Publish hosted feature layers

As a publisher in your organization, you can host feature data in ArcGIS Enterprise by publishing hosted feature layers. ArcGIS Enterprise supports multiple sources to allow you to accomplish this. Use any of the following to publish a hosted feature layer:

• Comma-separated values (CSV) files that contain coordinates or addresses
• Zipped shapefiles
• GeoJSON files
• Feature collections
• Zipped file geodatabases
• Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) GeoPackage files
• ArcGIS Pro maps
• A template or existing feature layer

You can also create a blank hosted feature layer and define the empty layers it contains. After the hosted feature layer is created, add fields to each layers.

Feature layers are useful when you need to expose vector data for display, query, and editing to other members of your organization or when you want to share a table of nonspatial attributes. Hosting a feature layer on ArcGIS Enterprise is one way to share data with coworkers through maps, apps, and desktop map viewers.

Feature layers are most appropriate for operational layers that go on top of reference layers, such as a basemap. For example, a feature layer may contain information about the street signs in your neighborhood. Each feature (street sign) may include the sign name, date installed, and a website URL for reporting problems to your local street department.

To complete the steps in the following sections, you must have privileges to publish hosted feature layers and create content.

Publish a CSV file

If you have CSV files stored on your computer that contain addresses or coordinates, you can sign in to the portal and publish features or tables from the CSV files. The resultant feature layer is published as a service to your portal's hosting server. These services are referred to as hosted feature layers.

The steps below outline how to publish features or tables from the portal website using a CSV file. Features are published in the WGS 1984 Web Mercator (Auxiliary Sphere) coordinate system.

Note:

These files do not enforce unique field names, but field names in hosted feature layers must be unique. Therefore, ensure all field names in your file are unique before publishing.

The following steps explain how to add a CSV file from your local drive and publish.

1. Verify that you are signed in and that you have privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers.
2. Open Content > My Content, click New item, and click Your device.
3. Find the file on your device.
4. Select the file and click Open.

CSV files must be formatted and saved as .csv.

5. Choose Add <file name> and create a hosted feature layer or table.
6. Click Next.
7. Review the fields included and make changes as needed.

   If the field types can be identified, they are set automatically, but you can change field types.

8. Choose a Time Zone for the date fields in your CSV file.

   By default, date fields are assumed to contain UTC date and time. If your date fields store values that use a different time zone, choose that time zone. Note that the time zone you select is applied to all date fields in the CSV file. If you later overwrite the hosted feature layer using updated data, the time zone specified when you initially published is used.

   See CSV, TXT, and GPX files for information on time zone considerations and supported date and time formats.

   Tip:

   You can configure pop-ups to display time.

9. Click Next.
10. Choose the information in your file to use to locate features.
    • If your file contains coordinates, choose whether to use Latitude and longitude, Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), or United States National Grid coordinates.
    • Choose Addresses or place names if your file contains place-names—for example, Westminster Abbey or Panama Canal—or addresses.
    • To create a nonspatial table layer, choose None.
11. If you are locating features based on Addresses or place names and your organization has multiple locators configured, click Advanced location settings and choose the locator you want to use.

    Note:

    Your portal must be configured to use a locator (geocode utility service) that can do batch geocoding for you to publish a CSV file containing addresses. Contact your organization administrator if the option to publish is not available when you add your file.

12. If your file contains addresses, click Advanced location settings and use the Region drop-down list to specify the country in which the addresses are located. If your file contains addresses from multiple countries or from a country not in the list, select World.

    By default, the locator adds a field that stores the coordinate location for each feature. You can choose to include additional fields that provide you with information related to the geocoding process, such as how closely the location information in your input file matches with a location in the locator service.

13. Choose whether your location fields are based on one or multiple fields.
14. Click Next.
15. Type a title.
16. Choose a folder in My Content where you want to save the item.
17. If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find your item.

    You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.

18. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

    Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

19. Optionally, type a summary that describes the data.
20. Click Save.

The data file and the feature layer are separately added to My Content. One way to test the new hosted feature layer once publishing completes is to view it in a map viewer.

If you published a CSV file containing addresses or places, you can review and correct any records that were not placed on the map or were placed incorrectly. You can immediately review the locations in Map Viewer Classic, or choose to review them at a later time. See Review locations for more information. At this time, you can only review locations in Map Viewer Classic.

By default, only you and the administrator can access the hosted feature layer. To allow others to access it, share the layer and file with everyone (the public), your organization, or members of specific groups. You can edit item details and change feature layer settings.

If you want to share the hosted feature layer as a copy in a distributed collaboration, you must enable synchronization.

