Getting to Know Web GIS. Pinde Fu
public attention to places you want to improve or protect.
Create online photo or video journals of a trip or event.This tutorial
In this tutorial, you will create a Web GIS app that introduces the main points of interest (POIs) in the City of Redlands, California.
Data: A CSV file contains data for the main POIs in Redlands, including longitude, latitude, names, descriptions, photo or video URLs, and thumbnail URLs.
The sample data for this entire book are available at esri.com/gtkwebgis3. Windows users can extract the files to C:\EsriPress. Mac users can create an EsriPress folder under your home directory and extract the files there. If you are in class, follow your instructor’s instructions to download the data.
Requirements:
Your web app should display a basemap (a street map or satellite imagery) of the city and POI locations, along with their descriptions and photos or videos.
The web app is engaging and easy to use.
The web app should work on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
System requirements:
Microsoft Excel or a text editor to create and edit your CSV data.CSV easily represents points, though not complex geometric forms such as lines and polygons.Excel automatically maintains correct CSV format (for example, adding correct quotes).
A web browser.
ArcGIS Online or Portal for ArcGIS.A publisher or administrator level account: If your organization offers ArcGIS Online for Organizations or Portal for ArcGIS, ask your administrator or instructor to create an account for you. Otherwise, create a free trial account. Creating a trial organizational account will make you the administrator of the organization, which will allow you to create hosted feature layers.
Note to instructors: Optionally, you can create a group for your students in which they can share their work with other members.1.1 Create an ArcGIS Online trial account
You will skip this section if you already have an account for ArcGIS Online or Portal for ArcGIS.
If your organization has ArcGIS Online for Organizations or Portal for ArcGIS, please ask your administrator or instructor to create an account for you.
1 Open your web browser, navigate to http://www.esri.com/arcgis/trial.
2 Fill out the Sign Up for the ArcGIS Trial form:Input your name, email, and other requested information.Click Start Trial to submit the form. You will know the form has submitted correctly when a new page comes up that reads, “Confirmation email sent!”
Esri will send you a confirmation email for you to activate your account.
1 Check your email and click the activation URL link in the Activate Your Free ArcGIS Trial email.
2 On the activation page, fill in the fields, accept the terms and conditions, and click Create My Account.Having created an ArcGIS Online for Organizations trial account, you have been made the administrator for your organization. You will be directed to the Set up Your Organization page.
3 On the Set up Your Organization page, fill in the fields. Then click Save and Continue. (Do not select Allow access to the organization through HTTPS only.)Refer to the “Questions and answers” section for details on the HTTPS only option.
4 If prompted with the pop-up window asking if you want to download ArcGIS Pro and other software, click Continue with ArcGIS Online.You will need ArcGIS Pro later in this book, but not now.
5 Click the Organization tab, click Editing Settings, click Security, and select Allow anonymous access to your organization’s website.This setting will allow your instructor to see your homework anonymously. Otherwise, your instructor will need to have an account in your trial organization to see your layers, maps, and apps.
6 Click Save.
You have successfully created your trial organization account.
1.2 Create a hosted feature layer
Certain configurable apps require certain kinds of data content. The Story Map Tour template, for example, requires a layer of points. The layer should have the locations, captions, descriptions, photos or videos, and thumbnails associated with the tour points. You can organize your data in a CSV or point shapefile, feature service, map service, or other formats. This section will create a hosted feature layer for using in the web map and web app.
1 If you have not already done so, navigate to esri.com/gtkwebgis3, or follow your instructor’s directions to download the sample data for this book. Extract the files to C:\EsriPress on a PC or to EsriPress under your home directory on a Mac.This tutorial works for both PCs and Macs, though the lab data directories differ on them. To simplify the tutorial instructions, the following tutorial mentions the data directory on the PC only.
2 In Microsoft Excel, navigate to C:\EsriPress\GTKWebGIS\Chapter1\Locations .csv, and study its data format.This file has the main POIs in the City of Redlands. You will examine the sample data to familiarize yourself with the required fields. The first row of your spreadsheet provides the header. Below that, each row contains one tour point. For each point, the Story Map Tour template expects the following fields:Name: A short name identifying the point.Caption: A description of the point. Keep it short (less than 350 characters is recommended). The caption can include HTML tags to format the text or provide hyperlinks.Icon_color (optional): The color of each point. The valid values—R, G, B, and P—indicate red, green, blue, and purple, respectively.Geographic Location: You can describe geographic location by specifying longitude and latitude as Long and Lat (in decimal degrees), a single Address field containing a complete street address, or multiple fields (such as Address, City, State, and ZIP). This tutorial uses Long and Lat.URL: The full web address for the full-size image or video, starting with http://, https://, or //. The recommended image size is 1000 × 750 pixels, but other sizes will also work.For videos: The template does not include a generic video player. Instead, you will use the URL that a video hosting service, such as YouTube, provides for embedding videos via a link. You will append #isVideo to the end of the URL (for example, http://www.youtube .com/embed/RM0eMdrPhEA#isVideo). For YouTube videos, you will right-click the video being played, click Copy Embed Code, paste the code into Notepad, find the URL in the code, and append #isVideo to the end of the URL.To use photos or videos on your computer, you must first upload them to some form of online storage, such as Flickr, YouTube, or your own web server.If you have not yet collected your own images and videos, you can search for media through search engines and then copy their URLs. For images: Right-click an image. Select Copy Image Location in Firefox or Copy Image URL in Chrome. For Internet Explorer, select Properties and then copy the image address URL.Thumb_URL: The full web address of the thumbnail image (starting with http://, https://, or //). Images can fit to scale, but the recommended image size is 200 × 133 pixels.
3 Open a web browser, navigate to ArcGIS Online (www.arcgis.com) or your Portal for ArcGIS, and sign in.You can familiarize yourself with the links at the top of the page:Home returns to the homepage.Gallery leads to featured maps and apps.Map goes to ArcGIS Map Viewer.Scene goes to ArcGIS Scene Viewer.Groups takes users to the My Groups page where you can create and join groups.Content links to the Content page, where you can see your own content, your groups’ content, and your organization’s content that are shared with you. Users with corresponding privileges can add and delete content items.Organization leads you to a page about your organization. If you are an administrator of your organization, the page includes tools you can use to manage your organization.In the upper-right corner of the page, the Search box and button allow you to search for content in the ArcGIS Online catalog.
4 Click Content.
5 Click