Introducing ArcGIS Online

ArcGIS Online is a content management system for your maps and apps.

ArcGIS Online is a place to web-enable your maps and related geographic information and to share them with your users. It is a content management system for geographic information enabling you to share your content and to power many types of GIS-based applications and end user websites. Your users connect to these maps and apps to use your shared content that you manage in the ArcGIS Online cloud.

Watch a video about ArcGIS Online to learn more.

Part of a complete ArcGIS system

ArcGIS Online is a key component in the ArcGIS system.

ArcGIS Online is used by GIS professionals to publish their information and bring it to life through the power of intelligent, online maps that encapsulate key sets of geographic information, beautiful cartography, advanced analytics, and workflows. ArcGIS Online is used by GIS professionals to manage and share their maps and geographic information. Anyone with http access can use this shared content.

End User Applications and Websites powered by ArcGIS Online

Information products in ArcGIS Online can be used to power many kinds of apps - web apps, mobile apps, windows apps, etc. ArcGIS Online also allows analysts that are not GIS experts to create their own maps and geodata products by mashing up existing layers, adding new layers from spreadsheets, or literally drawing and sketching on the map itself.

Who uses ArcGIS Online?

Anyone can become a member of ArcGIS Online.

Once you join, you can log in and add maps and geographic data to the system. Then, you can access and use that information anywhere with web access and from virtually any type of device (for example, desktop apps, web browsers, smartphones, and tablets, as well as embedded and runtime clients).

ArcGIS Online can also enable your geographic information to be used by everyone-for example:

• By nonspecialist users via a self-service mapping experience

• By web creators who combine geographic content and tools to build pages and apps with the data

• By people without GIS software or training

• By geographic information specialists for sharing detailed data, analysis models, and tradecraft / workflows with one another, as well as with the broader community

• By system architects and developers who need to integrate mapping and geographic functionality in their solutions

There are three access levels for usingArcGIS Online: Anonymous access, a private account, and an organizational subscription (e.g., for a department or an enterprise).

Anonymous access—Anyone can connect toArcGIS.com to find, view, and interact with intelligent, interactive web maps that are published and shared by other users. However, to create and share maps, you need an ArcGIS Online account (that is, move to the next level).

Personal/Individual ArcGIS Online account—By signing up for an ArcGIS Online account, you can begin to upload your own data, create and share your own web maps and mashups, participate in user groups and communities, and begin to embed and use existing geographic information services shared by other users.

Your account provides a workspace for storing your maps and related information that you share. Anyone can get a private account by signing up. For advanced use and storage and for organizational use, your organization can subscribe to the next level.

ArcGIS Online for Organizations—When you acquire an organizational subscription, ArcGIS Online will provide a hosted account for your organization to exploit the power of your GIS content to share your work throughout your organization. This involves:

Organizing and managing your organization's content galleries online, along with the ability to determine access levels for each information product and to maintain and control your identity as the publisher.

Publishing, hosting, and scaling of your maps and geographic data services in the ArcGIS Online cloud. In turn, these are used to power a wide range of applications and websites for end user access.

Your organization does not have to install and manage your own ArcGIS Server. You can use ArcGIS Online to host your information and services. You can also reference your local ArcGIS for ServerArcGIS for Server content in the ArcGIS Online Gallery.

Assigning administrator, publisher, and user roles for organizational accounts. This enables your organization to control and manage user accounts and roles, how your content is organized and shared, and who has access. Designated ArcGIS Online administrators for your organization invite other users to join and set their roles as publishers or information users. You establish a list of publishers to manage and administer information in your ArcGIS Online account and they grant access to other users to apply this information.

Additional tools and roles that enable your organizations to administer and manage your content in groups and galleries.

Enabling ArcGIS for organizations is the primary purpose of ArcGIS Online. Watch a video of ArcGIS Online for Organizations to see it in action.

Portal for ArcGIS—An on-premises version of ArcGIS Online

Use ArcGIS Online behind the firewall or in their own private network.

