idea Custom Icon Settings in Service Editor in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Custom Icon Settings in Service Editor

AmandaBishop2018 — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 16:29:12 GMT

When you publish a hosted feature layer to ArcGIS Online there should be a setting to choose a custom image for the feature services' icon inside the service editor. (see attached image for idea on placement, etc.)

The reason I am requesting this is because we have several hosted feature layers on ArcGIS Online that we share with the public. We built a gallery for data downloads and the hosted feature layers have custom images uploaded for the icon to make for a cleaner look in our gallery (see attached icon image for example). The only downside to the custom image for these hosted feature layers in that each time we update the hosted feature layers using a python script, the custom image is removed and is defaulted to a snapshot of the feature layer geometry.

Re: Custom Icon Settings in Service Editor

KoryKramer — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 14:44:46 GMT

Thank you for including a good description of why you actually need this. Since you're already running a script, have you looked into Managing your content | ArcGIS for Developers ? It describes how to update the item's properties, including the thumbnail with a custom image.

Seems like this would allow you to accomplish what you need to? Please try it and circle back here if it doesn't work.

Re: Custom Icon Settings in Service Editor

AmandaBishop2018 — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 14:55:35 GMT

Hello Kory,

Thank you for reaching out and providing that information. Are you all considering my idea?

Amanda

Re: Custom Icon Settings in Service Editor

KoryKramer — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 15:59:51 GMT

Well, it was logged just 2 days ago and I'm not a product engineer so I can't say whether it will be considered or not

At this point I've reviewed it and it is open for the community to vote.

From the review that I did on this, what I'm seeing is that if a custom image is used for the data's (and inherited by the layer) metadata (or even when I specify that the layer has it's own metadata), that is not carried over to the hosted feature service's thumbnail.

Pro is on the left; ArcGIS Online item is on the right:

What I'm thinking is that what is really needed is for the metadata's thumbnail to just carry over through the sharing process. The rest of the metadata does, so I'm not sure why the custom image doesn't (it could be something about metadata that I don't understand).

Anyway, if that were to work at some point in the future (set the custom thumbnail for the metadata and it always carries over to the hosted item's thumbnail) would that meet your requirement?

*Edit: I should note that I do see your screenshots are from ArcMap. I want to set the expectation that any new functionality developed in the Desktop space is going into ArcGIS Pro. A good example related to this thread are the metadata sharing improvements made in ArcGIS Pro 2.2. Introduction to sharing web layers—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop

Re: Custom Icon Settings in Service Editor - Status changed to: Already Offered

JonahLay — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 21:18:34 GMT

This functionality is already supported in ArcGIS Pro. You can create thumbnails on the layer data source, layer properties, or map properties.

When you share web layers from a selected layer, the thumbnail defined in the layer data source or layer property is used for the web layer portal item. Similarily, when you share a map as a web layer, the thumbnail in the map properties is used for the portal item.

See Web layer metadata for more info.