Get Started with Web GIS

his chapter introduces the basic concepts and workflows of Web GIS and the Esri

geo-

spatial cloud. The chapter begins with an overview of Web GIS and its advantages; intro-

duces Esri’s geospatial cloud including ArcGIS

Online and ArcGIS Enterprise; illustrates online,

on-premises, and hybrid deployment patterns; lists the technical evolutions in Web GIS; explains

the content types, hosted feature layers, app types, and user types in Web GIS; and demonstrates

the workflow to build Web GIS apps using the Attachment Viewer instant app template. This

chapter familiarizes you with ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise basic operations and work-

flows and introduces flexible ways to build Web GIS apps that you will explore in other chapters.

Objectives

• Grasp the concept and advantages of Web GIS.

• Understand the deployment patterns of Web GIS.

• Learn the components of the new-generation Web GIS.

• Understand the technical evolutions and trends in Web GIS.

• Understand the concepts of web services and hosted feature layers.

• Publish hosted feature layers from CSV files.

• Learn the workflow for creating web maps and web apps.

CHAPTER 1

Get started with

Web GIS

Chapter 1: Get started with Web GIS2

Web GIS and the geospatial cloud

Web GIS is the combination of the web and geographic information systems (GIS). The web

removed the constraint of distance and thus allows people the freedom to interact with GIS apps

globally and access information almost instantly. Web GIS uses web technologies, including but

not limited to Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML),

Uniform Resource Locator (URL), JavaScript, Web Graphics Library (WebGL), and WebSocket.

The first operational GIS was developed in the 1960s by Roger Tomlinson (who developed

the Canada Geographic Information System). Since then, GIS has evolved from a local file-based,

single-computer system to a central database client/server system, often with multiple servers

and many more client computers. The invention of the internet in the 1980s and the growth

of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s laid the foundation for an evolutionary leap toward

Web GIS. In 1993, the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a Xerox company, developed a map-

ping web page, which marked the origin of Web GIS. In the 2000s, Web GIS evolved into a new

generation — a system of distributed web services in the cloud you can access anywhere, repre-

sented by ArcGIS.

Inheriting the power of the web and the cloud, Web GIS offers many advantages:

• Global reach: You can share your geographic information easily, within your organization

and with people all over the world.

• Large number of users: You can share your app with dozens, or even millions, of users sup-

ported by scalable cloud technology.

• Low cost per user: The cost of building one Web GIS app is often lower than building a

stand-alone desktop solution and installing it for every user.

• Better cross-platform capabilities: Web apps, especially those built with JavaScript, can

run on desktop and mobile browsers running a wide range of operating systems, including

Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, along with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

• Easy to use: Web GIS apps typically incorporate simplicity, intuition, and convenience in

their design. Public users can use these apps without a technical background (see figure).

• Easy to maintain: Web clients can benefit from the latest program and data updates each

time they access a web app. The web administrator does not have to update all the clients

separately.

Web GIS and the geospatial cloud 3

Web GIS offers a collaborative environment and a pattern for delivering GIS capabilities. GIS

professionals share information to Web GIS and extend geospatial intelligence to users across

organizations and throughout communities.

GIS is the science of locations — The Science of Where

. The term has two meanings. One mean-

ing is that GIS is itself a science, as the scientific basis for GIS technology. The other meaning

is that GIS has been used for science as an effective tool for making scientific discoveries. The

Science of Where is now recognized as a force for solving problems and understanding our

world. Web GIS takes the science to a whole new scale, transforming how we share and col-

laborate and revealing deeper insight into data. The common patterns of Web GIS applications

include mapping and visualization, data management, field mobility, monitoring, analytics,

design and planning, decision support, constituent engagement, sharing, and collaboration.

Web GIS unlocks and delivers this science to offices and homes and puts GIS technology in the

hands of billions of people. Web GIS provides immense value to government, business, science,

and daily life. In recent years, the concept and importance of spatial location have become more

mainstream, and Web GIS awareness is growing more prominent in many organizations:

• Government: Web GIS offers an ideal channel for sharing public information services and

delivering open data, an engaging medium for encouraging public participation, and a pow-

erful framework for supporting decision-making.

• Business: Web GIS helps create novel business models and reshapes existing ones. It

enhances the power of location-based advertising, business analysis, and volunteered geo-

graphic information, generating tremendous revenue directly and indirectly.

