Latest Contributions by SpatialNinja

At this years GeoConX conference we held a technical session on administering your portal. Following the session numerous attendees asked for access to some of the tools we highlighted, so I wanted to recap the session and share all of those with you. My team at Esri administers our demonstration environments for our global business development team, which includes 2000+ users.  We maintain a hybrid ArcGIS Enterprise and Online environment, and below are the ways, we internally at Esri, have outlined our governance practices. Authoritative Content - authoritative content is all about separating the 'portal clutter' or sandbox content from the authoritative web maps, apps, and layers that are shared with users in the portal, and the best practices around doing so.  Here are some useful tools and best practices for maintaining authoritative content: Portal Item Branding Adding a thumbnail, a summary, and description to items in your portal will allow users to easily understand what the app, map, or layer is and whether it is relevant to them.  There are numerous ways to build awesome thumbnails; including a PowerPoint template that is downloadable here, or using this app from our Application Prototype Lab team.  Metadata Adding metadata to items will provide authoritative details on what the item is and where the content came from.  ArcGIS Online now supports standard metadata formats: Metadata—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS  Setting Default Branding ArcGIS now allows for you to set a default theme and logo for new apps that are created in your portal.  This will allow for a consistent look and feel across new content that is created. Configure general settings—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS  Authoritative Content Tagging New within ArcGIS is the ability to mark items as deprecated or authoritative.  This has been enabled as a filtering option within groups, allowing users to filter out noise and find authoritative maps, apps, or layers. See how: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-online/uncategorized/improving-content-quality/ Organization & Accessibility - A clean and organized portal is a happy portal. Users will continue to come back to the portal if it is well organized, content can be found relatively easy, and content is easily accessible. Here are some useful tools and best practices for maintaining organization & accessibility: Portal Home Page Branding Looking to spice up your default portal home page? Here is a blog that walks through how you can modify the HTML on your home page to create a completely corporate branded home page: /blogs/baldy/2017/07/24/beautify-that-homepage-creating-a-unique-look-and-feel  Sites One limitation of the portal homepage is that it cannot be tailored to each user or team. Sites for ArcGIS now allows you to create a destination for different departments that presents only the maps, apps, and layers that are relevant to that team.  Additional context can also be added to a Site through a configurable HTML builder. Sites are currently available in ArcGIS Enterprise only, but ArcGIS Online is coming. About ArcGIS Enterprise Sites—Portal for ArcGIS (10.6) | ArcGIS Enterprise  Groups, Categories, Gallery Apps Groups organize content and enable access to content based on user identity, but Gallery Apps can give a clean user interface into a group.  The new Categories feature allows you to group content based on a specific category or tag.  Users can filter content within a group based on these new categories, allowing for an easier time to find relevant content.  Identity Management with Single Sign On If you have ever forgot your password, raise your hand.   Well so have I. ArcGIS allows for its identity management system to be connected to your corporate identity management system by setting up enterprise logins.  This will allow you to manage users easier and allow users to use their corporate logins to access ArcGIS, reducing the number passwords they need to remember.  Distributed Collaboration New in ArcGIS is Distributed Collaboration. This capability will allow you to share content from one portal to another, creating a portal of portals experience. So for large organizations with multiple portals, distributed collaboration will easily allow for content to be shared between those portals. End User Experience A consideration when creating apps is understanding the primary location from where a user will be accessing the app, and from what kind of device. Web AppBuilder allows you to see what your web app will look like on different devices.  The new web version of Operations Dashboard can also be viewed on a mobile device, but if a phone is expected as the primary device to view the dashboard, then consideration should be made to how the widgets are set up. Here is some help: Strategies & Best Practices for using Dashboards on your Smartphone %  A new ArcGIS mobile app is also available for accessing your portal on a mobile device. The experience of accessing the portal over a web browser on a mobile device hasn't always been the best, so ArcGIS Companion is a new native mobile app that is a much better user experience for accessing your portal on a mobile device. Introducing ArcGIS Companion - New Mobile App for your Organization  Availability - With more and more organizations and employees adopting the notion of 'work' being a state of mind and not a location, the need to have business applications running 24/7 is crucial. Here are some useful tools and best practices for ensuring high availability of your portal and apps: Content Health and Status One of the worst experiences for a user is opening a web map or app and getting an error message stating that a layer failed to load.  