Create web services in Site Scan - Beta feature

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Overview

Creating and sharing imagery data is a core part of Site Scan for ArcGIS. You may be familiar with Site Scan’s publishing capabilities, which allows you to bring processed outputs into your ArcGIS Online or Enterprise portals with a few clicks. While publishing Site Scan data creates numerous possibilities, sometimes all you need is a rapid view of the project orthomosaics in a web map to understand current project conditions. 

Site Scan organizations on a Custom Subscription can now create web services for your Site Scan projects and bring them into other GIS applications like ArcGIS Pro or ArcGIS Online. This allows you to view all of your orthomosaics from a project before you publish the data. Site Scan generates a type of web service called a Web Map Tile Service (WMTS), which provides a view of the data without the extra steps of downloading, publishing, or otherwise storing the data outside of the Site Scan cloud. 

Note: this feature is only available to Site Scan organizations that are on a Custom Subscription. Check with your organization admin or Esri account team if you have questions. 

Each project has a single WMTS URL that points to every orthomosaic in the project. There is an additional orthomosaic contained in the URL named “Latest” which represents the most recent orthomosaic in the project. This layer is updated continuously as new missions are processed. As a result, project administrators and external stakeholders can maintain an up-to-date view of the project status without needing to publish newly processed missions each time. 

We value any feedback you have about this beta feature by submitting a response through this survey. 

Use a Site Scan web service

Copy the WMTS URL from Site Scan Manager 

1. Sign into Site Scan Manager. 
2. Click on your organization icon in the lower left corner, then click User Settings > Features. 
3. Enable Create Web Services. This option will only be visible if your Site Scan organization is on a Custom Subscription. Organizations with user-based licensing cannot create web services. 
4. Browse to a project that you want to use a web service for. 
5. Click Web Service on the left sidebar.
6. Click Copy URL.

You are now ready to load the WMTS into another GIS client like ArcGIS Pro or ArcGIS Online to view the project orthomosaics on a map.

Load the web service in ArcGIS Pro 

An orthomosaic from Site Scan is displayed in ArcGIS Pro by loading the project WMTS URL. All orthomosaics contained in the project are displayed in the WMTS item in the Catalog.

The web service functionality in ArcGIS Pro allows you to visualize every orthomosaic in your Site Scan project using one web service URL, including the “Latest” orthomosaic. 

To load the WMTS into ArcGIS Pro, follow the ArcGIS Pro documentation for adding WMTS services. The URL is the only field that requires your input; you can leave other fields as defaults. 

Once you load your WMTS into the Catalog, you can pick which missions to bring into your map. “Latest” layer will update automatically with each new mission flown. 

Load the web service in ArcGIS Online 

In ArcGIS Online, each web service URL can only display one orthomosaic at a time. Upon creating the WMTS layer in ArcGIS Online, you must pick which orthomosaic to use for that layer. A common pattern is to pick “Latest” so that the WMTS layer in ArcGIS Online always displays the most up-to-date orthomosaic in the project. Follow these steps to create a WMTS layer in ArcGIS Online:

1. Sign into ArcGIS Online. 
2. In the top ribbon, click Content. 
3. In the top left corner, click + New item.
4. In the New item window, click URL. 
5. In the URL box, paste the WMTS URL that you copied from Site Scan. 
6. If it’s not yet selected, choose WMTS (OGC) as the Type. 
7. Click Next. 
8. In the dropdown menu, pick the layer that you want the web service item to define, then click Next. 
9. Name your new web service layer and configure the metadata by specifying a folder, tags, and summary. 
10. Once you have filled out the desired metadata fields, click Save. 

After a few seconds, the new WMTS item will be created in your portal. You can now view the WMTS layer in a web map or ingest it into a web application like a Dashboard.

FAQs

Q: How can I submit feedback about the Web Service beta feature? 
A: Please fill out a response in this short survey. All feedback is welcomed. 

Q: Can I delete a web service? 
A: Yes. You can delete a web service from the client (like ArcGIS Online) directly, or from the source in Site Scan. In Site Scan, browse to the project’s Web Service menu and choose Delete WMTS. All clients that use the WMTS will be affected immediately. Since the WMTS URL is no longer valid after deleting it in Site Scan, it’s important that you are aware of the maps or apps that point to the service in other clients prior to deleting it. 

Q: What happens if I re-enable the web service? 
A: A new URL will be generated in Site Scan that is different than the prior URL. New WMTS layers must be created in the clients you wish to use it in. Old WMTS layers using the previous URL will remain invalid. 

Q: Do web services consume credits when creating a new WMTS in ArcGIS Online? 
A: No. 

Q: Why can’t I see the Web Service option when viewing my projects? 
A: There are two reasons why the Web Service option might not appear. First, only organizations that on a Site Scan Custom Subscription have the option to use Web Services, please confirm with your org Admin. 
If you know your organization is on a Site Scan Custom Subscription, you still need to activate the beta feature by browsing to your User Settings and enabling Create Web Services (Once logged into Site Scan Manager, click your organization logo the lower left corner, then click User Settings > Features).