Latest Contributions by Suzanne-Boden

On May 12, you can get the details (and demos) on version 4.0 in this free live seminar. Includes time for Q&A with the presenters. Esri Training | Live Training Seminar: Discover the Next-Generation ArcGIS API 4 for JavaScript ... View more

In a previous post, we covered how to add data to ArcGIS Pro, prepare it for your project needs, time-enable the layer, then share the layer as a time-enabled web layer to an ArcGIS Online organizational site. This post takes you through the steps to create a web map featuring the time-enabled web layer.  Ready? Let's get started.  Go to www.arcgis.com and sign in to your ArcGIS Online organizational account. In My Content, right-click the web layer and add it to a new map. You can immediately see that the web layer is time-enabled because a time slider displays at the bottom of the map viewer.  On the map, only the points from a specific time span are displaying. In the Contents pane, click the ellipsis button under the layer's name, then click Disable Time Animation. All the layer's points now display on the map. Each point represents a hostile act against a maritime vessel between 2010 and 2015 in subregion 62, which includes the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea (the data is from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's Maritime Safety Information Portal). Configure Pop-Ups When making a web map, you need to decide what information users should see when they click a feature on the map. Currently, all layer attributes display in the pop-up. Some field names are cryptic or irrelevant to the general audience this map is intended for. You can configure the pop-up to be more user-friendly. In the Contents pane, click the ellipsis button under the layer name, then click Configure Pop-up. The pop-up title is currently set to display the layer name followed by the incident reference number. Unless you're familiar with the data, this information isn't easy to understand. In the Pop-up title box, delete the existing content, then click the plus sign to see the fields list. Click {DateOfOcc}.  Next, configure the pop-up content. Under Pop-up Contents, click the down arrow next to Display and choose "A custom attribute display." Click Configure. In the Custom Attribute Display dialog box, click the plus sign and add the {Victim}, {Desc1}, {Desc2}, {Desc3}, {Desc4}, and {Desc5} fields. Add a space between each field. Select {Victim} and click the bold button. Add an extra paragraph return after the {Victim} field. Click OK, then Save Pop-up. Now the pop-up presents focused information (incident date, victim, and details) that is appropriate for a general audience. Rethink Layer Styling On the map, all the incidents are represented with the same symbol. This makes incident distribution easy to see, but suppose you want to communicate more about the piracy victims. For example, were certain types of vessels targeted more frequently? Were some vessels victimized more frequently in specific years or was the "victim type frequency" consistent throughout the six-year span of the data? To answer these questions, your first step is to symbolize the incidents based on the Victim attribute. The ArcGIS Online smart mapping feature makes this easy. In the Contents pane, click the Change Style button under the layer name. Choose to show (symbolize by) the Victim attribute. The suggested drawing style is Unique symbols. This is what you want. Click Options. The legend in the Change Style pane contains many classes (unique symbols). Why? Because the incident data contains lots of variations on victim type (one example: tanker, chemical tanker, oil tanker). For this map, these type distinctions aren't important. The map will be easier to interpret if you categorize similar vessel types using one term. One way to accomplish this is to edit the layer's attribute values. Standardize Attribute Values Victim values could have been edited in ArcGIS Pro before the shapefile was shared as a web layer. However, it's usually wise to keep source data as-is and make a project copy. Most organizations have standard procedures governing how GIS data is edited. Because this web layer was shared to My Content, editing the attribute values won't affect anyone else's work. Cancel out of the Change Style pane. In the Contents pane, click the Filter button under the layer name. In the Filter dialog box, click the Edit tab, build the expression "Victim contains Tanker," then click Apply Filter. The map now shows only incidents where the victim was a type of tanker. In the Contents pane, click the Show Table button. Only records that meet the filter expression criterion are shown in the table, and they are selected.  Mouse over the Victim field name, click the gear icon, then click Calculate. In the expression box, enter 'Tanker' (in ArcGIS Online, text values are enclosed in single quotes). The expression reads Victim = 'Tanker'. Click the Validate checkmark button to make sure your expression is valid, then click Calculate. Note: There's no undo on table edits. Now all the Victim values for the filtered records are Tanker. Click the down arrow next to Table Options, then clear the selection. In the Contents pane, click the Filter button, then click Remove Filter. Repeat the "filter, calculate values, clear selection, remove filter" steps to create eight Victim classes: Tanker, Merchant Vessel, Carrier, Cargo Ship, Container Ship, Dhow, Passenger Vessel, and Fishing Vessel. For more information about working with tables in ArcGIS Online, see this help topic.  