What is the best way to use Enterprise/Portal and AGOL in tandem?

[MDB_GIS]

We are in a weird place right now. We just got access to Portal. Previously we just had an enterprise geodatabase that contained all of our GIS data. If we wanted to have it edited by field workers, we would publish the layer to AGOL, and then when edits were complete, we would overwrite the enterprise geodatabase version with the new version. Now that we have Portal, I'm hoping we can simplify that. 

I have published our layers to Portal. But in order to have the users access them in ArcGIS Online field maps, I had to add the portal URL to AGOL as an item and store the required credentials in the item. It works, but it is a bit clunky to set up, especially if we want to add more layers for collection that way. 

I've heard a bit a bout AGOL/Portal collaborations, but I'm not sure that is ideal for our case either. I don't fully understand how it works. If I set up a collaboration between AGOL and Portal, does it support editing in both directions? If someone accessing the data in web map creates a feature, and then I create a separate new feature, will both of those changes be reflected instantly for moth me and the other user?  Or is it similar to replication in that edits must flow in one direction or another? 

I have never utilized Portal before this, so I apologize if the answer is obvious. I really don't have much of an understanding on the intended way of using Portal. 

[MarceloMarques]

This documentation will help answer your questions https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/key-concepts.htm

[jcarlson]

in order to have the users access them in ArcGIS Online field maps, I had to add the portal URL to AGOL

Fortunately, that's not actually the case! You can connect Field Maps to a Portal instance, there's no need to have the data on or connected to AGOL for that to work. Just go to your profile in Field Maps, then sign out. On the sign-in screen, you have the option of choose Enterprise instead of AGOL.

Collaborations are good for sharing data to another org, but they are a lot more trouble than their worth if you're in control of both orgs. I've seen some orgs use AGOL for their "public" resources, and Portal for their internal editing operations. Totally up to you, though.

At our org, we don't use AGOL at all, we just leverage our Portal for everything we need. It simplifies things having only one space to manage access, users, groups, etc.

[MDB_GIS]

Did not know that about field maps. When I signed out and switched to enterprise, it gave me two options for login. "Specify a new URL" and "Scan Code."

I tried to specify a new URL first. I'm assuming it means just the base URL of our portal organization? For us that is https://ocgis.oconee.ga.us/portal/. 

When I enter that and continue, however, the page just endlessly loads. Nothing actually happens. 

I would try the "Scan Code" option, but I'm not sure where to get that code from and I have found no answers in searching google, but I admit that I don't really know what I'm looking for. 

Edit: Well either it was a temporary glitch or typo. Third time was a charm and it work. I will definitely experiment with this. Thank you!

[Amarz]

You can create a QR of your portal by going to your portal home page, in Chrome options > Save and Share > Share > Create QR Code.

[IreneEgbulefu1]

I have a major concern about the collaboration between ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS.

Organizations with a fully functional ITS are bound to have their network security like Firewalls that block off access to their internal servers which includes the ArcGIS servers and Enterprise Geodatabase.

This is the case of my own organization, so in most cases, efforts to edit layers that are situated inside your Enterprise Database from external sites like ArcGIS Online will be hard because of the firewall.

But doing the same thing with the Portal for ArcGIS worked perfectly because that is within our intranet.

In your case, I will advise you make a choice to have your field maps published and edited on ArcGIS Online or on Portal for ArcGIS.

Unfortunately, most of these Esri Apps work perfectly with ArcGIS online as a lot of them are not even available on Portal for ArcGIS.

I am hoping that Esri will look more closely into the collaboration issue between ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS as it has also not worked for our organization. It has been a big issue here too