ArcGIS.com Help - What's new?

April 2013

The April update includes minor enhancements for authoring web maps and administering organizations. It also includes beta functionality for organizations to preview. For a summary of functional enhancements, see the sections below.

Map viewer

Return to start option for directions—Directions now include an option to view a round trip route. For more information, see Viewing directions.
Legend support for WMS layers—The ArcGIS.com map viewer now displays legends for WMS layers that have a published legend. See an example web map. For more information, see Adding layers from the web.
Enhancements to ArcGIS Server 10.1 dynamic map service layers—You can now set visibility, rename layer, and remove layer on ArcGIS Server 10.1 dynamic map service layers. For more information, see About working with layers.

Web applications

New Map Tour template—Map Tour is a configurable story map template that combines an interactive map, a photo and text panel, and a thumbnail carousel. Using the template you can interactively add photos to your map and create an online map story tour. This new hosted template, based off the downloadable map tour template, is now available to publishers and administrators of ArcGIS Online organizations.
Twitter-based templates require log in—Due to changes in the Twitter API, you must now be signed in to Twitter to see Tweets. When viewing a web app created with one of the Twitter-based templates—Chrome-Twitter, Twitter Timeline, and Social Media—you will be prompted to log in to Twitter.

Beta

ArcGIS Online beta enhancements are available to all ArcGIS Online users with organizational accounts. They are stable components of the site that may have incomplete functionality or documentation and may contain some minor issues. There is no charge for performing analysis during the beta period. Note that charges do apply for the storage and access to the resulting layers. If you have issues or are experiencing problems with any of the beta functionality, please contact Esri Technical Support or visit the ArcGIS Online forum.

Enhancements to Enterprise Logins—Organizations can now access better documentation for how to set up Enterprise Logins with Active Directory Federation Services 2.0. For more information, see Working with Active Directory Federation Services 2.0.
Enterprise Logins are based on federating in your enterprise identity provider using SAML. Please be aware that in this initial beta release any user with an enterprise login will be able to sign in to your organization once you set up the federation. A future update will add the ability for you to restrict membership to those enterprise users who you explicitly invite.
Analysis tools—several enhancements have been made to the analysis tools.
- When saving results, you can now specify a folder in My Contents to save the result.
- You can run an analysis using just the features that are within the current map extent.
- With Create Buffers, you can use a field on your analysis layer to specify a buffer distance.
- You can perform analysis on GeoRSS layers.
- All result layers are automatically tagged with "Analysis result". You can search for this tag to retrieve all layers created using the analysis tools.
For more information about analysis tools, see Performing analysis.

March 2013

The March update includes several enhancements for authoring web maps, developing applications, and administering organizations. It also includes beta functionality for organizations to preview. For a summary of functional enhancements, see the sections below.

Map viewer

View directions—The ArcGIS.com map viewer now includes an option for viewing directions between two or more locations. The Directions button appears when signed in with an organizational account. For more information, see Viewing directions.
Additional layer types from the web—You can now add OGC Web Map Tile Services (WMTS) layers, tile layers, and GeoRSS file layers to your web map. See example web maps with an OGC WMTS layer, a tile layer, and a GeoRSS file. For more information, see Adding layers from the web.
Change symbols on ArcGIS Server 10.1 dynamic map service layers—You can now change symbols on dynamic layers in ArcGIS Server 10.1 map services. For more information about enabling dynamic layers, see About dynamic layers in ArcGIS 10.1 for Server Help. For more information about changing symbols in a web map layer, see About classifying attributes.
Esri Map Layers—The ArcGIS.com map viewer now includes an option to search for layers in Esri Map Layers. The search finds selected ArcGIS Servers services published by Esri such as demographic and traffic maps that you can add to your map. This option appears when you are signed in with an organizational account. For more information, see Searching for layers.

Publishing

Publish hosted feature services with multiple shapefiles—When publishing a hosted feature service from the website, you can now include multiple shapefiles within a single ZIP file. For more information, see Publishing a hosted feature service using a CSV or shapefile.