• Science: Web GIS creates research areas and renews existing avenues of research.

• Daily life: Web GIS helps people decide where to eat, stay, shop, and learn how to get from

place to place.

Table 1.1 describes patterns of Web GIS applications, including mapping and visualization, data

management, and analytics.

GIS professional

using Web GIS

Casual users

Developers

Open data

community

Chapter 1: Get started with Web GIS4

Table 1.1. Common patterns of Web GIS applications

Pattern name Description

Mapping and visualization Understand locations and relationships with maps and visual representations.

Data management

Collect, organize, and maintain accurate locations and details about assets

and resources.

Field mobility

Manage and enable a mobile workforce to collect and access information in

the ﬁeld.

Monitoring Track, manage, and monitor assets and resources in real time.

Analytics Discover, quantify, and predict trends and patterns to improve outcomes.

Design and planning Evaluate alternative solutions and create optimal designs.

Decision support Gain situational awareness and enable information-driven decision-making.

Constituent engagement

Communicate and collaborate with citizens and external communities

of interest.

Sharing and collaboration Empower everyone to discover, use, make, and share geographic information.

The geospatial cloud powers Web GIS

Esri’s Web GIS capabilities are provided by ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise, which are at

the core of the geospatial cloud.

• ArcGIS Online is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering of Web GIS. ArcGIS Online is

hosted on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud and Microsoft Azure cloud platforms and

is managed by Esri. There is no hardware infrastructure for an organization to maintain.

ArcGIS Online hosts hundreds of millions of content items and registered users. It serves bil-

lions of maps per day with high performance, scalability, and availability. With the benefits

of cloud computing, ArcGIS Online has been quickly adopted by government and commer-

cial organizations around the world.

• ArcGIS Enterprise is a Web GIS software product that organizations can acquire and deploy.

ArcGIS Enterprise includes four basic software components: Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS

Server, ArcGIS Data Store, and ArcGIS Web Adaptor. These components support flexible

ways for deployment, from a single-machine deployment to multiple-machine deployments,

highly available (HA) deployment, on Windows, Linux, and the Kubernetes platform, in

on-premises data centers or in AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and many other cloud

platforms.

Table 1.2 lists these deployment patterns.

Web GIS and the geospatial cloud 5

Table 1.2. Esri Web GIS deployment patterns

Online Hybrid On-premises or in cloud

Esri managed

ArcGIS Online ArcGIS Online

Customer managed

ArcGIS Enterprise ArcGIS Enterprise

Although on-premises data center technology is not necessarily on the verge of extinction, cloud

computing is an option with many benefits, including scalability, agility, and cost efficiency.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, cloud usage increased rapidly because people use the cloud

platforms to work and shop from home. Today, more organizations are adopting ArcGIS Online

or deploying their ArcGIS Enterprise to the cloud, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google

Cloud, and others (see figure). Many organizations adopt a hybrid model by integrating ArcGIS

Online and ArcGIS Enterprise.

ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise benefit from an effective framework to enforce security

and protect user privacy. They are certified as compliant with many federal and international

security and privacy standards. For more information, see the ArcGIS Trust Center page at

doc.arcgis.com/en/trust/compliance/compliance-tab-intro.htm.

Built on ArcGIS Online, the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard, a real-time pandemic tracker, has become

a global reference for the pandemic and one of the most cited resources to track the spread of coronavirus

around the world. It has received billions of views and remained highly efﬁcient under a massive amount of

web trafﬁc.

Chapter 1: Get started with Web GIS6

New-generation Web GIS architecture and trends

ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise represent the new generation of Web GIS. Although the

two have some differences (see chapter 5), they generally share similar architecture, similar capa-

bilities, and similar workflows for creating content, as shown in this figure.

ArcGIS is a new-generation Web GIS that provides mapping, analysis, data management, and collaboration.

This new-generation Web GIS architecture is described as follows:

• At the center of the new Web GIS architecture is a portal—ArcGIS Online or Portal for

ArcGIS—which represents a gateway for accessing all spatial products in an organization.

The portal helps organize, secure, and facilitate access to geographic information products.

