GeoJSON Layers in AGOL
GeoJSON became a formal IETF standard this past August (see GeoJSON – RFC 7946). As important as OGC standards are to us geo-geeks, IETF standards are important to a much broader range of people. I think it is good that the folks behind GeoJSON went down the IETF standards route, it shows a maturity in thinking that “spatial isn’t special” when it comes to data and the web.
The reason I bring up GeoJSON becoming a formal standard is that ArcGIS Online still has yet to support adding GeoJSON files from either the web or file into AGOL maps.
When I look at Esri’s Open Vision and read that Esri “support industry and community standards, libraries in every major programming language, integration with common analysis and data management tools, and a growing repository of open-source software,” I wonder what I am missing. Esri states that “ArcGIS is Standards Compliant” on the Open Standards page, and yet directly loading GeoJSON files into AGOL maps isn’t supported. I know that KML, GeoRSS, and other OGC standards are supported, but more of the world cares about IETF standards than OGC standards.
I know one can upload a GeoJSON file into My Content and then publish it as a layer to load into AGOL maps, but this falls short for two reasons: 1) it is making a copy of the GeoJSON file and not dynamically referencing it like when KML or GeoRSS web layers are added, and 2) it is more convoluted than loading a CSV or shapefile directly into an AGOL map from one’s computer.