Web applications

New parcel viewer template—Parcel Viewer is a configurable web application template for displaying a collection of government property tax and assessment information.
Updated editing template—Edit provides easy editing functionality for editable layers in the web map. The template is now easier to use on mobile devices.
Updated swipe template—Swipe Tool is a configurable web application template that lets you compare two web maps side by side. The template is now available in the default ArcGIS.com map viewer web mapping application gallery.
CityEngine Web Viewer enhancements—CityEngine Web Viewer has the following new functionality: Comments are now location-aware: explore comments in 3D space, or collaboratively discuss and review your models by intuitively annotating them using comments; side-by-side comparison view; identify and frame layers; and visualization improvements such as sky reflections or water visualization. For more information, see Using CityEngine Web Viewer.

ArcGIS applications

Esri Maps for Office—Now you can enrich your spreadsheets with demographic and lifestyle data. New Infographics allow you to click on the map to learn what kind of people live where. Find Nearby capability allows finding all the points in one map layer that are within a certain distance of points in another map layer, or that fall within a specific region. New configuration options for heat maps and smart clustering allow for more control over styling a map. Esri Maps for Office also supports Office 2013. For more information, visit the Esri Maps for Office site.
Collector for ArcGIS— You can now sign in with your ArcGIS Online organizational account and open maps; search for your maps; view more sample maps; and access help directly from the app. For more information and to download the app, visit the Collector for ArcGIS site.
Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS—Access new tutorials and videos to get started with Operations app. For more information and to download the app, visit the Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS site.

ArcGIS content

Geocoding service— You can now perform geocoding in China. In addition, geocoding quality has been improved for more than 30 countries, including Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, and Switzerland. For more information, see Service coverage.
Network analysis services— All of the network analysis services are now available for Japan. Driving directions can also be generated in three new languages: Lithuanian, Polish, and Portuguese (Portugal). The closest facility service, which is used to find the nearest location from one or more locations based on travel time or travel distance, now supports solving large problems with an asynchronous execution mode. For more information, see Overview of Network Analysis Services.

Organization administration

Additional subscription status reports—Administrators can now see usage reports for geographic context and demographics. For more information, see Viewing subscription status.
Register Bing Map key—Organizations who want to include Bing Maps in their map viewer basemap gallery can add a Bing Map key to their map configuration. This is related to the phasing out of complimentary use of Bing Maps. For more information, see Configuring the map viewer.
Change region—Administrators can now change their organization's region. Region now determines the units of measurement on the map viewer scale bar, measure tool, and directions tool. For more information, see Configuring general settings for the website.

Application development

AppIDs—As an application developer you can register your application with ArcGIS Online and obtain an Application ID. This AppID identifies your application to the platform in the context of both user logins as well as app logins based on OAuth 2 and is also the foundation for distributing apps, accessing billable services, and getting usage reports. For more information, see Adding applications.
ArcGIS for Developers—ArcGIS for Developers, a new website for developers, is now available at developers.arcgis.com. The site introduces new developers to the ArcGIS platform with its capabilities for geocoding, routing, mapping, and more. For more information, visit ArcGIS for Developers.

Other enhancements

Nongeospatial item types now supported—The following static data files are now supported as item types in ArcGIS Online: DOC, DOCX, JPG, JPEG, PDF, PNG, PPT, PPTX, TIF, TIFF, URL, VSD, XLS, and XLSX. Organizational accounts can add these files to ArcGIS Online through My Content. They are not supported as data layers you can add to a web map. For more information, see Supported types of items.
Additional languages—Estonian and Latvian are now available as language options for viewing the website. Language determines the user interface as well as the way time, date, and numerical values appear. For more information, see Setting language and region.
Additional regions—Egypt and Nicaragua are now available as regions. The region you select for the website sets the featured maps on the home page, content in the gallery, and the default extent of new maps in the ArcGIS.com map viewer. Regions also now determine the units on the map scale bar, measure tool, and directions tool. For more information, see Setting language and region.

