Latest Contributions by BrianBaldwin

The following documentation pertains to ArcGIS Pro 3.3. Prior (or newer) versions may have options and settings that differ from the screenshots and workflow outlined. With single use and concurrent use licenses removed from education agreements, the method for licensing your university users is through ‘named users’. We have recommended setting up SAML or single-sign-on (SSO) for use with ArcGIS Online, to make the licensing process for users as seamless as possible. To make it even EASIER for users in lab machines, there is the ability to install ArcGIS Pro silently with a number of default settings that make sign-ins a breeze. If you already have ArcGIS Pro installed on lab machines and want to update the settings across many installations, this can be accomplished by updating Windows Registry settings. That workflow is outlined in the 2 nd part of this blog. Getting things ready in ArcGIS Online In ArcGIS Online, you have the ability to configure the login page for your users. We recommend only enabling the SAML login as shown here:   With this setting enabled, users can go to your ArcGIS Online URL (https://baldwinuniversity.maps.arcgis.com) and it will automatically attempt to sign them in via your universities SAML credentials. They won’t need to enter a URL or get confused by a ‘named user’ sign-in box. Users with built-in ‘named user’ credentials (non-SAML/SSO) can still log into your organization by navigating to the global ArcGIS Online login url at: https://www.arcgis.com and logging in. Also – as we will see in a minute, this will also streamline user access to ArcGIS Pro. Lastly – you can also set an ‘access notice’ that will be presented to users when they log into ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Pro (example included in the short GIF further down).   Here is a basic demonstration of what the experience will look like to users (as a note, I didn’t need to enter my SAML credentials because my most recent login was still cached):   To enable this experience for users by default when they launch ArcGIS Pro, you can pass these variables through with an install. ArcGIS Pro Silent Install ArcGIS Pro has the option to be installed ‘silently’ with a number of settings preconfigured by a power user. The full documentation can be found here: https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/arcgis-pro-installation-administration.htm Before running this script, ensure that you have the ArcGIS Pro installation files in a location where they can be accessed. Also, you will need to ensure that each machine has the Microsoft .Net 8.0 Runtime installed, or the installation will not proceed. From a windows command prompt, the following script can be run:       msiexec.exe /i "C:\ArcGISPro.msi" /qb ALLUSERS=1 ACCEPTEULA=YES SOFTWARE_CLASS=Professional AUTHORIZATION_TYPE=NAMED_USER LICENSE_URL="https://baldwinuniversity.maps.arcgis.com" LOCK_AUTH_SETTINGS=TRUE CHECKFORUPDATESATSTARTUP=0       So – what is the script doing? Here are the details for all of the options that we are setting with the installation. "C:\ArcGISPro.msi" This is the location of the ArcGIS Pro installer and all related files (after unpacking the ArcGIS Pro EXE) ALLUSERS=1 setting the install as a 'per machine' installation vs a per-user install ACCEPTEULA=YES simply accepting the Esri End User Agreement SOFTWARE_CLASS=Professional Sets the license level for ArcGIS Pro CHECKFORUPDATESATSTARTUP=0 disables automatic updates (set to 1 to enable them) AUTHORIZATION_TYPE=NAMED_USER will use a ‘named user’ for licensing vs. a single use or concurrent use license LICENSE_URL=”https://baldwinuniversity.maps.arcgis.com” will populate the the licensing URL LOCK_AUTH_SETTINGS=TRUE licensing settings will apply to all Pro users on a machine After some non-exhaustive testing, I found that the silent installation process took only about 5 minutes. After it completes, you are ready to go! Updating ArcGIS Pro licensing settings When you install ArcGIS Pro, Windows Registry settings get applied at the local user or local machine level. In order to update the licensing settings, you can update ArcGIS Pro via the UI, or via the Windows Registry. If you want to make changes via the ArcGIS Pro UI, you can navigate to Settings, and then Licensing, Configure your licensing options, change the License Type to ‘Named User License’, and then enter in the portal URL ex. ‘https://baldwinuniversity.maps.arcgis.com/’   If you need to make changes across dozens, or hundreds of machines, you can also make these changes via registry updates. Please know that updating registry settings CAN have a detrimental impact on your machine(s), please do not edit the Windows Registry unless you understand what updates you are making. Re-install ArcGIS Pro A reinstall of ArcGIS Pro will not overwrite the registry settings in USER profiles. It will apply changes at the LOCAL_MACHINE level and any new users will have the settings applied when they launch ArcGIS Pro. To ensure that users with existing profiles on the machine have the license settings applied, please read the ‘USERS updates’ section below to understand what keys to either delete or update. Update ArcGIS Pro license settings without reinstalling – via Windows Registry Editor For those that have already installed ArcGIS Pro in a lab and are using single use or