Publish hosted feature layers

You can publish feature layers from any of the following to be hosted on your portal:

• Comma-separated values (CSV) files
• GeoJSON files or zipped shapefiles
• Feature collections
• ArcMap documents
• ArcGIS Pro maps
• Zipped file geodatabases

You can also publish an empty hosted feature layer so members of your organization can add features to it.

Feature layers are useful when you need to expose vector data for display, query, and editing to other members of your organization. Hosting a feature layer on Portal for ArcGIS is an easy way to share data with coworkers through maps, apps, and desktop map viewers.

Feature layers are most appropriate for operational layers that go on top of reference layers such as a basemap. For example, a feature layer might contain information about the street signs in your neighborhood. Each feature (street sign) might include the sign name, date installed, and a website URL for reporting problems to your local street department.

You must have privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers to create an empty hosted feature layer or publish from a file or map.

Publish a CSV file

You can log in to the portal website and publish features or tables from CSV files that you have stored on your computer. The resultant feature layer is published as a service to your portal's hosting server. These services are referred to as hosted feature layers.

The steps below outline how to publish features from the portal website using a CSV file. The features are published in the WGS 1984 Web Mercator (Auxiliary Sphere) coordinate system. Uploads over 2 GB in size are not supported and will result in an error.

Note:

To speed loading and publishing performance, Portal for ArcGIS reads the values in the first 10 rows in the CSV file to determine the data type and maximum length to use for each field in the hosted feature layer. Portal for ArcGIS sets text fields to 256 characters. Subsequent rows that contain values that do not match the field data types and lengths of the first 10 rows are not included in the hosted feature layer.

In the following example, the first 10 rows of a published CSV file have the properties listed in the table; therefore, the data types and maximum lengths of the fields in the hosted feature layer are created with the same properties:

field name	data type	maximum length
address_num	integer	3
street	text	256
city	text	256
state	text	256
comments	text	256

If the address_num field of row 217 contains the value 1009 Apt B, it is excluded from the hosted feature layer because it doesn't match the data type set for the address_num field. Similarly, if the comments field for row 460 contains more than 256 characters, it is excluded from the hosted feature layer because the value exceeds the maximum length for the comments field.

Check your CSV file before you publish, and move the records with the longest field lengths to the top of the file before publishing. Similarly, if your file contains both text and integer data type values in the same field, move at least one of the text fields to the top of the file before publishing and Portal for ArcGIS will create a text field in the hosted feature layer. Since you can insert numbers into a text field, none of the records in your CSV file will be excluded from the hosted feature layer due to mismatched data types.

1. Verify that you are signed in and that you have privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers. If you have a large file to publish, you should check Keep me signed in when signing in. This helps prevent the website from timing out before the feature layer has been created.
2. Open My Content, click Add Item, and click From my Computer.
3. Click Choose File and browse to the file on your computer.
4. Select the file and click Open.

CSV files need to contain address information or latitude-longitude coordinates in decimal degrees. CSV files must be formatted and saved as .csv. Other text-based file types cannot be published.

5. Check the box next to Publish this file as a hosted layer.

   If you leave the box unchecked, your data file is added to My Content, but no hosted feature layer is published. You can publish the feature layer later if you want. See Add items for more information.

6. Type a title.
7. Type tag terms separated by commas.

   Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

8. Choose to locate features using latitude-longitude or address, or choose to create a nonspatial table.
9. If you choose to locate addresses, choose the country used to geocode your addresses from the Country drop-down list. If your file contains addresses from multiple countries or from a country not in the list, select World.

   Note:

   Your portal must be configured to use a geocode utility service that can do batch geocoding for you to publish a CSV file containing addresses. Contact your portal administrator if the option to publish is not available when you add your file.

10. Review the field types and location fields. You can change them if necessary.
    1. Click a Field Type cell to choose a different type.
    2. Click a Location Field cell to choose a different field.
11. Click Add Item.