Beta

Enterprise sign in page—You can configure your online organization so that your users can sign in using their enterprise logins. This is based on federating in your enterprise identity provider using SAML. Please be aware that in this initial beta release any user with an enterprise login will be able to sign in to your organization once you set up the federation. A future update will add the ability for you to restrict membership to those enterprise users who you explicitly invite. For more information, see Setting up Enterprise Logins. You can also watch a short video.
Analysis tools—Organizational account users will have access to a set of analysis tools that are being released in beta in the ArcGIS.com map viewer. These tools let you perform analysis against your layers hosted in Online as well as other layers you have access to and create new hosted layers and tables. There is no credit cost for performing analysis during the beta period. However, credits are charged for the hosting of the feature services that are the result of an analysis. When the beta program ends, analysis tools will consume credits. There will be announcements about the transition from free use of the tools to credit-based use. For more information, see Performing analysis.
Ready-to-use spatial analysis services API—Developers with an organizational account can preview analysis capabilities that they can add directly to their applications through the Spatial Analysis Services API. For more information, see About working with task services.
Demographic and lifestyle maps—Access a comprehensive set of demographic maps for the USA and 19 countries in western Europe. These vector maps are configurable and provide access to hundreds of measures about the demographics and lifestyles of consumers down to a local neighborhood level. The maps are available to organizational accounts to use in the ArcGIS.com map viewer as well as in Esri Maps for Office. Use of the map services will consume credits based on the number of map and query requests. During the beta period, users will not be charged for the use of the maps. You can explore these maps in the Demographics and Lifestyle group and add them to your own web maps and web mapping applications.

Changes to ArcGIS Online

Complimentary use of Bing Maps has been phased out—Complimentary use of Microsoft Bing Maps with ArcGIS has been phased out. Organizational account users can continue adding Bing Maps to their web maps if their organization is configured with a Bing Maps key. For more information about adding a key, see Configuring the map viewer. Public account users can no longer use Bing Maps. For all accounts, web maps that already include Bing Maps will continue to function.
New sharing workflows for public accounts—Public accounts, previously known as personal accounts, can no longer create private groups, join private or organizational groups, or share items to groups unless the items are shared with everybody (public). Existing private items in public groups will remain private; ArcGIS Online will not turn existing private items or groups public. For more information, see What should you share?
ArcGIS Explorer Online now in mature phase support—ArcGIS Explorer Online will continue to be available; however, it is no longer being updated or actively developed. For more information, see Esri Product Life Cycle Policy.
Add Map Notes—Previously known as Create Editable Layer. Adding a map notes layer allows you to add features directly to your web map. For more information, see Adding map notes.

December 2012

The December update includes several enhancements for authoring web maps, publishing hosted services, and sharing and configuring your organizations. For a summary of functional changes, see the following sections:

Map viewer enhancements

Apply filtered views of feature layers—Map authors can now create filters for presenting a focused view of feature data in a web map. The map author can set a filter for each layer that controls the information within the layer that is presented to the end user viewing the map. For example, you might create a filter on crime data to only show arsons and petty thefts. You could also choose to let the end user interact with the filter via an easy to use dialog that prompts them for the key information that drives the filter. Web maps with interactive filters can be shared through a new interactive filter template which provides a focused application for sharing your map. For more information, see Applying filters.
Show tables—Anybody viewing a map in the ArcGIS.com map viewer can display an interactive table of the attribute information in the web map. Tables can be a useful way to view the data in a feature layer of a map quickly. For more information, see Showing tables.
Set visibility scale range on all types of layers—Map authors can set all types of layers to display within a range of map scales. Previously, you could only set visibility on certain types of feature layers. For more information, see Setting visibility range.
Disable editing on feature layers—As the owner of an editable feature service, you can disable editing on the layer in a web map. This is useful if you want the service to be editable but you want to display the feature data in a web map without allowing people viewing the map to edit the data. For more information, see Disabling editing.

Publishing enhancements

Publish hosted tiled map services from tile packages—As a publisher in an organization, you can now publish hosted tiled map services from your tile packages using the ArcGIS Online website. This allows you to build the tiles using your own computing power, rather than your ArcGIS Online credits. For more information, see Publishing a hosted tiled map service using a tile package.
Publish hosted tiled map services from feature services—As a publisher in an organization, you can now publish hosted tiled map services from your feature services. This is a useful workflow if you do not have any ArcGIS products installed locally. For more information, see Publishing a hosted tiled map service using a hosted feature service.
Support for time-enabled hosted feature services—As a publisher in an organization, you can now publish time-enabled feature services to ArcGIS Online. You can use your temporal hosted service to create time-enabled web maps. For more information, see Configuring time settings.
Full editing control of hosted feature services—If you have administrative privileges to a hosted feature service, you can open it with full editing control in the ArcGIS.com map viewer. You can do this regardless of the editing level you have set for other users, or whether the service is editable by other users at all. This is useful if you need to curate or clean up a map that others are editing. It also allows you to use a single feature service both public display and internal edits. For more information, see Editor settings for hosted feature services.