concurrent use licensing, you have asked how you can update multiple machines to named user licensing. The following process will walk through how this can be accomplished via the Windows Registry Editor. When ArcGIS Pro is installed, it created registry keys at the LOCAL_MACHINE level and USER keys are generated when a user logs in and opens ArcGIS Pro. To ensure that NEW and OLD users will have the licensing changes applied, you will need to run registry key updates for the LOCAL_MACHINE and any USER profiles (or delete specific keys in the USER profiles). LOCAL_MACHINE updates In the Windows Registry Editor, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software, Esri, ArcGIS Pro, you should find 2 keys (Licensing and Settings) that look similar to the ones below. These screenshots are from installation that used a single use license with the silent install.     Under Licensing, the following changes need to be made: AUTHORIZATION_TYPE from SINGLE_USE to NAMED_USER SEAT_PREFERENCE - deleted value (Fixed) SOFTWARE_TYPE - deleted value (CLASSIC) Under Settings, the following changes need to be made: Add License_URL and set the value to your licensing portal, ex: https://baldwinuniversity.maps.arcgis.com After you make the changes, it should look like the following screenshots:     USERS updates So – you have now created the settings for any ‘new’ user that logs onto the machine via the LOCAL_MACHINE registry settings, but we also need to update the settings for any existing user profiles, or delete existing keys. For all existing user profiles, you can either delete the following keys (the entire 'folder' listed in bold): HKEY/Software/Esri/ArcGIS Online for Pro HKEY/Software/Esri/ArcGISPro Or, you can update values in those keys. PowerShell Script - delete all USERS The following is a PowerShell script that loops through all users, loads their HIVE, and then deletes the 2 ArcGIS registry keys. Modified by: Joe Youn & Mike Stoppay, Computer Operations for Research and Education, College of Science and Mathematics, Montclair State University Based on: https://www.pdq.com/blog/modifying-the-registry-users-powershell/     # Get Username, SID, and location of ntuser.dat for all users $ProfileList = gp 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\*' | Where-Object {$_.PSChildName -match $PatternSID} | Select @{name="SID";expression={$_.PSChildName}}, @{name="UserHive";expression={"$($_.ProfileImagePath)\ntuser.dat"}}, @{name="Username";expression={$_.ProfileImagePath -replace '^(.*[\\\/])', ''}} # Get all user SIDs found in HKEY_USERS (ntuder.dat files that are loaded) $LoadedHives = gci Registry::HKEY_USERS | ? {$_.PSChildname -match $PatternSID} | Select @{name="SID";expression={$_.PSChildName}} # Get all users that are not currently logged $UnloadedHives = Compare-Object $ProfileList.SID $LoadedHives.SID | Select @{name="SID";expression={$_.InputObject}}, UserHive, Username # Loop through each profile on the machine Foreach ($item in $ProfileList) { # Load User ntuser.dat if it's not already loaded IF ($item.SID -in $UnloadedHives.SID) { reg load HKU\$($Item.SID) $($Item.UserHive) | Out-Null } ##################################################################### # List users and find registry keys # uncomment Remove-Item lines to delete keys "{0}" -f $($item.Username) | Write-Output Get-Item -path registry::HKEY_USERS\$($Item.SID)\Software\ESRI\ArcGISPro -ErrorAction Ignore | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name #Remove-Item -path registry::HKEY_USERS\$($Item.SID)\Software\ESRI\ArcGISPro -Recurse -ErrorAction Ignore Get-Item -path "registry::HKEY_USERS\$($Item.SID)\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS Online for Pro" -ErrorAction Ignore | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name #Remove-Item -path "registry::HKEY_USERS\$($Item.SID)\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS Online for Pro" -Recurse -ErrorAction Ignore ##################################################################### # Unload ntuser.dat IF ($item.SID -in $UnloadedHives.SID) { ### Garbage collection and closing of ntuser.dat ### [gc]::Collect() reg unload HKU\$($Item.SID) | Out-Null } }     Manual Process To Update USERS The following description explains how one could do this manually, but this process would need to be scripted in order to update the large number of user profiles on each machine. The following screenshots show the CURRENT_USER keys for ‘Portals’, ‘SignIn’, and ‘Licensing’ after the user opened ArcGIS Pro in a single-use license deployment.       Under Portals, the following changes need to be made: Add a new string value with the name ‘URL1’ and set the value to ‘https://www.arcgis.com’ Update URL0 to match your licensing portal URL, ex. ‘https://baldwinuniversity.maps.arcgis.com’ Under SignIn, the following changes need to be made: Add a new string ‘AuthorizationPortal’ and enter the value of your licensing portal URL, ex. ‘https://baldwinuniversity.maps.arcgis.com’ Update the ‘HomeServerURIFile’ value to your licensing portal URL, ex. ‘https://baldwinuniversity.maps.arcgis.com’ Add a new DWord ‘ConfigLicense’ and keep the default value Under Licensing, the following changes need to be made: Update ‘SOFTWARE_TYPE’ to ArcGIS Pro ... View more

