Listed below are frequently asked questions about ArcGIS Enterprise. If you encounter issues when working with ArcGIS Enterprise, see Troubleshoot for recommended solutions.
General
- What is ArcGIS Companion?
- What is a weak password in ArcGIS Enterprise?
- Who can use collaborations?
- Why should my organization use HTTPS only?
- How can I change the data source URL protocol for my secure service with embedded credentials to HTTPS?
- Who can edit features?
- When do members see contact information for the administrator of their organization?
Maps
- Which map viewer should I use?
- What kinds of layers can I add to a map?
- What's the difference between features stored in the map and features stored in an ArcGIS Server feature service layer?
- What's the best way to add features to a map?
- How can I tell whether a map is time enabled?
- What's the difference between Save and Save As?
- Do I need to enable hardware acceleration in my browser to use Map Viewer?
- What is the difference between building a map with an ArcGIS API and using Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic to make a map?
- How do I make a layer available as a basemap in my organization's basemap gallery?
Scenes
- What is a scene?
- What is Scene Viewer?
- How do I open a scene?
- How do I create a scene?
- What's the difference between a scene and a map?
- What's the difference between a scene and a scene layer?
- Do I need ArcGIS Pro to create a scene?
- How can I use Scene Viewer with my 2D data?
- Can I share 3D geometry in feature layers?
- Can I share my own terrain models in scenes?
Apps
Content
- How large a file can I upload?
- What can I share?
- Can I share a URL of my map or app?
- What happens if I delete the source item used to publish a hosted layer?
- How can I update the data in my hosted feature layer?
- What is the difference between a web map and a web app within the context of the website?
- When my organization changes the basemap gallery, what happens to the basemaps in my maps and scenes?
- How can I control how hosted feature layers are reprojected when viewed on ArcGIS Online basemaps?
- Who can create scene layers and what are the minimum privileges needed to publish scene layers?
- Do I need ArcGIS Pro to create a scene layer?
- Can scene layers be shared through a collaboration?
Esri featured content
Bing Maps
Sharing
Administration
General
ArcGIS Companion is a native mobile app for iOS and Android that provides access to your ArcGIS organization, content, and profile. Use the app to search, browse, and manage ArcGIS content, members, and groups, and to share and collaborate. With Companion, you choose where you want to open items such as maps, scenes, apps, and layers. For example, you can open web maps in ArcGIS Explorer. Discover the most popular and up-to-date content in your organization and stay informed with the latest Esri news, blogs, and tweets. Administrators can perform common tasks such as resetting member passwords, enabling and disabling members, updating user profiles, adding members to the portal, assigning groups to members, and changing roles.
Companion is available in all languages that the portal website supports.
To get started, install ArcGIS Companion on your mobile device from the following:
- Google Play or Amazon Appstore for Android
- App Store for iPad and iPhone
Distributed collaboration is available for all ArcGIS Enterprise deployments at version 10.5 and later. At minimum, your organization must have an ArcGIS Enterprise base deployment to use collaboration.
Encrypting sensitive information is the primary reason to use HTTPS. HTTPS uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protocols that provide secure communication across networks. ArcGIS uses TLS, which is a more recent and secure encryption protocol than SSL. When you send information over the internet using HTTPS in your URL address, only the intended recipient can understand the information. This encryption is important because the information you send over the internet is usually passed between many computers before it gets to the destination server. Any computer between you and the server can see sensitive information, such as passwords, if the information is not encrypted with a valid TLS or SSL certificate. When a valid TLS or SSL certificate is used, the information becomes unreadable to everyone except the server where you are sending the information. This protects it from malicious activity such as identity theft.
By default, ArcGIS Enterprise enforces HTTPS for all communication; however, you can adjust your security protocols to fit the needs of your organization through the security settings. It is also recommended that you enable TLS on all your on-premises services. When you add layers to maps or add layers as items, it is recommended that you use HTTPS URLs. HTTPS helps protect your data and also mitigates mixed content issues with browsers. Many websites today can only be accessed through HTTPS. HTTPS ensures that your data and all other communication between your browser and ArcGIS Enterprise are encrypted.