• On the back end, the portal is powered by two components: GIS servers that allow you to

create content and ready-to-use content such as ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, which

provides tens of thousands of data layers and maps.

• On the client side, users can search, discover, and use the layers, maps, and apps on desktops,

in web browsers, and on mobile devices anywhere, anytime.

Technology evolution and trends in Web GIS

Since its inception, Web GIS has coevolved with geographic science and information technology

(see figure). This evolution and these trends are discussed in greater detail in later chapters.

Desktop Web Device

ArcGIS Online Portal for

ArcGIS

Client apps Access Services

Server Web services

New-generation Web GIS architecture and trends 7

Web GIS has coevolved with geographic information science and information technology.

Web GIS has exemplified the following evolution of stages and trends in technologies:

• From closed websites to open geospatial web services. Early Web GIS apps were developed

as independent websites. These websites were isolated from one another. It was difficult to

share information and functions between them and difficult to remix the content to create

apps. In the later 1990s, web services technology was conceived. Web services can be thought

of as building blocks that can be shared and remixed in versatile ways for building web apps.

The GIS industry adopted the concept of web services in manufacturing Web GIS products.

For example, ArcGIS Web GIS products fully support the web services architecture. The

server side provides ready-to-use services and allows users to create their own services,

whereas the client side can consume and combine these services to create apps.

• From one-way to two-way information flow. Early Web GIS products and applications

mainly supported one-way information flow, which was from server side to client side. Users

were merely the receivers of information. As we entered the 21st century, user-generated

content (UGC) became a significant phenomenon and created a reversed information flow,

from client side to server side. Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is the UGC of a

geospatial nature. For example, ArcGIS facilitates VGI through editable layers, Mobile GIS

apps, and browser-based apps. Users can view maps and perform queries, as well as conduct

field surveys, collect data, and report events they see.

Chapter 1: Get started with Web GIS8

• Portal technology is becoming essential. The word portal means gate or entrance. It was

adopted in the mid-1990s to form new terms such as web portal, referring to a website

that serves as the gateway to other websites or web resources. Geoportals are gateways to

geospatial information. Portals have become a core component of Web GIS technology. For

example, ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS have geoportal capabilities. They facilitate

the management, search, discovery, configuration, security, and remix of GIS data layers and

services. Today, portal collaboration allows different organizations to replicate selected con-

tent as hosts and guests, creating a portal of portals — a distributed Web GIS pattern. ArcGIS

Hub

℠

and ArcGIS Enterprise Sites are examples of subject- or initiative-based portals. They

provide an easy-to-configure community engagement platform that organizes people, data,

and tools through information-driven initiatives. Organizations can create websites to share

data, documents, videos, and web maps on a certain subject or for a certain initiative. For

instance, the COVID-19 GIS Hub (

coronavirus-resources.esri.com) provides GIS resources,

solutions, and a collaboration platform for the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

• Cloud GIS delivers GIS functionality and ready-to-use contents. Cloud GIS, which uses

public and private cloud computing to provide GIS software and contents, has become the

primary way to deliver GIS — not just functionality but also content. Cloud GIS advantages

include vast content and functionality, the flexibility of pay-as-you-go or subscription pric-

ing, reduced complexity, and increased availability of services. Because of these advantages,

cloud GIS, such as ArcGIS Online, has penetrated organizations that have not used GIS

before or been able to afford GIS on their own.

• Mobile is becoming the pervasive Web GIS client platform. In the post-PC era, mobile

devices have surpassed desktops and notebooks as the primary platform for accessing online

information. Mobile devices are a part of everyone’s life and work. “Mobile first” is a strategy

of many industries, including the Web GIS industry. Vendors have given extra attention to

Mobile GIS. For example, Esri provides numerous mobile-native apps and mobile-friendly

browser apps to support the needs of users and organizations for Mobile GIS. Mobile GIS

is also associated with many frontiers in Web GIS, such as augmented reality (AR). AR can

superimpose GIS data on top of a user’s camera views and thus augment a user’s sense of

reality. With the rapid advances in Mobile GIS, the vision of using GIS for anything, any-

time, anywhere, and by anyone is being realized faster than we can imagine.