This is the 5th blog in a 6-part series highlighting the core concepts of a Modern GIS. To view the other blog posts – please visit this page: Modern GIS Core Concepts Over the past few years, Esri’s Education team have been discussing the technology shift and the need for GIS coursework to move from desktop-centric patterns to those that include the web. Desktop GIS is still an integral part of the story – but it is no longer the focus of the story. Desktop GIS is vital for data management, advanced analysis, and cartographic production – but many of those workflows are now part of a web-based context. Desktop tools can now seamlessly consume web-based services published by authoritative geospatial agencies and individuals across the globe. Desktop GIS can publish map services and layers to the cloud – to be consumed by web-based applications and tools, and desktop GIS can edit and manage web-based data and layers. Through this series, we are asking: So, what does a course look like that focuses on the fundamentals of GIS but adjusts to a more web-centric paradigm? In this blog, we will be looking at sharing and presenting information.   We can do better than PDFs and JPGs embedded into StoryMaps… My son and daughter are digital natives. They were born and raised in a world where technology pervades their every minute and it’s simply the norm. My wife and I describing the process of ‘going to a video store’ and ‘renting VHS tapes’ and ‘the store not having a copy of Jurassic Park so you just had to wait and hope that they would next time’… was completely foreign to them. They could not comprehend what we were talking about. On family movie nights today, we scroll through an endless selection of titles that are available via voice command. Things have changed a bit. In GIS… the technology changes have been just as dramatic with the shift to web-based GIS. Maps are now interactive, with detailed information that can be presented within pop-ups. They can be used on mobile devices across the world. They can present real-time information and they reflect changes as soon as an author hits ‘update’. This technological shift is a true transformation, but in many cases, the ways that we are still teaching about presenting spatial information, is almost as if all we had were print maps. While map layouts (exported as PDFs, JPEGs, etc.) are fantastic – they are really just updated paper maps. They are ‘static’ representations of a specific time and place. When we have students place static maps into a StoryMap… they are just creating ‘new’ PPT presentations. Are they digital? Of course! But we can do a lot better when it comes to teaching about and guiding students on HOW presenting spatial information has changed.   It’s all about interactivity When users build maps in a desktop GIS, they work with project files (MXD, APRX) that store layers, and each layer references a dataset that stores symbology information. When it comes time to share their work, users start constructing a map layout that is ‘set’ for a specific size/resolution for either screen or print. The size of the map necessitates that the user makes certain decisions regarding labels, symbology, layers, etc. All of these decisions are based on the map’s purpose and audience (hopefully!). When we consider a web-based map vs. print, the skills and requirements have some similarities… but there is a lot of new content to cover.     Looking at the diagram below, the biggest differentiator are the dynamic tools/options and HOW these options can be configured. Does a user need search functionality? Should the labels for the cities be removed as we zoom in closer? What additional features should appear on the map as we zoom in? What attribute data should be visible in the pop-ups? Unlike a map layout, there are multiple ‘tiers’ of a web application to consider and each of these can have dramatic consequences for the final application. Decisions made at the ‘layer’ tier can impact the speed and performance of the application. Those made at the map level can improve the clarity of data presented, etc. The diagram below provides a basic breakdown of the 3 basic ‘tiers’ of a web-based mapping application. It’s incredibly valuable for students to know the capabilities and purpose of each tier, as well as the relationships between them. The rest of the blog will focus on the specific skills and knowledge that students should grasp in each of these sections/tiers: Apps, Maps, and Layers. Apps: making the right choice In the ‘before times’, students just had to consider how big the sheet of paper was going to be. But one of the most basic questions of map/app design remains unchanged: who is this for and what is it for? What is the NEED for the web application? Who is going to be using it? The most important questions for students to ask when they are starting to make an application is: why does this need to exist? Who is going to be using it? The answers to those questions should drive all of the choices that are made when it comes to the choice of application. If this is for the general public, it probably needs a splash screen to introduce the application and an easy to use ‘search’ tool and legend. If this is for a scientific audience, you might need to include a table and the ability to download the source data. One of the most important aspects of this question that does not get asked enough is ‘HOW’ the application is intended to be used. Specifically, will end users be pulling this up on a mobile device? A few of the themes that can also be explored in the ‘Apps Tier’ include accessibility and UI/UX. Is the application screen-reader friendly? Is it navigable via a keyboard? How will users be interacting with the application and what does that experience ‘feel’ like?   