ArcGIS Online

Implementation
Guide

Essential tasks and best practices for

setting up ArcGIS Online.

Publication date: December 5, 2018

Task checklist

TASK COMPLETE
1. Explore ArcGIS Online
2. Activate your subscription
3. Set up your home page
4. Create groups
5. Add members
6. Create content
7. Learn more

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 2

1. Explore ArcGIS Online
Welcome to ArcGIS Online! Before you jump into setting up ArcGIS Online, run
through a few quick hands-on exercises that will help you understand the
fundamentals of mapping and analysis.

The exercises show you how to do the following:

• Explore a map: See who left, where they went, and who stayed after Hurricane
Harvey. [10 minutes]

• Get started with ArcGIS Online: Create and share an evacuation map to
prepare for an incoming hurricane. [45 minutes]

• Share a map: Share your map of recreational facilities. [20 minutes]

• Make a walk-time map: Use spatial analysis to find out where you can you walk
in 20 minutes. [15 minutes]

• Visualize in 3D: Create a 3D map of urban trees. [20 minutes]

Start the mapping and analysis exercises.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 3

2. Activate your subscription
ArcGIS Online is cloud-based mapping and analytics software that you can access via
a website. When you purchase a subscription, you can configure a customized
experience that makes sense for your organization. For example, you set the security
and sharing policies, assign privileges and credits to members based on the work
they need to do, and configure your home page and gallery to reflect your brand.
You can also integrate your enterprise single sign-on system.

Main components
A subscription to ArcGIS Online includes the following main components:

Home page: Your home page will be many people’s first impression of your site.
Include an appealing banner and your own logo, feature your best maps and apps,
and provide descriptions, links, or resources to help people get the most out of your
site.

Groups: Groups are a way to organize your members and content around specific
projects, workflows, and initiatives. You can set up groups to allow access to specific
items based on your organization’s structure.

Members: Add new users to ArcGIS Online by inviting them to join or adding them
directly. You can add members in bulk or one at a time. You can set up their accounts
for them, let them create their own accounts, or use your existing enterprise single
sign-on login system.

Content: ArcGIS Online includes everything you need to create maps, apps, and
layers. It also provides resources to effectively store, categorize, edit, and share what
you’ve created.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 4

Tips
You’ll need to decide three things when you first set up ArcGIS Online:

A name for your ArcGIS Online site: The organization name is what appears in the
banner on the home page. You should choose a distinct and accurate name that
represents your organization or the purpose of your ArcGIS Online site.

A short name: The short names appear in the URL link to your ArcGIS Online site (for
example, sample-org-name.maps.arcgis.com). Carefully consider the name you want
to use. You can change it later, but you may need to manually update the URLs of
some of your content.

Administrative contact: Consider having a few administrators as points of contact.

These administrators and their email addresses are listed in automatic emails sent
from ArcGIS Online when members request password resets, help with their user
names, modifications to their accounts, or any issues related to the allocation of
credits to their accounts. Contacts also get email notifications about the subscription.

Learn how to activate your subscription.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 5

3. Set up your home page
You’ll want to configure ArcGIS Online to meet your organization’s needs. For
example, you can specify whether members can search for and share content outside
the organization. Some configuration is done as part of the subscription activation—
for example, setting up your organization’s URL. As you get started, focus on the
appearance of your home page and the security settings of the site.

Customize the appearance

Think about your brand and how to best represent it on your site. Here are a few
recommendations for creating an effective home page:

• Make your home page professional looking and well organized. Use a
custom banner and logo and provide information about the purpose of
your site.

• Showcase your best maps and apps as featured content on your home
page.

Learn how to set up your home page.

Security considerations
ArcGIS Online is a secure, reliable, and flexible site. You can configure the privacy
and security controls that make sense for your organization. For example, you can
configure the password policy, including the password length, complexity, and
history requirements. You can choose to allow members to share content outside
your organization or only allow sharing within the organization. You can also set up
enterprise logins and multifactor authentication.

Esri recommends you allow access to ArcGIS Online, data, and all other assets
through HTTPS only. This helps protect your information.

Learn how to set up your security policies.

You can also review ArcGIS Trust Center for additional details about security, privacy,
and compliance.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 6

4. Create groups
Groups are a way to organize items you want to share with members of your
organization and with the public. You can set up groups that are private and by
invitation only, or public groups that are open to everyone. With a little bit of
planning, you can use groups as a tool to support your workflows and ensure that
finished content is shared with the intended audience. For example, you can create a
working group and a broadcast group for items related to a project. The working
group can be a private group used for sharing in-progress work. The broadcast
group can be a public group used for sharing finished content with everyone.

You can also use groups to feature content on the home page and gallery and build
custom galleries for basemaps and apps.

Learn how to create groups.

Distributed collaboration
Distributed collaboration uses groups connected to a workspace to share content
between ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise, Esri’s comprehensive mapping and
analytics platform you deploy in your local infrastructure or the cloud. Distributed
collaboration lets participants share maps and data. Content is shared according to
the sharing settings of the organization where the content originated.

Learn how to create distributed collaboration.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 7

5. Add members
ArcGIS Online has a flexible system for adding users, called members, to your
subscription. You can add members automatically or invite them to join your
organization. You can add and invite members one at a time, or you can upload a file
and add and invite members in bulk. You can enable your existing single sign-on
enterprise login system, set up member accounts yourself, or let members create
their own accounts. As part of the invitation process, you also designate user types
and roles.

Learn how to add members.

Best practices
Below are some best practices for adding members. Most can be done as part of the
invitation process.

• Configure enterprise logins: If your organization uses a single sign-on

system, enable enterprise logins. This lets members sign in to ArcGIS
Online with the same credentials they use in their enterprise system. Learn
how to configure enterprise logins.

