idea Client Facing Password for Shared Apps in ArcGIS Online Ideas

Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

StephenLopez2 — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 17:46:47 GMT

Framing the Issue
You are working at a commercial real estate company and your market built a Shortlist Story App for McDonald’s. You want to share the App with the VP of Real Estate at McDonald’s, but there is sensitive information he wants to keep private. McDonald’s does not have an ArcGIS Online subscription so you are unable to create a create a new Group and add them to that Group.

What am I recommending?
Ideally, there would be an option to create a password for clients to access a web map or web app without the client needing an ArcGIS Online account. On the client end, this app would look just like it does when you share publicly – no editing privileges, strictly viewing and interacting with data – but to access the map/app you must enter a password.

What is the current situation?
The current configuration requires a roundabout approach to accomplish this. The administrator must create a separate login for each client. But this causes several issues, one of them being that the client’s login allows them to access the entire organizations information, including usernames, contact information, and most problematic – other client maps/apps.

How would this benefit my company and my industry?
Having the ability to assign a password to a certain group that is client facing would be extremely valuable for ArcGIS Online users in the Commercial Real Estate sector. It would eliminate the need to create an account for the client and provide an easier way of sharing sensitive information, which keeps things simple. In the commercial real estate industry, simple is key, especially when introducing new tools.

How would it work?

Creation
Creating the web map or web app would not change.

Sharing
A new sharing option would need to be added to the current sharing options for ArcGIS Online web maps and web apps. This new option would allow for the creator to share to a specific group or specific client, but instead of adding ArcGIS Online users to that group, the creator would simply be able to assign a password to that group.

This would also allow for several markets or users in an organization to use the same password for a client.

Client End
The client would receive a link to the web map or web app and a password from the creator. When navigating to that link, the client would be prompted to enter the password they received from the creator. Upon entering the password, the client would be able to access the web map or web app.

The client would see exactly what the web maps and web apps look like when you use the current option of “Share with everyone” – no editing capabilities, strictly used for viewing and interacting with data. The only difference is this new shared option would require the client to enter a password to access the map/app.

Solving the Issue
Now you are able to share the Shortlist Story App with the VP of Real Estate at McDonald’s simply by sending him a link to the app and a McDonald’s specific password that grants access to the app.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

RobGeldhof1 — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 07:54:40 GMT

I greatly support this idea. I am the lead GIS developer of a consultancy firm, and instead of writing reports we make apps using Web Appbuilder in AGOL. If the client is opposed to making his app public, we give them access using a "guest account", but this is also shared with other clients, and this is not ideal.

Our local ESRI subsidiary advised to purchase extra AGOL-accounts but that is simply not a workable solution. User accounts are for users within our own orgnization, not for clients. We need a solution to let our clients login securely and this idea proposes a good solution.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

MegHoole1 — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 15:45:19 GMT

We are a government organization and greatly support this idea too. There are many cases where staff with AGO accounts need to be able to share solutions (AGO maps, apps, Survey123, Collector solutions) with people who do not have an AGO organizational account. The lack of a guest or anonymous login limits the success of using ArcGIS as a solution. This idea could significantly improve our ability to use AGO for more projects.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

AnninaHirschi_Wyss1 — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 09:01:00 GMT

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

JeffTucker — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 17:24:58 GMT

Checking back in on this suggestion to see if any progress has been made and realized that the system shows me as voting this idea down. LOL! I guess I hit the wrong button. Is there anyway to change my vote to a "yes". I agree that allowing for client facing passwords for Shared Apps is an excellent idea and one that many of us would love to see implemented. In fact this is a feature that I've been waiting a long time for and one of the major limitations of the ArcGIS Platform.

There are a couple of other companies out there built on top of the open source offerings that allow for this with very competitive and reasonable pricing options, but I would rather use the ArcGIS platform in its entirety to offer web maps to my clients.

Hopeful that this suggestion is implemented in the near future!

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

wbb — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 13:08:01 GMT

Big limitation for ArcGIS online. Making me use other services like Google MyMaps, Tableau, etc.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

ShawnRamsey — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 15:08:59 GMT

Has anyone figured out a solution for this? I don't care if it is a hacked together solution. This is what is holding us back from purchasing a subscription at the end of our trial.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

DanAllen — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 17:41:54 GMT

Google My Maps has a great solution to this problem. They allow you to share the custom map with "anyone who has the link". You can specify if they have the ability to view or edit. The only downside of the Google My Maps approach, is it gives the viewer the ability to download the source data as a KML.

If ArcGIS.com had a sharing option for "anyone with this link", with view or anonymous edit options that would be ideal for most of what I need.