Understand what application choices there are, what they do well, and what they ARE NOT well suited for. Not all application builders are created equal. The graphic below illustrates just a few of the ArcGIS web application frameworks. This graphic does not include everything, but it provides a good starting point for understanding where to start. First and foremost, users should understand what each of these tools were designed for and what options they include. While it might be important for students to start understanding how to build and design their own custom interfaces that interact with 3rd party visualization libraries (JavaScript API), other students will just need to quickly configure a map that provides pop-ups and search capability. All of the configurable application frameworks from Esri have pros and cons. Students should know the capabilities (included tools, widgets, etc.) of each framework, to ensure they make the right choice when designing an application. As was stated earlier… let the need drive the form.   Maps: make your web map shine Within the ArcGIS Online MapViewer or ArcGIS Pro, students can spend hours (or seconds) building out their maps. The biggest issue is when students build out maps for the web… as they would have for a print layout! As we will dive into, there are a lot of configuration options that students need to understand to ensure their map and data is presented well. Ensure that users don’t see the default pop-ups! If pop-ups aren’t disabled (which is sometimes the desired outcome), they will include all of the visible attributes. This includes OBJECTID, H09204, TEST_JOIN_SUM, and others. Here is my pop-up after just adding the layer and not modifying anything (notice the scroll bar… there are dozens of attributes): After editing the display names for the fields and modifying what fields are visible in the pop-up (removing fields with no data or that not pertinent for this use case) it presents a much cleaner/clearer set of information.   Control what users see as they zoom in and out Unlike a paper map, web mapping applications let you control specifically what layers and symbology users can see and interact with, depending on the zoom level. Users have the ability to create vastly different visualizations and experiences at each zoom level… and this can take a lot of time and consideration! In the example below, I was using a dataset for Philadelphia that shows permits issued, but the feature layer was duplicated 4X. After duplicating the layer, I modified the scale visibility and the symbology of each layer. While using any of these layers could have been the right choice for a print map, the web interface gives me the ability to provide a richer experience.    The same example is pertinent for labels. I can recall manually adjusting and rotating labels for a print layout for hours… which makes sense in that context! While the auto-placement tools work well for labels in a web map, there are still circumstances where users might want to see additional detail at different zoom levels. In the case of a wildfire map, rather than just labelling the ‘name’ of the fire, as users zoom in closer we could include the ‘% Contained’, ‘Acres Burned’, etc. Taking Complete Control: Arcade Arcade is Esri’s scripting language for pop-ups, rules, symbology, and a whole host of other use cases. The power of the language has grown significantly over the past few years. It allows users to build ‘on-the-fly’ joins and relates, to datasets that are not even in the map! The example below, illustrates a case where the application needed to present different information in different locales. Clinics in the US needed buttons/links, the international locations did not. As well, if information like a ‘phone number’ or ‘website’ was missing… these values were not meant to be included and shouldn’t take up space. All of this was accomplished with Arcade. This just scratches the surface of some of the capabilities of the language, but this is one place where students NEED exposure and experience. Arcade can also even serve as a basic introduction to ‘coding/scripting’ for students. Layers Last but not least, are the layers. These are the ‘core’ items that are added to a web map and they reference the underlying data. The feature layer, as an item in ArcGIS Online is NOT… the data. It simply stores configuration information related to the symbology, filters, pop-ups, etc. that will be applied to the data. For students that might go into enterprise GIS, where they will need to manage servers and publish data, understanding the distinction between these different ‘tiers’ of features is critical. The graphic below illustrates the different roles and capabilities of the Feature Layer, Feature Service, and Data Store. There can also be a great deal of overlap here with the web map. While a feature layer can contain the symbology and layer definitions, those can be over-ridden with the settings in a web map. For our purposes, some of the key items that students should focus on and ensure they understand, are filers applied at the layer level, as well as views.   