ArcGIS Online Introduction: Services

Feature Services are vector layers accessed on ArcGIS Online and drawn dynamically by your browser

• They consist of points, lines, or polygons
• They usually serve as the “operational layer” in thematic map
• They can have scale dependencies (visible or not based on scale)
• You can customize symbology
• Viewers can tweak the visual representation

Tiled Map Services, such as Esri basemaps, are cell-based map layers

• They are scale-dependent: more detail is visible as zoomed in
• They can represent a static map of pre-drawn images
• They are either datasets with large extents, or rasters

Free online training seminar: Creating Hosted Map Services with ArcGIS Online (60 min)

Services can be created in 3 ways:

• Publish from ArcGIS for Desktop
• From ArcGIS.com: When uploading CSV and Shapefiles
• Using Esri Maps for Office (works with Excel and Powerpoint)

Important Restrictions

1. You must have an ArcGIS Online Organizational Account (not just a personal/public account)
2. To build services, you need to have at least a publisher role (not just a user)

Create hosted web layers from ArcGIS Desktop

• Must have at lest version 10.1 to do this directly from Desktop
• Can publish either a feature layer or a tile layer from Desktop
• Have a map document open
• File…Sign into ArcGIS online
• File…Share As…Service…Publish as a Service…name your Service
  • You can choose to publish as a Tiled Map services and/or a Feature service
    • If tiled, decide on Caching…tiling Scheme (Arc Online/Bing/Google uses Web Mercator)
    • if tiled, go to Caching … advanced: play around to reduce cache size (tiled service)
  • Item Description: metadata
  • Sharing: several options
  • Analyze option: checks if it’s ready, will give errors (e.g., can’t publish a basemap layer)
  • Publish: gets it ready on ArcGIS Online
  • Configure editing options in browser, too (ArcGIS.com)

Create hosted web layers in ArcGIS Online

• Must do this from the My Content page (not the Map window); use "Add Item" button
• Can upload a zipped shapefile; can create a feature service from it
• Dialog will ask questions as when you publish a service from Desktop
• Can symbolize and save item properties
• Can add a layer from a URL or from an Arc Server

Create feature service in Esri Maps for Office

• If a spreadsheet has geographic data (e.g., addresses), can sign in to ArcGIS Online, then “share layer”
• Will upload data as .csv and create a feature service

• Share your services to take them beyond “My Content” (private) into Groups, Organization, and Public access.
• Each service can be used in multiple Web Maps or accessed in map documents in ArcGIS Desktop.
• You can create a Web Map from a service, or access it from ArcGIS Desktop.
• You can create a Web Application from a service.