Identify Retiring v1 Esri Vector Basemaps using ArcGIS Notebooks
Are you ready for the impending retirement of the v1 Esri Vector Basemaps? With ArcGIS Notebooks you can quickly and easily check your own basemaps to make sure you aren’t still using any of the retiring services.
Esri’s version 1 (v1) vector basemaps will be retired December 1, 2022. After this date, web maps and apps that utilize these basemaps will need to reference another basemap listed in general availability. While you could manually check each of your map’s basemaps, let’s save some time and use the power of ArcGIS Notebooks to automate identification of any problematic basemaps!
Retiring Basemaps: What You Need to Know
Esri’s vector basemaps and styles are organized by version number. Currently, version 2 (v2) basemaps are updated on a regular cadence. The following versions will be retired and will no longer be available to use in maps and apps:
- World Basemap (v1):
- World Basemap WGS84 (v1):
This includes both Esri provided v1 basemaps as well as any of your organization’s custom vector tile layer styles which reference these v1 services.
The current version of Esri’s vector basemaps (version 2, or v2) have been available since December 2017. More information on this change is available here.
Identifying Problematic Layers
Let’s get started! To help with this process we have shared an ArcGIS Notebook that will evaluate any of your web maps for the retired basemaps. If your organization is using any custom vector tile styles, it will also check the style sources.
Stepping through the Notebook
- Click here to access the Notebook. If not already logged in, log in with your ArcGIS Online account, then click “Open Notebook”.
- Run the first Python cell by clicking anywhere within the cell then clicking “Run”. This will return a list of all web maps owned by your user.
- Scroll down and run the second Python cell to evaluate these maps. This cell returns a table displaying any maps with problematic layers.
- In the identified maps, update the deprecated layers. In ArcGIS Online, this is done by opening the web map in Map Viewer, then selecting a new basemap from the Basemap Gallery. If you are using a custom styled basemap, you will have to recreate your style with one of the v2 basemap services (see here for more information).
Please Note: Esri Canada unfortunately cannot provide support on any issues encountered while running the Notebook. For more information regarding the technology platforms, languages, APIs, and SDKs, please refer to the documentation at: ArcGIS for Developers - Documentation
Modifying the Notebook to Evaluate all Web Maps in your Organization
By default, the Notebook will only evaluate web maps owned by the current user. If you wish to evaluate all web maps within your organization, you can uncomment the following line within the first Python cell (remove the # at the beginning of the line highlighted here):
If your organization has a considerable amount of web maps, the Notebook may take 10+ minutes to finish running.
Important: to make sure the notebook checks all web maps regardless of sharing settings, ensure you are logged in with an account with the Administrator user role.
To ensure your organization is ready for the December 1, 2022 update, use the Notebook linked above to evaluate your web maps and identify any still using the v1 services.