In Summary It has been fantastic to see the ‘boom’ in web-based maps and applications. K-12 students are able to build maps related to climate change, history majors can quickly build maps of cities at specific eras, but to be honest, a lot of these maps suffer from poor design choices. While the labels or symbols for a map might have been great for print (or at 1 zoom level), as soon as a user starts interacting with the map, it underwhelms. Web-based applications are an entirely new domain and concept for GIS. Rather than thinking about basic map elements, students need to think through user interactions and user experiences (UI/UX). Thinking of the design and construction of a web mapping application as a more iterative process is also beneficial. Students can create an application, test it, and then make refinements at any of the various tiers (app, map, layers) to ensure their map meets its goals. While there will always be a place for print, we need to ensure that students are exposed to and familiar with the additional needs of web-based mapping applications. So, while it’s always fun to regale students about the ‘ways things were’, please don’t send them off to Blockbuster Video to look for copies of Jurassic Park. Lastly, please take a look through the following resources, which align with the skills and knowledge that were discussed throughout the blog.     Resources Esri Academy Make an impact with Modern Geo Apps MOOC: https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/663a68f536d6dc1f7d757853/make-an-impact-with-modern-geo-apps/ ArcGIS Arcade Essentials: https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/659d93666f506d1acaaafbfc/arcgis-arcade-essentials/ Building an App in ArcGIS Online to Expand Food Access: https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/6410c0a84d750615175c18d7/building-an-app-in-arcgis-online-to-expand-food-access/ Learn Create a map: https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/create-a-map/ Configure pop-ups: https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/configure-pop-ups/ Access attributes from another layer with ArcGIS Arcade: https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/access-attributes-from-another-layer-with-arcade/ Books/Texts Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users, third edition: https://www.esri.com/en-us/esri-press/browse/designing-better-maps-a-guide-for-gis-users-third-edition Top 20 Essential Skills for ArcGIS Online: https://www.esri.com/en-us/esri-press/browse/top-20-essential-skills-for-arcgis-online Documentation/Tutorials Pop-ups: Arcade essentials: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-online/mapping/pop-ups-arcade-essentials/ Which App Builder Do I Choose?: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/apps/announcements/which-app-builder-do-i-choose/ Using Arcade to Translate Pop-Ups for Use in the ArcGIS Instant Apps: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/instant-apps/mapping/using-arcade-to-translate-pop-ups-for-use-in-the-arcgis-instant-apps/ Other John Nelson Blogs: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/author/j_nelson/ Russell Roberts Blogs: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/author/russell-roberts/ ... 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With recent updates to ArcGIS Pro licensing (specifically, the removal of Single Use/Concurrent Use SU/CU licenses from education agreements), there have been questions related to accessing ArcGIS Pro in an ‘offline’ environment. There are a range of use cases and situations that we have heard from you and if we missed any, please add them into the comments, or just reach out to us.   Getting Started: allowing offline use of ArcGIS Pro First and foremost, offline licensing of ArcGIS Pro should be enabled from within the licensing ArcGIS Online organization. This setting can be found under ‘Licenses’ in ArcGIS Online and then ‘Manage ArcGIS Pro settings’:   This is currently a ‘global’ option. Administrators can enable/disable ArcGIS Pro offline licenses for the entire organization, but there is no way to enable this capability for a specific role, user, or group. A request for this capability has been logged with Esri’s product team.   “How long can I take ArcGIS Pro offline for?” If ArcGIS Pro is available for offline use – users will see the option available under Settings, Licensing, Authorize Pro to work offline:   When users ‘tick’ this box, they can take ArcGIS Pro offline for the duration of their license term. A future enhancement to ArcGIS Online will allow administrators to set the length of time that a license can be checked out for. In the screenshot below – I have taken ArcGIS Pro offline. We can see that my Advanced license expires on 6/13/2025 and the username ‘bbaldwin_EIA’ is listed as the authorized user.   So – my user now has a license checked out on his/her machine – and they are good to go!   “What if I check out a license on 6/10/2025…?” If the user above (with a license expiring on 6/13/2025) checks out a license on 6/10/2025 and heads into the field, the license of ArcGIS Pro will expire on 6/13/2025 and ArcGIS Pro will fail to open/work. All education license holders (for higher education) have term licenses that renew annually. At the renewal date, the licenses refresh and users can then check out a license for the next year. If license administrators know that they have a group of users that are heading into the field, it could be possible to extend the term date of the subscription, while working on renewal or initiate an ‘early renewal’, to issue licenses prior to the renewal . You also have an option to permanently change the timing of your license renewal (i.e. end of spring semester, versus Summer field work), so that field work is not impacted. Please reach out to your Account Manager to discuss possible options.      Air Gapped Environments – AKA: “We have a sensitive research lab that is ‘black-boxed’ and has no internet access” There could be isolated use cases where a named user license that is checked out from Esri’s central ArcGIS Online licensing servers is not feasible. For these use cases, we are working on an option to provide Single-Use ArcGIS Pro at a nominal cost. Please reach out to your Account Manager.   Things to Note If you take a license offline with ArcGIS Pro, it must be ‘returned’ to sign-in on another computer. This can (and has) caused headaches in situations where a student checks-out a license on the home computer and then tries to sign-in on a lab machine. If a license administrator ‘disables’ offline licenses in ArcGIS Online, but licenses are already checked out by users in ArcGIS Pro, those licenses will continue to function. If there are any other use cases or questions that are not covered here, please add comments to the blog or reach out directly to us at highered@esri.com.     ... View more

“Ahhh! Our storage is at 110%... what do we do!??!” We don’t hear this every day, but it’s definitely a recurring conversation with ArcGIS Online administrators. As ArcGIS Online use grows across campuses, many of our users have started to see their ‘feature storage’ nearing 100%. While there are a range of ways to delete content and manage users, the focus of this blog is to simply show you how you can use the ArcGIS Online report functionality to take action on items (and users) that are eating up the majority of your organizations storage. Note: There can be complex webs of item dependencies in ArcGIS Online. For example, 1 StoryMap might include dozens of web maps, that include hundreds of feature layers. By deleting one feature layer, it could create a cascading impact. All to say, ensure that you are aware of WHAT you are deleting, or create local backups of content that you plan on deleting. Yet, I can almost guarantee that there are also hundreds of junk, 'test', and 'exercise' feature layers and data that are eating up a lot of your storage that can be removed.   How does storage work? Every education organization comes equipped with a ‘Standard’ feature data store. The data store provides storage and compute resources for your organization. The standard tier comes equipped with 500GB of storage. If your ‘% storage used’ crosses the 100% threshold, your ArcGIS Online organization will not ‘shutdown’. Yet, your users will start to see performance degradation with certain tasks. We highly recommend that users work to stay below the 100% threshold. To assist you in managing your users and content, there are a range of tools and reports that can be used to answer that common question: ‘what/who is using up all of our storage?!?’. There is also the option to upgrade to a Premium Feature Data Store, which come in different size tiers. Be aware that each of these incur a monthly cost that is in addition to the cost of your institution agreement. So, let’s take a look at how you can use the tools in ArcGIS Online to better manage your organization’s storage.   ArcGIS Online Reports From the Overview page of ArcGIS Online, users can start interrogating their storage and usage. In the screenshot below, a user can quickly see how much storage is currently used.   By selecting ‘Feature Data Store’, users can also get a more detailed snapshot of resource usage by time of day, day of week.   Next – we are going to select to create an ‘item report’ – from the link in the details above.   Getting More Detail – building reports This selection brings up to the report page, which can also be navigated to by going to Organization, Status, and Reports.   From within this page – users have the ability to build out an array of different reports that are then saved into the ArcGIS Online organization. For our purposes, we want to generate an Item Report. After the report is generated, it can then be downloaded as a CSV and should look something like this (I removed a few unnecessary fields and formatted the CSV as a table).   The fields that we care the most about are: Feature Storage Size (listed in MB), View Counts (is this item being used/viewed at all?), Share Level (Who is this shared with? Who is potentially using it?), Owner (username of the items owner), and Title After sorting the data by the Feature Storage Size column, we already have some great information. For this exercise - we don't care about the 'File Storage' column, so make sure you are looking at the right one. 