For more information on TLS, SSL, HTTPS, and internet security, visit Trust Center. Esri created Trust Center as your resource for security, privacy, and compliance information about ArcGIS. Trust Center provides information about product security, security alerts, security compliance, best security practices for your organization, and more.
How can I change the data source URL protocol for my secure service with embedded credentials to HTTPS?
If you own or have administrative privileges to administer secure services with embedded credentials such as an ArcGIS Server feature layer or a print or geocoding service, you can replace http with https as the URL protocol of the data source on the Settings tab of the secure service item's page. It is recommended that you make all services accessible using HTTPS only, which encrypts the information in the service when it is transmitted over the internet. For more information, see Why should my organization use HTTPS only?
Anyone, including anonymous users and organization members assigned the default Viewer role, can edit features in a public feature layer if the layer is editable. To edit features in editable feature layers that are not public, you must have a user type that includes the ability to edit features (for example, the Contributor user type) and be assigned feature editing privileges through the role that is assigned to you. Feature layer edits include creating, updating, or deleting the features, as well as creating, updating, or deleting the information (attribute values) associated with the features.
You can choose administrators who will be listed as points of contact for your portal. If added, details of the specified administrators will be visible to all nonadministrator organization members on the Organization page.
Maps
ArcGIS Enterprise offers two map viewers for viewing, using, and creating maps.
Map Viewer is a modern map-making tool that features fast and responsive mapping and real-time updates to the map as you work. Map Viewer offers a variety of visualization tools to help you uncover patterns and answer questions with your data.
Map Viewer Classic is the predecessor of Map Viewer. Because it is built on legacy technology, it does not support the new capabilities available in Map Viewer.
The following capabilities are only available in Map Viewer:
- Dot density styling
- Multielement pop-ups
- Pie chart smart mapping styles
- Above and Below styling themes
- Layer blending
- Effects (whole layer and feature-specific)
- Group layers
- Media layers
- Vector symbols
- Labels for clusters
- Feature display order
- Clustering for more than 50,000 point features
Map Viewer Classic supports clustering of fewer than 50,000 features.
- Label filters and classes
- Charts
- Sketch layers
- Map rotation
- Enhanced bookmarks
- Filtering for OGC WFS layers and CSV layers added from a URL
- Floor-aware maps
- Use forms to edit values in big integer, date only, time only, or timestamp offset fields.
Some functionality is not yet available in Map Viewer. For the following mapping capabilities and workflows, it is recommended that you use Map Viewer Classic until they are supported in a future release of Map Viewer:
- Styling vector tile layers
- Generating code for embedding maps
When using Map Viewer, it is recommended that you create an app using the Media Map app template and then embed the app.
Note:
While legacy apps such as ArcGIS Web AppBuilder and Map Viewer Classic can open a map created with Map Viewer, they will not honor functionality that is exclusive to the newer technology, such as a Bloom layer effect.
For the full list of layers supported in Map Viewer Classic, see What layers can you add. To see what layers are supported in Map Viewer, see Add layers to maps.
It is recommended that you publish your data as a hosted feature layer and add it to a map.
What is the difference between building a map with an ArcGIS API and using Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic to make a map?
You can think of a map viewer as a canvas onto which you can easily mash up different layers that interest you. Once you've created a map, you can share it with other portal users or embed it in an app. This can be an app that you write using ArcGIS APIs, or if you have little programming experience, it can be a preconfigured app such as the portal's web app templates.
ArcGIS APIs can also be used to build a mashup from scratch without starting in a map viewer. This involves more code and layer management by the developer.
The basemap gallery in Map Viewer and Map Viewer Classic uses basemaps from ArcGIS Online by default, but your organization administrator can configure the map viewer to use a different group to populate the basemap gallery. If your portal uses a custom basemap gallery, the organization allows other people to contribute content to it, and you are a member of a role that has the privilege to create and share content, you can create a basemap and add it to the basemap gallery. To make a layer available to the custom basemap gallery, follow these steps:
- Contact your organization administrator to confirm the basemap gallery uses a custom group that allows its members to contribute content. If it does, join the group or ask your administrator to add you to it.
- Sign in to your organization and open a map viewer.
- Add the layer to the map as a basemap. Several layer types are supported. The layer must be shared to the basemap gallery group and your organization.
