HUB Sites restricted to specific users

NicholasBarger

This is a basic idea. I understand that HUB sites are really designed to be completely transparent. However, the reality of the world we live and work in is that there are data sets that cannot be public but still need to be shared with an intended audience. ESRI should allow users to create Hub sites that allow users to share proprietary data among a selected group of people without sharing the information publicly.

Point of clarification. I think this should be done through a service and not force the user to upload the data to AGOL as a HOSTED Feature Layer.

Anonymous User · ‎10-07-2019

Hello! Hub sites already allow you to do this. Simply create a site and share private content to it and never take the site public. You can then share the "Hub Site Application" item to the target list of users using a group in ArcGIS Online.

NicholasBarger · ‎02-07-2020

Ok... so Graham. I'm open to whatever ideas you have to make this work. I've been on the phone with ESRI Tech Support for 4+ hours over several days and the ONLY way that I can have other people of a private group download a feature layer coming from a service is to set the Sharing to Everyone (Public). Regardless if this is in a Private Group. The instant I do that we are able to search for and find the layer.

What I want to do is use a HUB site as a repository for select individuals to go and download the data. I feel like I've kicked this can down the Tech Support Road several times and I keep coming back to the same place.... it can't be done unless the data is publicly available.

I really want this to work... It would simplify some of the things we do.

Again, any detailed instructions or ideas that you have would be greatly appreciated.

Anonymous User · ‎02-07-2020

Hub's more robust download system that can handle a wide variety of options only functions on public data because the download system itself is cacheing the data.

However - you can still have downloads on private data. Without the robust public download system (which we do have on our roadmap to integrate more deeply into ArcGIS Online), the platform offers data downloads in the following circumstances (this list isn't 100% exhaustive):

- Hosted feature services with extract enabled AND a download has been created by a creator user. Once a download has been created it is now an item and can be shared with the source item. If both are shared to another user, then they'll see it on the download page. This downloaded item is the "private cache" of the download. You may wish to script its creation
- metadata on the item with an additional distribution of type "download" - this is useful if you want to host a specific file and have it appear in the download menu

a few helpful screenshots

edit: ignore what i said about the creator having to make the download first....that's only applicable in another case. any user with creation power can extract to any format so another user would see these download options

NicholasBarger · ‎02-07-2020

Ok... I still have a case open with them. I'll see what they have to say. The main difference is your referencing a Hosted Feature Service (i.e. data loaded directly into AGOL) vs a Feature Service from a rest end point.

NicholasBarger · ‎02-10-2020

ESRI Tech Support sent me this....Server configuration details—ArcGIS Hub | Documentation

So I tested some things. The only way that I was able to activate the Download functionality was change the permission of the Feature Layer to Everyone. The problem is... even though the group I have it added to is restricted to certain users that layer was discover-able. What I was asking for in the ideas forum here was to be able to create a HUB site for proprietary / sensitive data.

I feel like I'm missing something here. You're still telling me it can happen...but Tech Support seems to be telling me the opposite.

NicholasBarger · ‎02-10-2020

The big difference I see between what you suggested and what I'm suggesting is that you mentioned a Hosted Feature Service... where I was wanting to use a Feature Service from my rest end point.

NicholasBarger · ‎02-10-2020

So the support worlds aligned. I picked up on something you wrote in this response... It appears that what I want to do can ONLY be done by making the layer a HOSTED Feature Layer.

I'll go back to the idea and amend it to reference a Feature Layer coming from a service.