'File Storage' plays no impact of your Feature Data Store, because it stores data in a different way/location (imagery, GDBs, etc). File storage will consume your organizations credits, but at a much slower rate than feature storage. To learn more about WHAT the differences are between the storage types, please read this documentation: Understand credits. Right away, I can see that the 2 largest files in the organization (which are both nearly 1 GB in size) are duplicates of each other (same file name with the exception of ‘FINAL’). We can also see that the vast majority of the larger files in the organization are set to ‘private’, meaning that they aren’t being used by anyone but the owner. Also, looking at the view count for the files, I can see that some of them have views at ‘0’ and many are <10. Lastly, the owner information is listed along with the items. If you are unfamiliar with the username, you can use this to search across your members in ArcGIS Online and then drill down into the members settings to find their e-mail address.   In most instances, I have found that organizations have a few offending items that are consuming the majority of storage space. Running these reports on a quarterly basis, is a great way to track content and check to see what might be eating up all of your organization’s storage. All of this could be automated as well, using the ArcGIS Python API.   Close If you are still struggling with storage, there are a few other options worth considering: ArcGIS Enterprise All institution agreements include ArcGIS Enterprise in the agreement. By standing up a dedicated environment for specific types of projects or features, ArcGIS Enterprise could serve as a dedicated environment for long standing data. Premium Feature Data Store As mentioned earlier in the blog, there is the option to upgrade your storage from Standard to Premium. This upgrade features more storage and processing power dedicated to your ArcGIS Online environment. Dedicated ArcGIS Online organization for research/projects Most tiers of the education agreements include the ability to stand up additional ArcGIS Online organizations. Requesting an organization for your specific users, research centers, etc. that are the using the majority of your ‘general’ university ArcGIS Online organization storage is a potential option to alleviate usage. Lastly, there is currently no way to limit storage on a per user basis. So, even though you can assign credit budgets to users, these limits do not apply to the storage that users could be consuming. As always, if you have any questions or need anything – please reach out below or directly to us! ... View more

The last release of ArcGIS Online included the ability to publish 'Custom Web Tools' that could be used in the MapViewer analysis pane. What this means, is that users can utilize the ArcPY and ArcGIS API for Python libraries from within MapViewer. The aspect of this that I think is pretty awesome - is that you don't need to utilize this functionality with any map content... it could be used to grant administraive tasks/duties to users within a simple to use UI. Recently - I have heard from a number of users that are looking for easier ways to manage the deletion of users. There have been some fantastic enhancements in the UI that allow for this, but many users want some more fine-grained control over 'how' to select users for removal. So... let's create a Custom Web Tool! In the MapViewer - I now have a basic tool that let's me query for the 'Number of Days' since users have logged in, query for a specific user name, and also transfer their content over to someone else.   Watch a full video of the workflow... or skip ahead!   Let's Delete Some Users! The initial script for this Web Tool came from this Esri Support document: https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/batch-remove-inactive-users-in-portal-for-arcgis-using--000016616 If you would like to start with my Notebook - you can find that here as well: https://arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=287ebf9a7724405884b83d1fc96f04cb  Be aware... this script WILL delete users that match the query! So please, test cautiously! This was part of the reason that I entered in a 'hard coded' user name to test with. Obviously, you can delete multiple users at a time, but make sure you understand what you are querying for! Let's get started... After I imported the script into the ArcGIS Notebook, I then created parameters:   I then made sure to update my script with the variable values for the parameters that were created:   Lastly - I selected 'Publish' to create a web tool from the notebook. This will now appear as an item in My Content and I can adjust the sharing just as I would any other item. There are a wide-range of other ways that you can query for users as well. Please refer to the full ArcGIS API for Python documentation to see what other values you could use for your script: https://developers.arcgis.com/python/api-reference/arcgis.gis.toc.html#user  Over to MapViewer! Within MapViewer - it's as simple as going to the Analysis pane, and then selecting the new 'Browse custom web tools' option:   The UI is then populated with the parameters and values from your custom web tool - and you are ready to run it!   Close I can't wait to see some of the amazing web tools that people end up building out. The ability to leverage the ArcPy and ArcGIS Python API libraries within MapViewer opens up a HUGE amount of possibilities for both rich analysis and... ArcGIS Online administrative tasks. If you make something awesome, don't forget to share it and please let me know about it here!     ... View more