Publish hosted tile layers from files

Tile layers published to and hosted on ArcGIS Online support fast visualization of large datasets using a collection of predrawn map images or tiles. Hosted tiles provide geographic context for operational layers. For example, you can include tiles of streets in your neighborhood to provide a visual reference for the street signs in a feature layer.

Tile layers hosted on ArcGIS Online are useful when you need to expose a map on the web for visualization but you do not have your own ArcGIS Server. They also allow you to share certain maps with an internet audience if your own ArcGIS Server cannot be made public. WMTS is available for tile layers hosted on ArcGIS Online that are shared with the public.

You can publish a tile layer from an existing hosted feature layer, or use any of the following methods to create a file in ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap, and use that file to publish a hosted tile layer in ArcGIS Online:

• Define a map in ArcGIS Pro and allow ArcGIS Online to create the tiles.
• Build a tile package in ArcGIS Pro, upload it, and publish to your ArcGIS Online organization.
• Define a map in ArcMap and publish as a tile layer to ArcGIS Online.
• Build and share a tile package in ArcMap and publish it in ArcGIS Online.
• Define a service definition file in ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro, upload it, and allow ArcGIS Online to create the tiles.

Tip:

See Tile layers for information that can help you decide which method to use to publish a tile layer.

To publish a hosted tile layer, you must be a member of one of the following in your organization:

• The default Publisher role
• A custom role that has privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers

When you publish from ArcGIS Pro, ArcMap, or a tile package, a tile package file is added as an item in your content. Once you confirm that the tile layer functions, you can delete the tile layer package from ArcGIS Online to save storage space, but only do so if you are certain that you no longer need the tile package.

Define and publish a map in ArcGIS Pro

From a map in ArcGIS Pro, you can publish a tile layer to be hosted on ArcGIS Online. An internet connection is required to perform these steps.

Note:

If the layers in ArcGIS Pro have definition queries applied to them, ArcGIS applies the definition queries to the published hosted tile layer. However, all data is uploaded to ArcGIS Online. If you want only a subset of the data to be published to and stored in ArcGIS Online, you must export the subset of the data to another feature class and publish that.

The speed and bandwidth of your connection affect how quickly the tile layer publishes.

Also note that web browsers cannot display some of the more complex cartographic symbols you may have originally used when you authored the map. Most symbol types are available, but in some cases, the symbols may be downgraded when you publish them. See Author maps to publish feature services in the ArcGIS Server help for more details about what symbols are supported, and make any required changes to the map symbology prior to publishing.

1. Start ArcGIS Pro and open the project that contains the map you want to publish.
2. Sign in to your organization from ArcGIS Pro using an account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers.
3. Click Web Layer in the Share As group on the Share tab.
4. Type a name for the tile layer.
5. Provide a summary and tags for the tile layer.
6. Choose Tile for the Layer type.
   The layer is saved to My content by default. You can save to a subfolder in My content by either typing the folder name or browsing to an existing folder.
7. Specify who should have access to the hosted tile layer.

   All layers you publish are automatically shared to your personal workspace in your organization (My content). Your content is inaccessible to others until you share it with one or more of the following:

   • Everyone—Choosing this option makes the layer available to the public.
   • The name of your organization—You will see this option if you are signed in with an organizational account. Choosing this option allows the layer to be shared with all authenticated users in the organization.
   • Groups—You can share the layer with members of groups to which you belong by choosing the groups from the drop-down list.
8. Click the Configuration tab to specify cache settings.
9. Choose a Tiling Scheme option.
10. Resize and drag the Levels of Detail bar to indicate minimum and maximum scale for the tile layer.

    The estimated size of the resultant cache changes as you change the minimum and maximum scale.

11. Under Options, choose when and where to build the tile cache.
    • Choose Cache automatically on the server if you want the tiles to be built on ArcGIS Online when you publish the layer.
    • If you want the cache built and stored on ArcGIS Online, but you want to build them yourself after publishing, choose Cache manually on the server, open the tile layer in the ArcGIS Online website after the layer is published, and manually create the cache.
    • If you want to minimize the number of credits consumed when publishing a tile layer to ArcGIS Online, choose Cache locally and specify a location on the ArcGIS Pro machine to store a temporary tile package. The cache is built and packaged on the ArcGIS Pro machine, and the tile package is automatically uploaded to ArcGIS Online to be unpacked and the cache stored in ArcGIS Online.
12. To allow users to download map tiles for use offline, check Allow clients to export cache tiles.
13. If you checked Allow clients to export cache tiles, use the Limit export to field to specify the maximum number of tiles clients can take offline at one time.
14. To calculate the number of tiles and storage that the caching options will use, open the Estimate section and click Calculate.

    You can change the cache settings and calculate again to see how the settings affect the cache.

15. Click the Content tab to confirm the tile layer will include the data layers you intended.
16. Click Analyze to check for any errors or issues.

    The Messages tab lists any issues discovered by the analyzers. Right-click each message to get more information, read help for the error or warning, and access suggested fixes. You must fix the errors before you can publish. Optionally, fix the warnings to further improve the performance and appearance of the hosted tile layer.

17. Once you fix the errors and, optionally, any warnings, click Publish.

    Note:

    Your data is copied to ArcGIS Online at this point. The size of the data and your internet connection speed and bandwidth affect the time it takes to publish.