Your file is published as a hosted feature layer. It may take some time to upload the file. One way to test the new feature layer is to view it in the map viewer.

The data file and the feature layer are separately added to My Content. You can edit item details and share the items. The items are independent, so for example, if you change the thumbnail in the feature layer's item details, the thumbnail does not update on the file's item details.

If you published a CSV file containing addresses, you will be prompted to review and correct any records that were not placed on the map or were placed incorrectly. You can immediately review the addresses in the map viewer or choose to review the addresses at a later time. See Review addresses for more information.

By default, the hosted feature layer can only be accessed by the publisher. You can share the hosted feature layer and the file with everyone in your organization or members of specific groups.

Be aware that, by default, only 2,000 records are returned at a time when drawing or querying a feature layer. You can edit the Maximum Number of Records Returned by Server property in the service's parameters in ArcGIS Server Manager to change the number of records returned.

Publish a shapefile or GeoJSON file

To web-enable feature layers from shapefiles (packaged in a .zip file) or GeoJSON files (.geojson or .json), add the files to your portal and publish a hosted feature layer. The resultant feature layer is published as a service to your portal's hosting server. These services are referred to as hosted feature layers.

The following steps outline how to publish features from the portal website using a shapefile or GeoJSON file. The features are published in the WGS 1984 Web Mercator (Auxiliary Sphere) coordinate system. Uploads over 2 GB in size are not supported and will result in an error.

Note:

Metadata defined on your shapefile is not automatically added to the shapefile item in portal or the published hosted feature layer; however, you can open the metadata XML from the source shapefile in the web editor accessed from the item details.

1. Verify that you are signed in and that you have privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers. If you have a large file to publish, you should check Keep me signed in when signing in. This helps prevent the website from timing out before the hosted feature layer has been created.
2. Open My Content, click Add Item, and click From my Computer.
3. Click Choose File and browse to the file on your computer.
4. Select the file and click Open.

Shapefiles must be compressed as a .zip file containing .shp, .shx, .dbf, and .prj files.

If there are multiple shapefiles in the .zip file, they will all be included in the feature layer.

5. Check the box next to Publish this file as a hosted layer.

   If you leave the box unchecked, your data file is added to My Content, but no hosted feature layer is published. You can publish the features later if you want. See Add items for more information.

6. Type a title.
7. Type tag terms separated by commas.

   Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

8. Click Add Item.

Your file is published as a hosted feature layer. It may take some time to upload the file. One way to test the new hosted feature layer is to view it in the map viewer.

The data file and the feature layer are separately added to My Content. You can edit item details and share the items. The items are independent, so for example, if you change the thumbnail in the feature layer's item details, the thumbnail does not update on the file's item details.

By default, the hosted feature layer can only be accessed by the publisher. You can share the hosted feature layer and the file with everyone in your organization or members of specific groups.

Be aware that, by default, only 2,000 records are returned at a time when drawing or querying a feature layer. You can edit the Maximum Number of Records Returned by Server property in the service's parameters in ArcGIS Server Manager to change the number of records returned.

Publish a feature collection

If your data needs to be edited by multiple people, you can publish your feature collection as a hosted feature layer, share the layer, enable editing on it, and then use the feature layer in your map.

Note:

If you alter symbology for individual points in the feature collection, that symbology change is not preserved when you publish the feature collection as a hosted feature layer.

1. Open the item details of the feature collection you want to publish as a hosted feature layer.
2. Click Publish.
3. You can use the default title for the hosted feature layer or type a new one.
4. Type tag terms separated by commas.

   Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. public buildings is considered one tag, while public,buildings is considered two tags.

5. Click Publish to create the hosted feature layer.

A hosted feature layer is created and added to your content.

Now you can share the hosted layer, enable editing, and add the feature layer to your map.

Publish from ArcMap

From ArcMap, you can publish a feature layer to be hosted on your portal. The hosted feature layer will expose all vector datasets included in the map document.

Before proceeding, be sure ArcGIS for Desktop is connected to your portal.