Be aware that only 2,000 records are returned at a time by default when drawing or querying a feature layer. You can update this limit on existing hosted feature layers from the service properties in ArcGIS Server Manager. Connect to your hosting server and set the Maximum Number of Records Returned by Server property to the desired value for each service.

Publish a shapefile

To web-enable feature layers from shapefiles (packaged in a .zip file), add the .zip file to your portal and publish. The resultant feature layer is published as a service to your portal's hosting server. These services are referred to as hosted feature layers.

The following steps outline how to publish features from the portal website using a shapefile. The features are published in the WGS 1984 Web Mercator (Auxiliary Sphere) coordinate system.

1. Verify that you are signed in and that you have privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers.
2. Open Content > My Content, click New item, and click Your device.
3. Find the file on your device.
4. Select the file and click Open.

Shapefiles must be compressed as a .zip file containing .shp, .shx, .dbf, and .prj files.

If there are multiple shapefiles in the .zip file, they are all included in the feature layer.

5. When you add a .zip file, specify the type of content in the file. Choose the data format from the Item type drop-down menu.

   You cannot upload the file if the wrong content type is specified.

6. Choose Add <file name> and create a hosted feature layer.
7. Click Next.
8. Type a title.
9. Choose a folder in My Content where you want to save the item.
10. If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find your item. You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.
11. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

    Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

12. Optionally, type a summary that describes the data.
13. Click Save.

The data file and the feature layer are separately added to My Content. One way to test the new hosted feature layer once publishing completes is to view it in a map viewer.

If you publish a shapefile or shapefiles that contain metadata, that metadata is included in the layers in the hosted feature layer. When viewed from the hosted feature layer's item page, the metadata is displayed in the metadata style configured for the portal.

By default, only you and the administrator can access the hosted feature layer. To allow others to access it, share the layer and file with everyone (the public), your organization, or members of specific groups. You can edit item details and change feature layer settings.

If you want to share the hosted feature layer as a copy in a distributed collaboration, you must enable synchronization.

Be aware that, by default, only 2,000 records are returned at a time when drawing or querying a feature layer. You can update this limit on existing hosted feature layers from the service properties in ArcGIS Server Manager. Connect to your hosting server and set the Maximum Number of Records Returned by Server property to the desired value for each service.

Publish a GeoJSON file

To web enable feature layers from a GeoJSON file (.geojson or .json), add the file to your portal and publish. The resultant feature layer is published as a service to your portal's hosting server. These services are referred to as hosted feature layers.

To publish, the GeoJSON file must be smaller than 100 MB.

The following steps outline how to publish features from the portal website using a shapefile or GeoJSON file. The features are published in the WGS 1984 Web Mercator (Auxiliary Sphere) coordinate system.

1. Verify that you are signed in and that you have privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers.
2. Open Content > My Content, click New item, and click Your device.
3. Find the file on your device.
4. Select the file and click Open.
5. Choose Add <file name> and create a hosted feature layer.
6. Click Next.
7. Type a title.
8. Choose a folder in My Content where you want to save the item.
9. If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find your item. You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.
10. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

    Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

11. Optionally, type a summary that describes the data.
12. Click Save.

The data file and the feature layer are separately added to My Content. One way to test the new hosted feature layer once publishing completes is to view it in a map viewer.

By default, only you and the administrator can access the hosted feature layer. To allow others to access it, share the layer and file with everyone (the public), your organization, or members of specific groups. You can edit item details and change feature layer settings.

If you want to share the hosted feature layer as a copy in a distributed collaboration, you must enable synchronization.

Be aware that, by default, only 2,000 records are returned at a time when drawing or querying a feature layer. You can update this limit on existing hosted feature layers from the service properties in ArcGIS Server Manager. Connect to your hosting server and set the Maximum Number of Records Returned by Server property to the desired value for each service.

Publish a feature collection

If your data needs to be edited by multiple people, you can publish a feature collection as a hosted feature layer, share the layer, enable editing on it, and use the feature layer in a map.

Note:

If you alter symbology for individual points in the feature collection, that symbology change is not preserved when you publish the feature collection as a hosted feature layer.

1. Open the item details of the feature collection you want to publish as a hosted feature layer.
2. Click Publish.
3. Use the default title for the hosted feature layer or type a new one.
4. If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign Category and select up to 20 categories to help people find your item. You can also use the Filter categories box to narrow the list of categories.
5. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

   Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. public buildings is considered one tag, while public,buildings is considered two tags.

6. Click Publish to create the hosted feature layer.

A hosted feature layer is created and added to your content.

Now you can share the hosted layer, enable editing, and add the feature layer to your map.