- Save the map. Give the map a concise name that tells your fellow organization members what it contains.
- Click Share map and share the map with the basemap gallery group and with your organization.
Scenes
A scene is a 3D representation of a collection of layers, styles, and configurations that allow you to share symbolized geospatial content with others over the internet. You can create 3D scenes through ArcGIS Pro or Scene Viewer in an ArcGIS Enterprise portal.
Scene Viewer is an app built into the ArcGIS Enterprise portal for creating and interacting with 3D scenes. Scene Viewer works with desktop web browsers that support WebGL, a web technology standard built into most modern browsers for rendering 3D graphics.
You can view scenes in the portal Scene Viewer or sign in to your organization and create scenes. You can also open scenes in ArcGIS Pro.
You can sign in to your organization to create a scene in your portal in Scene Viewer, or you can use ArcGIS Pro to create and share a scene.
A scene is similar to a map in that they are a mashup of data layers you can view in a browser. Also similar to maps, scenes can be used in apps to provide users tools to interact with the layers in the scene. Scenes are different from maps because, unlike maps, scenes display data in a 3D environment and allow navigation in any direction and angle.
A scene layer represents large geospatial data in 3D that you can style to display photorealistic features. You add a scene layer to scenes to allow users to view, analyze, measure, and query the 3D objects in the scene layer.
You can bring your 2D data into a 3D environment and get a better understanding of the data. For example, you can create 3D symbols from your 2D symbols by applying a size and height. You can zoom in and out and rotate the surface to see the data from different angles. You can also add elevation to overlapping 2D layers to more easily view the data in each layer.
Yes. You can share a custom terrain as a web elevation layer from ArcGIS Pro and add this elevation layer to your scene.
Apps
Content
You can upload files up to 500 GB to My content through a web browser.
Tip:
To publish large tile packages, it is recommended that you use the Share Package geoprocessing tool, which can take advantage of multiple processing cores.
You can share supported types of maps, apps, layers, tools, and files.
Yes. Content items, search results, and groups can be accessed directly by a URL.
If the source item used to publish a hosted layer is deleted, the layer continues to draw as expected. However, certain functionality that requires access to the source data may no longer work as expected. The specific functionality can vary from layer to layer. Impacted functionality includes the following:
- If you delete a source shapefile, file geodatabase, .csv file, or Microsoft Excel file from Content, the Overwrite option on the hosted feature layer's item page is no longer available.
- If you delete a tile package (.tpk or .tpkx), the hosted tile layer published from it can no longer be taken offline.
When the source item used to publish a hosted layer is another hosted layer, the hosted layer used as the source item cannot be deleted until all hosted layers published from it are deleted.
If you enabled editing on a hosted feature layer, other users can edit the features and their display in a map viewer in the portal or ArcGIS Pro. If you save the layer in a web map and use the map in an app, you can edit the features in your hosted feature layer through the app.
As the owner of the hosted feature layer, you can always edit the data in it, even if editing is not enabled on the layer.
To update the data in hosted feature layers published from a shapefile, GeoJSON, or .csv or Microsoft Excel file containing latitude and longitude information, you (the layer owner) or an administrator can replace the data with data from an updated source file using the Update Data > Overwrite Entire Layer option available on the Overview tab of the hosted feature layer's item page. The layer owner or an administrator can also add more data to the hosted feature layer using the Update Data > Append Data to Layer option on the Overview tab or the Append Data to Layer option on the Data tab of the hosted feature layer's item page.
If you published the hosted feature layer from ArcGIS Pro, overwrite the service from the same map in the same project.
A map is an interactive display of geographic information, for example, satellite imagery of streets, houses, and open space in Los Angeles County. You can view it in a browser, mobile device, or desktop app and use tools to change the extent, find places, and see detailed data about a specific location. In addition, you can build your own map by defining an area of interest, choosing a basemap, and adding layers. If you have the privilege to create and share content, you can save maps. Depending on your sharing privileges, you can share the maps with everyone, members of your organization, or with specific groups to which you belong.
A web app runs in a web browser and combines maps, data, and tools for a targeted use such as finding polling stations for an election. It can be as simple as a navigable map image embedded in a blog or as complex as a GPS navigation visualization.
