unable to see web maps under "My Content" when setting the web map in appstudio for an app

[JonathanClark2]

I am unable to see any of the web maps I have created in arcgis.com under my trial account when trying to set the map for my app from appstudio unless I make them public.  Nothing comes up under "My Content" or "My Organization" in AppStudio.  I can see my web maps in arcgis.com under My Content and I have even shared to my organization, but still nothing shows up on the appstudio side unless I go back and make them public.

Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?  Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks,

Jonathan Clark

[HannahFerrier]

Jonathan,

Relax - it's not you.

The templates are designed to only accept public webmaps as an input.

You will need to make sure that your data is public before you can use it with the AppStudio Templates.

Please see the requirements for each of the templates here:

Configure Map Viewer—AppStudio for ArcGIS Desktop Edition (Beta) | ArcGIS

Configure Map Tour—AppStudio for ArcGIS Desktop Edition (Beta) | ArcGIS

Configure Quick Report—AppStudio for ArcGIS Desktop Edition (Beta) | ArcGIS

Thanks,

Hannah

[JonathanClark2]

Hi:

Okay, well that explains it.  🙂  Is this just a temporary limitation?

I ask because if these types of security limitations are a permanent solution, you've just killed the usability of this product completely for about 90% of all ESRI corporate customers.  We cannot share our data with the public.

We would love to use the app templates, but this is a show stopper.

Thanks,

Jonathan Clark

Leader - Statoil EXP NA GIS Support

[HannahFerrier]

Thanks Jonathan,

The templates have been designed to make it easier for organizations to have a presence in the Apple and Google app stores. This is why they only work with public data - they are for building public facing apps.

If you have other requirements for the templates - please raise them as issues with Technical Support. This will help drive the development of future templates.

Thanks,

Hannah

[NachoMoreno]

I totally agree with Jonathan, as usual ESRI products are not focused on corporate clients but in public government and agencies, and everything needs to be public.

Also a bit dissapointed with the fact that maps need to be public.

[MarikaVertzonis · Accepted solution]

Designing the templates to use public web maps only, was a deliberate choice to lower the bar of entry for people building apps.

There is no technical reason why you can not use a non public app - but you will need to modify the app, by adding an ability to sign in. What kind of sign in do you need? Well that depends on your system. Are they secured services? Is it a webmap that needs an organization login? Are you using portal? Do you need individuals to sign in? Do you want them to sign in once and never again?

There are a lot of combinations to support and you will see that we have chosen to support some of them in the Quick Report template to help demonstrate signing in. Your request to be able to see maps in 'my content' does seem quite straight forward (they are your webmaps) but the complexity arises when it comes to sharing these with others in the form of an app.

Take a look at the User Credentials sample (Search > Groups > Sample Apps) to see how to access secured services. We can/will make other samples available to demonstrate other methods of sign in.

[NachoMoreno]

Many thanks for your answer Marika Vertzonis will have a look to the Users credentials sample.

My concern as a private company (not only with the app builder) working with confidential client's data is that ESRI online products sharing policy is really not user friendly, since the moment that you make a layer or map public and anyone can search for that layers makes things really complicated for working with clients data. I don't want to add my client to my organization as an user, they are not users they just want to see the map or the map application.

ALL the online tools nowadays have the option to share content with a link without making that link searchable and the data public. From a Box account, to infogrpahics to other online map tools, all of them offer that option.

I've raised this concern many times and I know other companies and colleagues have done the same, not very successfully so far. I really wish that ESRI will take this approach at some point as this will mean that I can easily offer ESRI maps and products to my clients as an standard product.

Regards,

Nacho

[MarikaVertzonis]

I agree with your reasoning and see that your request is really a system wide one. Without the sharing-via-a-link notion being implemented at the root level (ie: ArcGIS Online) we (the app makers - that includes both you and esri app makers) need to implement complex conditions in every app we build.

Right now the AppStudio answer to this is 'you choose which security model you need for your app and only implement that one'. Were still in beta getting ready for our first release, over time there will be many more templates and samples to cover all the cases.

[JonathanClark2]

Hi:

I am by no means an expert in this technology, so please excuse my question if it is silly.  🙂

At the conference in the Appstudio demo I talked to an ESRI staff member and he told me that we could build our own branded viewer to replace the appstudio viewer.  We could control who could download this app and then we could make our web map app available only inside it, thus bypassing having to put it on a "store" for users to download.  Wouldn't this provide a level of security in that only our employees with the viewer app could see our individual apps inside?  If so, then why can't the templates work this way?

Thanks,

Jonathan Clark

[MarikaVertzonis]

Yes indeed you can build your own branded 'player' app to replace the AppStudio one, but you would still need to customize the 'map viewer' app to accept / read the credentials that were entered in your own branded 'player' app (just the same as if you used AppStudio Player).

Again - all technically doable, and yes esri could release a template that supports secured services out of the box. But the immediate answer is that you can right now, customize the map viewer app by adding sign dialog that suits your own need.