There are a few tools available that will allow you to routinely or automatically locate web services that are no longer working or have been deleted. Status Checker - This app will check for issues in your web maps and services for unresponsive web services. To run the app with ArcGIS Enterprise, be sure to add your portal to the URL (https://apl.esri.com/jg/ServiceStatus/index.html?portalUrl=https://apl.esri.com/portal) GeoJobe - Esri Partner GeoJobe has a great app called Admin Tools. One of the tools will allow you to see content dependencies. You'll be able to search for a web service or layer and see all the web maps and apps that contain that service.  ArcGIS Monitor - ArcGIS Monitor is a new app for monitoring services within ArcGIS Enterprise. It tracks alarms and performance of your map services, and has the ability to automatically email notifications.  Services & Architecture Consideration should be made to the amount of hits your web map services will get.  ArcGIS allows you to tune your services according to the amount of usage they will have.  Here is some helpful info: Tuning services in your ArcGIS Server site using best practices—Documentation | ArcGIS Enterprise  Here is some additional information on setting up high availability in your environment: Configure highly available ArcGIS Enterprise—Portal for ArcGIS (10.6) | ArcGIS Enterprise  Management - Governance and management of the portal is key to keeping the portal sustainable and ensuring all the key elements above. Here are some useful tools and best practices for management of your portal: Development Process Having a development life cycle for content in your portal is good best practice. You can setup a development process by creating dev groups, and limiting sharing of content to only those dev groups. This will keep authoritative business groups clear of development content, and ensure all content in production is working. Here is some guidance on creating a development group structure process for moving content though a dev life cycle in your portal: 1. Development  During the development stage of apps, contents will be kept in the curator’s user contents.  The app(s) may be shared with the Sandbox group for testing and feedback from other users.  Once a working prototype of the item is complete, the item may be shared with the Prototyping group. 2. Prototyping  During the prototyping stage, the app is kept in the Prototyping group while the content is tested by additional developers.  If changes are made to the app during this stage, the content will need to be removed from the Prototyping group and shared back into the Sandbox group.  When the prototype has been tested and is working, the app may be shared with the Staging group for preparation of final release.  3. Staging During the staging stage, all associated contents (maps, layers, apps) for the app must be shared into the Staging group.  At that point, a proper thumbnail, summary, and description should be added to the app and associated contents.  The curator or developer of the contents will then document that app. The GIS admin of the portal will then QAQC the contents and the documentation.  When the app is finalized, the admin will share the app into the proper business function group, and move all associated contents (web map and layers) from the curator’s user contents into the admin’s user contents, this reduces the possibility of content associated with the app accidentally being deleted or modified. 4. Production Once the app is released and in production, the admin will host and keep the contents for the app in their contents.  Item Reporting and Views There are times when content in the portal is no longer used, yet server resources are still running in support of that content. Tracking views on content will allow you to gauge what content may need to be deprecated or even deleted. Attached to this blog is a tool to mine the content views recorded in ArcGIS Online and Enterprise and output a CSV of those views.  That output data can be summarized in Excel or pulled into Insights for ArcGIS for further evaluation.  Here are instructions for setting up the tool:  Install ArcREST from https://github.com/Esri/ArcREST The tool has the option to run the report on one item or multiple items.  So if running the tool on multiple items, you’ll need to add items to the input_items.csv file. Open the tool from ArcCatalog, ArcMap, or Pro, and fill in the input parameters.  View output CSV file.  The tool returns the information below.  Custom Roles Custom roles can allow you to group users by type of user or by teams. Although users in different teams may have the same user permissions, custom roles can allow you to group users even if they have the same permissions in the portal. These custom roles can aid in provisioning or reporting workflows. New Organization Tab New in ArcGIS is a revamp on the admin Organization tab. Here you can manage credits, users, view system health, and more through a redesigned interface. Admin Tools Managing your portal on a day to day basis can be a lot of work. There are a variety of tools to assist. Here are some of the ones we use constantly.  GeoJobe - Admin Tools is a great set of tools for managing users, copying content, dealing with tags, updating URLs, and more. ArcGIS API for Python - This python library was designed for managing and automating tasks within your portal. ArcGIS Assistant - ArcGIS Assistant will allow you to copy content and update REST endpoints for services in your web maps.  Removing a layer in a map and re-adding it is no longer required if you have published a new service and need to replace the REST endpoint. As always, feel free to reach out with any feedback or questions. Patrick Huls Technical Evangelist - Telecommunications‌ LinkedIn: Patrick Huls| Twitter: @SpatialNinja| GeoNet:Phuls-esristaff ... View more