For those organizations that would like to use ArcGIS Online behind the firewall or in their own private network, there is a version, called Portal for ArcGIS, that you can install and use on your own computer networks. Portal is used in concert with ArcGIS for Server within an enterprise. This implementation pattern provides for maximum security and customization, but takes more time to implement and is the least flexible.

Click here for more information on Portal for ArcGIS.

How does ArcGIS Online help GIS Professionals?

As GIS professionals, you can deploy and exploit your online maps and geographic information. ArcGIS Online enables the following:

• You can publish maps and related information into the ArcGIS Online system, just as you would your on-premise system using ArcGIS Server.

• You can integrate external tabular data and files into your maps and apps by uploading and styling your datasets in ArcGIS Online.

• You can create and share web maps and apps as well as mobile apps.

• You can choose how and with whom you will share each information product-publicly or privately, item by item. Also, you can reference any web or mobile app via a website, e-mail, blog, and so on.

Your users can access ready-to-use maps, apps, and tools.

Using ArcGIS Online to leverage content shared by others

You can use ArcGIS Online to find relevant and useful maps and apps that you can embed into your own maps and apps. This content is published and shared by all kinds of GIS organizations, for example:

• Esri, USGS, EPA, US Census, UN, local and state governments, and equivalent organizations worldwide on every continent.
• You can find and configure apps and templates that are created and shared by Esri and the ArcGIS user community
• You can find tools and functions to add to your maps (e.g., address locators, geoprocessing scripts, custom add-ins, etc.)
• You can work with Developer APIs for Runtime, web, and mobile devices

What types of geographic information can you upload, share, and use?

ArcGIS Online supports many different kinds of geographic information through an open information model.

• Interactive web maps that integrate

  • Basemaps (cartographic and imagery)

  • Operational layers, such as features, thematic overlays, and analysis results

  • Other data and graphics that online users add to their maps (for example, CSV files, Excel spreadsheets, KML, Shapefiles, and so on)

  • Focused reports and tools that are captured as part of the map properties

• Map services that apply cartographic styling and manage tile caches

• Feature services that style and manage collections of geographic objects with attribute properties

• GIS data services (such as maps, layers, imagery, geoprocessing models, locators, and so on)

• Standard web mapping services (for example, REST, Open GIS Consortium (OGC) WMS, and WTMS)

• Standard web data that can be mapped or managed as information in the system (CSV, KML, SHP, GPX, PDF, ZIP, and so on)

• Ready-to-use web apps (with or without attached source code)

• Map analysis and network analysis

Information management and access

All information is managed in a data repository (geographic content management system) which is part of your ArcGIS Online capabilities. This enables you to organize and manage your maps and data and to whom you provide access. Some of the repository capabilities include support for:

• Simple dataset documentation and formal metadata documentation

• Fast, effective Search

• The use of groups and communities for organizing, sharing, and collaboration

• Access control at the individual dataset level

Using ArcGIS Online, you manage and share your maps and data through a series of apps that are powered by your information. You share your maps and geographic information as:

• Stand-alone, custom apps

• Embed them in your own websites

• Publish hosted web apps

• Configure ready-to-use apps and information

• Shared securely in selected groups or with everyone

• Or, integrate your maps and geographic information within other applications or systems

ArcGIS Online is open

Using ArcGIS Online enables you to share your geographic information through the use of supporting GIS data and services, thereby creating a kind of information surface that other web developers and GIS analysts can access and use.

ArcGIS Online is an open data-sharing platform for your geographic information through standard web services and protocols (HTTP, REST, J-SON, HTML, etc.). It allows your strategic geographic data to be delivered as simple, useful maps and information feeds. The information that you load into ArcGIS Online is accessible wherever you can access using HTTP. This includes access from web browsers, smartphones, tablets, custom devices, PC desktops, and on your enterprise service bus. You can work with and integrate information from other organizations as well.

ArcGIS Online supports a number of data formats

You can add your data to ArcGIS Online in any number of common formats. For example, in addition to all of the various ArcGIS services and data sources, you can add, work with, and share data files such as CSV, XLS, KML, WMS, Shapefiles, and many more.

Getting started

To begin using ArcGIS Online now, visit the video gallery.