Manage hosted web layers
In this topic
- Share your web layers
- Edit web layer details
- Allow others to alter hosted feature layers
- Allow data exports
- Delete a web layer
As a publisher, you need to manage the feature, tile, and scene layers you publish and host on your portal. You control the following for your hosted web layers:
- Who can view the hosted web layers
- The details stored with your hosted web layers, such as the name, summary, or thumbnail
- Whether others can edit hosted feature layers
- Whether others can download layers from hosted feature layers
You can also delete your web layers if they are no longer needed.
Administrators in the organization can also manage the hosted web layers in their organization.
Share your web layers
When you first publish web layers to your portal, they are visible only to you unless you share them. Sharing your hosted web layers allows other people to access them. You have the option to share your items with groups you belong to, your organization, or everyone (public). The following list describes each of these sharing options:
- Groups to which you belong
You can share your web layers and other items with specific groups in your organization, as long as you are a member of the group. This allows you to share your web layers with a targeted set of people in your organization. Group members must be signed in to the portal to access the web layers.
- Your organization
Web layers that are shared with your organization can be accessed by any member of your organization when they sign in to the portal.
- Everyone (public)
Web layers that are made available to everyone can be viewed by anyone with access to the web layer's URL. Therefore, anyone who can connect to the portal website or access the layer's URL in clients such as ArcGIS apps, ArcGIS for Desktop, and custom apps developed with the ArcGIS Web APIs can view public web layers.
For more information on securing access to hosted web layers, see Hosted web layer security.
You can share multiple web layers and other items at the same time from the My Content page of the portal website, or share individual web layers from the layer's details page.
Follow these steps to share multiple web layers:
- Verify you are signed in and have privileges to share content.
- Click My Content.
- Check the box next to each web layer you want to share and click Share.
- Choose who should have access to the selected web layers.
If not all options are available, you might not have full sharing privileges. For example, if the option to share with Everyone is not available, you don't have privileges to share with the public.
- Click OK to save your changes.
Follow these steps to share a web layer from the item details page. This is useful if you are already editing other details for the web layer and want to change sharing properties at the same time.
- Verify you are signed in and have privileges to share content.
- Click My Content.
- Click the name of the web layer to open its details.
- Click Share.
- Choose who should have access to the selected web layers.
If not all options are available, you might not have full sharing privileges. For example, if the option to share with Everyone is not available, you don't have privileges to share with the public.
- Click OK to save your changes.
By default, web layers you share can be viewed by others. You also have the option to allow other people to edit or export your feature layers.
Edit web layer details
There are several settings you can edit that will help people browse, find, and understand your web layer before using it. You can edit the following for your web layers:
- Title—This is the name people see when they access the web layer and the name you see in the My Content page. The title should represent what the web layer contains. The title can contain letters, numbers, or underscores, but no spaces.
- Summary—This short description of the web layer is returned in the results list when people search for layers in the portal website.
- Description—People see this in-depth description of the web layer when they open the details for a web layer.
- Thumbnail image—A thumbnail image is created for your web layer by default when you publish. You can create and load a different image if the default image does not convey the information you want. The thumbnail image appears in galleries, search results, and the item details page.
- Access and Use Constraints—Provide information about how the web layer can be used and by whom.
- Tags—Tags are used to find items when people search for them. The tags you specify should correspond to keywords you think people will use to search for your web layer.
- Credits—Your web layer may contain data from different agencies or individuals. This is the place to give credit to the data providers.
- Extent—The extent is the geographic boundary you specify for the web layer. It is defined using the minimum and maximum x and y coordinates of the area. You can either type these coordinates or draw a box to define the area; the portal will update the coordinates of the extent based on what you draw.
- Visible range (hosted tile layers only)—You can define the minimum and maximum scales at which a hosted tile layer will draw when added to a map.
- Offline mode (hosted tile layers only)—Enable offline mode on your hosted tile layer if it will be used in a map that will be taken offline. (New in Portal for ArcGIS 10.3.1.)
All these settings can be edited in the web layer's details page.
- Sign in as the owner of the web layer, an administrator, or a login that has privileges to update all members' items.
- Click My Content.
- Click your web layer to open its details.
- Click Edit.
The page will change to allow you to input information.
- Make the changes you want. Click Save when you have finished.
Hosted feature layers have additional editor settings you can change. These settings control who can edit and export layers from your hosted feature layer.
Allow others to alter hosted feature layers
As the owner of a hosted feature layer or an administrator in the organization, you control what edits can be made to a hosted feature layer, if any. You can configure the layer to keep track of when and by whom edits are made on each feature in the layer. You can also allow people to add attachments to features and allow them to download the feature layer data, edit it, and synchronize their changes with the hosted feature layer.
Each of these capabilities is controlled by a different setting in the hosted feature layer's details page.
The settings to check out data for offline editing or export data apply to anyone who can access your hosted feature layer. Take this into consideration when you share your layer.
Enable edits
You can enable editing on a hosted feature layer if the people who access it need to edit the feature geometry or attributes. Follow the steps to edit web layer details, check Enable editing and allow editors to, and choose what types of edits can be made.
You can choose among the following editing options:
- Add, update, and delete features gives editors the most privileges of the three choices. Consequently, this setting requires the most trust of your editors to respect each others' edits. This setting allows editors to add, update, and delete feature geometry and alter the attributes of features.
- Update feature attributes only is useful when you want editors to enter attribute information without changing any feature geometry. For example, you might have a set of observation towers whose locations should not be allowed to change, but whose attributes may be updated regularly.