Sharing enhancements

Register secured ArcGIS Server services with ArcGIS Online—When you register secured ArcGIS Server services, you now have the option to store authentication credentials with service items. Storing credentials means that ArcGIS Online does not prompt end users for authentication when they access the service, for example, as a layer in a web map. For more information, see Adding items from the web.
New templates for creating web mapping applications—The template gallery for creating web mapping applications has been updated. A new template for displaying interactive filters and an updated elevations profile template have been added.
View-only groups—As a group owner with an organizational account, you can now create groups which users can join but cannot contribute content. Members of the group can view and access items added by the group administrator but cannot share their own content to the group. For more information, see Creating groups.
More control over items in groups—As a group owner, you can now choose the default field for displaying items in your group and order how those items appear. For more information, see Creating groups.
Directly add members to groups—As an administrator of an organization, you can now add members to a group directly without the members needing to accept invitations. For more information, see Owning groups.
Subscribe to RSS feeds about item comments—You can now subscribe to an RSS news feed for comments on an item that is shared with everybody (public). This is useful for content owners who want to be notified through an RSS reader when somebody has feedback on their items. For more information, see Item details.

Subscription administration enhancements

Configure print service—Organizations can now use their own print service for printing web maps with their own map layouts. For more information, see Configuring utility services.
Custom background image—Organizations can now use their own background image for the home page. For more information, see Configuring the home page.
Option to hide comments—Organizations can now disable comments on items owned by a member of the organization. For more information, see Configuring item details.
Reorganized configuration settings—Some configuration settings have been reorganized into more focused categories. For more information, see About configuring the website.
Enhancements to subscription status reports—Administrators can now see detailed reports about tile loading and routing and logistics. In addition, the subscription status page has been improved for better viewing performance. For more information, see Viewing subscription status.

Task service enhancements

Improved support for global addresses—When publishing a hosted feature service or importing a file to a web map that includes addresses, ArcGIS Online geocodes the locations based on your organization's region. For more information, see Publishing a hosted feature service using a shapefile or CSV file.
Improved batch geocoding in ArcGIS for Desktop— Organizations can take advantage of the ArcGIS Online World Geocoding Service for batch geocoding. The service matches addresses and places in over 100 countries from a single end point. For more information on using World Geocoding as your default locator in the ArcGIS for Desktop ArcMap application, see Geocoding a table of addresses using ArcGIS Online geocode service.
Enhancements to geocoding API—The World Geocoding Service API has a number of enhancements including improved support for batch geocoding using country codes, better results based on your current location, support for localized names, and improved field names. For more information, see About developing with task services.
Ready-to-use network analysis services API now available—Developers can add routing, directions and other network analysis capabilities directly to their applications through the Network Analysis Services API. For more information, see About developing with task services.

Other enhancements

CityEngine Web Viewer enhancements—CityEngine Web Viewer has the following new functionality: Play a tour of all bookmark viewpoints and view thumbnails of the bookmarks; embed Web Scenes in your website; add comments and ratings; and update Web Scene thumbnails from the CityEngine Web Viewer. In addition to the new functionality, the quality of shadows has been improved. For more information, see Using CityEngine Web Viewer.
ArcGIS Web map JSON format documentation now available—Documentation about the ArcGIS web map JSON format is now available. The documentation explains how web maps are structured so that you can read or write web maps from custom clients. For more information, see About the ArcGIS web map JSON format.
Additional languages—Danish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, and Portuguese (Portugal) are now available as language options for viewing the website. Language determines the user interface as well as the way time, date, and numerical values appear. For more information, see Setting language and region.
Additional regions—Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, and Taiwan are now available as regions. The region you select for the website sets the featured maps on the home page, content in the gallery, and the default extent of new maps in the ArcGIS.com map viewer. If you access the site anonymously or if you have not set a region for your public account, ArcGIS Online now uses the region for the country from which you are accessing the website. If a region is not available for that country, ArcGIS Online uses the World region. For more information, see Setting language and region.