This thread is dedicated to the updates and enhancements to Esri's field solutions, and to discuss use cases, workflows, and requirements for any field mobility needs in telecommunications.  Thanks, ArcGIS Telecom Team telug‌ Join the Discussion Below! ... View more

This thread is used as a repository for Survey123 XLS forms that can be used to configure surveys in Survey123 Connect. Current forms available: Damage Assessment Joint Use Pole Inspections Service Provisioning/Install Construction Verification Pole & Attachments Tower Inspections ISP Equipment or Facility Audit   See the attachments below.     Thanks, ArcGIS Telecom Team   Join the Discussion Below! ... View more

This year's Esri User Conference showcased a lot of great advancements in GIS technology and brought the vast user community of GIS professionals in telecommunications together. Being a GIS user for 5 years and then working for Esri the past 4 years, I'm always blown away by the energy at the User Conference. This year I wanted to share the top 5 things I'm excited for following the conference. So here we go: 5. ArcGIS Field Solutions Esri's suite of mobile apps keep on growing in number and improving in capabilities. I am really excited about Survey123, the next generation of Collector, and the new markup capabilities in Explorer. Survey123 for ArcGIS What I like the most about Survey123 is its form centric approach to data collection. Its more user friendly for those not familiar with a map/GIS based interface. Building these smart forms is also really easy using the web based form builder and desktop based Survey123 Connect, and the new barcode scanner, report template, and photo markup are great additions to this app.  Spatial Ninja Pro Tips: Whats new in Survey123 Configuring Survey123 using Survey123 Connect Survey123 Configurations for Download Survey123 for ArcGIS Collector for ArcGIS Collector, the map centric data collection app, was the first ArcGIS mobile app for data collection on iOS and Android. Its been around for quite some time, but I'm really excited about the future release of Collector which has been named 'The Aurora Project'. The Aurora Project release of Collector will finally see Vector Tile and labeling support for web maps used in Collector. You'll also get a brand new, easier to use, interface which allows for quicker data collection.  Spatial Ninja Pro tips: Inspecting with Collector Using GNSS receivers with Collector Collector for ArcGIS‌ Explorer for ArcGIS Explorer can be thought of as your mobile map book. No longer are the days of printing off large map books, marking them up in the field, and digitizing those edits in the back office. That workflow is completely streamlined and digital now, thanks to the new markup features in Explorer. Spatial Ninja Pro Tips: Whats new in Explorer Markup in Explorer Explorer for ArcGIS‌ 4. The New Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS I've always been excited for the possibilities and uses of Operations Dashboard, but the app traditionally being a desktop only solution limited its potential. Operations Dashboard has been overhauled and is now completely web based. The builder experience and end dashboard product are both accessible over a web browser.  The underlying JavaScript/HTML5 framework also makes the new Operations Dashboard so much more customizable and extendable.  Spatial Ninja Pro Tips: Whats new for Operations Dashboard Configuring Operations Dashboard for mobile use Operations Dashboard telecom example Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS‌ 3. ArcGIS Enterprise Sites Sites are new way to customize a home page for different users of your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. You can now tailor a unique portal experience for different user groups within your organization, presenting to them the maps, apps, and content they most commonly need to perform their day to day job. Spatial Ninja Pro Tips: Getting started with ArcGIS Enterprise Sites ArcGIS Enterprise Sites 2. Advancements in Big Data and AI/ML Tools Esri continues to put the Science of Where to work with their spatial analysis tools. I'm really excited about some of the new big data and AI/ML tools that Esri is building into ArcGIS, especially for use cases around analyzing communications network performance.  These tools can now also be accessed in ArcGIS or deployed directly within your big data environments, bringing the analysis to the data.  Spatial Ninja Pro Tips: Spatial analysis techniques for network strategy Planning Next Generation Communications Networks 1. GIS's Continued Use as a Complete Platform The number one thing I'm most excited for following this years User Conference is seeing how ArcGIS continues to be adopted as a platform for all things mapping and location intelligence. For years and years GIS has been seen as only an engineering and design solution or outside plant management solution. But we continue to see the transition of GIS as a platform to not only support infrastructure lifecycle management, but telecommunications planning, fulfillment, and assurance. Its amazing to see our users push ArcGIS to new limits and support more and more departments within their telco with mapping and location intelligence capabilities.  Spatial Ninja Pro Tips: GIS and Mapping Platform for Telecommunications Planning, Fulfillment, and Assurance Telecommunications‌ Another User Conference in the books and I can't wait until I get to see everyone again at the GeoConX Conference in the fall. Patrick Huls Technical Evangelist - Telecommunications‌ LinkedIn: Patrick Huls| Twitter: @SpatialNinja| GeoNet:Phuls-esristaff ... View more

Attending the 2018 UC? Here are the activities for you and your colleagues.  ... View more