Classic Esri Story Maps will be retired from ArcGIS Online in Q1 2026 and was retired with ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0. For more details, review the most recent announcement: Classic Esri Story Maps Roadmap for Retirement.
This means the code for these apps will be removed from ArcGIS Online, so you will no longer be able to access your classic stories at their previous links or URLs.
If you wish to view classic stories after the retirement date, you can use the process described in this article host your own copy of the classic app code. This work is best done by a web developer or someone familiar with web development concepts.
This information is provided to extend the time you have to view your classic stories as you plan to migrate them. Hosting your own copy of the app code does not mean your classic stories will continue to work forever. As web browsers and other related technologies advance, classic stories may break at any time. Sharing links to your self-hosted stories with the public is not recommended.
Hosting the classic apps
To host a classic Esri Story Maps app follow the steps below. You’ll need access to a hosting environment, or you can run the apps up on your computer by setting up a local web server.
- Download the compiled app code from GitHub using the links below
- Authorize the app code to load stories
- Deploy the app code to a web server
You only need to deploy one copy of the code for each app to be able to view any number of stories created with that app. For example, if you have 23 Cascade stories and 12 Journal stories, you only need to deploy one copy of the Cascade code, one copy of the Journal code, and none of the others.
GitHub links: Cascade, Journal, Series, Shortlist, Swipe, Tour
Authorizing your deployment
After downloading, you must authorize the code to load stories. You can choose to: 1) allow your deployment to load any story, 2) restrict it to stories from your organization, or 3) restrict it to stories from a specific set of users. Option 1 is recommended only for local deployments.
After downloading one of the apps, open the index.html file in a text editor, scroll down to the configOptions section, and review the comments related to configuring authorizedOwners. Pick the option that works for you, make the required edits, and save the file. You’re now ready to deploy the app code to your web server.
You may want to deploy code for several classic apps to the same parent directory. For example, on your domain “myserver.com” you could create a “classic-storymaps” folder and then add folders within that for each app you need (Cascade, Journal, etc.).
Once you have the app(s) authorized and deployed, you can view a story by passing its item ID using the appid URL parameter, like this…
https://myserver.com/classic-storymaps/cascade/index.html?appid=95212da4a282g02ca15a269ac46b1c6d
Stories can only be viewed with the corresponding app code. For example, if you pass in the item ID of a Journal story to the Cascade app code, you'll see an error. You'll need to view a Journal item using the Journal code, etc. You can tell which app to use for a particular story item by reviewing its tags or its URL on the ArcGIS item details page.
Here's a video that shows the entire process:
Viewing private stories
If you need to view stories that are not shared publicly (which require viewers to sign in), then you must create and add an oAuthAppId to the configOptions in index.html.
To create an oAuthAppId you'll register your self-hosted story map on ArcGIS Online. This needs to be done once for each classic app you host.
Does this work for ArcGIS Enterprise?
Yes, but you may need to point your deployment to your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. If the app code is hosted on the portal web server, it may work without any changes. If you host the code on another web server, or it's not working when hosted on the portal web server, make the changes described below:
- Go into the app folder
- Open the config.js file in a text editor
- Update the DEFAULT_SHARING_URL and DEFAULT_PROXY_URL to your enterprise portal URL