• Map visualization goes from 2D to 3D and virtual reality. With the increased client-side

graphics processing power and the broader support of WebGL (a JavaScript application pro-

gramming interface [API] that renders interactive 2D and 3D graphics in a browser), Web

GIS products such as ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise can smoothly create and display

New-generation Web GIS architecture and trends 9

thematic and photo-realistic 3D web scenes. Representing a big step from 2D online maps,

3D web scenes provide users a more intuitive means to understand their data. Web scenes

are also important for indoor mapping, an ongoing trend in GIS. Even more intuitive than

3D, virtual reality (VR) allows users with certain visual wearables to immerse themselves in

3D city models by transporting themselves into static viewpoints and comparing different

urban design scenarios. This immersive experience brings GIS data and geospatial under-

standing even closer to users. The GIS community can play an important role in building the

metaverse and can assist with getting real work done in the virtual world environment. The

term metaverse refers to the fully immersive 3D expansion of existing internet technologies

to include AR and VR.

• Data source goes from static to real time and spatiotemporal big data. Many elements in

Web GIS are of a real-time nature, such as the incidents immediately reported by field crews,

citizens using mobile devices, concurrent measurements from sensor networks, and smart

cities. This massive amount of data presents challenges in real-time intake, processing, analy-

sis, visualization, and storage. ArcGIS GeoEvent

™

Server and ArcGIS Velocity use cluster

computing and can ingest millions of sensor readings per second, process them, and store

them in real time. Such products and research allow Web GIS to meet the requirements of

the sensor web and the Internet of Things (IoT).

• Web GIS is becoming more intelligent. Map visualization is the first step toward data

analysis. ArcGIS smart mapping can analyze the data automatically and suggest the best

mapping style and best defaults. This can help both expert and novice users quickly create

aesthetic and informative maps. Web GIS goes far beyond mapping. Web GIS can perform

big data analysis using distributed computing, aggregate data in the context of both space

and time, extrapolate new ideas from raw data, and bring superior intelligence to business

decisions. More recently, Web GIS has started to use artificial intelligence (AI), especially

machine learning and deep learning. For example, AI significantly improves the accuracy of

online imagery classification. AI can quickly identify the damaged locations from millions of

facilities’ photos and ensure that the damaged facilities are repaired early.

Chapter 1: Get started with Web GIS10

Web GIS information model: Users, web layers, maps, and

apps

Web GIS elements include users, groups, content items, and metadata (see figure).

• Users with necessary privileges can create and join groups.

• Users sign in to create and share content items (with certain privileges), which include a

large variety of data, web layers, tools, web maps, web scenes, and web apps.

• Content items have metadata, including title, summary, description, categories, and tags, and

additional standards-based metadata. Metadata is indexed so users can search and discover

items more efficiently.

• Users can keep information to themselves, share with certain groups (rather than individual

users), share with their organizations, or share with everyone — even the public if the organi-

zation allows anonymous access. This allows other users to see and access the items.

The ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS high-level information model.

Main types of content items

Web GIS has five main types of content: data, layers, tools, web maps and scenes, and apps. Data

can be used to publish web layers; web layers can be used to create web maps and web scenes;

web maps and scenes and web tools can be used in apps or to create apps, as shown in the figure.

Metadata

Items

Users

Groups

own

index

organize and secure

own or join

Web GIS information model: Users, web layers, maps, and apps 11

The main types of content in Web GIS and their relationships.

These five main content types are described as follows:

• Data: ArcGIS Online supports data in a variety of formats, including CSV, shapefiles, GPS

Exchange Format (GPX), JavaScript Object Notation (GeoJSON), photos, imagery, geodata-

bases, and so on.

• Layers: The Esri geospatial cloud can host layers, including feature layers, tiled layers, vector

tiles, map image layers, image layers, scene layers, CSV layers, tables, and Open Geospatial

Consortium (OGC) standard layers such as Keyhole Markup Language (KML), Web Map

Service (WMS), Web Map Tile Service (WMTS), and Web Feature Service (WFS).

• Web maps and scenes: A web map, which is 2D, or a scene, which is 3D, comprises one or

multiple layers and allows sophisticated layer configuration, including styles, pop-ups, labels,

and access permission.

• Tools: Tools perform analytical functions, such as geocoding, routing, generating PDF files,

summarizing data, finding hot spots, and analyzing proximity.