• Assign user types: User types determine the privileges and apps you can
give members. There are five user types—Viewer, Editor, Field Worker,
Creator, and GIS Professional. You should assign user types based on the
members’ needs and requirements. For example, Creators have access to
all the capabilities in ArcGIS Online and most of the apps, while Viewers can
only view items that are shared with them and have access to a small set of
apps. Learn more about user types.

• Select roles: Consider the privileges each member needs. You assign
privileges through a default or custom role. There are four default roles—
Viewer, Data Editor, User, Publisher, and Administrator. You can also create
custom roles based on the specific privileges you want that role to have.
Every subscription must have at least one administrator. Learn how to
configure custom roles.

• Automatically add members to groups: Specify the groups you want

members to join. Members are added automatically without needing to

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 8

 request membership or accept an invitation. Learn how to add members to
groups.

• Allocate a credit budget: You can manage member credit usage by setting
a specified number of credits that the member can use. Learn how to
allocate credit budgets.

• Esri access: Enable Esri access if you want members to use other Esri
websites or to manage their email communications from Esri. Learn how to
enable Esri access.

• Manage add-on licenses: Each user type includes access to specific apps
and app bundles. Apps that are not included with an assigned user type
can be licensed and assigned as needed to specific members as add-on
licenses. Learn how to manage licenses.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 9

6. Create content
ArcGIS Online includes everything you need to create and share maps, scenes, apps,
and layers. You can add existing content such as spreadsheets and ArcGIS Server
services, and create new content such as maps, apps, and hosted web layers.

Consider how your content will be used and optimize it for the best experience. For
example, refine layers with appropriate transparency, scale ranges, and labels;
configure pop-ups in your maps; and create multiple views of your feature layers with
different access and editing properties.

Create complete details so the item is easy to find and use. Designate items as
authoritative when you want to promote them as reliable and boost them in search
results. Set up content categories for your organization and groups so the content is
easy to discover.

Tips

• Quickly create a new map by combining a basemap with your data and
applying smart defaults to style the map. Learn how to create maps.

• Access a wide variety of templates and widgets to create focused web

apps. Learn how to create apps.

• Use templates to create new layers that you can use in your maps and apps
to collect data. Learn how to create new feature layers.

• When you save or add your content to ArcGIS Online, it’s stored as an item
and assigned a type. For example, when you save a map, it’s stored as an
item in My Content as a type of web map. Learn how to add items.

• Each item includes a page with information, actions, options, and settings.
Use the page to learn more about and interact with the item. Learn how to
use item pages.

• You can organize group content and content across your organization in
content categories. Learn how to use content categories.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 10

 • Once you’ve added content, you can share it with groups, the organization,
or everyone. Learn how to share content.

• If your map is picked up by social media and is viewed by thousands or

millions of users at once, you’ll want the map to load as quickly as possible.
Learn how to optimize maps for high demand.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 11

7. Learn more
As an administrator, you’re responsible for setting up ArcGIS Online. It’s equally
important to maintain members, items, and groups to keep your organization
uncluttered and up to date. The resources in this section can help you with these
maintenance tasks. They also help you learn more about ArcGIS Online.

Monitor activity
Access activity-based metrics and real-time usage reports to help monitor content
and members. Item reports illustrate how users are creating, using, and sharing
geographic content. Member reports reveal how users are contributing to ArcGIS
Online. Group reports provide a sense of active collaborations across and within
organizations. Learn how to use activity reports.

Credit usage
ArcGIS Online is a paid subscription service. Esri assigns each subscription service
credits that act as currency. You use credits when using certain content, analytical
functions, and data storage. You can enable credit budgeting to manage credits for
transaction-based services and tools such as spatial analysis. Assign a flexible
allocation of credits to some or all organization members or set a default allocation
for new members. Learn more about credit usage.

Additional resources
• ArcGIS Online help is a key resource for learning how to use the software in
general and to perform specific tasks. It also includes best practices for
organization maintenance, what’s new, troubleshooting, and FAQ.

• The Learn ArcGIS gallery has a collection of lessons, articles, story maps,
and videos that help you learn about ArcGIS. It also includes paths of
related resources about a specific topic such as administration.

• Esri Training includes web courses, training seminars, lessons, and videos
to help you learn more about managing an ArcGIS Online organization.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 12

 • The GIS community, including Esri, shares thousands of ready-to-use
authoritative datasets in ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. Living Atlas
covers everything from historical census data to environmental conditions
derived from live sensor networks and earth observations.

• ArcGIS API for Python can help you expedite and maintain administrative
tasks. For example, use the API to set up the folder structure in My Content.
You can also use it to update URLs for service or app items.

• ArcGIS Marketplace includes solutions from Esri partners to help with

administrative tasks.

• Get the latest information on service availability from ArcGIS Online Status.

FAQ

Can I try ArcGIS Online before purchasing a subscription?

Yes. If you don’t have an account yet, you can join the Learn ArcGIS organization for a
free 60-day membership. Getting a Learn account is an easy way to explore mapping
and analysis, but your content is deleted after 60 days and you won’t be able to
configure the organization. To try setting up and configuring ArcGIS Online, you can
get a free trial. With a trial, you act as the administrator.

Can I add more members or credits at any time?

Yes. ArcGIS Online subscriptions have the flexibility to grow with your organization.
You can add more members or credits at any time.

How can I provide feedback about this guide?

You can take the guide survey or send an email message to arcgis-guides-
feedback@esri.com.

Where can I get answers to more questions?

Read the ArcGIS Online FAQ, explore GeoNet discussions, or contact Esri.

Copyright © 2018 Esri. All rights reserved. 13