Molly Zurn
Recent Posts
ArcGIS.com website maintenance scheduled for Wednesday, July 6
The ArcGIS.com website will undergo maintenance on Wednesday July 6 from 6 p.m. PDT until 10 p.m. PDT. During this maintenance period, you may notice some disruption in accessing the website or performing selected searches. Please post questions or feedback to our forum at http://forums.arcgis.com/forums/30-ArcGIS-Online.
ArcGIS.com website maintenance scheduled for Wednesday, March 2
The ArcGIS.com website will undergo maintenance on Wednesday March 2 from 5 p.m. PST until 9 p.m. PST. During this time period, you may notice some disruption in accessing the site. If you experience issues other than ones related to connecting to the site, please send feedback to arcgisonline_feedback@esri.com or post to our forum at http://forums.arcgis.com/forums/30-ArcGIS-Online.
Next update to ArcGIS Explorer Online coming soon
In a few days, Esri will release the next update to ArcGIS Explorer Online which includes an all new streamlined user experience with new capabilities and better integration with other ArcGIS applications. In this sneak peek video, Andy MacDonald from the ArcGIS Explorer Online team gives a preview of what you’ll see in this update.
ArcGIS Online account system maintenance scheduled for Friday, Dec. 17
The ArcGIS Online account system will undergo maintenance from Friday December 17, 2010, 10 p.m. PST until Saturday December 18, 2010, 3 a.m. PST. During this time period, you will not be able to register Esri Global accounts for ArcGIS Online. You will also not be able to reset passwords or activate ArcGIS Online subscriptions. Any new ArcGIS Online subscriptions requested during the maintenance window will process after the maintenance has been completed. If you experience issues other than the ones listed, please send feedback to arcgisonline_feedback@esri.com or post to our forum at http://forums.arcgis.com/forums/30-ArcGIS-Online.
ArcGIS.com is now available
05/24/10–We are pleased to announce that ArcGIS.com is now in public beta. This new site has
replaced http://www.arcgisonline.com and includes a number of new features and improvements that we invite you to explore.
At the ArcGIS.com site, you can browse featured ArcGIS Online content such as maps and applications published by ESRI and the ArcGIS community, and add comments and ratings. You can upload and share your own items, either with specific groups that you created or are a member of, or you can share your items publicly. Use the newly designed Web Mapping application
to quickly create online mashups that you can also share with others.
ArcGIS Explorer Online can also be started from ArcGIS.com. You may already be familiar with the ArcGIS Explorer desktop application; ArcGIS Explorer Online is similar in appearance to the desktop version of ArcGIS Explorer, and has some of the same capabilities, but it’s a lighter weight version that works in a browser, and is built using Microsoft Silverlight. It’s tightly integrated with ArcGIS Online, and you can directly access basemaps and other content to create, save, and share your ArcGIS Explorer maps which can include presentations and more.
If you have uploaded items and created groups through http://www.arcgisonline.com, you will now be able to access your content at http://www.arcgis.com. Simply sign-in with your existing ESRI Global Account login and you will find everything you contributed under My Content and Groups.
If you have questions, please contact us in the ArcGIS Online forums.
-The ArcGIS Online Team
ArcGIS Online Web site Maintenance on May 22
05/20/10–In preparation for the public beta release of ArcGIS.com, the ArcGIS Online Web site will be unavailable on Saturday May 22 from approximately 8am PDT to 12pm PDT. The maintenance period is necessary to support the upgrade of the ArcGIS Online Web site and underlying database to the new ArcGIS.com site.
After the upgrade the existing http://www.arcgisonline.com links will be redirected to http://www.arcgis.com. All content and groups previously on ArcGIS Online at http://www.arcgisonline.com will be available on ArcGIS.com at http://www.arcgis.com.
During this Web site maintenance period, you will continue to have access to ArcGIS Online map services (http://services.arcgisonline.com and http://premium.arcgisonline.com)
and task services (http://tasks.arcgisonline.com and http://premiumtasks.arcgisonline.com)
which are maintained separately.
Thank you for your patience
-The ArcGIS Online team
ArcGIS.com will be launched soon
05/14/10–Many of you have been using the ArcGIS Online Web site at http://www.arcgisonline.com. Soon, the site will be moving to http://www.arcgis.com to bring you an even better online GIS experience.
The new ArcGIS.com site will include a newly designed map, a gallery of featured maps and applications from the ArcGIS community, and tighter integration with other ArcGIS clients. ArcGIS.com is now your Web view into ArcGIS. ArcGIS Online is not going away; it is still the online component of ArcGIS and will be accessible through ArcGIS.com.
