Getting to Know Web GIS. Pinde Fu
with individual users), share with their organizations, or share with everyone—the public. This allows other users to see and access the items. ArcGIS supports a variety of sharing levels.
Types of user accounts
ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise support anonymous users, public users, and organizational users. Anonymous users can access the content shared with the public, if an organization has enabled anonymous access. Public users have limited abilities when creating and sharing content. Organizational accounts have levels, roles, and privileges.
ArcGIS Web GIS user types.
There are two levels of organizational user accounts. Level 1 accounts are viewers only. Level 2 accounts can view, create, and share content. A role defines the set of privileges assigned to a member. ArcGIS defines a set of privileges for four default roles. Organizations may refine the default roles into a more fine-grained set of privileges by creating custom roles.
| Privileges of anonymous users and default roles | |||||
| Privileges | Anonymous users | Default roles | |||
| Viewer | User | Publisher | Admin | ||
| Use maps and apps shared with them. | |||||
| Use demographics, elevation analysis, geocoding, and network analysis; join groups without update capability. | |||||
| Join groups with update capability; use subscriber content, spatial analysis, and GeoEnrichment; create content and groups; share maps, apps, and scenes; edit features. | |||||
| Publish hosted web layers; perform analysis. | |||||
| Manage user accounts; manage organizational settings; create custom roles; set up enterprise log-ins; disable multifactor authentication on member accounts; manage credit budgets; view subscription status; create and own groups that allow members to update all items in the group. |
Main types of content items in ArcGIS Online
Five main types of content in ArcGIS Online relate closely to this book’s main goal—learning how to build Web GIS apps.
The main types of content items in ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS.
Typically, a web app comprises one or more web maps, which in turn include or reference one or more layers.
Data: ArcGIS Online supports data in a variety of formats, including CSV, TXT, Shapefile, GPX (GPS Exchange Format), and geodatabase.
Layers: ArcGIS Online can host layers including the aforementioned data and can reference layers that include feature layers, tiled layers, vector tiles, map image layers, image layers, scene layers, CSV layers, tables, and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard layers such as GeoRSS, Keyhole Markup Language (KML), Web Map Service (WMS), Web Map Tile Service (WMTS), and Web Feature Service (WFS).
Web maps and scenes: These maps interactively display geographic information that you can use to answer questions. A web map or scene (the 3D counterpart to a web map) comprises or references one or multiple layers.
Tools: These tools perform analytical functions, such as geocoding, routing, generating PDFs, summarizing data, finding hot spots, and analyzing proximity.
Web apps: Apps are the face of Web GIS and they are what brings Web GIS to life. Developers can program with ArcGIS web APIs to build web apps. However, you do not have to be a developer to create a web app. ArcGIS provides many templates that you can use to create impressive web apps without any programming.
Steps to creating Web GIS apps
Here is the typical workflow used to create web apps using ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise:
1 Define the objectives of your information product.
2 Search for data layers in ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Open Data (http://opendata.arcgis.com), your organization’s ArcGIS Enterprise, and/or publish your data, maps, and toolboxes as web services or web layers.
3 Create and share your web map using the map viewer.Add the layers you found and/or created to your web map.Symbolize the layers (for some types of layers only) and configure pop-ups.Save and share your web map.
4 Create and share your web app.
Browse the configurable apps to find a template that best suits your needs, and then use it to transform your web map into a web app. If no templates meet your requirements, use ArcGIS web APIs or Runtime SDKs to create your own app. After it is created, your app is private. You need to share it for others to search, discover, and use. There are different sharing levels.
ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise allow users to easily create web maps by assembling various formats of layers and to create web apps from web maps by applying app templates.
Esri Story Map Tour
Story Map Tour is one of the most popular templates in ArcGIS Online. See two screen captures of the template in the figure and live samples at http://arcg.is/2wOWLo2 (short for http://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/gallery/#s=0&md=storymaps-apps:map-tour).
Story Map Tour web app template works in a desktop browser (left), and on a smartphone.
The Story Map Tour template produces attractive, easy-to-use web apps that help you present geographic information with compelling photographic and video story elements. The template layout automatically rearranges itself to adapt to various screen sizes and can display a set of places on a map in a numbered sequence made for browsing. The template is designed for use in web browsers on the desktop, smartphones, and tablets.
Many scenarios benefit from this template:
Show the world the work your government department, organization, or agency is doing or has done.
Showcase key attractions of a city or region.
Introduce a park and its features.
Provide a tour of a campus, an outdoor art collection, or a historical district.
Educate people about areas of scientific or