Client Facing Password for Shared Apps

[StephenLopez2]

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.
 

[RobGeldhof1]

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.

[MegHoole1]

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.

[AnninaHirschi_Wyss1]

see also: https://community.esri.com/ideas/12282 

[JeffTucker]

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!

[wbb]

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

[ShawnRamsey]

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. 

[DanAllen]

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.

[JasonSmolinski]

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

[ENV-AdminYukon_Government]

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

[Sean-MichaelRiesterer]

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?