Creating a mobile project

Creating a project is the first step in providing maps and GIS capabilities to your staff working in the field. Once you have a project with the mobile map and capabilities you want in it, you can deploy it to your users' devices. You can use Mobile Project Center to create and deploy projects. Creating a project is described in the following procedure.

1. Open Mobile Project Center by clicking Start > All Programs > ArcGIS > ArcGIS for Windows Mobile > Mobile Project Center. For details on installing Mobile Project Center, see Installation and setup.
2. In the main window of Mobile Project Center, click File > New.

   A new blank project, with default tasks, opens and is ready for you to add map layers (data). The spatial reference of all operational map layers and basemap layers in your project must be the same. If they're different, in ArcMap, you can re-project the unmatching map frame's spatial reference using the Coordinate System Properties dialog box. Ensure that the WKIDs (spatial reference identifiers) of all map layers match.

3. Add an operational layer to your project by clicking Add > Operational Layer from Mobile Cache or Operational Layer from Mobile Service. Repeat this step until you've added all the operational layers you want in your project. For more information, see Adding operational map layers.
4. Configure purposes of operational map layers and properties of the layers' attributes. See Configuring map layer properties and Configuring map layer fields for details.
5. Add a basemap layer or layers to your project by clicking Add > Basemap from Catalog or Basemap from ArcGIS Server or Basemap from ArcGIS Online or Browse for Basemap. For details, see Adding offline basemaps, Adding ArcGIS Online map services, and Adding ArcGIS Server tiled map services.
6. Define a project extent by clicking Project > Project extent. A project extent defines the area of a project where data can be downloaded and edited. Select Set to full extent if you want data of the full map extent to be downloaded and edited by your field crew, or select Set to current visible extent if your staff will work on the area currently visible on the map preview tab.
7. Configure the tasks and capabilities so they provide the functionality that match your specific goals and workflows. For details, see Configuring tasks and capabilities.
8. Optionally, package data from all mobile services into mobile project so that the data is readily available when field crew opens the project. To package data, click Project > Package Data > Package. For details, see Packaging data for details.
9. Validate the integrity of your project by clicking Project > Validate. For details, see What is project validation? for details.
10. Save the project by clicking File > Save. When you save the project for the first time, you're prompted to enter the project's properties. These properties are used when your users open the project in the field applications and when they search for projects on ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS. For a description of the properties, see Project properties.
11. Click OK to save the project.

You can change project properties after saving by clicking Project > Properties. By default, the project is saved to the local project directory. To change it, see Changing the project directory.

When a project is created you can deploy it directly to the field devices or share it for your field crew to download. To do so, see Deploying a mobile project.