Working well within a shared collaborative environment requires understanding, mutual respect and communication.  The following information and examples will hopefully provide the foundation for successfully using the Tall Timbers Web GIS to create and share geospatial content.

System Overview

The Tall Timbers (TT) Web GIS is a collection of systems that allows Tall Timbers staff and collaborators to share data; create interactive maps; configure apps; and conduct common geospatial workflows such as basic data collection, editing and reporting.  The two systems that participate in the TT Web GIS are the Tall Timbers Geospatial Data Infrastructure (GDI) and the Tall Timbers’ ArcGIS Online Organization (AGOL).  

 

The IT/GIS group manages access to the Organization’s ArcGIS Online (AGOL) account in ESRI’s Geospatial cloud environment (https://talltimbers.maps.arcgis.com/) and maintains an ArcGIS Enterprise Portal (https://pinemaps.ttrsgis.org/portal/home/).  The Portal is a key component in the Tall Timbers Geospatial Data Infrastructure (GDI) and functions as an on-premise, private implementation of ESRI’s AGOL environment.  Both the AGOL Organization and the Portal are web-based and can be accessed via a number of clients (web browser, ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro, for example).  Connections to both environments can be made from within the Tall Timbers network, or externally when not connected to the internal network. 

 

For more information on the systems and how they compare and contrast, please see the “Similarities and Distinctions” section within the Help Desk article: Tall Timbers Web GIS.   

 

ESRI Licensing: Users, Roles and Credits

Registration for a user account is required to create or share content from either the Tall Timbers Portal in the GDI or from the Tall Timbers’ AGOL Organization, as neither is open to the public.   An account is also required for viewing and interacting with any content from these systems that has not been shared as public (shared with Everyone, i.e., the world).  An account is also required for privileges beyond basic public viewing, for example, user accounts with specific roles are required for data editing and field data collection.  

 

Due consideration of the impact of creating/sharing content with regards to Tall Timbers’ user accounts and credits is requested and appreciated as the number of staff employees currently outnumbers the number of licenses and some current projects are already consuming credits within AGOL.  In some cases, a named user account for the GDI and/or AGOL may be created for a program group so that the account can be shared amongst staff within the program.  This will help alleviate some staff and partner-use restrictions based on the limited number of named accounts.  

 

For more information on ESRI’s credits and how it relates to Tall Timbers, please see the “ESRI Licensing: Users, Roles and Credits” section within the Help Desk article: Tall Timbers Web GIS.  

 

System Responsibilities and Expectations

Since interacting within a Web GIS is inherently more social and connected, it is important that those using the Tall Timbers Web GIS understand the implications of working in a collaborative environment.  The following conduct guidelines are presented to help ensure an effective and successful collaborative environment.  

  • Publishing/Sharing is limited to registered users only.   Please do not share accounts or passwords outside of your group.  For information on how to register for access, please contact the IT/GIS Group.
  • Administration of Portal (GDI) or AGOL items is based on the honor system.  Please do not stop, start, restart, delete or share any content not created by your named user account.  
  • Consume system resources wisely.  Read through this document and ESRI’s Best Practices for Sharing to understand the implications of system use and sharing in a web GIS.
  • "Learn by Doing". Take advantage of ESRI’s free or via maintenance trainings, tutorials and web resources to gain experience and increase your effectiveness with using the Tall Timbers Web GIS.  Contact the IT/GIS Group if you have specific questions on training on need help focusing your learning.
  • Plan and review before sharing widely.  Development and testing in the GDI or Tall Timbers’ AGOL system consists of following an iterative process to allow adequate testing and review prior to promoting content to a wide audience.  
    • Plan: create a project description document and review with the IT/GIS Group.  
    • Prepare: ensure data and other resources are ready to be shared (create metadata, tune data and copy to data server).
    • Share with minimal visibility: limit the initial visibility to only Owner or Group for testing and review.
    • Describe: provide description, summary and tag information, at a minimum, on the Item details page to document and help identify shared content.
    • Refine, review and promote: After review and edit, set content visibility to proper level and share more widely.

See the General Recommendations for Creating/Sharing Content Section below for more details on sharing content.