Publish the contents of a file geodatabase

You can sign in to the portal website and publish a feature layer from a file geodatabase (packaged in a .zip file).

Publishing file geodatabase contents is a useful workflow if the geodatabase contains only a few datasets. Each feature class in the file geodatabase will be a layer in the hosted feature layer.

You can publish the following data types from a file geodatabase to a hosted feature layer:

• Feature classes (x- and y-coordinates; m- and z-coordinates are dropped)
• Tables
• Attachments
• Relationship classes

The features are published in the WGS 1984 Web Mercator (Auxiliary Sphere) coordinate system.

Other data types—such as rasters, networks, and parcel fabrics—remain in the geodatabase but are not included in the published hosted feature layer.

Follow these steps to add a file geodatabase to the portal and publish its contents as a hosted feature layer.

1. Verify that you are signed in and that you have privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers.
2. Open Content > My Content, click New item, and click Your device.
3. Find the file on your device or network.

   The file geodatabase must be in a .zip file.

4. Select the file and click Open.
5. When you add a .zip file, specify the type of content in the file. Choose the data format from the Item type drop-down menu.

   You cannot upload the file if the wrong content type is specified.

6. Choose Add <file name> and create a hosted feature layer.
7. Click Next.
8. Type a title.
9. Choose a folder in My Content where you want to save the item.
10. If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find your item. You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.
11. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

    Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

12. Optionally, type a summary that describes the data.
13. Click Save.

The supported data in your file geodatabase is published as a hosted feature layer. It may take some time to upload the file and publish. Once publishing completes, you can test the new feature layer by viewing it in a map viewer. Views in the file geodatabase are not published but remain in the file geodatabase.

If the feature classes in the file geodatabase contain metadata, that metadata is included in the layers in the hosted feature layer. For each layer that has metadata, you can view the metadata from the hosted feature layer's item page, and the metadata is displayed in the metadata style configured for the portal.

By default, only you and the administrator can access the hosted feature layer. To allow others to access it, share the layer and file with everyone (the public), your organization, or members of specific groups. You can edit item details and change feature layer settings.

Be aware that, by default, only 2,000 records are returned at a time when drawing or querying a feature layer. You can update this limit on existing hosted feature layers from the service properties in ArcGIS Server Manager. Connect to your hosting server and set the Maximum Number of Records Returned by Server property to the desired value for each service.

Publish the contents of an OGC GeoPackage

You can upload an OGC GeoPackage file and publish its contents as a hosted feature layer. One layer will be created in the hosted feature layer for each spatial table in the GeoPackage.

Publishing the contents of a GeoPackage is a useful workflow if the GeoPackage contains only a few tables.

The following data types will publish:

• Spatial tables that store point, multipoint, line, multiline, polygon, or multipolygon features
• Nonspatial tables

Other data types in the GeoPackage file, such as tile pyramids and views, will not be included in the hosted feature layer.

Features are published in the WGS 1984 Web Mercator (Auxiliary Sphere) coordinate system.

Follow these steps to add a GeoPackage file to the portal and publish its contents as a hosted feature layer.

1. Verify that you are signed in and that you have privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers.
2. Open Content > My Content, click New item, and click Your device.
3. Find the GeoPackage file on your device or network.
4. Select the file and click Open.
5. Choose Add <file name> and create a hosted feature layer.

   If, instead, you add the file but don't publish a hosted feature layer, you can publish later from the GeoPackage item's details page.

6. Click Next.
7. Type a title.
8. Choose a folder in My Content where you want to save the item.
9. If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find your item.

   You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.

10. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

    Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

11. Optionally, type a summary that describes the data.
12. Click Save.

The supported data in the GeoPackage file is published as a hosted feature layer. It may take some time to upload the file and publish. Once publishing completes, you can test the new feature layer by viewing it in a map viewer.

By default, only you and the administrator can access the hosted feature layer. To allow others to access it, share the layer and file with everyone (the public), your organization, or members of specific groups. You can edit item details and change feature layer settings.

Publish from ArcGIS Pro

When you publish a feature layer to ArcGIS Enterprise from ArcGIS Pro with the option to copy data, a hosted feature layer is created, feature data is copied from your source to ArcGIS Enterprise, and the hosted feature layer references the data that was copied, not the data source.

Instructions for publishing a hosted feature layer from ArcGIS Pro are available in the ArcGIS Pro help.

Note:

If the layers in the ArcGIS Pro map have definition queries applied to them, ArcGIS applies the definition queries to the published hosted feature layer. However, all data is copied to ArcGIS Enterprise. To publish a subset of the data, you must export the subset to another feature class and publish that.

If you intend to overwrite the hosted feature layer to update it, be sure to choose the option to Preserve layer IDs when you publish the feature layer from ArcGIS Pro.

