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Use ArcGIS for Desktop with your portal

As part of the ArcGIS platform, Portal for ArcGIS and ArcGIS for Desktop can be used together for sharing maps, layers, and packages.

  • You can add data from your portal to ArcMap or an ArcGIS Pro project.
  • You can publish hosted feature or tile layers from ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro to Portal for ArcGIS.
  • You can publish web maps from ArcGIS Pro to Portal for ArcGIS.
  • A service that you publish from ArcMap to an ArcGIS Server that you have federated with your portal will be shared automatically to your portal. If you have multiple server sites federated with the portal, the service will be published to all server sites.
  • You can publish web scenes, scene layers, and web maps from ArcGIS Pro to Portal for ArcGIS.

Follow the instructions for the application you want to configure to use with Portal for ArcGIS:

Use ArcMap with your portal

To use Portal for ArcGIS with ArcMap, connect to the portal from ArcGIS Administrator. If you want to add data to ArcMap from your portal or publishing hosted feature or tile layers to your portal, sign in to your portal from ArcMap. Once connected and signed in, you can:

Connect to your portal

ArcMap connects to ArcGIS Online by default, but you can set your ArcGIS for Desktop installation (all parts except ArcGIS Pro) to connect to your portal using the Manage Portal Connections tool in ArcGIS Administrator.

  1. Close all ArcGIS for Desktop applications.
  2. Open ArcGIS Administrator from All Programs > ArcGIS > ArcGIS Administrator.
  3. Click ArcGIS in the table of contents.
  4. Click Advanced.

    The Advanced Configuration dialog box opens.

  5. Click Manage Portal Connections.

    The Manage Portal Connections dialog box opens.

  6. Click Add.
  7. Type the URL of the portal and click OK to save the connection.

    The URL will be similar to https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis, where webadaptor.domain.com is the fully qualified name of the server where your portal's ArcGIS Web Adaptor is installed, and arcgis is the Web Adaptor name.

  8. Now that your portal is added to the connection list, explicitly connect to it.
  9. Select the URL you just added and click Connect.

Connecting to the portal URL essentially connects you to the portal's website home page.

Sign in to the portal from ArcMap to access portal content and publish to your portal.

Sign in to your portal from ArcMap

If your portal is configured to use Windows authentication, you are automatically signed in to the portal when you open ArcMap.

If your portal uses its own identity store, sign in to the portal from ArcMap to access data and maps.

Follow these steps to sign in using a portal account.

  1. Start ArcMap and click File > Sign In.

    The Portal for ArcGIS Sign In dialog box opens.

  2. Type the name and password of a valid login for the portal to which ArcGIS for Desktop is connected.

    If you do not have an account, click the Get new account link. This takes you to the portal sign in page. Once you have created an account, go back to ArcMap to connect to the portal using your new account.

  3. Optionally, you can check one or more of the following:
    • Remember my name—Saves the user name you provide. The next time you open ArcMap, the user name appears in the Name field of the Portal for ArcGIS Sign In dialog box.
    • Remember my password—Saves the password you provide.
    • Sign me in automatically—You connect automatically to the portal the next time you open ArcMap from the same machine. When you choose this option, your user name and password are saved.
    Note:

    Saving your user name and password with ArcMap is less secure than logging in each time. Only check these options if no one else has access to your machine.

  4. Click Sign In to connect to the portal from ArcMap.

Add data from your portal to ArcMap

You can add web maps, feature layers, tile layers, and map packages from your portal to ArcMap.

  1. In ArcMap, click File > Add Data > Add Data From Portal for ArcGIS.
  2. In the dialog box that opens, search for data and maps in the portal, or choose them from the Featured or My Data lists. You can also open the groups you have access to and add data from them.
  3. Double-click a web map, web layer, or package to add it to your map or click Add.
  4. If you added an editable feature layer to your map, you can perform edits. See About editing data from feature services and its related topics for more information.

Share map packages

You can upload map packages from ArcMap to your portal.

  1. Open the map you want to share.
  2. Click File > Share As > Map Package.
  3. Choose Upload package to my account.
  4. Type a name for the map package.
  5. At a minimum, you must provide a summary and tags for the Item Description. You can also provide the Description, Access and Use Constraints, and Credits for the map package.
  6. Click Sharing and indicate whether the map package should be shared with specific groups or with everyone in your organization.
  7. Click Share to create the map package and add it as an item to your portal.

