My Favorite Enhancement in the September Update of ArcGIS Online
Some enhancements to ArcGIS Online are big and others are very small. My favorite one from the September update is very, very small. It’s a tiny checkbox that only ArcGIS Online administrators would ever see. Here it is in all its glory:
If you’ve not run into it yet, have a look at your Manage Licenses tab. Select a member to review his or her licenses and click Configure. You’ll find that, by default, the little checkbox near ASSIGN or in the case below UPDATE, is checked on. That means that when you assign or revoke a license, the user will be informed by e-mail.
Sometimes, of course, we ArcGIS Online administrators want to be stealthy. We want to assign licenses without the member knowing. That’s what we like to do in the Esri MOOC program, but until now, it was not possible. That meant thousands of e-mails went out to students before the course began. Those thousands of students scratched their heads and then sent e-mail asking what that odd e-mail meant. My colleagues and I sent thousands of e-mails in response. It makes me tired just thinking about it.
As of Sept 2017, all ArcGIS Online administrators can silently and stealthily assign or revoke licenses by unchecking that box. I am looking forward to assigning Business Analyst Web App licenses for the Location Advantage MOOC students for the fall offering starting Nov 1.