• Apps: GIS apps are lightweight mapcentric programs that can be used on mobile devices,

in web browsers, or on desktops. Developers can program with ArcGIS web APIs to build

web apps. However, you do not have to be a developer to create a web app. ArcGIS provides

many ready-to-use web apps and mobile apps that can be used without programming.

Apps: The face of Web GIS

Apps bring Web GIS to life. Web GIS end users directly interact with apps. The back-end data,

web layers, and server computation power of Web GIS become live and useful through apps.

ArcGIS provides ready-to-use apps out of the box and provides APIs and software development

kits (SDKs) for developers to create custom apps.

Tools

Web, mobile,

and desktop apps

Data Web layers

published to

Web maps

and scenes

added to

conﬁgured

and used in

Chapter 1: Get started with Web GIS12

The ready-to-use apps include configurable apps (also referred to as ArcGIS Online and Portal

for ArcGIS web app templates), ArcGIS StoryMaps

℠

stories, mobile apps, app builders, and

more. ArcGIS organizes these apps into bundles:

• Essential apps bundle: ArcGIS StoryMaps, ArcGIS Experience Builder, ArcGIS Web

AppBuilder, ArcGIS Dashboards, instant apps, ArcGIS Hub Basic, Map Viewer, Scene

Viewer, and so on

• Field apps bundle: ArcGIS Field Maps, ArcGIS Survey123, ArcGIS QuickCapture, and so on

• Office apps bundle: ArcGIS for Office, ArcGIS for SharePoint, and so on

• ArcGIS Pro

• ArcGIS Insights

℠

• Add-on apps: ArcGIS Drone2Map

, ArcGIS Navigator, ArcGIS Business Analyst

™

, and so on

ArcGIS user types consist of Viewer, Storyteller, Editor, Field Worker, Creator, GIS

Professional, and Insights Analyst (see table 1.3). Different user types have included access to

different app bundles and apps. Apps that are not included with a user type can be acquired and

assigned as add-on licenses. To finish most of the tutorials in this book, a Creator user type with

a Publisher role is required.

Table 1.3. Main ArcGIS user types, privileges, and included apps

Type Privileges Included apps

Viewer Can view items

Can’t create, edit, share, or analyze items

Essential apps bundle

Storyteller Can create stories and express maps

Can’t create other types of content

Essential apps bundle

Editor Can view and edit data

Can’t analyze, create, or share items

Essential apps bundle

Field Worker Same as Editor + Field appsbundles

Creator Can edit, create, share content, and do analysis + Ofﬁce appsbundles

GIS Professional Same as Creator + ArcGIS Pro

Insights Analyst Same as GIS Professional Insights

“+” means including the apps from the user type listed earlier in the table.

Web GIS information model: Users, web layers, maps, and apps 13

Basic components of a Web GIS app

Today’s best practices recommend that a GIS app have basemaps, operational layers, and tools

(see figure). ArcGIS supports this practice and allows you to create Web GIS apps.

The basic components of a Web GIS app.

The components of a Web GIS app are described as follows:

• Basemap layers: Basemaps provide a reference or context for your app. ArcGIS provides a

collection of fast-responding 2D and 3D basemaps (see figure). In addition, you can create

and use your own basemaps.

ArcGIS provides a gallery of basemaps and an elevation service to support 2D and 3D web maps and apps.

• Operational layers: Operational layers are theme layers that you and other users can use and

interact with. You can use existing layers from ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Living Atlas of

the World as your operational layers. These layers span a range of subjects and can support

Web GIS appBasemaps

=+ +

Operational

layers

Tools

Chapter 1: Get started with Web GIS14

maps and apps of almost every subject. You can search these collections and discover layers

that fit your needs. You can also create and use your own operational layers.

• Tools: Tools perform tasks beyond mapping, including common tasks such as query, geocod-

ing, routing, and more specialized tasks. ArcGIS Online provides extensive spatial analysis

tools for you to ask questions and solve spatial problems. ArcGIS Enterprise provides tools

for standard analysis, big data analysis, and raster analysis, and allows you to publish custom

web tools — in other words, geoprocessing services.

Web layers or services: The building blocks of Web GIS

Web services technology is at the foundation of today’s Web GIS. The previously mentioned

three types of components of Web GIS apps are typically all based on web services. To make it

easier to understand, web services in ArcGIS are also called web layers or web tools. For exam-

ple, basemaps are often tile services or tile layers, operational layers are often feature services or

feature layers, and many tools are based on geoprocessing services or web tools.

