Share items

By default, content you add to the portal or publish to the portal is only accessible to you. Your maps, apps, and data are not available to others—for example, they do not appear in search results and aren't part of any group. Depending on your sharing privileges, you can share your items with others. You have several options for sharing your items:

• Your organization—To ensure that only members of your portal have access to an item, you can share it with just your organization. Members must provide valid portal credentials to access your item.
• Everyone (public)—Sharing with everyone makes your item public; anybody who has access to the portal website can find and use your item, and group owners can include it in their group content. If the item is a feature layer, anyone can export data from the layer when they access it from clients other than the portal. If your item is an editable feature layer, anyone with access to the layer item or the service URL can edit the data.

  Caution:

  An ArcGIS Server feature layer and its associated map image layer are dependent items because the two items reference a map service with feature access enabled. That means that when you share the map image layer item, the underlying map service and feature service are accessible to the same audience, even if you did not share the feature layer item with that audience. However, the reverse is not true; if you share the feature layer item, you must also share the map image layer to the same audience. If you do not, users cannot access the feature layer item.

• Groups to which you belong—If you are a member of a group, you can share your item with that group. Sharing with specific groups restricts access to a smaller, more focused set of people. Members must provide valid portal credentials and be a member of the group you specify to access your item.

  If your organization is configured to collaborate with other organizations, you can share certain types of items with groups configured for that purpose. See About distributed collaborations for more information on this method of sharing items.

• Your organization and a group—Share items with your organization and a group if you want only members of your organization to have access to them, but you also want to highlight the content for a specific group.
• Everyone and a group—If you want to share thematic content with a subset of users or organize your content into a collection of items, but you also want everyone to have access to your item, you can share an item with a group and with everyone. This is especially appropriate for focused group work in which all members benefit from seeing a list of specific content they can use for collaboration and exchange. For example, as a fire agency that produces burn maps, you want the public to find and view the maps, but you also want members in the fire agency group to use the maps as templates for creating their own local versions.

You can also share public items you don't own through links and email. If you are a group owner, you can share public items to your group. The following sections explain how to share your items.

Share items with your organization

Share an item with your organization if you want all members of your organization to have access to it, but you do not want anyone outside your organization (who has access to the organization site) to have access to the item.

1. Verify that you are signed in and have privileges to share content with your organization.
2. At the top of the site, click Content.
3. On the My content tab, check the box next to the title of the item or items you want to share and click Share.
4. In the Share window, select Organization and click Save.

Share items with a group

If you have the appropriate privileges, you can make your item available to a limited number of organization members by sharing it only with a group or groups to which you belong. When you share an item with a group, you allow other members of the group to access the item. You can share your items with groups you own or manage, as well as with groups to which you belong that allow member contributions. Group owners and managers can also share with their groups any items that were shared with the organization or the public.

For some groups, other members of the group can also update the items you share. When you share an item with a shared update group, you remain the owner of the item. Other group members can update the item, including changing the item details or updating the content. Allowing other members of a group to update your shared item is useful in many scenarios. For instance, this capability allows a team of shift workers to share responsibility for updating a critical web map—adding or removing layers, changing symbols, updating the map's description, and so on.

1. Verify that you are signed in and have privileges to share content with your organization.
2. At the top of the site, click Content.
3. On the My content tab, check the box next to the title of the item or items you want to share, and click Share.
4. In the Share window, click Edit group sharing.
5. In the Group sharing window, select the groups you want to share with, and click OK.

   Tip:

   To find the groups you want, you can search for them by name or use filters to refine the list of groups. For example, choose a Special Groups filter to narrow the list to shared update groups; administrative groups; or groups configured to showcase the organization's featured content through the gallery page, home page, and basemap gallery.

   Tip:

   If you are looking for a group you manage and don't see it listed here, click Groups at the top of the site and search for the group by name or use the filters to refine the list. When you find the group, click the group name and click Add items to group on the group page. Find and select the items you want to share with the group, and click Add items. Use the search, filters, and sort options to find items.

6. In the Share window, click Save.

   Tip:

   To undo the sharing of the items with all selected groups, click Revert in the Set group sharing section and click Save.

Share items with everyone

Sharing an item with everyone makes it available to anybody who has access to the portal website. Items shared with the portal or the public can also be added to any group by that group's owner or manager. To link or embed your map in a website, be sure it's shared with everyone.

Note:

If the hosted feature layer or hosted feature layer view is editable, you must enable public data collection on the layer before you can share it with everyone.

1. At the top of the site, click Content.
2. On the My content tab, check the box next to the title of the item or items you want to share, and click Share.
3. In the Share window, select Everyone (public) and click Save.

Share items with your organization or everyone, and a group

Share your items with your organization and a group if you want only members of your organization to have access to it, but you also want to highlight the content for a specific group. For example, a risk management analyst for an insurance company may need to share certain items with all members of their organization but cannot allow nonmembers to have access to them. The analyst may also want to share the items with a group composed of the other risk management analysts to make the items easier to find.

If you want to share thematic content with a subset of users or organize your content into a collection of items, but you also want everyone to have access to your item, you can share your item with a group and with everyone. For example, a fire agency that produces burn maps may want the public to find and view the maps but also want members in the fire agency group to use the maps as templates for creating their own local versions.

Share public items

You can share public items, whether you own them or not. For example, you can share a public map by sending an email with a link or embedding the item in a website or blog. You can also share basemaps, apps, and other items that have been shared with the public or the portal with groups you own.