Share apps

Web apps are an effective way to share information in your map or scene or to display items and related information about a shared group. A web app is a customized user interface that focuses your map or scene for a specific purpose, message, and audience. For example, if you want to showcase your map, your app only needs a few basic navigation tools. If your map will be used to collect feedback from the public, it will need specialized data editing tools and instructions for how to enter the information.

For apps created from maps or scenes, any changes the author makes to the map or scene—including such properties as its extent, layers, or description—are reflected in the app. If a map or scene that was available to everyone in the organization is made private (or deleted), the map or scene no longer appears in the app.

For apps created from groups, any changes made to the group or items in the group are reflected in the app. If an item that was public or shared with the group is made private or is deleted, the item no longer appears in the app.

Share apps publicly that contain subscriber content

Sharing apps publicly helps extend the reach of your message. If the map used by an app contains content from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, the app may require credentials to access the content. Most of the ArcGIS Living Atlas content is free and can be viewed by anyone. However, a subset of layers, tools, and services known as subscriber content requires an ArcGIS Online organizational account to access. Subscriber content includes Landsat 8 imagery and landscape analysis layers. Premium content is a type of subscriber content that also consumes credits. Premium content includes demographic maps and tools for geocoding and analytics.

To share an app publicly that contains subscriber content, you can configure the app to allow access to the content through an ArcGIS Online organizational subscription so that app users aren't prompted to sign in to access those layers in your app. You can track usage and disable sharing at any time by signing in to the ArcGIS Online organization. Configuring access to subscriber content in the app is an optional setting in some of the builders, including ArcGIS Configurable Apps, ArcGIS Web AppBuilder, and ArcGIS Dashboards. To determine how a specific app builder handles subscriber content, refer to the respective app documentation.

Note:

Any credits that users consume by accessing premium content in the app will be charged to your ArcGIS Online account. If you do not want to consume credits on behalf of app users, do not enable any of the premium layers to be accessible through your subscription. This way, users will be required to provide their own ArcGIS Online credentials for consuming credits. However, keep in mind that if you do this, you will limit who can access the app to people who have an ArcGIS Online organizational account with privileges to access premium content and available credits. For public apps, you should either remove all premium content from the app or you should configure the app to have your ArcGIS Online account incur the credit costs.

Set subscriber content options in ArcGIS Configurable Apps

When you create an app using ArcGIS Configurable Apps, you can authorize its subscriber content in the configuration pane by confirming the layers to allow for public use.

1. Configure the Subscriber Content for the web app.

   The Subscriber Content setting appears in the configuration pane with a list of the ArcGIS Online subscriber and premium content in the app. Premium content is marked with an icon and indicates layers that consume ArcGIS Online credits.

   • When you first create an app using a Configurable Apps template, the configuration page automatically opens.
   • If you already created the app, click Configure App from the item page to open the configuration page.
2. Check all the layers to allow full access to the app through an ArcGIS Online subscription, and save your changes.

   Tip:

   If you leave some layers unchecked, the app will prompt the user for ArcGIS Online credentials, which isn't a good option for a public app. Instead, consider removing subscriber or premium layers from the map.

3. Share the app with everyone (public).
4. To test that the setting is working correctly, sign out of your organization and open the app.

   You should not be prompted to sign in.

5. To disable allowing access to ArcGIS Online subscriber content through your ArcGIS Online account once you have enabled it, open the item page for the app, click Configure App, uncheck the layers in the Subscriber Content section, and save your changes.