Tile layers support fast visualization of large datasets using a collection of predrawn map images or tiles. Hosted tiles provide geographic context for operational layers. For example, you can include tiles of streets in your neighborhood to provide a visual reference for the street signs in a feature layer.
You can publish a tile layer to be hosted in ArcGIS Enterprise using any of the following methods:
- Publish from a map in ArcGIS Pro.
- Publish from a tile package in the portal.
- Publish from a service definition file in the portal.
Tip:
See Tile layers for information that can help you decide which method to use to publish a tile layer.
You can build a cache on the tiles automatically when publishing or build the cache manually after publishing. See Best practices for tile caches for more information.
To publish a hosted tile layer, you must be a member of one of the following in your organization:
- The default Publisher role
- A custom role that has privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers
When you publish from ArcGIS Pro or a tile package, a tile package file is added as an item in your content. Once you confirm that the tile layer functions, you can delete the tile layer package from the portal to save space, but only do so if you are certain that you no longer need the tile package.
Publish from a hosted feature layer
You can publish a hosted tile layer to your organization using an existing hosted feature layer that you own. This is a useful workflow to visualize large datasets because cached tiles draw more rapidly than dynamically rendered features.
Note:
- Edits to spatial attributes made to the hosted feature layer are not automatically reflected in the hosted tile layer. You must republish the hosted tile layer from the updated hosted feature layer.
- There are styling restrictions on the hosted feature layer that could prevent you from publishing a hosted tile layer.
- You cannot publish a hosted tile layer from a multipatch hosted feature layer.
There are two ways to publish a hosted tile layer from a hosted feature layer. Each method is described in the next two sections.
Publish from the feature layer's item page
Follow these steps to publish a hosted tile layer from the Overview tab of a hosted feature layer:
- Sign in to your organization and click Content > My content.
- Click the hosted feature layer you want to publish, click Publish and choose Tile layer from the drop-down menu.
- Choose how to display the tile layer.
- ArcGIS Online basemaps—When you choose this option, the tile layer uses the ArcGIS Online tiling scheme. This allows the tile layer to display with ArcGIS Online basemaps.
- Custom—Use this option to create a tile layer that uses the tiling schema of an existing tile layer or map image layer that you will use as a basemap. When you choose this option, you must provide the URL to the existing ArcGIS Server tiled map service. This allows the new tile layer to display properly in maps that use the tile layer or map image layer as a basemap.
- Click Next.
- Type a title for the hosted tile layer.
- Choose the folder where the hosted tile layer will be stored.
- Optionally, type tags and a summary description for the tile layer.
- Click Save.
The hosted tile layer is created and its item page appears.
Create a tile layer item
Use the New item option in My content to create a tile layer from a hosted feature layer as described below:
- Sign in to your organization and click Content > My content.
- Click New item > Tile layer > Raster tile layer > Browse for an existing feature layer and click Next.
- Choose the feature layer to publish as tiles and click Next.
- Choose how to display the tile layer.
- ArcGIS Online basemaps—When you choose this option, the tile layer uses the ArcGIS Online tiling scheme. This allows the tile layer to display with ArcGIS Online basemaps.
- Custom—Use this option to create a tile layer that uses the tiling schema of an existing tile layer or map image layer that you will use as a basemap. When you choose this option, you must provide the URL to the existing ArcGIS Server tiled map service. This allows the new tile layer to display properly in maps that use the tile layer or map image layer as a basemap.
- Click Next.
- Type a title for the hosted tile layer.
- Choose the folder where the hosted tile layer will be stored.
- Optionally, type tags and a summary description for the tile layer.
- Click Save.
The hosted tile layer is created and its item page appears.
Use the Build tiles option on the Settings tab of the tile layer's item page to keep tile content synchronized with the source feature layer. See Manage tile layers for more information.
Publish from ArcGIS Pro
You can publish a hosted tile layer from a map in ArcGIS Pro. See the ArcGIS Pro help for instructions.
Keep the following in mind when you publish a tile layer from ArcGIS Pro:
- If the layers in ArcGIS Pro have definition queries applied to them, ArcGIS applies the definition queries to the published hosted tile layer. However, all data is copied to ArcGIS Enterprise. If you want to publish a subset of the data, you must export the subset to another feature class and publish that.
- Web browsers cannot display some of the more complex cartographic symbols you may have originally used when you authored the map. Most symbol types are available, but in some cases, the symbols may be downgraded when you publish them.
- The minimum supported ArcGIS Pro release is 2.7.
- When you publish from ArcGIS Pro, a tile package file is added as an item in your content. Once you confirm that the tile layer functions, you can delete the tile layer package from the portal to save space, but only do so if you are certain that you no longer need the tile package.
Publish from a tile package
Use the Create Map Tile Package geoprocessing tool to create a tile package, add the package to your organization, and publish a tile layer.
Specify the output of this geoprocessing tool to be a .tpkx file.
- Open the ArcGIS Pro project that contains the data you want to package.
- Open and run the Create Map Tile Package geoprocessing tool.
- When creation of the tile package completes, sign in to your organization using an account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers.
- On the My content tab of the content page, click New item.
- Click Your device to add the tile package.
- Choose Add <tile package name> and create a hosted tile layer.
- Click Next.
- Provide a title.
- Choose a folder in My content where you want to save the item.
Alternatively, you can choose Create new folder from the menu and type a folder name to save the item in a new folder.
- If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find the item.
You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.
- 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.
- Click Save.
The tiles are unpacked and a hosted tile layer is created.
The tile package file and hosted tile layer are available to you in My content. You can share the file and tile layer.
Once you verify the tile layer is present and working, you can optionally delete the original tile package from the portal to save space, but only do so if you are certain that you no longer need the tile package.
Publish from a service definition file
Publishing tiles and building a cache can use a lot of server resources. If you need to publish a large number of tile layers, map authors can create service definition (.sd) files in ArcGIS Pro that contain the data, symbology, and other information needed to publish a tile layer to the portal. You can then use a script to upload and publish the service definition files to your organization after business hours.
Once you verify the tile layer is present and working, you can optionally delete the service definition file from the portal to save space, but only do so if you are certain that you no longer need the service definition file.
Load the service definition and publish
Once you obtain the service definition file from the author, you can either manually upload it to the portal and publish a tile layer or schedule a script to upload and publish the file.
Upload and publish in the portal
Sign in to the portal to add and publish the service definition file.
- Sign in to the portal as a member with privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers.
- On the My content tab of the content page, click New item.
- Choose Your device.
- Choose the service definition file.
- Choose Add <service definition file name> and create a hosted feature layer.
- Click Next.
- If your organization administrator configured content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find the item.
You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.
- 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.
- Click Save to add the service definition file and publish the tile layer.
The tile layer is published, and both the service definition and the tiles are added to My content.
- When the tile layer finishes publishing, click Start building tiles to create the tiles.
By default, only you have access to the service definition file and hosted tile layer. You can share the file and tile layer.
Run a script to upload and publish
To upload and publish a service definition file after hours, use the arcpy.UploadserviceDefinition and arcpy.managemapServerCacheTiles ArcPy functions in a script, and schedule the script to run when portal usage is lowest.
See the following help pages for more information: