With ArcGIS Pro, you can share your map or selected layers and tables in your map as a web layer. You can also share stand-alone tables as a hosted table. There are eight web layer types that can be shared from ArcGIS Pro: feature, tile, vector tile, map image, imagery, scene, 3D tiles, and elevation. Feature, tile, vector tile, map image, and imagery layers share 2D data, while scene, 3D tiles, and elevation layers share 3D data. Hosted tables share attribute data and are listed with the other layer types below.
When you share a web layer, a service is published and exposed through the web layer. Depending on the layer type and how it is configured, an ArcGIS Server service or a hosted service is published.
To share a web layer from ArcGIS Pro, you must have the following:
- An account that is part of an ArcGIS organization that has the privileges to create, update, and delete content
- An account with privileges to publish server based layers (if an ArcGIS Server service will be published)
- An account with privileges to publish the corresponding hosted layer (if a hosted service will be published)
When an ArcGIS Server service will be published, you can specify the federated server where the service will be published. To publish an ArcGIS Server service, access to the admin API must be possible through either the federated server's administration URL or services URL.
Before sharing a web layer, analyze your GIS resource to identify potential performance delays and errors. For more information, see Analyze your GIS resource.
During the sharing process, the web layer data is consolidated and prepared in a staging folder on a local drive. You can use the default staging folder or choose a different folder in the Share and download options.
You can continue to work with ArcGIS Pro while your sharing job is processing. You can even close ArcGIS Pro. You can monitor the status of your sharing job in the Job Status pane.
You can use Python and geoprocessing tools to automate sharing web layers.
Layer types
A number of factors should be considered when determining the layer type to share, including how the layer will be used and whether your source data is accessible to the server.
| Layer type | Description |
|---|---|
| Supports feature querying, visualization, and editing. Feature layers are appropriate for visualizing vector data on top of your basemaps. When sharing a feature layer that copies all data to ArcGIS Enterprise, the service will always be published to your hosting server. When sharing a feature layer that references registered data to ArcGIS Enterprise, it's shared as a dependent layer to a map image layer. A feature layer exposes a feature service. | |
Supports fast map visualization using a collection of predrawn map images or tiles. These tiles are created and stored on the server after you upload your data. Web tile layers are appropriate for basemaps. When sharing a tile layer from layers in a map to ArcGIS Enterprise, the service will always be published to your hosting server. When sharing from a tile cache dataset, the service can be published to any accessible server that has been federated with the portal. A tile layer exposes a hosted, cached map service. | |
Supports fast map visualization using a collection of predrawn vector tiles. Although these tiles do not support raster data, they can adapt to the resolution of their display device and be restyled for multiple uses. When sharing a vector tile layer (from layers in a map) that references registered data to ArcGIS Enterprise, it's shared as a dependent layer to a map image layer and web feature layer. The service will always be published to your hosting server. When sharing from a vector tile cache dataset, the service can be published to any accessible server that has been federated with the portal. A vector tile layer exposes a vector tile service. | |
Supports map visualization and feature querying. Map image layers can be drawn dynamically by the server or from tiles. Map image layers can only be shared to ArcGIS Enterprise. Map image layers can reference datasets in workspaces that have been registered with your federated server. When sharing a map image layer, the service can be published to any server that has been federated with the portal to which you have access. Additional layers and capabilities can be enabled; for more information, see Additional layers and capabilities. A map image layer exposes a dynamic or cached map service. | |
Supports visualization of integrated mesh or 3D object data. When sharing a 3D tiles layer from a scene to ArcGIS Enterprise, the service will always be published to your hosting server. When sharing from a cache dataset, the service can be published to any accessible server that has been federated with the portal. A 3D tiles layer exposes a 3D tiles service. | |
Supports querying and visualization of point, 3D object, building, point cloud, integrated mesh, and voxel data. When sharing a scene layer from a scene to ArcGIS Enterprise, the scene service will always be published to your hosting server. When sharing from a scene cache dataset, the service can be published to any accessible server that has been federated with the portal. 3D object, building, and point scene layers can have an associated feature service that allows you to edit the scene layer. A scene layer exposes a cached scene service. | |
Supports visualization, metadata, mensuration, and image processing to display data as a basemap or the results of analysis. Imagery layers can be shared to any server federated with ArcGIS Enterprise. An imagery layer exposes a dynamic or cached image service. | |
Supports visualization, metadata, mensuration, and image processing of elevation data sources in the ground surface of a scene. The elevation layer is used in web scenes to display 3D content on a custom elevation surface. When sharing an elevation layer to ArcGIS Enterprise that is cached locally, the service will always be published to your hosting server. When cached on the server, the service can be published to any server federated with ArcGIS Enterprise. An elevation layer exposes a cached image service that uses a LERC compression tiling scheme. | |
Supports viewing, filtering, and editing of table attributes. A hosted table exposes a feature service. |
Depending on your active portal, different layer types are available to share. Some layer types require packages to be created and uploaded depending on the active portal and the type of data being shared.
Layer types by active portal
| Active portal | Feature layer | Tile layer | Vector tile layer | Map image layer | Scene layer—3D Object | Scene layer—Points | Scene layer—Point cloud | Scene layer—Building | Scene layer—Integrated mesh | Scene layer—Voxel | 3D tiles layer | Imagery layer | Elevation layer | Hosted table |
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ArcGIS Enterprise 11.4 or later |
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ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0 through 11.3 |
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| ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7 through 10.9.1 |
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| ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5 through 10.6.1 |
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| Portal for ArcGIS 10.4 and 10.4.1 |
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Select the layer type
When selecting the layer type, consider the following:
- If the layer will be used for editing workflows, select feature layer.
- If the data changes regularly and will not be used for editing workflows, select map image layer.
- If the data changes semiregularly, select map image layer and configure it to display using tiles from a cache.
- If the data is static vector data and will only be used for visualization, select vector tile layer.
- If the data is static raster data and will only be used for visualization, select tile layer.
- If you will be changing the visualization of your raster dataset dynamically on the client, share an imagery layer.
- If you need open source formats, select map image layer and include an associated WMS layer.
Reference registered data or copy all data
If you share a web layer that references registered data, the data is referenced at its user-managed location such as a folder, database, or cloud store. For web layers to reference data, you must register the data source with the server so that it can access locations containing the data. For information on registering your data source, see Data sources for ArcGIS Server and Manage registered data stores.
If you share a web layer that copies all data, data is copied from its source to the server, or a package containing a cache is uploaded to the portal. Once copied, the web layer data is managed by ArcGIS rather than referenced in a user-managed location.
Learn more about reference registered data and copy all data
Assign layer IDs
In ArcGIS Pro, you can share a map containing multiple layers (and stand-alone tables) as a web layer or service. When you share a web feature layer, map image layer, web tile layer, or map service, the layers in your map become service sublayers. Each sublayer is identified by a unique numeric ID that allows you to work with it or reference it in a web map or application. For example, you can reference a service sublayer by URL: https://<service-url>/<layerID>.
As a best practice, manually assign layer IDs prior to publishing if you intend to overwrite the web layer or service in the future. Otherwise, service sublayer IDs can potentially change when the web layer or service is overwritten, causing disconnects in web applications that reference the service sublayer.
Web layer metadata
You can share an entire map, a selection of layers, a group layer, or a single layer as a web layer from ArcGIS Pro. Both the web layer and the sublayers of the service exposed by the web layer can store metadata. The type of web layer selected will determine whether only the web layer or both the web layer and the sublayers store metadata.
Automate sharing web layers
You can automate sharing and updating web layers with Python using a combination of ArcPy functions and geoprocessing tools in the Publishing toolset.