Item sharing

What is sharing?

Sharing is the process of making geographic content accessible to users in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise. The Share setting allows you to set the sharing level for an item. Restricting the sharing level is how you secure both the item in a portal and the underlying data in the data service.

You can use the share setting to:

• Change the discoverability of an item in a portal.
• Make an item private or public.
• Give specific groups of users or an organization access to an item.
• Require data services to be accessed with an access token.

Types of sharing levels

The following is a list of the sharing levels available for the different types of ArcGIS products:

How to set the sharing level

The general steps on how to share an item.

1. Create an item

New item in Content page allows a user to interactively create a new item in ArcGIS.

An item represents various types of data, such as web maps, layers, web apps, tools and more. An item can also be shared, used, and managed in a portal using the item page. You use the portal service to create these items in your organization.

The most common types of items added to a portal include:

• Shapefiles (.shp): A common geospatial vector data format used in GIS software.
• CSV (.csv): Comma-separated values files often used to store tabular data.
• GeoJSON (.geojson): A format for encoding geographic data structures.
• KML (.kml): Keyhole Markup Language for encoding and visualizing geographic information.
• Web maps (.webmap): Specific to ArcGIS, containing information about layers, symbology, and other map properties.
• Tile packages (.tpk): Bundled raster data used for efficient map display.
• Hosted layers: Layers hosted on ArcGIS Online for sharing and collaboration.

2. Select a sharing level

Determining the right level of sharing, whether for the general public, internal members, or specific groups, requires an understanding of the target users. This involves considering the sharing requirements and potential uses of the specific item.

The table below shows authorization required for each sharing level.

The table below shows types of ArcGIS products charged to access an item for each sharing level.

3. Set the sharing level

Everyone (public) share level in the interactive Share window in ArcGIS portal.

Once the share levels are configured, ensure the item has the appropriate sharing levels by reviewing the item page.

Below is an example of how to share an item:

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# Update the sharing level
item.share(everyone=True, org=True if sharing_level == 'organization' else False, groups='')

Code examples

You can use data management tools to manage the sharing level of a hosted feature layer (item) or you can use the ArcGIS REST APIs. The following examples illustrate how to set the sharing level of a hosted feature layer (item).

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POST https://{host}/sharing/rest/content/users/{organizationId}/items/{itemId}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=false
&org=false
&groups=
&token={access_token}

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POST https://{host}/sharing/rest/content/users/{organizationId}/items/{itemId}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=false
&org=false
&groups=
&token={access_token}

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POST https://{host}/{webadaptor}/sharing/rest/content/users/{username}/items/{itemid}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=false
&org=false
&groups=
&token={access_token}

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POST https://{host}/sharing/rest/content/users/{organizationId}/items/{itemId}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=false
&org=false
&groups={groupId}
&token={access_token}

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POST https://{host}/{webadaptor}/sharing/rest/content/users/{username}/items/{itemid}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=false
&org=false
&groups={groupId}
&token={access_token}

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POST https://{host}/sharing/rest/content/users/{organizationId}/items/{itemId}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=false
&org=true
&groups=
&token={access_token}

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POST https://{host}/{webadaptor}/sharing/rest/content/users/{username}/items/{itemid}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=false
&org=true
&groups=
&token={access_token}

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POST https://{host}/sharing/rest/content/users/{organizationId}/items/{itemId}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=true
&token={access_token}

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POST https://{host}/{webadaptor}/sharing/rest/content/users/{username}/items/{itemid}/share HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

everyone=true
&token={access_token}

Tutorials

Import data to create a feature layer

Use data management tools to import files and create a feature layer in a feature service.

ArcGIS portal

Define a new feature layer

Use data management tools to define and create a new empty feature layer in a feature service.

ArcGIS portalPython APIREST JS

Manage a feature layer

Use a hosted feature layer item to set the properties and settings of a feature layer in a feature service.

ArcGIS portal

Create a vector tile service

Use data management tools to create a new vector tile service from a feature service.

ArcGIS portal

Create a map tile service

Use ArcGIS Online or scripting APIs to publish a map tile service.

ArcGIS PortalPython APIREST JS

Services

Tools