By default, editing is not enabled on hosted feature layers. You can enable editing from ArcMap when you initially publish or overwrite an existing feature layer. Alternatively, you can edit the feature layer properties in the portal website to allow editing.

Metadata included in your map document is included with the hosted feature layer you publish to your portal.

Caution:

If you overwrite a hosted feature layer by republishing from ArcMap, the existing feature layer item is deleted from the portal, a new item is created with the same name, but the item is created in the root folder and is assigned a new ID. You will need to reconfigure sharing and, if necessary, move the item back to the folder it was in before you republished. You will also have to reconfigure any pop-ups or symbology you previously saved on the item.

Note that web browsers cannot display some of the more complex cartographic symbols you might have originally used when you authored the map in ArcMap. Most symbol types are available, but in some cases the symbols may be downgraded when you publish them. See Author feature services in the ArcGIS for Server help for more details about what symbols are supported and make any required changes to your map symbology prior to publishing.

1. Start ArcMap and open the map you want to publish.
2. Click File > Sign In.
3. Type your name and password for your portal and click Sign In.
4. Click File > Share As > Service.
5. Choose Publish a service and click Next.
6. In the drop-down list of connection types, choose My Hosted Services. Type a name for your feature layer and click Continue.
7. In the left pane of the Service Editor, click Capabilities and check Feature Access to expose your map as a feature layer. You can optionally also check Tiled Mapping, although in most scenarios, you would use a different set of layers and a different map document for publishing a tile layer.

   You can click the subitem Feature Access in the left pane of the Service Editor to set advanced properties relating to what clients can do with the hosted feature layer. To learn how to adjust the types of edits that end users can make to your hosted feature layer, see Editor permissions for feature services.

8. Set other properties that you want for your hosted feature layer. You can choose what users can do with your feature layer and take fine-grained control of how the server will expose it.

   For information on how to best configure your hosted feature layer for deployment, see Tuning and configuring services. Some of the properties referenced in that topic apply only to ArcGIS for Server and are not applicable when working with feature layers hosted on your portal.

   Tip:

   If you close the Service Editor during this session, you'll be prompted to save your work as a draft service. Draft services allow you to come back to your service configuration work at a later time. By default, draft services are saved in the Drafts folder of your connection to My Hosted Services. For more information, see About draft services.

There are a few additional properties you must set that are specific to hosted feature layers. These are detailed in the following steps.
9. In the left pane of the Service Editor, click Item Description and enter a summary and tags for your layer. You'll need to enter this information before you can publish. For more information, see Setting map service properties.
10. In the left pane of the Service Editor, click Sharing and choose with whom the feature layer should be shared. By default, your hosted feature layer is shared to My Content only, meaning it is only accessible to you. Your hosted feature layer will always be visible in My Content, but you can also choose to share it with everyone, members of your organization, or just members of certain groups.
11. In the Service Editor, click Analyze.

    This examines your map to see if it can be published. You must fix the Errors in the Prepare window before you can publish. Optionally, you can fix the warnings and informational messages to further improve the performance and appearance of your hosted feature layer. For more information about resolving these issues, see Analyzing your GIS resource.

12. Optionally, in the Service Editor, click Preview. This can give you an idea of how your feature layer will look when viewed on the web.
13. Once you've fixed the errors and optionally any warnings and messages, click Publish.

    Note:

    Your data is copied to the server at this point. The size of the data and your network speed and bandwidth will impact the time it takes to publish.

Once your feature layer is published and hosted on your portal, you'll see it when you expand the My Hosted Services node in the Catalog window.

By default, feature layers published from an ArcMap document only return 1,000 records. This limit is configurable in the publisher dialog box when publishing a new feature layer or overwriting an existing hosted feature layer. You can also update this limit on existing hosted feature layers from the service properties in ArcGIS Server Manager. Set the Maximum Number of Records Returned by Server property to the desired value.

Publish from ArcGIS Pro

You can publish a hosted feature layer from ArcGIS Pro to your portal. When you do so, feature data is copied from your source to the managed database or relational data store registered with your portal's hosting server.

