Locking editing when publishing a map to website

[AnnaRoberts98]

I work for a town council and I want to publish a map of our assets so that the public can access it. I have seen on forums that there are ways to stop it being editable (which is what we will need if it embedded in our website) but I cannot find the option anywhere. Please can you help me locate it? Thanks

[AustinAverill]

The general best practice for making data publicly accessible is to create a view layer of each of your layers that service the map. Each of these views can be set to be shared publicly and editing permissions should be turned off in the item's settings page. By creating view layers, you can also limit what fields are passed to the public view as well. Using views also ensures that you can maintain editability of the source layer for internal use as needed. You can also make other views of your layer with different sharing permissions and editing capabilities if you need certain people to have specific access.

Once you make all of your view layers, configure your web maps and applications using the views and make sure they are shared public, then ta-da.

Here is a quick guide to get you started https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/manage-data/create-hosted-views.htm

[JonM32]

@AnnaRoberts98

Another option: If you published a map then you'll have a map image layer (MIL). Just add the map image layer to the web map. By default, a MIL is not editable, so you won't have to go through the whole view layer process. 

You may have created a feature layer when you published the map as well. That on the other hand can be edited (if enabled in the settings), so I'd advised not to use this one.

Hope this helps!

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[DebapriyaPaul]

Hi @AnnaRoberts98, there are a few great suggestions in the comments above! 

If you have published a Web map to ArcGIS Online that you would like to embed in your public website, we would need to disable editing specifically on the Feature layer being consumed in the Web Map. 

• Open the item details page of the Feature layer
• Click on the Settings tab
• Disable editing

Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions! 

[AnnaRoberts98]

Is creating a feature layer available if you don't have the paid version? I cant seem to find it.

[DebapriyaPaul]

@AnnaRoberts98 Are you working with a public account? Public accounts do not offer the functionality to publish hosted Feature layers. (doc). 

Would you mind sharing more details on how the web map was authored and how the layers were added to the map? 

[AnnaRoberts98]

I created a map in QGIS a while ago and exported the layers in KML format to upload 

[DebapriyaPaul]

Thanks @AnnaRoberts98.

It sounds like the KML file was added to the Web map using the 'Add layer from file' option. In this workflow, the file is uploaded and saved to the map. Because it isn't published as a hosted feature layer,  Map Viewer does not provide editing capabilities. We'll only see the options to configure Properties and Effects on the layer. Sharing the Web map publicly should not make the layer editable for the audience. 

Please feel free to reach out if you have any follow-up questions!