Manage hosted tile layers

Owners of hosted tile layers and administrators can manage the following settings specific to hosted tile layers:

• The number and scale of tiles in the layer
• The minimum and maximum scales at which a hosted tile layer will draw when added to a map
• Whether a hosted tile layer can be taken offline

Note that you cannot manage minimum and maximum scales or the offline mode on hosted tile layers if the source data or hosted feature layer that your hosted tile layer was published from is no longer accessible. Similarly, hosted tile layers inherit the visible range of the hosted feature layer when you publish the hosted tile layer. You cannot build tiles for areas that fall outside that inherited visible range.

Manage hosted raster tile layer settings

Follow these steps to create tiles, change the visible range, and manage the offline mode of a hosted tile layer:

1. Sign in as the owner of the web layer, an administrator, or with an account that has privileges to update all members' items.
2. Open the hosted tile layer's item page.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Scroll to the Tile Layer (hosted) Settings section.
5. Click Show Details to see the current status of existing tiles.
6. Make any of the following changes:
   • Set the Visible Range option using the slider or drop-down lists to choose the minimum and maximum scales at which a hosted tile layer draws when added to a map.
   • Click Build Tiles to build tiles for the layer. When the dialog box appears, check the boxes next to the levels (scales) at which you want to generate tiles. You must choose at least one level. When you finish choosing levels, click Create Tiles.
   • Check Allow this layer to be downloaded and used in an offline map to allow others to include a hosted tile layer in a map that will be taken offline.
7. Click Save when you finish.

Manage hosted vector tile layer settings

Follow these steps to manage the offline mode of a hosted vector tile layer:

1. Sign in as the owner of the web layer, an administrator, or with an account that has privileges to update all members' items.
2. Open the hosted vector tile layer's item page.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Scroll to the Tile Layer (hosted) Settings section.
5. Check Allow this layer to be downloaded and used in an offline map to allow others to include a hosted tile layer in Collector for ArcGIS or custom offline apps.
6. Click Save when you finish.

You can now add this layer to a map that is enabled for offline use.

Replace a hosted vector tile layer

The Replace Layer option allows you to replace a hosted vector tile layer in your portal with a new layer. When you replace a hosted vector tile layer using this option, the content of the layer changes, but the item ID and URL used to access it do not.

Using Replace Layer enables you to perform quality control testing on a hosted vector tile layer prior to putting it into production. It benefits production scenarios when you have users and apps accessing a hosted vector tile layer that references an outdated vector tile package. You can check the quality of the existing hosted vector tile layer and, if it needs to be fixed or improved, you can publish a new layer from an updated vector tile package and replace the existing layer. This process prevents downtime and broken links.

The layer you're replacing remains in the portal to function as an archive. It is given the name you specify on the Replace Layer dialog box, which by default is its current name suffixed with _archive and a timestamp.

Note:

When the layer name changes, the URL used to access it also changes.

The item IDs of the original layer and replacement layer are swapped. The original layer, once archived, can be used to roll back if there is a problem with the replacement layer.

As a best practice, you can maintain separate sets of web maps for testing the replacement layer and the archived layer. To implement this testing strategy, maintain naming standards for the replacement layer (such as the production layer name plus _staging) and for the latest archived layer (such as the production layer name plus _archive).

In the future, when you have a new vector tile layer to test and put into production, you can use Replace Layer to replace the production layer with the new layer, making the production layer the archived layer. Before replacing the production layer with the new layer, retire the previous archived layer by renaming or deleting it.

It is possible to give your archived layer the same name as the replacement layer. For example, if you want to test the archived layer with the set of web maps used to test your replacement layer (treating your archived layer as a staging layer).

Before you replace a layer, ensure the projection, tiling scheme, and layer names are the same in the current layer and the replacement layer. These settings must match.

1. Sign in as the owner of the web layer, a portal administrator, or with an account that has privileges to update all members' items.
2. Open the hosted vector tile layer's item page.
3. Click Replace Layer.
4. Click Select layer.

   In the panel that appears, you can search, browse, filter, and sort available tile layers to find your replacement layer. You can also view the item details for each layer by clicking its name.

5. When you've located the vector tile layer you want to use, click its arrow icon to select it as your replacement layer.
6. If the replacement layer's Description, Tags, summary, or thumbnail are different than the existing layer's, click Replace item information.

   This will not replace the item's Credits (Attribution), Terms of Use, or Created from information.

7. Under Current Layer, optionally edit the name of the layer to be archived by clicking the layer name. By default, _archive and the current date are appended to the layer name, and all spaces are replaced with underscores. Click Save.
8. Click Replace to perform the replacement operation.