A new "beta" management user experience in ArcGIS Hub
Summary of changes
Today we released a significant update to the ArcGIS Hub application's management user experience which impacts layout editing, content management, and more. This update is considered a "beta" and requires ArcGIS Online organization members to individually "opt-in" to explore the functionality. Some important details:
- Authenticated users will be prompted to opt-in to the "beta" at the Hub Overview and Layout Editor, you can dismiss this message and optionally choose to not see it again.
- Authenticated users can opt-in/-out of the "beta" any time via their profile's "Settings" page within the ArcGIS Hub application (you cannot opt-in/-out from within the ArcGIS Online home application).
- Opting into the "beta" has no impact to how users experience your content on the sites you have created, this is purely an update to the management user experience.
- We expect the "beta" period to close around the Fall 2024 ArcGIS Online release later this year.
Not all functionality you normally have access to can be performed while opted into the "beta"; as an example, non-Premium users won't be able to (yet) create new content directly on sites they manage. Please open the "About workspaces" modal where you opted in to learn more.
What are workspaces?
You've likely heard the term "workspaces" used quite a bit recently to describe a modern and collaborative user experience. For ArcGIS Hub, this is something we first conceived of as a concept of in 2019 and began developing mid-2023. We had a few goals in this effort:
- Systematically resolve many of the known navigational usability issues within our existing management user experience.
- Establish a new technical foundation (react, web components, calcite components, etc.) that would allow us to more quickly enable in-app collaboration and customizations between editors.
- Focus the user experience around what the user can do and not a hypothetical user who has all the right privileges to do everything.
Over the next 6-12 months we expect workspaces to become a central component where you manage and communicate in-app with collaborators around sites, content, and initiatives. Today, the "beta" is a humble beginning which offers close the new management user experience on items and groups only. This means you won't see a lot of differences at "Hub Overview".
What can I do in the "beta"?
You will be able to manage sites, content, and groups via workspaces. Please select "About workspaces" on your profile's Settings page within the ArcGIS Hub application to learn more about functionality not yet available within the "beta" user experience. Over the next few months we will be deploying many planned enhancements to this opt-in user experience, including:
- Re-launch of Hub Initiatives as a stand-alone experience from a site, more on this in the next 2 weeks.
- Release the next generation of Hub Events, one not powered by a feature service, with more customization, and which doesn't require a group to register for.
- A lighter weight layout editor, focused on layout editing only, as we move site/page settings and other configuration controls into the workspace for opted in users.
- Streamline content create and add workflows to make it more ergonomic to understand where your content can go.
As an opt-in "beta" management user experience you should expect things to evolve week-by-week, this includes running into low impact bugs and having things shifted around on you as we make updates from user feedback.
When does the "beta" end?
This is the first of a multi-phase release we expect to complete this year. After this release our goals are to reach feature parity within the new management user experience, address as many items of feedback as possible from our users, and then announce an end to the beta period. Tentatively, we expect the beta period will likely end around the fall Online release of this year.
Once this new functionality is considered "generally available" later this year, all users will be automatically opted into the new management user experience. At this point users can still opt-out and use the deprecated old management user experience. A few weeks after this point the old management user experience will be retired and inaccessible to all users.
Providing feedback
If you have ideas for this new management user experience, then we are excited to hear them. Please voice them to your account managers and in the Ideas board in Esri Community. You are also welcome to sign-up for our "User Lab" to become more directly involved in previewing ideas and functionality.
Support issues
As mentioned earlier, "beta" releases sometimes surface low impact bugs or a subset of the functionality you may expect. Over time we would expect all of these items to be resolved, particularly before the "beta" period ends, during the "beta" period do not log support (BUG/ENH) cases with Esri Support Services related to the opt-in "beta". Instead, voice them here in Esri Community, directly to ask-hub@esri.com, or via your Esri representatives.