9.1 Sharing Web Maps, Web Scenes, and Portal/ArcGIS Online Publishing

Sharing Web Maps, Web Scenes, and Portal/ArcGIS Online Publishing

Quick Answer: Publishing in ArcGIS Pro is the process of making your local data, maps, and scenes available to other users across the web via ArcGIS Online or an ArcGIS Enterprise portal. The Share ribbon tab and Sharing pane provide the tools to configure, analyze, and deploy your content to an active portal connection.

In the modern ArcGIS ecosystem, sharing your work often means publishing it to a web-based portal rather than passing around static files. ArcGIS Pro is deeply integrated with Web GIS, allowing you to seamlessly share your 2D maps as Web Maps and your 3D scenes as Web Scenes.

Active Portal Connections

Before you can publish anything, ArcGIS Pro needs to know where to publish it. This is handled through Portal Connections. You can connect ArcGIS Pro to multiple portals, but only one can be the Active Portal at any given time.

ArcGIS Online vs. ArcGIS Enterprise

• ArcGIS Online (AGOL): Esri's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) mapping platform. It is hosted by Esri in the cloud. Connecting to AGOL is usually straightforward, typically requiring a URL like https://www.arcgis.com and organizational credentials.
• ArcGIS Enterprise: A self-hosted Web GIS infrastructure deployed on your organization's own servers or cloud environment. The portal URL usually follows a format like https://webadaptorhost.domain.com/webadaptorname.

To manage these connections, you navigate to the Portals page in the ArcGIS Pro settings (Project > Portals). The active portal is indicated by a green checkmark. Your publishing workflows, available sharing levels, and credits (for AGOL) are all dictated by this active portal. If you are signed into an enterprise portal, your data will be published to your organization's server infrastructure rather than Esri's cloud.

The Share Ribbon Tab

The Share tab on the ArcGIS Pro ribbon is your central hub for all sharing and publishing activities. It is divided into several groups:

• Package: Tools for creating packages (e.g., Project, Map, Layer packages).
• Share As: Tools for publishing Web Maps, Web Scenes, Web Layers, and Web Tools.
• Save As: Options for saving files locally, such as layer files (.lyrx) or map files (.mapx).
• Export: Tools for exporting maps or layouts to static formats like PDF, PNG, or JPEG.

When you click on one of the 'Share As' options, such as Web Map, ArcGIS Pro opens the corresponding Sharing pane.

Web Map and Web Scene Sharing Pane

The Sharing pane is a step-by-step wizard that guides you through the publishing process. Whether you are publishing a 2D Web Map or a 3D Web Scene, the pane is generally divided into several tabs: General, Configuration, Content, and Messages.

1. General: This is where you define the item details and sharing permissions.
2. Configuration: This tab allows you to fine-tune how the data is published, such as selecting whether layers will be published as feature layers, tile layers, or vector tile layers, and configuring capabilities like editing or sync.
3. Content: This provides a breakdown of exactly what layers and tables are being published and how they map to the resulting web layers.
4. Messages: This tab displays the results of the Analyzer, detailing any errors or warnings that need your attention.

Item Details (Summary, Tags, Credits)

Properly documenting your content is a best practice and, in some cases, a requirement for publishing. In the General tab of the Sharing pane, you must fill out the item details:

• Name: The name of the item as it will appear in the portal.
• Summary: A brief description of the item's purpose. This is a mandatory field.
• Tags: Keywords used to make the item searchable within the portal. You must provide at least one tag.
• Description: A more detailed explanation of the content, methodology, or source.
• Credits: Acknowledgements for the data sources or contributors.
• Terms of Use: Any legal or usage restrictions associated with the data.

Comprehensive metadata ensures that other users in your organization can confidently discover and use your published content.

Privacy & Sharing Levels

When you publish an item, you must determine who has access to it. The sharing levels available in the Sharing pane correspond to the security model of ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise:

• Private (Owner): The item is only visible to you (and portal administrators). This is the default setting and is ideal for data that is still being tested or verified.
• Groups: You can share the item with specific groups you belong to. This restricts access to only the members of those groups, facilitating collaboration on specific projects.
• Organization: The item is accessible to all authenticated members of your portal organization.
• Everyone (Public): The item is visible to the entire internet. Anonymous users can view and interact with the content. (Note: Publishing to Everyone in an enterprise setting may require specific web adaptor configurations, and in AGOL, it consumes bandwidth and potentially credits).

Analyzer Errors vs Analyzer Warnings

Before you can click the final "Publish" button, you must click Analyze. The Analyzer scans your map or scene for potential performance issues, unsupported rendering, or missing documentation. The results appear in the Messages tab.

Errors (Red X)

Errors are fatal. If the analyzer finds an error, the Publish button is disabled. You must resolve all errors before you can publish.

• Example Error: "Service layer has a different projection than the map's projection."
• Example Error: "Data source is not supported."

Warnings (Yellow Triangle)

Warnings are advisory. They indicate potential performance bottlenecks or display issues, but they do not prevent publishing. You can choose to ignore warnings and proceed, though it is highly recommended to review them.

• Example Warning: "Layer draws at all scale ranges." (Suggesting you should set scale dependencies for better web performance).
• Example Warning: "Feature layer has more than 10,000 features."

To resolve a message, you can right-click it; ArcGIS Pro will often provide a direct context menu option to fix the issue or open the relevant help documentation.