Best Practices for Authoritative Data Providers

Maximize the deliciousness of your shared geospatial content

If data in a geospatial collaborative are like ingredients in a restaurant, then your authoritative content is the crème de la crème.

Sharing authoritative content comes with certain responsibilities. Although data governance is necessary for collaborative GIS, it needn't be burdensome. This Guide provides a simple set of Best Practices to help partners maximize the effectiveness of shared authoritative data (making it extra delicious!). Think of it as your recipe for success.

For quick reference, download the checklist version of these Best Practices for Authoritative Data Providers. (Word document)


1. Maintain reliable, persistent data layers and web services

Shared data layers need to be reliable. People and organizations rely on the authoritative data you share in their own maps and apps.

If you change the ItemID of a shared web data layer, the maps and apps that rely on your data layer no longer have access, possibly rendering them useless.

GOOD PRACTICE: Maintain persistent data layers with unchanged ItemIDs / service URLs.

An Item ID is a unique identifier representing a single content item stored, managed, and accessed in the ArcGIS portal, such as a hosted data layer or map. ArcGIS applications and APIs use the ItemID or web service URL to access the item from the ArcGIS portal.


2. Publish individual layers

While web services can contain multiple sublayers, publishing individual web layers typically provides greater control when sharing an item and its metadata.

Sharing individual web layers will also be faster than having multiple sublayers in one service.

GOOD PRACTICE: Publish individual web layers (these may or may not have related tables).

NOTE: Web layers can be composed of an individual data layer, multiple sublayers, or a web map containing multiple layers. Carefully consider when publishing topically related sublayers together makes sense. Web maps often include multiple layers in addition to a base map. An individual feature layer may or may not have related tables.

Content shared to an ArcGIS Hub site first must be hosted or registered in ArcGIS Online. ArcGIS Online maximizes data distribution and enables sharing through ArcGIS Hub. Think of ArcGIS Online as a conduit to your Hub site.

ArcGIS Online

To ensure performance and scalability and maximize discoverability, publish hosted web services directly to ArcGIS Online. Starting in ArcGIS Pro, right-click a layer in the Details pane and choose 'Share as web layer' to publish individual layers to ArcGIS Online. Metadata flows through with the layer during publishing.

ArcGIS Enterprise

Many organizations publish web services directly to their ArcGIS Enterprise portal and then reference them in ArcGIS Online. Starting in ArcGIS Pro, right-click a layer in the Details pane and choose 'Share as web layer' to publish individual layers to ArcGIS Enterprise. Metadata flows through with the layer during publishing. Then, register or replicate the item in your ArcGIS Online organization.

3. Item title uses a naming convention

When you share content in ArcGIS Online and Hub, your data live among hundreds of thousands of others in a global data ecosystem.

A simple naming convention for your Item titles distinguishes your content from others and helps users quickly find and discover what they need.

GOOD PRACTICE: Titles should be succinct yet descriptive. Follow the pattern: "LayerTopic of Jurisdiction" and include time period when relevant.

Include the layer topic and geography and, where relevant, temporal info. Layers without dates are assumed to be current. Dates represent the time period of the data or archive dateFor example:

  • Fire stations of Sweden
  • Fire stations of Sweden 2018

It is common to express the date as Year (YYYY), Year-Month (YYYY-MM), or Year-Month-Day (YYYY-MM-DD). (reference ISO 8601 date/time format)

TIP: You can  change Item names  without affecting the dependent child services, layer views, or the Item ID.

4. Complete Item information

ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Online Item pages present essential Item information.

These essential metadata elements are also available in the Metadata Editor. They represent the core information needed to make your data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable).

GOOD PRACTICE: Complete essential metadata elements in the Item information and/or Metadata Editor.

Explore tips on how to complete different item info components below.

Item Thumbnail

Put your best thumbnail forward! Thumbnails visually communicate what your Item is all about.

GOOD PRACTICE: Add a thumbnail graphic to every item you share with the public

TIP: The standard thumbnail size is 600 x 400 px. If you size your graphic to these dimensions, you know the resolution will turn out well.

Summary

The Summary should be succinct yet descriptive. The Summary appears in different places when your content is shared, for example, with Items displayed in a gallery or as information on your Hub site.

Description

The Description (also known as the Abstract) tells visitors what your content is about.

For example, it may convey what the data represent, where the data is located, how accurate it is, when it was collected, and who collected it.

Categories

Assign one or more Categories to the Items that you share.

Categories drive browsing, search, and discovery in ArcGIS Hub.

NOTE: Categories have a complementary ArcGIS Enterprise / Online portal Organization setting that must be  configured by the Administrator  (ISO categories are recommended).

Tags

Tags improve the search experience for people visiting your site.

GOOD PRACTICE: Be specific with your tags.

  • Tag with narrower terms
  • Tag your agency/program/division, include complete spelling, common acronym, and bureau code if applicable
  • Tag your jurisdiction
  • Make your data more findable by including the national and international standards ISO code for your jurisdiction

TIP: Don't include all subdivision names as tags for composite data aggregated from multiple adjacent jurisdictions. The metadata 'place keywords' element in the Metadata Editor is the appropriate spot to enter placenames.

Terms of use

Terms of use are how you want people to use this data, including general use limitations, restrictions, and constraints.

License

Include a license associated with your open data (e.g., Creative Commons code "CC0").

Additionally, the metadata 'resource constraints' element in the Metadata Editor is the appropriate spot to enter legal and security use limitations, restrictions, and access restraints.

TIP: If you add a   Creative Commons  license (CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA) by either the name or the URL, when shared to Hub, the Item's page will display the Creative Commons license icon and link to the relevant license web page. If you add an  Open Data Commons  license (PDDL, ODbL, ODC-By), the Hub Item page will display the license name and link to the relevant license web page.

