10 things I like about ArcGIS Online

Not to be outdone, I want to give equal love to ArcGIS Online, a web-based GIS hosted by Esri and delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS). It connects users in your organization with up-to-date content, including ready-to-use apps, maps, 3D scenes and layers. 

These connections are happening everywhere. Below are some quick statistics on how many users and transactions are leveraging ArcGIS Online right now.  

These numbers are impressive, but this is just the beginning. ArcGIS Online continues to grow and get better. New capabilities and enhancements are being added all the time. And it’s more than about making web maps. Organizations are using ArcGIS Online to share and collaborate content, analyze data and collect information in the field. 

I want to highlight my top 10 features of ArcGIS Online. Some are brand new and rocketing up the charts, and others are oldies but goodies. Let’s countdown the hits – Casey Kasem style! 

Administrators can also add a custom set of web apps to everyone’s App Launcher. This will make it easy for organization members to access frequently used apps at a central location.  

8. You get an ASSISTANT 

You are not alone. An assistant is here to help! ArcGIS Online Assistant has been around for a while but is a hidden gem. As the site’s tag line says, think of it as a “swiss army knife” for your ArcGIS Online account. 

As a member of dozens of organizations (seriously), I primarily use Assistant to copy content between accounts. I can make full copies that replicate my maps, apps and simple hosted feature layers to a destination account. Or I can create a simple copy that references the original source. 

Assistant is also a handy tool to figure out what’s going on under the hood. You can inspect the underlying JSON text definition for any item in ArcGIS Online. You can also modify and update the URLs for services in your web maps and registered applications. 

7. And you get a COMPANION 

You now get even more friends with ArcGIS Online.  

Esri recently introduced a native app – ArcGIS Companion – offering a new way to manage and administer your organization.  ArcGIS Companion, available for both iOS and Android, provides a simple and intuitive interface to perform your administrative tasks from browsing your organization’s content, people and groups to managing your profile and user settings. This user-friendly app even lists the latest news, blogs and tweets from the ArcGIS community.  

6. ARCADE’S fire 

Wake up! Arcade is here, and it’s everything now. Esri’s newest scripting language is focused, intuitive, secure and portable. Arcade is not meant to develop new stand-alone apps or automate your workflows. Instead, Arcade is designed to write simple expressions; just like formulas in a spreadsheet.  

One cool way to harness the power of Arcade in ArcGIS Online is to generate data on the fly. You can build expressions that calculate values you can use to define symbology, create custom labels and configure popup content. You don’t need to edit your data, create new fields and permanently calculate attributes. You don’t even have to own the layer. 

Once Arcade becomes creature comfort, you can take your expressions to the next level. Here’s an example of how Arcade and HTML can work together to create more sophisticated popups, using 2018 New Brunswick election results. 

5. MAPPING is getting SMARTER 

One of the features that makes ArcGIS Online special is smart mapping. It is designed to give anyone the power to quickly make maps that are visually stunning and relevant. In a few mouse clicks, you can create beautiful and meaningful web maps that tell important stories. 

For example, the Predominant Category and Predominant Category and Size symbol styles help us see new geographical patterns by comparing multiple attributes from our data. You can now compare up to 10 attributes to show which attribute has the highest value and the degree of its predominance compared to the other attributes. 

The Relationship style is a new way to compare and visualize your data. You can map two patterns within a single map to see how they are related. Two colour ramps are combined into a single grid-like legend (also known as bivariate choropleth mapping for the map geeks). The Relationship and Size style adds another dimension to a relationship map, as a third attribute that can be added, and its values are shown by size. 

4. ANALYSIS is getting WISER 

ArcGIS Online is not only a great mapping tool, it is an equally great analysis tool. It includes many GIS tools to help you understand what’s going on at any given location, including summarizing data, finding the best locations, enriching your layers and calculating optimal directions and routes. ArcGIS Online analytics truly goes beyond the buffer! 

Two of the newest ArcGIS Online tools illustrate the power of analyzing locations and identifying patterns. The Find Point Clusters tool finds groups of point features within surrounding noise based on their spatial distribution. The Summarize Center and Dispersion tool locates central features and defines directional distributions. 

Everyone loves Esri’s default basemaps. But admit it, sometimes you want to tweak those basemaps to the look you want. With the new ArcGIS Vector Tile Style Editor, you can do just that. 

Designing a custom basemap has never been easier. In a few mouse clicks, you can use your own corporate colours and fonts to make your basemap consistent with your brand. This blog post dives deeper into the how and why. 

Check out this Story Map Swipe and Spyglass app which salutes the greatest hockey franchise in the history of professional sports via a custom basemap. You’re welcome! 

2. Make DATA great again 

ArcGIS Online is also an underrated data management tool, a central place to create and maintain geographic content. 

The feature layer template gallery is a great place to start. You can create blank hosted feature layers based on dozens of common industry-specific workflows. Simply pick a template, publish the service, configure the map and start collecting data. Now you can even create empty point, line or polygon hosted feature layers. You can then define your own schema by adding new fields and integrating your own attribute lists and ranges (aka domains). 

You can even create new layers outside of ArcGIS Online within the new ArcGIS for Developers Dashboard. 

Updating your existing hosted feature layers has also been streamlined. Use append data to layers to add more data without having to overwrite the entire hosted feature layer.  

My favourite enhancement is a new layout style for an old classic, the Story Map Tour. The Side Panel layout gives our map tours a modern look where the media is the focus. And you can switch your old story maps to this new format with three mouse clicks! Compare for yourself the old school Three Panel format versus the new and sleek Side Panel layout. That is certified fresh! 

You now have 10 reasons to explore the power of ArcGIS Online! Sign in with your ArcGIS organizational account or start with a free public account for your personal use. Your journey starts at arcgis.com. Esri Canada Training also conducts several ArcGIS Online courses that will point you in the right direction. 

It’s time to go online with ArcGIS Online! Or as Casey Kasem would say, “keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!”