  • Maintenance is a shared responsibility.  Remove content no longer needed.  Maintain local backups of map/project documents, source code, application directories and other data used to create content.
  • Ours is an evolving system – communication is key.   Please share insights, obstacles, and successes with fellow developers and the IT/GIS Group.  
  • GDI System updates and maintenance activities are scheduled for the third and fourth Wednesday evenings of every month (7pm-7am). Please remember that access may be limited or unavailable during this time.   Every effort will be made to perform any software-specific maintenance at this time.  

System Access

Prior to creating or sharing content on the Tall Timbers Web GIS, please complete the Tall Timbers Geospatial Services Project Description document to help the IT/GIS group understand your plans for using the TT Web GIS.

 

For more information on the Tall Timbers Web GIS and resources on ESRI software, please see the Tall Timbers Web GIS Roadmap.    

General Recommendations for Creating/Sharing Content

Content can be added to the Tall Timbers Portal or the AGOL Organization, by logging in and adding an item directly or, the content can be shared via ArcMap, ArcCatalog or ArcGIS Pro.  Items that can be added directly, include CSV files, zipped shapefiles, URLs to WMS map services, and more.  ArcGIS Pro allows publishing or sharing of datasets and/or maps to the Portal or AGOL.

 

To create content in the Portal and/or the AGOL Organization, a general familiarity with their environments is required.  Please see the following to explore Portal and/or ArcGIS Online.

 

The guidance below focuses on aspects common to all Portal and AGOL items.  Recommendations specific to Layers (Feature/Map Services), Web Maps and Applications, along with examples, follow later in the document.  Please see, Portal for ArcGIS-Item details and ArcGIS Online-Item details for more information.

 

  • TITLE: When creating a Portal or AGOL item, be sure to use a common-sense naming convention for the Title property.  Spaces are allowed, but avoid special characters.  Ensure the title is descriptive and reflects the source or purpose.  If a web map is supporting an application (or viewer), give the web map the same name as the application with “Map” appended to it.  For example, name the web map “Example Map” and the application, “Example App”.
  • SUMMARY/DESCRIPTION/TAGS:  Information on each of these properties should be added when creating an item in Portal or in AGOL.  Summary is a short description of the content and it gets returned in the results of searches made on Portal or AGOL content.  The Description should contain more information and is revealed after opening the content’s Item page.  Tags are important keywords that should help identify the content when searches are made.  At least one Tag must be specified when content is added to the Portal or AGOL.
  • CONSTRAINTS/DISCLAIMER/TERMS OF USE:  If there are any restrictions or clarifications on use that must be specified before anyone accesses or uses the data, ensure the information is included when adding the item. 
  • CREDITS (SOURCE ATTRIBUTION):  For images and any data for which Tall Timbers is not the steward, ensure that there is proper attribution given to the source.  This information can be added directly to the metadata or can be included as part of the item details.
  • SHARING:  When publishing content, consider the audience and status of the content.  By default any content you create or share is only available in your content and is not shared with anyone.  If the content needs to undergo review and comment prior to broad exposure, choose a smaller audience first, such as “My Content” (shared with no one), “The Portal” or “The Organization” before making it public and sharing it with “Everyone”. 
  • REVIEW:  Before making a Portal item or AGOL item public by sharing it with “Everyone”, ask for a review from a peer; from a collaborator; and/or from Group management.
  • DELETE PROTECTION:  Check this option to prevent the accidental deletion of an item.   

Recommendations for Creating/Sharing Layers (Feature/Map Services)

Publishing a feature or map service to the Tall Timbers Portal or to AGOL typically occurs within ArcGIS Desktop or ArcGIS Pro.  To publish to the Portal or to the AGOL Organization, an account with publisher permissions and a connection to the system is required.  Connections to the Portal or to AGOL can be made in ArcMap, ArcCatalog or ArcGIS Pro by supplying the specific URL to the Portal or to the AGOL Organization.  

 

By default, ArcGIS Desktop does not connect to an organization’s Enterprise Portal.  It is set to connect to ArcGIS Online.  To change this setting and create a Portal connection, ArcGIS Administrator is required which needs local admin privileges to run.  Please submit a help desk ticket if you are not a local admin on your workstation.  For more information on connecting to the Portal or to the AGOL Organization, please see the appropriate "Getting Started" document available from the Tall Timbers Help Desk.  

