Overview
At ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5.1, hosted or federated feature layer items can be shared with the option to copy data. If you share a feature layer by copying data, a new item is created for collaboration participants and the copied data is used to publish a feature layer for collaboration participants. The owner of the original feature layer can edit the feature layer and synchronize changes to the participants at a scheduled interval. To use this approach, the sync interval must be set within the collaboration workspace and sync must be enabled on shared hosted or federated feature layers.
If sync is not enabled at the time the feature layer is shared with the sending organization's workspace, the data is not copied. The feature layer created on the receiving organization references the data from the sending organization. In order to share the feature layer as a copy, you must un-share it from the workspace and share it again after enabling sync on the feature layer.
Supported feature layer types for sharing as copies
The following types of feature layers support sharing data as copies:
- Hosted feature layers in ArcGIS Online
- Hosted feature layers in ArcGIS Enterprise where ArcGIS Enterprise meets the specifications of a base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment
- Feature layers published to an ArcGIS Enterprise federated server where the data is stored in a registered enterprise geodatabase. These can be created by publishing:
Prerequisites
The option to share feature layers as copies is available when:
- The collaboration host is an ArcGIS Online organization
- The collaboration guest is using ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5.1 and has access to Send or Send and Receive content.
- The collaboration guest must meet the specifications of a base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment.
- Feature layers are sync enabled during the publishing process or once the service has been published
- In order to enable sync for a feature layer published to a federated server, the data must be prepared appropriately in the enterprise geodatabase. See required Data preparation steps for nonversioned and versioned data.
Note:
The option to share feature layers as copies is not supported for collaborations between two ArcGIS Enterprise organizations.
Properties of copied feature layers
When collaboration participants receive copied feature layers, the following properties and behaviors apply:
Read only
Feature layers received in collaboration are intended to be read-only and have the enable editing option disabled. When a workspace is synced, edits are always sent to receiving participants in a one-way sync operation. It is recommended that you not create editable views from these feature layers to support editing workflows within the organization. The service owner or a participant administrator can make edits to the data if need be, but these edits will be over-written during sync when edits to the same features are made from the sending organization.
Editor tracking
Editor tracking is enabled on feature layers for receiving organizations when it is enabled from the sending organization prior to collaboration. When the data is first copied to the receiving organizations, the editor tracking values are reset where dates are set to the current timestamp in UTC and creators and editors are set as the publishing user. The reset values reflect newly copied data into a new organization. When syncing, the editor tracking dates from the sending organization are preserved. Therefore, from the time the data is shared on forward, the receiving organization will contain the dates in which the edits were made in the sending organization. Creator and editor values for inserts and updates synced into the receiving organization will be set to the replica owner (publishing user) from when the feature layer was copied.
It is possible for editor tracking to be enabled on some layers but not others within feature layers in a collaboration. In this case, when sending from ArcGIS Enterprise or ArcGIS Online, all layers will have editor tracking enabled in the receiving organization's hosted feature layer. Where layers in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise have editor tracking enabled, the behavior is as described above. When a feature service has multiple layers and one layer has editor tracking enabled in ArcGIS Online only, the sync process will set the editor tracking values based on the current time stamp and the replica owner (publishing user.)
When collaborating from ArcGIS Online to ArcGIS Enterprise and editor tracking is enabled, all layers from feature layers in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise will have editor tracking enabled.
If you enable editor tracking after adding the feature layer to the collaboration, the receiving organizations will not have editor tracking enabled.
If you unshare and share the layer to the sending organization's workspace, the layer will be re-copied to the receiving organization workspaces with editor tracking enabled.
Access control settings are maintained for receiving organizations but have no consequence since all features are owned by the replica owner in the receiving organizations.
Schema changes
Schema changes made in either the sending or receiving organization are not applied when the workspace is synced. This includes adding or deleting fields, adding or deleting layers, enabling or disabling attachments and so on. The workspace sync operation includes only edits (inserts, updates and deletes) to layer or tables that were available at the time the feature layer was shared to the workspace. When there are schema differences, sync will apply edits to the matching parts of the schema. For example, if a field is added on the sending organization, it is ignored when edits are applied during sync to the receiving organization's copy which does not have the field. If you unshare and share the layer to the sending organization's workspace, the layer will be re-copied to the receiving organization workspaces with the new schema changes.
Time enabled settings
Time will not be enabled on the copied feature layer in receiving organizations.
Versioned data
If the feature layer's data in the sending organization is from a versioned enterprise geodatabase, edits made to the published version are sent when the workspace is synced.