Perfect example, say our President wants to see our confidential client list map, I can send him a map with an "anyone with this link" sharing option. As long as he does not send that link to anyone, the information will be private. He has no desire to setup an ArcGIS.com account, he just wants to view a private map without having to log in. So for this type of instance, I have abandoned ESRI, and started using Google My Maps. Its easier, faster, and free. I hope ESRI comes out with a solution to this issue soon.

Thanks.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

JasonSmolinski — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 22:11:46 GMT

This would be an awesome feature. Or, as others have said, "viewable with a link".

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

ENV-AdminYukon_Government — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 19:26:36 GMT

+1. We need this. For us "anyone with link" would be more useful than "view items inside {this folder} with password"

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

Sean-MichaelRiesterer — Fri, 31 May 2019 22:41:41 GMT

Any word on getting this working? It seems like a simple feature that plenty of other services have gotten right, Esri behind... What's the point of making a webmap/app that isn't view-able to any of the people that need to see it?

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

PaulSolsrud — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 22:24:00 GMT

The lack of this functionality is extremely frustrating. As many have said people simply will go without instead of paying for a subscription - so why not make the data available to those who need it - it creates a hurdle for paying customers, and would likely not even touch the bottom line. Setting up AGO accounts for everyone isn't practical, and management of that wouldn't be fun. Why not charge for the option of sharing with a link, or require users to be exposed to some ESRI advertising or something.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

JeanineEGS — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 08:19:10 GMT

Great idea for small and medium business trying to engage people in decision making that is spatially aware and commercially sensitive without them having to getting their customers to commit to a software license agreement, username, password, oragnisation managment, etc.

We're ready to move on from the encrypted pdf.

Show us the map already!

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

Anonymous User — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 20:42:52 GMT

I'd like Viewable with the Link option, sometimes passwords are cumbersome.

But if you just need a password... why not just do what I do? Lock the service with a token on Server. Done. When they try to open the viewer it will prompt for a login. Unlimited users. Unlimited different logins you can create. Takes only a few seconds. Been doing this for many years and it works perfectly.

A second pattern I developed is for if you want only a subset of people to be able to Edit. Use the Add Layer (in Custom Widgets here) and the standard Edit widget in WebApp Builder, and have a different Server token login for the editing layer(s) and when you click Add Layer it will prompt for login. The rest of the audience will be read-only for the viewer.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

PaulSolsrud — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 17:48:03 GMT

Hi Kevin,

Can you expand on "lock the service with a token on the server"? Is this using the app login with the JS API?

Thank you

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

Anonymous User — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 23:04:02 GMT

Paul, by this I mean secure services. You can simply create a username and password, and additionally create Roles that a user or users fall in to. These services can be consumed in any of the APIs including JS API, as well as apps developed in the SDKs, ArcMap and Pro, mobile apps, and WebApp Builder viewers and StoryMaps.

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/latest/administer/linux/securing-services-with-users-and-roles-specif

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

Anonymous User — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 15:15:30 GMT

The functionality of group based membership is already built into agol and portal. What if you made everything in the organization only available to members of the group? You could then give out a single username and password for that organization that the story map was created for. Once the storymap your looking to share was placed in the group only the members of the group can view the content. This allows you secure the rest of your organization by only sharing content with members of the specified group. Things could be made public you wanted to be public but things you wanted to be private would of course then be password protected. You could also customize roles in agol and portal that would allow for limited access and no editing privileges based on your needs.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

JeanineEGS — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 23:00:36 GMT

Hi Mark,

We already lock down user access to the limited contractor role and group you describe. The issue is more with ESRI’s definition of an Organization. It works fine in a public service environment with lots of licenses to allocate.

I cannot (esri legal terms and conditions)allocate a username license to anyone who does not directly work for my company.

In a business commercial environment it does not work to say the beautiful story map I made for my non-GIS client for their company board meeting annual presentation which will be viewed once or twice per year and is commercial in confidence will now need you to purchase and setup your own ESRI AGOL account with named user licenses for all your c-suite and board members, business, marketing and administration staff and manage it.so we can “collaborate “ in AGOL.

The oncost is prohibitive.

We need a lite viewer version.

The new Partner user type licenses may resolve this.

Sent from my iPhone

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

Anonymous User — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 23:06:06 GMT

Jeanine I agree that would help us as well. Along with this main topic, there is no way to collaborate between Organizations. Users from another Org can't even edit a web map.

allow users from two or more Orgs to edit a webmap That limitation has impacted attempts at cross agency projects.

Re: Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

DevonBurton3 — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 16:47:12 GMT

Mark, are you saying that we're allowed to pass out a single username & password to clients in order to view a protected / sensitive item, for the cost of a single viewer license? Because that's what it sounds like.