In the next few weeks, we will release an open public beta of ArcGIS.com and plan to release a final version by early summer. If you are an existing user of the ArcGIS Online Web site, there is nothing you need to do in preparation for this release. All your content and groups will be moved to ArcGIS.com and we’ll be providing redirects for the site and all the item URLs. The Web site www.arcgisonline.com may be offline for a short time during this transition period. We will post any related announcements as we get closer to our release date.
If you have questions or concerns about the release, please contact us in our forums.
-The ArcGIS Online team
Sharing ArcGIS Desktop content
4/28/10-You may find some content in ArcGIS Online that doesn’t work as expected in your ArcGIS Desktop application. A common reason is that the content owner has shared a map or layer without sharing the underlying data. Layer files (lyr) and map documents (mxd) are especially prone to this. If you open one of these files in your ArcGIS Desktop application and see missing layers, check the underlying data sources to see if you have access to them. If you don’t, one solution is to search ArcGIS Online for the same information but in a format that is better for sharing. Layer packages, map services, and Web maps are especially good choices.
If you own content that you want to share in ArcGIS Online, consider your audience and consider your format. If you want to share with everybody, make sure everybody will have access to the data your content references. If you upload a map document or layer that you have not
packaged, the item does not contain data. This means that someone using
your map or layer needs access to the data associated with it. A better alternative is to share layer packages, map services, and Web maps.
Layer packages are a good alternative to sharing map
documents and layer files because they contain both the layer and data
contents. For more information about adding layer packages, see ArcGIS Online Help.
Map services from ArcGIS Server are another excellent way to
share your content. As long as you have your services on a
publicly-available server, you can reference and share them in ArcGIS
Online. For more information on adding services, see ArcGIS Online Help.
Web maps are an especially good choice for sharing content because you view them in a Web browser; no desktop application is needed. You build these maps in ArcGIS Online using your own map services or services that
others have shared. For more information about creating Web maps, see ArcGIS Online Help.
For more tips on sharing, see our previous blog post, Tips for sharing your maps and Web mapping applications.
Avoid the temptation to perform measurements in Web Mercator
03/18/10–What is the best way to measure distance and area in maps that use the Web Mercator projection? Avoid the temptation to perform measurements of polylines and polygons
in Web Mercator. You should instead re-project user-submitted geometries
into a more appropriate coordinate system before you perform a
measurement. Learn more from the ArcGIS Server blog.
Tips for sharing your maps and Web mapping applications
01/14/10–Over the past month, we’ve highlighted some of the new maps and applications you’ll find in ArcGIS Online. This growing collection of geographic resources is made possible by community members sharing their work. We encourage you to take part in this effort by adding your own maps and Web mapping applications to ArcGIS Online and sharing them with everybody. Below are a few tips for sharing your maps and apps:
Consider the best format for your information
- If you want to share data such as shapefiles, feature classes and other data sources you use in your maps, create a layer package and upload it to ArcGIS Online. A layer package includes the data inside the package so it is self-contained and can be opened by any other ArcGIS user. People will be able to download your file and work with the data in ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Explorer.
- If you want to share a map that you have already published to the Web using ArcGIS Server, add an entry for your service in ArcGIS Online. People will be able to access your map and use it in ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Explorer, Web maps and Web mapping applications.
- Only share your map document file (MXD), layer file (LYR), etc., if the file references server-based services that the people you are sharing your file with will be able to access on the Web. When you upload one of these ArcGIS files, only the file gets uploaded, so if your map, globe or layer references any local data on your machine or your enterprise network, it does not get included and your map may appear broken to somebody viewing it in their ArcGIS application.
- If you want to share your work with the widest audience, consider creating a Web map, either from the ArcGIS Online Web Map Viewer or by developing an application with one of the ArcGIS Web mapping APIs.
Include source and descriptive information
If you’re adding an ArcGIS file, such as, a layer package, be sure to fill out the general layer properties within ArcGIS Desktop since this information is carried over when somebody downloads your file. You should also take the time to review and edit the item properties that are created in ArcGIS Online when your add your map or Web mapping application. Be sure you have accurate credits and a useful summary and description. Within the description, you might want to add details about the data, how you created the map or app, and hyperlinks to additional information.
Be sure your URL works
ArcGIS Online references your ArcGIS Server services and Web mapping applications through URLs. When you share these with everybody, make sure your URL link works and doesn’t require a login. If you take down the service or application, you should remove the reference from ArcGIS Online.
If you have questions, please post them to our forum at http://forums.esri.com/forums.asp?c=188.