Web apps can be based on templates (included with the portal) or developed using ArcGIS APIs. You can define the tools available in the app. In general, web apps are constructed from information in maps that you supplement with specific configurations and customizations. Apps can be hosted as a part of your content in the organization, or they can be managed independently and registered with the organization.
When you add layers to ArcGIS apps such as Map Viewer, Map Viewer Classic, Scene Viewer, and ArcGIS Pro, the apps perform on-the-fly reprojection of the layers so the data lines up with the basemap. ArcGIS chooses the appropriate default transformation for the on-the-fly reprojection based on the coordinate system of the basemap. Sometimes the default choice is not as precise as you need, which can make it look as though the features are shifted slightly in one direction. Or the default choice may not match with the transformation you use as part of your GIS best practices for your organization.
When you publish a hosted feature layer from ArcGIS Pro, and you know people will use the hosted feature layer in maps that contain ArcGIS Online basemaps, you can do one of the following:
- Option 1: Preserve the projection of your data but define a geographic transformation that your portal can use when performing on-the-fly reprojections of the hosted feature layer.
With this option, your source data and hosted feature layer data remain in the same projection. You define what geographic transformation should be used when on-the-fly reprojection is required.
The following steps summarize how to keep your data's original projection and define a geographic transformation to control how the layer is reprojected when viewed on an ArcGIS Online basemap.
- In ArcGIS Pro, open the map you want to publish as a hosted feature layer.
- Open the data frame properties for the map and set the data frame's coordinate system to match the coordinate system of the source data in your map and apply your changes. For more information, see Specify a coordinate system.
- Define a geographic transformation. This involves defining what the transformation will project to and the projection used to perform the transformation. Choose to project to WGS 1984.
When you publish, the hosted feature layer stores the geographic transformation you set and uses it when reprojecting the layer to view on an ArcGIS Online basemap.
Note:
If ArcGIS Enterprise doesn't support the transformation you define for the layer, it either uses the default transformation or fails to reproject. ArcGIS Enterprise supports the transformations installed by default in ArcGIS Pro.
- Option 2: Configure the map so that the feature class data is reprojected into WGS 1984 Web Mercator (auxiliary sphere) when it is copied to the relational data store.
With this option, the hosted feature layer data is stored in the relational data store in the same coordinate system as the ArcGIS Online basemaps; therefore, no on-the-fly reprojection is needed when viewed on these basemaps. However, this means the hosted feature layer data and the data in your data source are now in different projections.
The following steps summarize how to configure the map so the publishing process reprojects the hosted feature layer data so it is stored in WGS 1984 Web Mercator (auxiliary sphere):
- In ArcGIS Pro, open the map you want to publish as a hosted feature layer.
- Set the data frame's coordinate system to WGS 1984 Web Mercator (auxiliary sphere). This is the projection in which the hosted feature layer data will be stored. For more information, see Specify a coordinate system.
- Define a geographic transformation. Choose the projection used by the source data in your map.
When you publish, the data copied to the relational data store is stored in WGS 1984 Web Mercator (auxiliary sphere).
ArcGIS Enterprise portal members who publish scene layers or create scene layer packages must have access to ArcGIS Pro. To use ArcGIS Pro, your account must be a GIS Professional user type.
If you are a member of the default Publisher role, your account has the privileges necessary to publish hosted scene layers and associated feature layers. If your administrator uses custom roles to have more fine-grained control over privileges, the minimum privileges needed on the custom role are listed below. All are in the General > Content custom role privileges.
- Create, update, and delete.
- Publish hosted scene layers.
- Publish hosted feature layers or Publish server-based layers or both privileges if publishers will create both types of associated feature layers with their scene layers.
All scene layers start in ArcGIS Pro. You can publish a scene layer directly from ArcGIS Pro to ArcGIS Enterprise, or you can create a scene layer package (SLPK), upload it to an ArcGIS Enterprise portal, and publish. If someone else—such as a contractor or a staff member in another department—provides you with an SLPK, you can upload that to your ArcGIS Enterprise organization and publish. In that scenario, the person who creates the SLPK needs an installation of ArcGIS Pro, but you don't need ArcGIS Pro to publish the scene layer from the SLPK.
