Editing shapefile attributes in ArcGIS Explorer Online

Question

I'm able to import a zipped shapefile into my Explorer Online map and I'm able to edit the attributes.  However, is there a way to: 1) identify which attributes/records were edited, if some else is doing the editing; and 2) can I export this data out of Explorer Online so I can update my original data with the edited version in ArcView Desktop?

Anonymous User · Answer

Hi Jeff,

With a subscription to ArcGIS Online, you can publish a service from your shapefile that will be hosted by ArcGIS Online. Using this service you can do editor tracking, as well as control editors abilities to change attributes, delete features, or only be able to create new content. If you needed to extract this information into a shapefile, you can also do this from the hosted Feature Service. This is new functionality that described in the what's new section of the ArcGIS.com Help.

Subscriptions are currently in Beta, and if you'd like to test this functionality please contact your Esri Account Manager.

Hope that helps,
Andrew

MikeRudden · Answer

Hi,

I'm afraid the answer to both your questions is No.

Mike

My original comment is not strictly correct. A colleague point out that this will be possible using ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 which is currently in Beta. He told me that:
ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop includes the ability to open a web map and get the feature data for all note and feature layers it contains. So for example, uploaded shapefile layers in web maps automatically get converted to file geodatabase feature classes.

Mike

MikeRudden · Answer

Hi,

I'm afraid the answer to both your questions is No.

As is often the case the solution to 1. is just around the corner - ArcGIS Server 10.1 will support editing history for feature services. And becasue the data is served through a feature service it would be stored in an enterprise geodatabase meaning that the data could be exported into any supported format using ArcGIS Desktop.

Mike