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Configure the portal to support Navigator for ArcGIS

Once you have purchased Navigator for ArcGIS licenses, follow the steps below to configure your portal to support the Navigator app.

  1. Configure Navigator for ArcGIS licenses with the portal.
  2. Assign licenses to portal members.
  3. Download mobile map packages from My Esri or create custom mobile map packages in ArcGIS Pro. Host them on a web server.
  4. Register the mobile map packages with the portal.

Members can then sign in to the portal with the Navigator app, download map packages for their work, and navigate offline. See the Navigator for ArcGIS help for details.

Manage mobile map packages

Navigator users who are signed in to your portal see the mobile map packages that you have made available for download. You can obtain map packages created by Esri from My Esri or create your own map packages in ArcGIS Pro and upload them to your portal. To make mobile map packages available to Navigator app users, you must register them with your portal.

Portal for ArcGIS comes with a Navigator Maps group owned by esri_nav. When Show ArcGIS Desktop Content is checked, you will see a list of items created by Esri in this group. Each item's detail page links to the map packages you download from My Esri when you register them with the portal.

Use the mobile map package tool (managemmpks) that comes with Portal for ArcGIS to register these packages. You can also use this tool to update, unregister, and list the mobile map packages in your portal as needed.

Note:

To use Navigator for ArcGIS, portal members must have Navigator licenses assigned to them. See Configure Navigator for ArcGIS licenses for details.

Download mobile map packages provided by Esri

To download the mobile map packages provided by Esri, follow these steps.

  1. Log in to My Esri and click My Organizations > Downloads > Data and Content.
  2. Type Navigator in the search text box and choose the sort option you want from the Sort By drop-down list.
  3. Scroll through the list of mobile map packages to find the files you want.
  4. Click Download for each mobile map package you want to provide to Navigator app users. Download the files one at a time.
  5. Place the downloaded map packages in a location that is web accessible. For example, if you're using IIS as your web server, you can place the downloaded files in the c:\inetpub\wwwroot\ folder or another location that is configured as a virtual directory.

    The URL to the web server where you place map package files is the base URL you will provide when using the managemmpks tool to register and manage packages.

  6. Enable the .mmpk extension as MIME type. For example, if using IIS as your web server, follow these steps.
    1. Open IIS Manager.
    2. In the Connections pane, select your server in the tree view and double-click MIME Types.
    3. In the Actions pane, click Add.
    4. For File name extension, type .mmpk.
    5. For MIME type, enter application/mmpk.
    6. Restart your web server.

Register mobile map packages

Once you have acquired mobile map packages and hosted them on a web server, register them with your portal. Any updates to the mobile map packages must also be communicated with the portal. You can manage mobile map packages with the managemmpks tool. This tool is installed with Portal for ArcGIS in the <Portal for ArcGIS installation directory>/tools/managemmpks directory. You will be prompted for the portal administrator user name and password when you run the managemmpks tool.

Type managemmpks --help to get help with the tool syntax.

  1. Log in to the machine where Portal for ArcGIS is installed.
  2. Start a terminal session and authenticate as the user who installed Portal for ArcGIS.
  3. From the command line, browse to the tools/managemmpks folder of the Portal for ArcGIS installation directory.
  4. Run the following managemmpks tool with the --register command to register all mobile map packages listed in a text file or as comma separated values: managemmpks --register --url <base_URL> {--file <package_names_list.txt> | --packages <package_name1,package_name2>}.
  5. The following example registers a comma-separated list of package names for mobile map packages accessed through the URL http://mapcdn.esri.com/navigator/mmpk:
    managemmpks --register --url http://mapcdn.esri.com/navigator/mmpk --packages Alabama,Czech_Republic
    In this example, a text file containing a list of mobile map packages, us_states_package_list.txt is provided for .mmpk files accessed through http://mapcdn.esri.com/navigator/mmpk.
    managemmpks --register --url http://mapcdn.esri.com/navigator/mmpk 
    --file us_states_package_list.txt

Navigator app users can download map packages for navigation.

Update mobile map packages

Esri updates the mobile map packages on My Esri on a regular basis. You can also update the mobile map packages you generate in ArcGIS Pro. After you obtain these updated files and place them in the mobile map package file directory you access through the base URL, use the managemmpks tool with the --refresh command to update the package contents. You can provide a text file containing the mobile map package names or a comma-separated list of package names. The syntax is managemmpks --refresh {--file <package_names_list.txt> | --packages <name1,name2>}.

In this example, updated farmland and pop_density mobile map packages were placed where the base URL will access them.

managemmpks --refresh --packages farmland,pop_density

Unregister mobile map packages

To unregister mobile map packages, use the --unregister command with the managemmpks tool. You can specify a text file list of packages using the --file command or include a comma-separated list of package names using the --packages command.

In this example, the Albania mobile map package is unregistered.

managemmpks --unregister --packages Albania

The following example shows unregistering the mobile map packages listed in the text file, package_list.txt:

managemmpks --unregister --file package_list.txt

List all mobile map packages

Use the --list command with the managemmpks tool to generate two lists: one of registered mobile map packages and one of unregistered mobile map packages. Use the --dir command to specify an output directory in which to create text files of these lists. The file name is autogenerated by the managemmpks tool. You can then use these text files as input for registering and unregistering .mmpk files.

In this example, the list of mobile map packages is output to the directory /usr/temp.

./managemmpks.sh --list --dir /usr/temp

List installed mobile map packages

Use the --preinstalled command with the managemmpks tool to list the mobile map packages that are installed with Portal for ArcGIS. You can output a text file containing this list. You can then use the text file as input for registering and unregistering .mmpk files.

To return a list of the map packages in your command prompt or terminal, specify the --preinstalled command as shown in this example.

managemmpks --preinstalled

If you want to output the list to a file, specify a file name as shown in the following example:

managemmpks --preinstalled > myoutputfile.txt