- Add features only is useful if you want editors to report new features to you and define their attributes, but you don't want them to delete or update existing features. For example, a community app that uses your feature layer to allow constituents to report broken water lines or inoperable streetlights would fall into this category. You want the constituents to report and describe new incidents but not change or delete the information reported by other constituents.
Allow offline editing
Editors who need to work while disconnected from the network need to check out data they can use while offline, make their edits, and synchronize with the hosted feature layer when they are able to connect. How you do this depends on whether you are using ArcGIS Data Store with your portal.
- If you use ArcGIS Data Store with your portal, click Edit in the web layer details, enable editing, and check Enable Sync.
- If you are not using ArcGIS Data Store, you must prepare the data for offline editing. Once the data is prepared, check Enable Sync in the feature layer's details page in the portal website.
Track and restrict edits
You can keep track of who created features in a hosted feature layer and restrict access accordingly. In some scenarios, you may also want to allow someone to delete or modify the features they created but not delete or modify others' features. How you enable editor tracking and restrict edits based on ownership depends on whether your portal uses ArcGIS Data Store.
- If your portal uses ArcGIS Data Store, click Edit in the web layer details, enable editing, and check Keep track of who created and last updated features to enable editor tracking. To restrict feature modification to only the person who created the feature, check Editors can only update and delete the features they add.
- If your portal does not use ArcGIS Data Store, the options to Keep track of who created and last updated features and Editors can only update and delete the features they add will not be available. You must configure a hosted feature layer to track edits and restrict access to the features based on ownership separately.
Allow attachments
You can allow editors to attach images and other files to individual features in the feature layer. This is useful, as it allows you to share documentation or photos that are relevant to specific features. For example, a code compliance officer might attach a photo of the code violation for a specific address point, or a building inspector might include a PDF of a permit for a building feature.
The file you attach to a feature can be up to 10 MB in size. For a list of supported file types, see Edit features. Be aware that the size of the attachments adds to the size of the feature layer.
Follow these steps to allow people to attach files to features in your feature layer:
- You must first enable editing on the hosted feature layer.
- Open the feature layer's details page by clicking the layer in My Content.
- Click the small arrow icon next to the layer for which you want to allow attachments and choose Enable attachments.
Now, when people edit the feature layer, they can attach files to individual features.
If you decide you no longer want files to be attached to your feature layer, you can click the small arrow icon next to the layer in the feature layer's details page and choose Disable attachments. This will drop all existing attachments and prevent people from adding any more attachments.
Allow data exports
You can export a comma-separated values (CSV) file, shapefile, or file geodatabase feature class from any layer in a hosted feature layer if one of the following is true:
- You own the hosted feature layer.
- You are a portal administrator.
- You are not the hosted feature layer owner or an administrator, but the portal is configured with ArcGIS Data Store, and the feature layer owner or administrator has configured the layer to allow others to export the data.
Follow these steps to allow others to export from a hosted feature layer:
- Sign in as the hosted feature layer owner or a portal administrator.
- Open the item details for the hosted feature layer you want to allow others to export.
Note:
Exports can only be enabled on hosted feature layers if your portal is using ArcGIS Data Store.
- Click Edit on the hosted feature layer's item details page and click Allow others to export to different formats under the Properties list.
Export from hosted feature layer
Follow these steps to export a CSV file, shapefile, or file geodatabase containing a feature class from a layer:
- Sign in and open the item details for the hosted feature layer you want to export.
- If you own the hosted feature layer, click My Content and click the item title.
- If you do not own the hosted feature layer, search for the layer and click the layer name in the search results list.
- To export a single layer, find the Layers section of the item details page, click the small arrow icon next to the layer you want to export, and choose the format you want to export.
- Export to Shapefile creates a .zip file containing a shapefile in your content. You can download the .zip file and save it to your computer.
- Export to CSV file creates a comma-separated values file that you can open or save to your computer.
Only nonspatial attributes are exported to a CSV file when you export a line or polygon layer from a hosted feature layer. When you export a point layer to a CSV file, latitude and longitude values for the points are exported.
- Export to FGDB creates a .zip file containing a file geodatabase. The file geodatabase contains a feature class. You can download the .zip file and save it to your computer. Note that the .zip file uses the name you specify for the Title, but the geodatabase name is randomly generated and the feature class name is the same as the name of the layer you exported.
- To export all layers from a hosted feature layer, click the Export button on the hosted feature layer's item details, and choose the format you want to export:
- Export to Shapefile creates a .zip file containing a shapefile for each layer in your hosted feature layer. You can download the .zip file and save it to your computer.
- Export to CSV file creates a .zip file containing a comma-separated values file for each layer in your hosted feature layer. You can download the .zip file and save to your computer.
Only nonspatial attributes are exported to a CSV file when you export a line or polygon layer from a hosted feature layer. When you export a point layer to a CSV file, latitude and longitude values for the points are exported.
- Export to FGDB creates a .zip file containing a file geodatabase. The file geodatabase contains a feature class for each layer in your hosted feature layer. You can download the .zip file and save it to your computer. Note that the .zip file uses the name you specify for the Title, but the geodatabase name is randomly generated and the feature class names are the same as the names of the layers you exported.
Delete a web layer
To delete a hosted web layer, click its name in the My Content page and click Delete. This deletes your web layer and all its corresponding tiles (although the tiles may take a few hours to go away). If you want to delete the service definition, you must explicitly do so as a separate action.
You can delete a hosted web layer if you own it or you have privileges to delete content.