Create a blank feature layer

When you create a blank feature layer, you define the layers and tables to include in the hosted feature layer.

1. Verify that you are signed in with an account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers, and click the My Content tab of the content page.
2. Click New item and choose Feature layer.
3. Choose Create a blank layer and click Next.
4. Type a name for the first layer in the feature layer and choose what type of layer to create: Point layer, Line layer, Polygon layer, or Table.
5. To add more layers to the feature layer, click Add and repeat the previous step for each layer.

   Clicking Add places a new layer at the top of the list of layers. The order of the layers as they appear in this window is how the layers will appear in the hosted feature layer. Therefore, add layers in reverse order to how you want them to appear in the hosted feature layer.

6. Optionally, enable the Add GPS metadata fields toggle button if the point layers need to store GPS information such as receiver name, accuracy, and fix type.

   When you edit the layer in the ArcGIS Field Maps mobile app, GPS metadata is recorded automatically. For more information about GPS metadata, see Prepare for high-accuracy data collection in the ArcGIS Field Maps help.

7. To store z-coordinates with the layers, enable the Enable Z-values toggle button.
8. When you finish adding the layers and tables you want in the hosted feature layer, click Next.
9. Type a title.
10. Choose a folder in My Content where you want to save the hosted feature layer.
11. If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign Category and select up to 20 categories to help people find your item.

    You can also use the Filter categories box to narrow the list of categories.

12. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

    Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

13. Optionally, type a summary that describes the data.
14. Click Save to create the feature layer.

When the feature layer is created, its details page appears.

Next, add fields to each layer and table, define attribute lists and ranges, define feature templates, and configure other settings that you require.

Note:

By default, editing is enabled on the new hosted feature layer, making it ready for data collection. If you don't want other people to edit it immediately, disable editing by unchecking the Enable editing check box on the Settings tab of the hosted feature layer's item page.

Create from a template or existing feature layer

To duplicate layer properties while allowing members of your organization to populate the new layer with new features, create a hosted feature layer from an existing hosted feature layer, ArcGIS Server feature layer, or a template. When you do this, the fields from the existing layer or template are used in your new hosted feature layer, but the attributes (rows) are empty in the new layer.

For example, you may have a feature layer displaying the perimeter of an existing wildfire. When a new wildfire occurs, you can create an empty feature layer from your existing one. The new layer will have the same fields present, such as date_reported, percent_contained, and fire_crews_assigned, but the fields will not be populated. You can then populate the new layer with the boundary and attributes of the new wildfire.

Follow these steps to create a hosted feature layer from a template or another feature layer.

1. Verify that you are signed in with an account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted feature layers, and click the My Content tab of the content page.
2. Click New item and choose Feature layer.
3. Choose an existing feature layer or template that contains the layers and schema you want to apply to the new feature layer.

   This step doesn't add or copy any features to your new hosted feature layer; you're only defining the layers and schema of the new hosted feature layer.

   There are several approaches you can take:

   • Click Select an existing feature layer, click Next, choose the existing feature layer you want to use as a template, and click Next.
   • Click Use a template, click Next, choose a template provided by Esri, and click Next.
   • Click Provide an ArcGIS Server layer URL, click Next, type or paste the URL of the existing ArcGIS Server feature layer to use as a template, and click Next.
4. No matter which approach you choose, check the box next to each layer you want to include in the new feature layer.

   You must include at least one layer.

5. When you finish choosing layers, click Next.
6. To add GPS metadata fields to point layers and store GPS information such as receiver name, accuracy, and fix type to the feature layer, enable the Add GPS metadata fields toggle button.

   When you edit the layer in ArcGIS Field Maps mobile app, GPS metadata is recorded automatically. For more information about GPS metadata, see Prepare for high-accuracy data collection in the ArcGIS Field Maps help.

7. To store z-coordinates with the layers, enable the Enable Z values toggle button.
8. Click Next.
9. Type a title for the new hosted feature layer.
10. If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign Category and select up to 20 categories to help people find your item. You can also use the Filter categories box to narrow the list of categories.
11. Choose the folder in which to store the new hosted feature layer.
12. Optionally, type tags and a summary for the new hosted feature layer.
13. Click Save to publish the new layer.

    The item details page of the new hosted feature layer appears.

Note:

If you used a template, editing and synchronization are enabled by default on the new hosted feature layer, making it ready for data collection. If you don't want other people to edit it immediately, disable editing by unchecking the Enable editing check box on the Settings tab of the hosted feature layer's item page.

If you used an existing feature layer, your new hosted feature layer has the same editing settings as the source feature layer.