Can scene layers be shared through a collaboration?
No. See Share content with collaboration groups for information on what types of layers you can share in a collaboration.
Esri featured content
ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is an evolving collection of authoritative, ready-to-use global geographic information from Esri. It includes imagery, basemaps, demographics and lifestyle, landscape, boundaries and places, transportation, earth observations, urban systems, oceans, and historical maps that can be combined with your own data to create maps, scenes, and apps and perform analysis.
Subscriber content is the collection of ready-to-use map layers, analytic tools, and services published by Esri that requires an ArcGIS Online organizational subscription account to access. This includes layers from Esri such as NAIP imagery, landscape analysis layers, and historical maps. Subscriber content does not consume ArcGIS Online credits.
Premium content is a type of ArcGIS Online subscriber content. It is a collection of ready-to-use map layers, analytic tools, apps, and services published by Esri that you access through an ArcGIS Online organizational account and consume credits when used. Premium content layers from Esri include demographic and lifestyle maps as well as tools for geocoding, geoenrichment, network analysis, and spatial analysis.
Esri vector basemaps are available in the following languages: Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
Note:
To specify one of these languages for your organization, update the organization's region and language settings and ensure that your organization is configured to use Esri vector basemaps as the default basemap gallery.
Bing Maps
Note:
Bing Maps will be retired on June 30, 2028, and replaced by Azure Maps. See Microsoft Azure documentation for instructions on migrating from Bing Maps to Azure Maps.
Yes. ArcGIS products are Bing Maps ready. To use Bing Maps, you must first contact Microsoft to obtain a Bing Maps key. Once you have a key, input it into your product or application. When you input your Bing Maps key, your ArcGIS product or application will be able to access Bing Maps. If you have questions about using Bing Maps with ArcGIS, contact your account manager or local Esri office.
To get pricing information on using Bing Maps, visit the Bing Maps licensing page.
An administrator in your organization needs to configure the map with your Bing Maps key. Once Map Viewer Classic is configured for Bing Maps, you can add Bing basemaps to your maps.
Sharing
You can allow other people in your organization to update your maps, apps, layers, and files, as well as their item details, by sharing the items with a shared update group. When you share items to a shared update group, you allow group members to update any items shared with the group. This includes modifying an item's details or updating its content.
Allowing other members of your organization to update your shared content is useful in many scenarios. For instance, it makes it easy for a team of shift workers to share responsibility for updating a critical web map—adding or removing layers, changing symbols, updating the map's description, and so on. Another common scenario is giving a team of editors the ability to edit a publicly visible hosted feature layer without enabling editing on the layer for everyone.
To allow others to update your shared items, do the following:
- Create a shared update group as follows:
- Ensure that you have the administrative privilege to create groups with update capabilities.
- Create a group. For the group designation, turn on the Shared update toggle button.
Note:
This option is only available when creating groups and when membership in the group is only open to those who are invited or request and are approved to join.
- Add yourself and the colleagues with whom you want to collaborate to the group.
Note:
You can only invite members who have privileges to create, update, and delete content.
- Share your items with the group.
You remain the owner of the items, and other group members can update them, including changing the item details and updating the content.
Note:
Only the owner (or administrator) of the item can perform the following actions on the item (not all actions apply to all item types): delete, share, move, change owner, change delete protection, publish, register an app, overwrite data in hosted feature layers, and manage tiles in hosted tile layers.
What is the best way to give some organization members the ability to edit a publicly visible hosted feature layer without enabling editing on the layer for everyone?
The recommended way to manage editing permissions on hosted feature layers you own is to use feature layer views.
Administration
To limit access to content—for example, content of a highly sensitive nature—for some members of your organization, you can assign them a custom role with the following privileges disabled:
- Content: View content shared with the organization
- Groups: View groups shared with the organization
Members who are not granted these privileges can only view content shared with groups they belong to, while being restricted from viewing other organization content.
To restrict certain members from seeing a list of members in the organization and accessing the Organization page, turn off the following privilege:
- Members: View
A contrast ratio is displayed when you select a font color and background color for your organization's information banner or shared theme. Contrast ratio is a measure of legibility based on WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards; a contrast ratio of 4.5 is recommended to adhere to these standards.