September 2012

The September update includes the following highlights:

CityEngine 3D Web Viewer now available—CityEngine Web Viewer allows you to view 3D city scenes using a web browser. Create and author CityEngine Web Scenes in Esri CityEngine 2012, publish directly to ArcGIS Online, and share with others. Visit the CityEngine Web Viewer group to explore some examples. For more information, see What is CityEngine Web Viewer?
Improved feature service management—ArcGIS Online has an improved experience for managing data collection in hosted feature services. Organizations can now create new empty hosted feature services from existing feature service schemas. Creating these new feature services allow organizations to reuse their feature service schemas to collect new sets of data against an organization-wide data collection template. For more information, see Creating a new empty hosted feature service. Organizations can also manage feature templates in their hosted feature services. Through the ArcGIS.com map viewer, organizations can define new types of features and templates on their editable hosted feature services and save the updates back to the service. For more information, see Managing feature templates.
New templates for creating web mapping applications—A new configurable social media template and a simple map template for desktop, tablet, and phone use have been added to the gallery for creating web mapping applications.
Improved map controls for ArcGIS Online for mobile browsers—ArcGIS Online for mobile browsers has better map navigation on Android 3 and 4. The mobile version of the ArcGIS Online website automatically opens on your iPhone, Android phone and tablet, and Blackberry Torch. It provides a tailored browser-based view of your organization's maps for mobile devices.
Esri Maps for Office now available—Esri Maps for Office is a new component of ArcGIS Online that lets you create interactive maps of data from Excel. Share the maps in PowerPoint presentations, on the web, and in mobile applications. For more information and to download the add-in, see Esri Maps for Office 1.0.
Configuration option for gallery applications—Organizations can now configure their site with a custom set of templates for sharing groups as gallery applications. For more information, see Configuring groups.
More options for the larger view of an embedded map—When embedding a map, you can now choose whether or not to include a link to a larger view of the map. You can also change the name of the link and open the map in an application instead of the ArcGIS.com map viewer. For more information, see Embedding web maps.
Additional regions—Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Suriname, and Venezuela are now available as regions. The region you select for the website sets the featured maps on the home page, content in the gallery, and the default extent of new maps in the ArcGIS.com map viewer. For more information, see Setting language and region.
Additional languages for video captions—Videos about ArcGIS Online now include captions for all supported languages. While the audio and screen capture remain in English, you can now read captions in your preferred ArcGIS Online language. For more information, see Videos.
New Help site—ArcGIS.com Help has moved to the ArcGIS Resources website at http://resources.arcgis.com. The move takes advantage of the latest improvements to the ArcGIS Resources website.
Improved performance of the website—The performance of the website has been improved. Users with slower connections should see faster loading times of the site.

July 2012

The July update includes the following highlights:

Improved performance for international users—The performance of the website has been improved for international users.
Additional regions—The following regions have been added: Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, El Salvador, Greenland, Guatemala, Iceland, India, Israel, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Peru, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, see Setting language and region.
Video captions now available in multiple languages—In addition to English, videos about ArcGIS Online now include captions in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. For more information, see Videos.
Additional URL parameter for authoring web maps—A new find parameter is available for opening a map to a location based on a geocode search. For more information, see Using URL parameters.

June 2012

The June update includes the following highlights:

