precision and are easier to use. It's more evident that you can manually set values for any numbers you see near the histogram. For example, you can press the Control or Command key while moving the top or bottom slider to enable the opposite slider to move an equal distance away or toward the center handle. You can also hover over an individual bar in a histogram to see more details.
Changes in configurable app templates
The app gallery has been redesigned to make it easier to choose the configurable app you want to use. You can filter based on the purpose of the app and search to refine the set of apps you see.
The following configurable app templates are new in Portal for ArcGIS 10.4:
The following app templates have been retired. Use the suggested replacement app templates instead.
| Retired app template | Replacement app template |
|---|---|
Classic Viewer | |
Chrome Twitter | |
Legend | |
Time Aware | |
Tip:
Esri does not maintain the code on retired templates, and retired templates are not available from the map viewer. However, you can download the source code and API for retired templates and host them on your own web server. Instructions are included in readme files included with the download file.
New functionality in Web AppBuilder
The following functionality has been added to Web AppBuilder. For more information, see Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS Help.
New widgets
- The Analysis widget provides an easy way to use Portal for ArcGIS spatial analysis tools in your application. You can configure one tool per widget or multiple tools in a widget.
- The Batch Attribute Editor widget allows you to simultaneously edit multiple attributes.
- The Image Measurement widget allows you to perform measurements on image services with mensuration capability.
- The GeoLookup widget enriches a list of latitude and longitude points. You supply a CSV file of points to the widget and it intersects the points with polygon layers on the map to get values associated with the points.
- The Incident Analysis widget defines an area of interest and identifies what’s happening around the area, such as current weather, demographic info, and features close to the area.
- The Reviewer Dashboard widget displays data quality result statistics as infographics pie and bar charts to summarize data quality issues identified in your GIS data.
- The Report Feature widget enables you to collect and manage data quality feedback from users.
- The Situation Awareness widget allows you to locate an incident on the map and analyze information from different feature layers within a specified distance of the incident.
- The Search widget replaces the existing Geocoder widget. In addition to the functionality in the Geocoder widget, the new Search widget supports searching and suggestions on multiple sources, and it has options to add placeholder text for all search sources and search by current map extent.
- The Stream widget visualizes and controls real-time data feeds from streaming feature layers.
- The Summary widget dynamically summarizes numeric attributes for features based on the map extent.
- A new Zoom Slider widget provides interactive zoom controls in the map display.
New functionality in existing widgets
- The Attribute Table widget has a filter to limit features and can be expanded automatically when the app starts. It also updates layers when they are changed in the map.
- The Edit widget now carries over the editable attributes configured in the map.
- The Geoprocessing widget supports uploading data to use in geoprocessing services that have upload capability.
- The Layer List widget has configurable context menus.
- The Zoom Slider widget provides interactive zoom controls in the map display.
- The Query widget has configurable sorting rules for query results.
General
- Five new themes are available—Billboard, Box, Dart, Jewelry box, and Launchpad.
- The Foldable theme and Tab theme have better responsive designs.
- A new option is available to have widgets already opened when the web app starts.
- Six new URL parameters enable you to find a location or feature, supply login, query feature, add point, switch locale, and specify WKID to zoom or pan the map.
- The app state, including map extent and layer visibility, is now automatically saved when you close your browser.
- Support is added for imagery layers that include visualization with scientific data.
Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS
Portal for ArcGIS 10.4 includes several updates, bug fixes, and improvements to both the Windows and Browser apps and introduces a new extensibility framework using the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. To get started, refer to the Operations Dashboard help included within the ArcGIS API for JavaScript.
Enable portal members to use Navigator for ArcGIS
At 10.4, Portal for ArcGIS can be configured to allow portal members to use Navigator for ArcGIS. See Configure the portal to support Navigator for ArcGIS for details.