How do I lock a share setting so it can't be changed by others in the Organization?

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01-23-2017 11:31 AM
MelanieWilliams1
New Contributor III

There are a few commonly used data layers in my Organization that are publicly available.  Many of them are on high profile maps that are public and used often.  Occasionally, a member of our Org will want to add these layers in a private map with other private layers.  When they go to the Share setting dialog box and select anything other than public, an "Update Sharing" box pops up asking if they would like to update the share settings to the layers listed so that they can be viewed in a web map.  However, the listed layers often do not include the public layers that are the ones being changed.  

Therefore, these Org members have no idea that these common public layers are now being changed to whatever more restrictive sharing level they have set the rest of their map to.  This causes our high profile public maps to now prompt users for a username and password which can be very frustrating to end users.

We have sent out information warning Org members of the issue but with a large ArcGIS Online Org., this message can easily get lost or forgotten.  

My Question: Is there any way to lock the share setting so that those items marked as Public can not be changed?  Maybe something similar to the delete protection option would be great.  I have searched through the ArcGIS Online help files with no luck.  Maybe I'm asking the question wrong.

Any advice or direction would be much appreciated! 

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ChrisWhitmore
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Melanie - this is a bug; the public layer should not be unshared. We'll fix for the next release (currently planned for end of Feb).

As Rebecca alluded, this should only be happening if the user sharing the web map has permission to update sharing on the public layer (i.e., they are owner of the layer or have admin privileges). Having the public layer owned by an administrator can help prevent inadvertent sharing changes (though if the person making the map is also an administrator, they will have permissions to update sharing regardless).

Thanks,

Chris

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RebeccaStrauch__GISP
MVP Emeritus

Some suggestions, with no idea whether it would help, but I would be curious since we may eventually run into the same...

  • Make sure the "Public" layers are owned by someone that is an Administrator and that everyone else is not.
  • Make a duplicate layer, and keep the one feeding into the public 24/7 site in a hidden folder.  This may not prevent the other layer from being changed, but might keep the hidden one from being changed.

Just things to maybe try if you haven't already.

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ChrisWhitmore
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Melanie - this is a bug; the public layer should not be unshared. We'll fix for the next release (currently planned for end of Feb).

As Rebecca alluded, this should only be happening if the user sharing the web map has permission to update sharing on the public layer (i.e., they are owner of the layer or have admin privileges). Having the public layer owned by an administrator can help prevent inadvertent sharing changes (though if the person making the map is also an administrator, they will have permissions to update sharing regardless).

Thanks,

Chris

MelanieWilliams1
New Contributor III

Chris and Rebecca, 

Thanks so much for the response.  Since our Organization is rather large, we have a few admins.  And, unfortunately, the sharing change is being done by one of our admins.  I guess we will need to re-evaluate our role structure.  However, it would be great if there were a way to keep those mass sharing changes from effecting those public layers.  Or have a way to lock those layer sharing options down until you at least have to (checkbox) acknowledge the change to that layer.  

I think the role adjustment will still need to be made.  Thanks for the advice!

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