Symbolize the Points Now that you've standardized the victim values, you can symbolize the layer using unique symbols. In the Contents pane under the layer name, click the Change Style button. In the Change Style panel, choose the Victim attribute, choose to style by unique symbols, and click Options. You can change the color, size, and shape of individual symbols or all of them if desired. You can also adjust symbol transparency. The default settings are fine for this map. There are three remaining victim types that don't fit into the standard categories. You can move them into the Other class by selecting their row, then dragging the row down below Other. Click OK, then Done. Time-Enable the Map Click the ellipsis next to the layer name in the Contents pane and choose Enable time animation. Play the time animation. You can use the forward and back buttons to manually progress through individual time spans, or play the full time animation automatically. Click the wrench icon next to the time slider, then click "Show advanced options." You can adjust settings including the time span duration, start and end times, playback speed, and more. For this map, the time settings are fine. In the Contents pane, rename the layer to Piracy Victims. The web map pop-ups, symbology, and time settings are now configured, so save the map. And there you have it. This web map can be shared as-is or featured in a web app or story map. Related training: Would you like to learn more about working with the ArcGIS Online map viewer? Check out these training options. Related post: Visualizing Time in ArcGIS: Prepare Data in ArcGIS Pro ... View more

There are many ways GIS professionals can get their work done these days. Technology is providing new capabilities and, at the same time, the user experience is becoming simpler, more intuitive, and integrated. Case in point: ArcGIS Desktop, which now includes ArcGIS Pro and an ArcGIS Online organizational subscription. ArcGIS Pro is associated with an ArcGIS Online organization and integration is built into the interface. You can directly publish content you create in ArcGIS Pro to the organization and easily grab content from ArcGIS Online to support mapping and analysis projects.  Here's a simple example that shows how.The Example Almost every month of the year, Esri Training Services hosts one or more live training seminars. And for years, we've been doing three live broadcasts at the same times on each seminar day. From time to time, we evaluate whether our broadcast schedule is still suitable—do we need to adjust the broadcast times or number of broadcasts? Examining the distribution of seminar attendees helps us answer these questions. For simplicity, this example focuses on U.S. seminar attendance.Step 1: Prepare the DataFinding the data needed for a GIS analysis is a common challenge. ArcGIS Online organizational subscriptions include access to a large content library. From within ArcGIS Pro, you have easy access to this content. Start ArcGIS Pro and open a blank project and a new map. Add the seminar attendee data. In the Project pane, click the Portal tab, then click the icon for All Portal. In the search box, enter world time zones. Drag the feature layer into the map. Now search for usa states and drag the USA States (Generalized) feature layer into the map. Because the focus is the U.S., clip World Times Zones to the extent of USA States. Click the Analysis tab, then click the Clip tool in the tool gallery. Fill out the tool's parameters, then run the tool. When the tool finishes running, a new layer of U.S. time zones is added to the map.Step 2: Create Information The Summarize Within tool will generate a new output layer that includes a count of attendee points within each time zone polygon. In the Analysis tool gallery, click Summarize Within. In the tool dialog box, specify Input Polygons, Input Summary Features, and the Output Feature Class. Run the tool. The tool output is added to the map with a single symbol legend. To better visualize attendance by time zone, apply a graduated colors legend. Not surprisingly, the most populated time zone (Eastern) attracted the most attendees, followed by the Pacific time zone.Step 3: Share Your Work These analysis results are useful to those who monitor live training seminar attendance patterns. You can share content you create in ArcGIS Pro with everyone in your organization, with members of organizational groups you specify, or even with the general public. In the Contents pane, remove the World Time Zones and USA States layers. Turn off the USA time zones and basemap layers. Save the project. Click the Share tab and click Web Map. Fill out the Item Description and choose to share to your organization (requires publish privileges). Click Analyze to make sure there are no errors, then click Share. When the share job completes, colleagues can view the web map in the ArcGIS Online map viewer or in ArcGIS Desktop. And there you have it. It's never been easier to access an extensive collection of high-caliber data, use it for your project needs, apply analysis tools to generate new data, and share your work in a format that others can easily access and understand. Related posts: ArcGIS Pro Mapping Environment: Likes and Loves Easy-Button Method to Create a Web Map Resources to learn more: ArcGIS Online Help ArcGIS Pro Help ArcGIS Pro training options ... View more

