Adding offline basemaps

When working in the field without Internet access, offline basemaps can be used in mobile projects to continue to work uninterrupted. StreetMap for Windows Mobile, tile packages, and tiled datasets are the three types of offline basemaps that can be used. Before deciding on which type to use, it's important to understand how offline basemaps are managed by the ArcGIS for Windows Mobile applications.

When you author a mobile project with Mobile Project Center, you can add basemaps to the project. Basemaps can be added to the project either by reference or by value depending on whether the basemaps live inside or outside of the project folder.

• Adding a basemap by reference

  The basemap is added to your project as a reference to its source location only. This means that the project folder doesn't contain the data for the basemap. After you deploy the project to field devices, you need to deploy the referenced basemap by manually copying it to a common location known as a basemap folder on the field devices. This approach is appropriate when you have a large basemap and you want to share a basemap among multiple projects.

• Adding a basemap by value

  Mobile Project Center makes a copy of the basemap being used by the project and saves it in the project folder. When the project is deployed to field devices, the basemap is deployed with it. This approach is appropriate for a small basemap in a single project.

Adding basemaps by reference

You can add a tiled dataset or a StreetMap for Windows Mobile basemap by reference when authoring a project using one of the following methods:

• A basemap catalog—A virtual location that defines a list of folders containing offline basemaps. The basemap catalog is defined by Mobile Project Center and is used when you add a basemap by reference to your project. You can define one or more basemap catalogs within Mobile Project Center; each corresponds to a folder on your machine. A basemap added to a project from a basemap catalog needs to be deployed separately to field devices.
• A basemap already deployed to a device—You can take this approach when you already have the basemap deployed to field devices and do not need to deploy it again.
  Note:

  With both methods, Mobile Project Center manipulates a basemap the same way; the only difference is the steps you take in adding the basemap.

The steps for these two methods are described in the following subsections.

After you create a mobile project with a basemap added by reference, you need to separately deploy the project and the basemap to field devices before they can be used. The field applications look for a basemap by its folder name from a few predefined locations. To learn more about deploying basemaps separately from projects, see Deploying a basemap separately.

Adding a basemap by reference from the basemap catalog

Follow these steps to manage the basemap catalog and add a basemap by reference from the catalog to a mobile project:

Steps:

1. Start Mobile Project Center by clicking the Windows Start Menu > All Programs > ArcGIS > ArcGIS for Windows Mobile > Mobile Project Center.

   To define or modify the basemap catalog, proceed with step 2; otherwise, go to step 8.

2. To add a basemap folder to the basemap catalog, on the Mobile Project Center main window, click File > Settings.
   The Mobile Project Center Application Settings window appears.
3. Click the Basemap Catalogs tab.

   A list of currently defined basemap folders is displayed. When you open Mobile Project Center the first time, the My Documents folder under your user profile is defined as the default basemap catalog.

4. To define additional basemap catalogs, click the button in the window.

   The Browse for Folder window appears.

5. Browse to the folder that contains a list of streetmaps or tiled datasets you want to add to the catalog, then click OK.

   The basemap catalog lists the path to the folder you just added, as shown in the following screen shot:

   Tip:

   When you add a folder to the basemap catalog, add the parent folder that contains your streetmaps or tiled datasets. For example, in the previous screen shot, the folder named StreetMap is the parent folder that contains the streetmaps to be added.

   Caution:

   Adding folders from a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path can impede performance.

6. To remove a folder from the catalog, select it from the list, then click the button.
7. When you finish managing the basemap catalog, click the OK button to close the Application Settings window.

   You are now ready to add a tiled dataset or StreetMap for Windows Mobile by reference from the catalog to your project.

8. Start or open an existing project in Mobile Project Center. For more information, see Creating a mobile project.
9. Click the Add button and click Basemap from Catalog.

   The Add Map Layers window appears and lists all names of the folders you defined in step 5. Click the icon next to a folder's name to see the tiled datasets and/or streetmaps it contains as shown in the following screen shot:

   Tip:

   If basemaps are not listed, check the folder you added to ensure it contains tiled datasets or streetmaps.

10. Click the basemap you want to add, then click Add.

    Mobile Project Center adds the basemap to your project by maintaining a reference to the basemap from the basemap catalog.

Adding a basemap that's already deployed to a device

Complete the following steps to add a basemap by reference to a mobile project without using the basemap catalog:

Steps:

1. Click the Add button and click Browse for Basemap > Already deployed to Device.

   The Browse for Basemaps window appears.

2. Browse to the folder of your tiled dataset (select the conf.xml file in the directory) or StreetMap for Windows Mobile (select the .navmap file in the directory), then click Open.

   Mobile Project Center adds a reference of the basemap to your project.

Adding basemaps by value

Adding basemaps by value is available for tile packages and tiled datasets but not StreetMap for Windows Mobile. When you add a tile package to your project, Mobile Project Center extracts the tiled dataset from the package and copies the dataset to the project; when you add a tiled dataset, Mobile Project Center adds a copy of the dataset to your project. In both cases, a basemap added by value is stored in your project folder, and when you deploy the project, the basemap is deployed with the project.

If you plan to share a project with by-value basemap to ArcGIS Server, ArcGIS Online, or Portal for ArcGIS, make sure you understand the size of your project as well as network speed and the available storage space on your field devices. This needs to be considered because these factors determine how long it will take for sharing and downloading.

To add a tile package or tiled dataset by value, complete the following steps:

Steps:

1. Start or open an existing project in Mobile Project Center. For more information, see Creating a mobile project.
2. Click the Add button and click Browse for Basemap > To copy into Project.

   The Browse for Basemaps window appears.

3. Browse to the location of the tile package or tiled dataset you intend to include to your mobile project, then double-click the .tpk file (for tile package) or conf.xml file (for tiled dataset) to add it to your project.

   The basemap displays on the Map Preview.

After you save the project (click File > Save or Save As...), Mobile Project Center copies the basemap to the project folder, and the project and the basemap are ready for deployment.