Publish hosted features and tiles

If your portal is configured with a hosting server, you can publish web layers from ArcMap to your portal.

Publishing hosted web layers from ArcMap is the same as publishing services to ArcGIS Server, but instead of choosing an ArcGIS Server for your server connection, choose My Hosted Services.

You have two capability options when publishing to My Hosted Services: Tiled Mapping (a tile layer) and Feature Access (a feature layer). Choose one or both of these options, and provide the information needed to publish them.

  • For a hosted tile layer, specify caching information.
  • For a hosted feature layer, choose which operations can be performed on the published features.

Also provide information for the item description and specify who can access the web layer. When you finish specifying the information you need in the Service Editor, you can publish.

Your portal must have a hosting server for you to publish layers to it from ArcMap.

Add items to your portal

You can publish directly to any of the ArcGIS Server sites that are federated with your portal. These services are added automatically as items in your content in the portal.

See How to publish a service in the ArcGIS Server help for instructions on publishing.

When you delete the service from the federated server, the associated item is deleted from your portal.

Use ArcGIS Pro with your portal

Add your portal to your ArcGIS Pro project, set it as your active portal, and sign in to it.

Once you sign in to the active portal, you can share the following with it:

Add your portal to your ArcGIS Pro project and make it active

ArcGIS Pro connects to ArcGIS Online by default. To connect to our portal, add the portal's URL.

  1. Click the Project tab and click Portals.

    You can also access the Project tab from the Manage Portals link on the sign in menu.

  2. Click Add Portal.
  3. Enter the portal URL in the Add Portal dialog box and click OK.

    The URL's format is https://webadapter.domain.com/arcgis.

  4. If your portal uses public key infrastructure (PKI) authentication, a prompt appears.
    1. Choose a certificate when prompted and click OK.
    2. Enter your four-digit PIN when prompted and click OK.
  5. To make the new portal connection your active portal, right-click the URL and click Set As Active Portal.

Sign in to your portal

If your portal uses built-in accounts, sign in to your portal. If you use Integrated Windows Authorization (IWA), you are signed in automatically. If you use PKI authentication, you are already signed in because you specified your certificate and PIN when adding the portal to ArcGIS Pro.

  1. Right-click your active portal's URL and click Sign in.
  2. Type your portal user name and password, and click Sign In.

Share packages

You can share basemap, layer, map, and project packages from ArcGIS Pro with your portal so others can download and use them. See Share a package in the ArcGIS Pro help for more information.

Share web maps and scenes

You can create maps and scenes in your project in ArcGIS Pro to convey information, tell a story, or answer questions. You can share these maps and scenes with your portal so that others may download them. When you share maps and scenes, the layers they contain also publish to your portal.

To share a map, add layers to a map in ArcGIS Pro and click Share As Web Map on the Share tab to get started.

To share a scene, add multipatch layers to a scene in ArcGIS Pro, as well as other reference layers, and click Share As Web Scene on the Share tab to get started.

Your portal must have a hosting server for you to share web maps, scenes, and the layers they contain from ArcGIS Pro. Your portal must have (at a minimum) the no SQL component of ArcGIS Data Store registered with the hosting server to share scenes and multipatch data they contain. See Share a web scene in the ArcGIS Pro help for complete instructions.

Share tile or feature layers

You can publish feature or tile layers from ArcGIS Pro to your portal. Add layers to a map in your project and click Share As Web Layer on the Share tab to get started.

Your portal must have a hosting server for you to share tile and feature layers from ArcGIS Pro. See Share a web layer in the ArcGIS Pro help for complete instructions.

Tip:

If you want to publish all the layers in your map at once, you can share a web map, as mentioned in the previous section.

Share scene layers

If your portal is configured with an ArcGIS Data Store hosting server, you can publish scene layers from ArcGIS Pro (1.1 or later release) to your portal. Add multipatch layers to a scene in ArcGIS Pro, right-click the layer in the Contents pane, and click Share As Web Layer to get started.

See Share a web layer in the ArcGIS Pro help for complete instructions.