Latest Contributions by EricChiasson

The ArcGIS REST API’s Item Data allows to access the data component of an item, such as download a layer package or get the web map’s JSON.  You can even use this functionality to host images to support your story map although it might get tedious to set up if the number of images is very large. Share the Item with Everyone (Public) In ArcGIS Online, go to the item’s detail content page Click Share, and share item with Everyone (Public) Click OK Access the Data via the Sharing REST end-point In a browser, type URL with the following structure: http://{Organization Name}.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/{Content ID}/data ; or http://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/{Content ID}/data Example: http://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/2f5a28f82f4d41ec8dbe6cf96375a970/data Zip it! Optionally, you can have downloadable items, such as layer packages and map packages, zip by adding the URL parameters f=zip.  For example: http://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8adf6db6ca5f4140b73b3a2e053753e6/data?f=zip  This will change the file extension *.lpk, or *.mpk to *.zip. Note Please note that item data access, via ArcGIS REST API, is not  available for free ArcGIS Online account (i.e. account that are not part of an organization). ... View more

Since ArcGIS for Server 10.1, the deployment include the optional component of the ArcGIS Web Adapter.  Although the Deployment scenarios section in the help documentation does a good job of describing when to use the web adapter, this cheat sheet can assist GIS administrators and IT professionals to decide if the ArcGIS Web Adapter is required for their GIS architecture when installing ArcGIS for Server 10.1 and above. A PDF is also available as an attachment for your convenience. ... View more

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to work with many organizations in implementing ArcGIS Online.  The following is a list of best practices and recommendations I've accumulated over time.   Thumbnail Provide a thumbnail other than the auto-generated one.  Here are a few alternatives: Zoom-in to a representative area of the map and capture a screen grab; or Find a representative picture of the content   For best results, the image should be 200 pixels wide by 133 pixels high. Document the Item Title: State what it is.  Often time, this will simply be the name of the layer, or association of layers. Summary: A one line description of the content Description: A detailed description of the content including: Source: Where the data was accessed and who is responsible for it Purpose: Why the data was created Contact Information: Who to contact if additional information is required Credits: The organization responsible for the content Tags: Related keywords to support content discovery (see Mastering the Tags for more details)  Mastering the Tags Tags are keywords that support the content discovery in ArcGIS Online. As such they need to be intuitive and comprehensive.  Before making a list of tags, here are a few things to consider about ArcGIS Online searching capabilities: ArcGIS Online will search the title, summary, description, credits and tags for relevant content - Not just the tags ArcGIS Online search is NOT case sensitive ArcGIS Online search will ignore “s” at the end of a word. Both in the tags and search word. ArcGIS Online search will identify individual word in a multi-word tag For example, searching for “area” will return content with the tag “Areas of Interest”.  As such, it is not necessary to repeat every words of the description, provide upper and lower case in the tags, provide variation of words with and without “s”, or repeat word already present in a multi-word tag. Organizational Tags It is recommended to have a list of standard tags at the organizational level, potentially inside a content management document.  Those can include: Organization appellation Geographic Region Business Domain or Field of Study Acronyms and Abbreviations Content Specific Tags Those are tags specific to the item description, such as: Associated project or study Synonyms of the content Acronyms and Abbreviations Access and Use Constraints To communicate the intended audience, the following color coded schema can be used: For Internal Use Only: Do NOT share or distribute outside the organization For Limited Distribution: Do NOT share or distribute outside of [Group(s)] For Public Use Legal Disclaimer If available to the public, the access and use constraints should include a legal disclaimer, similar to this one: The [Organization] provides the data for use "as is." The areas depicted by this map/data are approximate, and are not accurate to surveying or engineering standards.  The maps/data shown here are for illustration purposes only and are not suitable for site-specific decision making.  Information found here should not be used for making financial or any other commitments. The [Organization] provides this information with the understanding that it is not guaranteed to be accurate, correct or complete and conclusions drawn from such information are the responsibility of the user.  While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy, correctness and timeliness of materials presented, the [Organization] assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, even if the [Organization] is advised of the possibility of such damage. Please check with your respective legal advisor for a more pertinent disclaimer. Creative Commons License An additional option for describing the content's access and use constraints and simplifying use by others is to use a predefined license from Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that standardizes ways to grant copyright permissions to creative work. Choose the Creative Commons license that matches the rights to reserve for the content and reference the license type.  Below are pre-formatted text and image to ease copy-paste into the 'access and use constraints' section. Attribution This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. View License Deed | View Legal Code Attribution-ShareAlike This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects. View License Deed | View Legal Code Attribution-NoDerivs This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. View License Deed | View Legal Code Attribution-NonCommercial This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. View License Deed | View Legal Code Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. View License Deed | View Legal Code Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. View License Deed | View Legal Code Public Content Owner Content share with the public should be owned by an “authoritative” user identifier (e.g. esri, usgs, etc.) with a complete user profile, instead of using an individual users (e.g. john.doe).  This bring a sense of legitimacy to the provided content. Below is an example of content published by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which use "AgCanada" for their user identifier. ... View more

Esri should partner with If This Then That (IFTTT.com) and create its own channel (https://ifttt.com/platform). By creating a channel on IFTTT users could monitor ArcGIS services, every 15 minutes, and get notified when a service is not responding (e.g. email, sms, tweet, etc.). ... View more