By default, editing is not enabled on hosted feature layers, but you can enable editing from ArcGIS Pro when you initially publish or overwrite an existing feature layer. Alternatively, you can edit the feature layer properties in the portal website to allow editing.

Caution:

If you overwrite a hosted feature layer, the existing feature layer item is deleted from the portal, a new item is created with the same name, but the item is created in the root folder and is assigned a new ID. You will need to reconfigure sharing and, if necessary, move the item back to the folder it was in before you republished. You will also have to reconfigure any pop-ups or symbology you previously saved on the item.

Also note that web browsers cannot display some of the more complex cartographic symbols you might have originally used when you authored the map. Most symbol types are available, but in some cases the symbols may be downgraded when you publish them. See Author feature services in the ArcGIS for Server help for more details about what symbols are supported and make any required changes to your map symbology prior to publishing.

1. Start ArcGIS Pro and open the project that contains the map or scene with the data you want to publish.
2. Be sure your portal connection is active in the project and that you are signed in to the portal using an account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers.
3. To publish a feature layer, do one of the following:
   • Select the layers in the Contents pane. Right-click the selection set and click Share As Web Layer.

   • To publish all the layers in the map, click Web Layer in the Share As group of the Share tab and click Publish Web Layer.

   Tip:

   If the Share As Web Layer menu option is not active, it could be due to one of the following:

   • The account you signed in with does not have privileges to publish hosted feature layers.
   • Your portal is not configured with a hosting server, which is required to host web layers.
   • You're trying to publish a multipatch layer, which is not supported.

4. Type a name for the feature layer. The layer is saved to My Content by default. You can save to a folder within My Content by either typing the folder name or browsing to an existing folder.
5. Choose to Copy all data.
6. For Layer Type, check Feature.

   This automatically unchecks other Layer Type options, as only one can be checked at a time when copying data.

7. Provide a summary and tags for the feature layer.
8. Specify how the feature layer will be shared. All layers you publish are automatically shared to your personal workspace in your organization (My Content). Your content is inaccessible to others until you share it with one or more of the following:
   • Portal for ArcGIS—Selecting this option allows the layer to be shared with all authenticated users in the organization.
   • Everyone—Selecting this option makes the layer available to anyone who can access your portal.
   • Groups—You can share the layer with members of groups to which you belong.
9. By default, the feature layer you publish is not editable, cannot be taken offline, and the data it contains cannot be exported. To allow others to perform these operations on your feature layer, click the Configuration tab, click the Configure Web Layer Properties button, and check the box next to the operations you want to allow:
   • Enable Editing—This operation enables anyone who can access the hosted feature layer to add, update, or delete features.
   • Enable Sync—This allows people to download maps containing the hosted feature layer, edit the data, and synchronize their changes back to the hosted feature layer.
   • Export Data—The hosted feature layer owner and organization administrator can always export data from a hosted feature layer. Enabling this operation allows other members to export data from the hosted feature layer to a CSV or shapefile. If your portal's hosting server uses ArcGIS Data Store, enabling this operation also allows other members to export data from the hosted feature layer to a file geodatabase, GeoJSON file, or feature collection.
10. Click the Content tab to confirm your feature layer will include the data layers you intended.
11. Click Analyze to check for any errors or issues.

    If any issues are discovered, they will be listed in the Messages tab. Right-click each message to get more information, read help for the error or warning, and access suggested fixes. You must fix the errors before you can publish. Optionally, you can fix the warnings to further improve the performance and appearance of your hosted feature layer.

    Tip:

    If you opened the Share Web Layer dialog box from the Share ribbon, you will receive a warning that the layer's data source is not supported. This usually refers to the base map layer, which cannot be published.

12. Once you've fixed the errors and optionally any warnings, click Publish.

    Note:

    Your data is copied to the hosting server at this point. The size of the data and your network speed and bandwidth will impact the time it takes to publish.