Field attribute alias and description

Authoritative data represent the highest quality ingredients available.

Transform your layers' value with user-friendly attribute field aliases and descriptions.

Updating the attribute alias and descriptions for the fields in your data helps to make it more accessible to everyone.

TIP: In ArcGIS Online, open your hosted feature service Item, navigate to the Data tab, select Fields and click on the field you'd like to edit.


5. Item settings

There are a few Item settings not to be missed. First, open the ArcGIS Online Item and choose the Settings tab. Then, review and apply the following settings as appropriate.

NOTE: Some Item settings have complementary ArcGIS Online portal settings that must be  set by the Administrator .

GOOD PRACTICE: Configure Item Settings appropriately.

Designate as Authoritative

Identify Authoritative Items with a badge and the organization's name as the item owner (rather than an individual user).

GOOD PRACTICE: Verified organizations can designate Items as authoritative.

TIP: Generally, the "Authoritative" tag should be only used by the responsible data owners or authorized entities (not third-party publishers). Within your organization, administrators and content curators (members who have privileges to view and update content) can label content authoritative. The ArcGIS Online  documentation  describes a workflow that organizations might follow to review and designate items as authoritative.

Enable delete protection

 Enable delete protection  on your shared items.  Protect shared content  to avoid you or the administrator accidentally deleting shared items (for example, when choosing multiple items for deletion in the Content page).

Disable sharing when editing is enabled

Uncheck Approve this layer to be shared with the public when editing is enabled. If you must enable editing for data maintenance, consider sharing a non-editable View Layer.

Set the extent of your item

Set the geographic extent for each shared Item. Designating an Item's Extent improves discoverability. It assures that it will display zoomed to the correct location when an end-user opens the layer in a GIS client or browses your data in Hub.

This metadata element is also available in the Metadata Editor.

NOTE: Not setting extent may result in less findable and a poor user experience.

Disable editing

Uncheck Enable editing. Be aware that sharing editable feature layers with everyone means everyone can edit the data in the layer.

Enable Sync

Enable sync if you want to allow people to use this data offline.

Allow data exports

Check Export Data to allow others to export different formats. Configure your hosted feature layers to allow others to export data from it when they access the layer.

When this setting is enabled (checked) in the ArcGIS Online Item settings, users can download data in various open formats when accessing the data through Hub.

6. Items have metadata

Metadata are the Nutrition Facts for your GIS data.

TIP: If you've applied the preceding good practices for Layer information and Item Settings, most of the required metadata elements should already be completed!

On the Item details page, click the Metadata button to review and complete the required Metadata elements. Click Save.

GOOD PRACTICE: Complete all minimum metadata elements required by your organization, plus recommended/optional at your discretion.

Learn more about metadata in our primer:

NOTE: The administrator sets the Metadata Style for your organization.


7. Provide access through sharing

With the other good practices complete, you are ready to share your content based on your organization's policies. As appropriate, Public access can be enabled for everyone, while secure content can be restricted to authorized users.

GOOD PRACTICE: Enable appropriate access and share your content.

Enable Everyone (public) to access shared content

Return to the Item Overview page. Click the Share button and choose share with Everyone (public)Make sure editing is not enabled (see the previous section).

Share with 'Partner Shared Content' Hub Groups

Next in the Share dialog, click Edit group sharing and choose the appropriate group(s) for sharing. For example, if you share content to an ArcGIS Hub site, share your content with the Hub's Shared Content Groups.

How Standard Group Sharing works

Hub uses ArcGIS Online open data groups to index content in the Hub Content Library (i.e., your Hub catalog). Here's how standard Group Sharing works:

Administrator invites Partner to a Group

Partner accepts the invitation and the Group appears in the partner's Group listing.

The Group is a space for sharing and collaboration

Partner shares their authoritative content to the Shared Content Group via the Item's 'Share' setting. It's as easy as checking a box.

Shared content automatically flows to Hub

When enabled for open data and indexed by Hub, content from the Group automatically appears in the Hub catalog.


8. Archive content periodically

Make a copy to archive content periodically while maintaining ItemIDs / service URLs (see Good Practice #1). The frequency of archiving will vary based on the nature of the dataset and your organization's data governance. Append date to title as appropriate.

GOOD PRACTICE: Make a copy to archive content periodically, appending the date to the title as appropriate.

Layers without dates are assumed to be current. Dates represent the time period of the data or archive date. It is common to express the date as Year (YYYY), Year-Month (YYYY-MM), or Year-Month-Day (YYYY-MM-DD). (reference: ISO 8601 date/time format)

Ready for retirement? The following article provides helpful advice to help transition users from old to new web services:


9. Go further with maps & apps!

You've prepared your authoritative data following the good practices herein to serve the needs of data consumers, such as GIS analysts, researchers, and developers.

Now you want to go further. Some of your customers are hungry for knowledge and understanding but don't know how to work with GIS.

They include the public, policymakers, decision-makers, researchers, and students. So when ready, dish out a complete meal by serving data as maps and apps to provide an appropriate experience for these visitors.

GOOD PRACTICE: Share versions of authoritative data layers as maps and apps appropriate to different audiences.

TIP: ArcGIS Instant Apps are quick and easy no-code apps for this purpose. First, create uncomplicated maps with your data. Then, build apps to view, share, and embed on web pages.


Next steps

This guide shared good practices that Authoritative Data Providers can follow to maximize the effectiveness of shared content.

The following guide in this collection describes ArcGIS patterns of sharing and collaboration and shares good practices, such as group naming conventions and how to manage groups in Hub.