Are GIS naming conventions still relevant?

[JamesPoeschel]

With all the new updates, are GIS naming conventions still relevant? (no spaces or special characters, etc).
There doesn't seem to be anything recent about their importance.

My team is considering a switch to use a shared drive that does not follow the standards. (path names have "!! " starting the folder name, or numbers that start a name with a ".", spaces instead of underscores, etc)

I've had bugs working in that drive but another GIS team in the company has said they rarely get bugs there. 

[MikeVolz]

I would not use a shared drive with special characters or spaces when using GIS software as it can cause issues.

One issue I encountered (which you might never encounter) is referencing images from a shared drive in a web app.  The special character was not recognized in the HTML format and the image(s) was not accessible to the app.

[clt_cabq]

I think sometimes it depends on what you are doing. I'm always wary of long file paths with embedded spaces and non-standard characters. I think path name length is one of those places that cause problems, and then if running spatial analyst geoprocessing tools a lot of those old 'DOS' based file naming conventions seem to make ArcGIS barf. In my current position most of my data comes from local folders but in my last job where we had a more 'corporate' environment of shared project folders I would often have to make localized project folders for handling specific data and analysis because there were too many issues with file path naming. 

[DanPatterson]

still relevant today

Save a project—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

There are warnings about using onedrive etc

Cloud storage services, such as Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive, are not supported unless stated otherwise in the documentation about specific tools and functionality.

If you want to encourage problems, punctuation and spaces are the way to go, add a dash of long path names which have limitations in some database management systems.

[JamesPoeschel]

Thank you for your responses!  To clarify we use shared network drives instead of OneDrive/ Google Drive. 
I'm certainly a believer of the GIS naming convention for folder paths.

But to further help defend my case against migrating to a rogue shared network drive, are there any recent / official documentation reinstating that arcgis PRO projects should be in folders that follow the naming convention?

[clt_cabq]

There is this published in 2024, also makes oblique reference to use of special characters:

FAQ: avoiding spaces in file names 

There is also these two items referring specifically to long file paths, note that the first one seems to be old (referencing ArcMap) but seems to still be valid to Arc Pro

Max file path characters is 260 

Bug workaround to long file path names issue 

[BillFox]

yes indeed,

example, what’s the maximum service name for an arcgis image server elevation service

In ArcGIS Image Server, the maximum length of a service name, including for an elevation service, is tied to the constraints of the ArcGIS Enterprise system and its underlying components, such as the GIS Server and the REST endpoint naming conventions. However, there isn’t a single, explicitly documented "maximum service name length" specifically for an ArcGIS Image Server elevation service in Esri's public documentation. Instead, we can infer the practical limit based on related ArcGIS conventions and system behavior.

### Key Considerations

1. **Service Name in ArcGIS Enterprise**:

- When you publish a service (e.g., an elevation service) to ArcGIS Image Server, the service name is defined in the ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcGIS Pro during the publishing process.

- The name becomes part of the REST URL, such as:

`https://<server>/arcgis/rest/services/<ServiceName>/ImageServer`

- ArcGIS Server imposes a practical limit on the length of the service name to ensure compatibility with web standards, file systems, and database constraints.

2. **Practical Maximum Length**:

- Based on ArcGIS Server’s general conventions and testing by users, the **maximum length of a service name** is typically **120 characters**. This aligns with the maximum length allowed for map service names and other hosted services in ArcGIS Enterprise.

- This limit includes only the `<ServiceName>` portion of the URL (not the full path). For example, in `MyElevationService`, the limit applies to "MyElevationService" (18 characters).

3. **Additional Constraints**:

- **Characters**: The service name must use alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) and underscores (_). Special characters like spaces, slashes, or periods are not allowed, as they conflict with URL encoding or file system rules.

- **Folder Structure**: If the service is published within a folder (e.g., `rest/services/MyFolder/MyElevationService/ImageServer`), the folder name and service name combined must still fit within URL length limits (typically 260 characters total for the full path in Windows-based systems, though web browsers may support more).

- **Database Limits**: If the service is backed by an enterprise geodatabase, internal database field length limits (e.g., 255 characters in SQL Server) might indirectly influence naming, but this rarely affects the service name itself.

4. **Elevation Service Specifics**:

- An elevation service is a type of image service optimized for terrain data (e.g., DEMs or DSMs). There’s no evidence that elevation services have a different naming limit compared to other image services in ArcGIS Image Server. The same 120-character limit applies.

### Official Guidance

Esri’s documentation (e.g., ArcGIS Server and Image Server help pages as of February 2025) doesn’t explicitly state a maximum service name length for image services. However, the 120-character limit is a widely accepted practical boundary based on:

- Consistency with map services and feature services.

- Community feedback and testing on forums like Esri Community.

- Compatibility with REST API endpoints and client applications.

### Practical Recommendation

- **Maximum Service Name Length**: **120 characters**.

- **Best Practice**: Keep service names concise and descriptive (e.g., "Region1_DEM_Elevation" or "CityDSM_2025") to avoid hitting limits, improve readability, and ensure compatibility across tools like ArcGIS Pro, Scene Viewer, and web apps.

### Example

- Valid: `"NationalParkElevationService2025"` (32 characters).

- Valid but pushing the limit: A 120-character string like `"ElevationServiceForNorthernRegionWithHighResolutionDEMDatasetCoveringMultipleCountiesAndNationalParksIn2025Version2"`.

- Invalid: A name exceeding 120 characters or containing spaces/special characters (e.g., "My Elevation/Service").

If you need a definitive test, you could attempt to publish a service with a very long name in your ArcGIS Image Server environment and observe where it fails—though 120 characters is the safest bet based on current standards as of February 21, 2025.

"grok"