Using hosted services

Services that you publish to ArcGIS Online can be accessed from various web and desktop applications. These might be ready-made applications, such as ArcMap or the ArcGIS.com map viewer, or they can be apps that you create with the ArcGIS web or mobile APIs. The services you publish to ArcGIS Online comply with the GeoServices REST Specification, an open document describing communication patterns for GIS web services.

New services you publish to ArcGIS Online are private until you choose to share them. See Administering hosted services to learn how to share your services with more people.

Finding the URLs to your services

To view your maps and discover their URLs for use in web apps, log in to ArcGIS.com and click My Content. This page shows a table listing all the maps, apps, and services that you've added to ArcGIS Online.

The Type column in the table lists the type of item shared. Your feature services are listed using the Feature Service type, and your tiled map services are listed using the Map Service type.

Corresponding to your services, you'll also see items of type Service Definition. A service definition is a zipped file containing the map, its data, and details about how the service should be published. A service definition can be transferred and published to any machine running ArcGIS 10.1 for Server.

Click any item of type Feature Service or Map Service to be taken to a page with the item's description and URL. You can copy the URL and use it in your code when you create an app with the ArcGIS web or mobile APIs. Alternatively, you can click Open to view the map in the ArcGIS.com map viewer. This map viewer is a nice way to build a web map that you can save on ArcGIS Online and reuse later in a web app.

Using your services in ArcGIS for Desktop

To use your services in ArcGIS for Desktop, open ArcCatalog or the Catalog window in ArcMap and double-click My Hosted Services. If you haven't yet logged in to ArcGIS Online, you are prompted to do so. You can then see your list of services available to drag and drop into the table of contents.