 

The following are general recommendations regarding key elements of feature and map services.  For information on ESRI’s recommendations on sharing layers in ArcGIS Online, please visit their best practices reference site.  

  • NAME: By default, the name of the service is the name of the map document (.mxd file) or, it can be specified if sharing from ArcGIS Pro. Avoid spaces and special characters as the name becomes part of the URL used to access the feature or map image service. Be descriptive so the name helps identify the content. Also, since the Portal and AGOL are shared environments, append the program to the name if there could be confusion as to the ownership of the service. 
  • DATA: Please follow best practices for displaying data layers at specific scales: for example, do not display detailed, dense data layers at a small scale (large area). Use min/max display settings, when possible. Use labels at appropriate scales. Test the labels and rendering style of the features with different basemap backgrounds to ensure the data is visible. Use the Description property to list or describe the data layer(s) in the service, especially if the name of the service does not provide a clue to its contents. Tune and filter the fields by turning off unnecessary fields so that only needed information is displayed from the layer’s attribute table or popup.
  • RESOURCES:  Save the data and aprx or mxd file used to create the feature or map image service in the appropriate program directory within the network share on the GIS data server (\\gisdata.ttrsmaps.org\ags_data_share\).  UNC paths should be used to reference the data within the aprx or mxd.  Placing the aprx or mxd in the share directory serves two purposes:  the file used to generate the service is backed up; and, should edits or updates for the service be required, the .aprx or .mxd is always available.  Please see the IT/GIS Group to gain access to the GIS data server.
  • SUMMARY/DESCRIPTION/TAGS:  Since the Portal and AGOL are shared environments, including descriptive information is critical to allow discovery of the item in a search and to help with understanding the item’s purpose and intended use.  This information can be added prior to sharing within ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro.  Or, it can be added via the Item Details page in Portal or AGOL after the feature or map service has been shared.
  • UPDATES/EDITS:  If you need to update the properties of a feature or map service properties or make changes to the source data, use ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro to overwrite the existing map service.  This prevents the creation of duplicate items in the Portal or AGOL.  For tips on authoring map services, please see ESRI’s documentation.

Recommendations for Creating/Sharing Web Maps

Both the Tall Timbers Portal and ArcGIS Online provide interactive map viewers that allow users with accounts to create maps that can then be saved and shared as items or used in geospatial apps.  The Map Viewer can also be used to review feature/map image services, file-based data or basemap layers.  To use the Map Viewer or share a web map, log into the Portal or AGOL first and navigate to the Map Viewer by clicking the Map tab.  Next, add data; configure pop-ups and other map details; provide item details; and, then, the map can be saved and shared.  

 

Please visit ESRI's Portal for ArcGIS site, for more information on getting started with the Map Viewer and for more details on viewing maps in the Map Viewer.  

 

The following are recommendations regarding key elements of web maps.

 

  • LAYERS:  To add feature and/or map image services that are currently in the Portal, use the Add > Search for Layers tool.  It will display the services as layers that can be added to the map.  You can also add a feature and/or map image service to a map from the Gallery or My Content section of the Portal.  File-based data and external feature and/or map image services from the Web can also be added.   Reference and use information for data layers should be noted in the description or tags properties when saving the map.  Rename services and individual layers to make them more usable, if desired.  For more information on the best practices for using layers in maps in the Tall Timbers Portal, please visit ESRI’s Portal for ArcGIS site.  For guidance on the best practices for creating maps in AGOL, please see ESRI's ArcGIS Online Resources site.
  • EXTENT:  Before saving and sharing the map make sure the extent is set at a reasonable scale as this extent will become the Default or initial extent for the map.  When a user clicks the home icon on the map control bar, the map will navigate to this extent.  
  • POP-UPs:  Enable and configure pop-ups for each layer so that attribute information is available when a user clicks a feature within the map or resulting app.  After configuring and saving the pop-up, ensure that the enclosing layer is saved.  For more configuring tips, see the ArcGIS Blog on Pop-ups. 
  • FILTERS:  Filters allow you to apply a query on a map layer so that it displays a limited set of features.  If you have applied this sort of query definition on a layer, be sure to disclose this information in the summary property of the map's item details page.