Early Web GIS was not based on web services; instead, it consisted mostly of stand-alone

websites in which GIS data and functions were available only to their own clients and couldn’t

be reused in other systems. This situation greatly limited the reusability of Web GIS resources.

In the late 1990s, web services technology was conceived. A web service is a program that runs

on a web server and provides programming interfaces for clients to consume over the web. Web

services have many advantages, such as flexibility in being reused and remixed in many web apps.

The GIS industry quickly adopted web services technology and reformed Web GIS products

based on web services architecture in the early 2000s. Today’s Web GIS products are designed to

support the publication, discovery, and use of GIS web services. A GIS service represents a GIS

resource — such as a layer, map, locator, or toolbox — that is located on the server and made avail-

able to web clients. For example, ArcGIS Living Atlas provides collections of ready-to-use GIS

services. The Esri geospatial cloud allows publishers to publish many types of GIS services and

allows users to discover and use GIS services in web maps, web apps, and mobile apps.

This chapter introduces feature layers and services. Other chapters introduce raster tile ser-

vices, vector tile services, 3D scene services, map services, image services, stream services, geo-

processing services, geocoding services, and more. To support interoperability, ArcGIS supports

OGC standards such as WMS, WMTS, WFS, and KML.

Web GIS information model: Users, web layers, maps, and apps 15

Hosted and nonhosted feature layers

Feature layers are the most used layer type for operational layers. Feature refers to vector data:

points, lines, and polygons. Feature layers can be hosted or nonhosted, depending on where the

underlying data is stored.

• Hosted refers to a situation in which a web service is based on ArcGIS-managed data: for

instance, the data is stored in the ArcGIS Online cloud database (which is managed auto-

matically by Esri) or in ArcGIS Data Store (which is managed automatically by ArcGIS

Enterprise).

• Nonhosted refers to a situation in which a web service connects directly to user-managed

data: for instance, the data is stored in your organization’s own database, and the database is

managed by your own organization.

Feature layers published to ArcGIS Online are always hosted feature layers. Feature layers pub-

lished in ArcGIS Enterprise can be hosted if the data is stored in ArcGIS Data Store or nonhosted

if your feature layers reference your organization’s own geodatabase — for example, SQL Server,

Oracle, or PostgreSQL.

Hosted feature layers are often easier to publish because you don’t have to worry about the

underlying database. You don’t have to (and you won’t be able to) directly connect to the database

and manipulate it. To change the database schema and edit the data, you must go through the

hosted feature layer web interface. Nonhosted feature layers require that you have and manage

your own database. You can directly connect to the database and perform various operations

on it.

This book teaches many ways to publish hosted feature layers—from CSV files, zipped file

geodatabases, ArcGIS Pro, and so on. You can also create empty feature layers and add fields in

ArcGIS Online (see chapter 4).

Web maps and web scenes: The bridge between layers and apps

Web GIS provides Map Viewer and Scene Viewer for creators to integrate multiple layers, style

these layers, configure layer pop-ups, and make many other configurations. After a web map or

web scene is created, it can be used in one app or reused in many apps. This makes it easier for

creators to create apps. Without web maps and scenes, creators would often have to integrate the

layers directly and configure them in the apps, which can be cumbersome.

Chapter 1: Get started with Web GIS16

Paths to building Web GIS applications

The tutorials in this book teach readers how to build Web GIS apps. ArcGIS offers many paths to

this goal, as shown in this figure, which will be used throughout the book.

ArcGIS offers many ways to build web apps. The green arrows in the ﬁgure highlight the workﬂows and

technology presented in this chapter.

The figure presents the generic workflow to build Web GIS apps:

• The data tier contains formats that range from simple CSV files managed with Microsoft

Excel to sophisticated geodatabases managed with enterprise databases.

• You can publish desktop resources to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise as web layers,

tools, or other services. You can also use layers provided by ArcGIS Living Atlas. You can add

layers to web maps and web scenes and configure the styles and pop-ups in these layers.

• On the client side, you can use various ready-to-use apps or custom apps. The former can be

configured without programming. The latter can be developed using various web APIs or

SDKs.