ArcGIS Online for organizations now available—Organizations can manage all of their geographic content in Esri's secure, cloud-based environment. Organizations can publish their hosted services to ArcGIS Online, manage maps, apps, and data, and customize their ArcGIS Online homepage. Organizations can purchase an annual subscription, or try it out for 30 days. For more information, see What is ArcGIS Online?
ArcGIS Online Health Dashboard—You can now check the status of ArcGIS Online such as the ArcGIS.com website, Esri basemaps, REST API, feature publishing, and so on. You can subscribe to RSS feeds to be notified about any interruptions in specific services. You can also visit the dashboard at status.arcgis.com.
View credit consumption—Administrators can view detailed information about how credits in their subscription are being used. For more information, see Viewing subscription status.
View usage—Publishers can view details about how their hosted services are being consumed. For more information, see Viewing usage reports for hosted services.
Share and search options—An organization can be configured to restrict sharing and searching to within the organization. If this option is enabled, administrators can still share specific web maps and other content with the public. For more information, see Configuring general settings for the website.
Share groups as galleries and applications—You can embed a group's content as a gallery in a web page and create an application that displays a gallery of the group's content. For more information, see Sharing groups.
Enable pop-up windows on hosted tiled map services—The ArcGIS.com map viewer supports pop-up windows on hosted tiled map services. The map author can reference a feature service for displaying attribute information in pop-up windows. For more information, see Enabling and removing pop-up windows.
Attach files with features on hosted feature service layers—The ArcGIS.com map viewer supports attaching images and other files with features in a hosted feature service layer. Owners of hosted feature services can enable attachments on specific layers. For more information, see Editor settings for hosted feature services.
Choose whether to publish feature data—Publishers can choose whether or not to publish their feature data as a feature service when adding the data to their organization. For more information, see Adding files from your computer.
Publish from item details page—Publishers can create hosted feature services from data files previously added to their organization. For more information, see Adding files from your computer.
Curate hosted feature service layers in a map—Hosted feature service owners and administrators have the option to open a hosted feature service in the ArcGIS.com map viewer with full editing capability so they can update and remove existing features in the service. For more information, see Editor settings for hosted feature services.
Hide layer in legend—Map authors have the option to hide a layer from being displayed in the legend. For more information, see Viewing a legend.
Additional URL parameters for authoring web maps—Map authors have more fine-grained control with defining a map through URL parameters. New parameters are available for including a reference layer with the basemap, adding multiple ArcGIS Server services and defining the visibility of layers. For more information, see Using URL parameters.
Updated web app template gallery—The template gallery for creating web mapping applications has been updated. New story map templates have replaced some existing templates. Templates that have been retired from the gallery are still available in the Web Application Templates group.
Additional language—Support has been added for Norwegian. For more information, see Setting language and region.

March 2012

The March update includes the following highlights:

Manage hosted tiles from the website (beta)—Publishers can now manage their hosted tiles from the item details page. This includes adding additional cache levels. For more information, see Building a cache for a hosted tiled map service.
More status information on publishing hosted map tiles (beta)—The item details page for a hosted tiled map service includes more status information on publishing. For more information, see Building a cache for a hosted tiled map service.
More editing control on hosted feature services (beta)—You now have more control over how your services can be edited. For more information, see Editor settings for hosted feature services.
Keep track of who is editing your data (beta)—The ArcGIS.com map viewer now displays who created and last edited a feature on layers where tracking is enabled. Tracking is available on ArcGIS 10.1 for Server feature services and hosted feature services. On these layers, you can filter the display by who edited features and when. For more information, see Filtering edits.
Export layers from hosted feature services (beta)—You can now export layers from hosted feature services. For more information, see Exporting data from hosted feature services.
Apps as featured content (beta)—You can now feature web mapping applications as well as web maps on the home page of the organization. For more information, see Configuring the home page.
Support for using addresses—The ArcGIS.com map viewer now supports adding CSV and text file layers containing up to 250 addresses. For more information, see About CSV, TXT, and GPX files.
Updated template gallery—The template gallery for creating web mapping applications has been reorganized and updated. A new story map template has been added and several existing templates have been consolidated and made configurable. Templates that have been retired from the gallery are still available in the Web Application Templates group.
Set scale range on editable layers—You can now set the visibility range on an editable layer. For more information, see Setting visibility range.
ArcGIS Portal API—The ArcGIS Portal API is now available. The API allows developers to work with users, groups, and content hosted within ArcGIS Online or within Portal for ArcGIS. For more information, see About developing with portal services.
Additional languages and regions—Support has been added for Dutch, Korean, Polish, Romanian, and Swedish languages. Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Norway, Russia, Singapore, and South Korea regions have been added. For more information, see Setting language and region.
Improved Help—Help has been reorganized to better highlight specific concepts and workflows.

5/16/2013