When publishing completes, you can click Manage the web layer to open the portal website.

Publish the contents of a file geodatabase

You can log in to the portal website and publish a feature layer from a file geodatabase (packaged in a .zip file) that you have stored on your computer. The resultant feature layer is published as a service to your portal's hosting server. The service is referred to as a hosted feature layer.

Publishing file geodatabase contents is a useful workflow if the geodatabase contains only a few datasets.

You can publish the following data types from a file geodatabase to a hosted feature layer:

• Feature classes (x- and y-coordinates; m- and z-coordinates will be dropped)
• Tables
• Attachments
• Relationship classes

Other data types—such as rasters, networks, and parcel fabrics—remain in the geodatabase but are not included in the published hosted feature layer. Domains also remain in the geodatabase, but are not accessible from the hosted feature layer.

Note:

Metadata defined for the feature classes in the geodatabase is not automatically added to the published hosted feature layer; however, you can export the metadata from the file geodatabase to an XML file and open that file in the web editor accessed from the layer's item details.

Follow these steps to add a file geodatabase to your portal and publish its contents as a hosted feature layer.

1. Verify that you are signed in and that you have privileges to create content and publish hosted features.
2. Open My Content, click Add Item, and click From my Computer.
3. Click Choose File and browse to the file on your computer.

   The file geodatabase must be in a .zip file.

4. Select the file and click Open.
5. Check the box next to Publish this file as a hosted layer.

   If you leave the box unchecked, the file geodatabase is added to My Content, but no hosted feature layer is published. You can publish the features later if you want. See Add items for more information.

6. Type a title.
7. Type tag terms separated by commas.

   Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find the item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

8. Click Add Item.

The supported data in your file geodatabase is published as a hosted feature layer. It may take some time to upload the file. One way to test the new feature layer is to view it in the map viewer.

The data file and the feature layer are separately added to My Content. You can edit item details and share the items. The items are independent, so for example, if you change the thumbnail in the feature layer's item details, the thumbnail does not update on the file's item details.

By default, the hosted feature layer can only be accessed by the publisher. You can share the hosted feature layer and the file with everyone in your organization or members of specific groups.

Be aware that, by default, only 2,000 records are returned at a time when drawing or querying a feature layer. You can edit the Maximum Number of Records Returned by Server property in the service's parameters in ArcGIS Server Manager to change the number of records returned.

Publish an empty hosted feature layer

The website allows you to create a hosted feature layer that is empty and available for editing if your portal's hosting server is using ArcGIS Data Store. You can configure this feature layer to use the extent and schema of an existing feature layer. For example, you might have a feature layer displaying the perimeter of an existing wildfire. When a new wildfire occurs, you can create an empty feature layer from your existing one. You can then populate the new layer with the boundary and attributes of your new wildfire.

Follow these steps to create an empty hosted feature layer.

1. Verify that you are signed in with an account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers and open My Content.
2. Click Create and choose Feature Layer.
3. Choose an existing hosted feature layer whose layers you would like to apply to the new feature layer. There are several approaches you can take:
   • Click the From Template tab, select one of the template feature layers provided by Esri, and click Next.
   • Click the Existing Layer tab to use a hosted feature layer from your organization. Search for or browse to the existing hosted feature layers you want to use, select it, and click Next.
   • Click the From URL tab, type the URL of an existing hosted feature layer, and click Next.

   No matter which approach you take, check the box next to each layer you want to include in your new feature layer. You must choose at least one layer.

   This step doesn't actually add or copy any features to your new hosted feature layer; you're just defining the layers (and associated attribute fields) that will be available.

   When you're done choosing layers, click Next.

4. Pan the test map to the default extent you want for your new feature layer and click Next.

   This step helps you narrow the scope of the layer when it is first edited.

5. Type a title, tags, summary, and location for your feature layer, and click Done. You're taken to the item details page of your new hosted feature layer.

Caution:

By default, editing is enabled on your new hosted feature layer. If you don't want users to edit it immediately, you should disable editing.