Updated January 16, 2017 Given that technology—the Internet, e-commerce, smartphones, the behemoth that is social media—has dramatically changed consumer and personal behavior over the last decade, it's no surprise our professional lives have evolved. For many of us, what we do at work and how we do our work have changed a great deal. At the same time, more and more organizational leaders have grasped the business value of getting geospatial content out of a department silo and into the hands of knowledge workers using ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise and a variety of enterprise applications. As a result, many GIS professionals are being asked to share. Of course, the profession as a whole is a generous lot, so sharing itself is nothing new. What's new is the ease with which things can be shared. The ArcGIS portal has become an integrated content platform that supports enterprise GIS workflows and the information needs of both GIS and non-GIS professionals, collaborative working groups, and the public. When there are many potential content consumers, the question of what to share needs to be carefully considered. If you're in the process of crafting a sharing strategy for your ArcGIS portal (an ArcGIS Online organizational site or an ArcGIS Enterprise portal website), here are three tips to help the process along. 1. Prioritize Consumer Relevance While you could share all types of geospatial content, that may not be feasible or desirable. When faced with an overwhelming number of choices, site users may opt out. Feature the content that your organization's users are most likely to be interested in. Like you, site users will be most interested in content that helps them do their work faster, easier, and better. Think about your organization's structure (or constituents) and imagine you're a content consumer. Why have you come to this site? What are you hoping to do with the content you find? For an analyst with the market research group, maps showing customer and physical business locations, demographic data, and drive times might be highly desirable. Templates for branded web apps could also be useful. Make a list of frequently requested items. How many times does your team create the same or very similar information products for different groups? Share that content. If you've ever thought to yourself, "If the folks in [department X] only knew how our data could help them!" Well, now's your chance to showcase your data to school the non-GIS teams on the value that geographic insight brings to their projects. Once you've settled on what to share, decide how to share it. It may make sense to create hosted feature layers for data that will be especially popular. Learn how to create a hosted feature layer 2. Provide Guide Posts Never underestimate the power of clear directions. Think about your favorite e-commerce sites. How do they direct you to products? Their home pages likely have prominent links to: The latest products The five or ten most popular products Recommended items for specific use cases ("Dorm essentials for your new college student!") Adopt these familiar methods to enhance your ArcGIS Online organization's or enterprise portal's home page, your front door if you will. A front door should be welcoming, but quickly passed through. You want visitors to enter the living space and join the party. The home page description section is a great (visible) place to add links that will guide users to the relevant content you've shared. Learn how to configure your home page description 3. Teach Them to Fish Who better to help the masses create accurate, impactful maps and apps than a GIS professional? Your ArcGIS Online organization is a rich source of authoritative content However, a lot of people may not know exactly how to use it at first. You can help content consumers get up to speed by adding frequently asked questions and tips from the GIS team on your organizational site. Of course, you should always document essential information in the item properties, including: Who created the data and when? What is the data's accuracy? Explanation of numeric attributes shown in a map legend or table (unless the data is clearly unambiguous) Access and use constraints Here's a good example of item properties for a web map. To make sure consumers see this information, you can get creative. The Open Data DC app effectively provides key information about the app right inside the app. As you're documenting your content, support searching, which is how people find things these days. Create a set of standard tags—both geographical and topical—and consistently apply them. Learn more about item properties By sharing relevant content and helping consumers understand how the content can be used to shed new light on their work, you extend the benefits of GIS well beyond its current boundaries. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the point where the work produced by GIS professionals is being widely viewed as a strategic organizational asset. Carpe diem. Related training: Is your team just getting started with an ArcGIS Online organizational site? These courses are designed to help administrators, content producers, and content consumers be productive right away. ... View more