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What’s New with ArcGIS Online: December 2018

This month’s ArcGIS Online update includes some changes and enhancements. In this blog post, you will find out what’s new, including user types and much more!

It’s that time again, ArcGIS Online has been updated! In this blog post, you will learn of some updates that you will notice.

Administrators of subscriptions, will see that Member Levels have now been replaced by User Types. This allows for a more flexible way to license ArcGIS Online capabilities and apps. Administrators can assign user types with associated privileges and apps to better align with your organization, and the needs of your members. All members previously assigned Level 1 and Level 2 accounts now have Viewer and Creator user types. For more information on this, see the Introducing User Types blog post.

With the new update to ArcGIS Online, previously assigned Level 1 and Level 2 accounts now have Viewer and Creator user types and there are three additional User Types.

Other highlights include:

  • New user experience: Check out the fresh new look to ArcGIS Online
  • New to the Living Atlas: Dark Multi-Directional Hillshade (beta) is a new server raster function that can be applied to the World Terrain layer. Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) is an 8-meter resolution elevation model covering the continent of Antarctica. Also, a new Oceans vector basemap (beta) is available.
  • Mapping and Visualization: When configuring pop-ups for a feature layer in your map, you can create Arcade expressions that reference other feature layers.

This is the old look of ArcGIS Online before December 4, 2018.

Updated user experience: This is the new look of ArcGIS Online after December 4, 2018.

  • 3D GIS: You can now add thousands of lines and polygons using Scene Viewer, allowing you to display and visualize large datasets containing features such as streets, rivers, parcels, and country borders.
  • Admin: When searching for and managing members in your organization, you can now see and select several members at once. The licenses page has been redesigned.
  • App Builders: Operations Dashboard has new configuration options through URL parameters providing more flexibility in dashboard configuration. Web AppBuilder has two new widgets: Threat Analysis and Visibility.
  • Collector for ArcGIS has released a new iOS app and updated the existing iOS app, renaming it Collector Classic. The new Collector app brings better-looking, more performant maps to your devices, complete with labels, vector basemaps, and rich symbology.

To learn about all the updates and enhancements, go to The December 2018 update blog post.

About the Author

Angela Alexander is a K-12 Education Specialist in the Esri Canada Education and Research group. She has over 15 years of experience working with educators across Canada. Angela focuses on producing geographic information system (GIS) and curriculum-specific resources, and conducting and creating custom workshops for educators. She manages the GIS Ambassador Program and is the Technical Chair for the annual Skills Ontario GIS competition. Angela also writes monthly posts for the Esri Canada Education and Research blog, highlighting K-12 educators and partners, new ArcGIS resources and GIS-related events.

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