When publishing completes, you can click Manage the web layer to open ArcGIS Online.

Publish from a tile package

Use the Create Map Tile Package geoprocessing tool to create a tile package, add the package to your organization, and publish a tile layer.

ArcGIS Pro 2.3 and later releases allow you to specify the output of this geoprocessing tool to be either a .tpk file or a .tpkx file. The new .tpkx format uses a simplified file structure, which provides improved performance when running in the cloud and shared network locations, and is an open-specification format. You can use either format in this workflow.

1. Open the ArcGIS Pro project that contains the data you want to package.
2. Open and run the Create Map Tile Package geoprocessing tool.
3. When creation of the tile package completes, sign in to your organization using an account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers.
4. On the My content tab of the content page, click New item.
5. Click Your device to add the tile package.
6. Choose Add <tile package name> and create a hosted tile layer.
7. Click Next.
8. Provide a title.
9. Choose a folder in My content where you want to save the item.

   Alternatively, you can choose Create new folder from the menu and type a folder name to save the item in a new folder.

   Folder names cannot contain 4-byte Unicode characters.

10. If your organization has set up content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find the item.

    You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.

11. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

    Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

12. Click Save.

The tiles are unpacked and a hosted tile layer is created.

The tile package file and hosted tile layer are available to you in My content. You can share the file and tile layer.

Once you verify the tile layer is present and working, you can optionally delete the original tile package so that you don't have to pay credits to store it, but only do so if you are certain that you no longer need the tile package.

Define and publish a map in ArcMap

From ArcMap, you can publish a tile layer to be hosted on ArcGIS Online. An internet connection is required to perform these steps.

Note:

If the layers in ArcMap have definition queries applied to them, ArcGIS applies the definition queries to the published hosted tile layer. However, all data is uploaded to ArcGIS Online. If you want only a subset of the data to be published to and stored in ArcGIS Online, you must export the subset of the data to another feature class and publish that.

The speed and bandwidth of your connection affect how quickly the service publishes.

1. Start ArcMap and open the map you want to publish.
2. Sign in to ArcGIS Online with an organizational account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers.
   1. Click File > Sign In.
   2. Type your username and password for ArcGIS Online and click Sign In.
Now, publish the map.
3. Click File > Share As > Service.
4. Choose Publish a service and click Next.

   Caution:

   If you choose to overwrite the service instead, the existing map tile item is deleted from ArcGIS Online and a new item is created with the same name. The new item is created in the root folder and the item is assigned a new ID. You must reconfigure sharing and, if necessary, move the item back to the folder it was in before you republished.

5. In the drop-down list of connection types, choose My Hosted Services. Then type a name for the tiles and click Continue.
6. Set the properties you want in the Service Editor window.

   Here, you can choose what users can do with the tiles, and take fine-grained control of how tiles are exposed to end users. For information on how to best configure the tiles for deployment, see Tune and configure services in the ArcGIS Server help. Some of the properties referenced in that topic apply only to ArcGIS Server and are not applicable when working with hosted tile layers. For example, with tile layers hosted on ArcGIS Online, there is no option to set the minimum and maximum number of instances of the service, because Esri handles the service scaling for you.

   Tip:

   If you close the Service Editor window during this session, you'll be prompted to save your work as a draft service. Draft services allow you to come back to your service configuration work at a later time. By default, draft services are saved in the Drafts folder of your connection to My Hosted Maps. For more information, see About draft services in the ArcGIS Server help.

There are a few properties you need to set that are specific to hosted tile layers. These are detailed in the following steps.
7. In the Service Editor window, click Capabilities, and check Tiled Mapping to expose the map as a tile layer. Check Feature Access to publish a feature layer with the tiles if you want to configure pop-ups for the layer when you add it to Map Viewer.

   You can click the subitem Tiled Mapping in the Service Editor window to set advanced properties relating to what clients can do with the published tile layer.

8. Click the Caching item to set properties for the tile cache.
9. In the Service Editor window, click Item Description and provide a summary and tags for the tile layer.

   You must provide this information before you can publish.

   For more information, see the item description section in Set map service properties in the ArcGIS Server help.

10. In the Service Editor window, click ArcGIS Online, and choose with whom the hosted tile layer should be shared.

    By default, the hosted tile layer is only accessible to you. You can share it with everyone, all members of your organization, or members of certain ArcGIS Online groups.

11. In the Service Editor window, click Analyze .

    This examines the map to see whether it can be published. You must fix the errors under Errors in the Prepare window before you can publish. Optionally, you can fix the warnings and informational messages to further improve the performance and appearance of the published tiles.

12. Optionally, click Preview in the Service Editor window.

    This can give you an idea of how the tile layer will look when viewed on the web.

13. Once you fix the errors and, optionally, any warnings and messages, click Publish .

    Note:

    Your data is copied to ArcGIS Online at this point. The size of the data and your internet connection speed and bandwidth affect the time it takes to publish. Allow some time for the tiles to be generated.

Once the tiles are published to ArcGIS Online, you'll see them when you expand the My Hosted Services node in the Catalog window.

The hosted tile layer is listed as two independent items on the My content tab of the Content page: tiles and a service definition file. A service definition is a zipped file containing the map, its data, and details about how the tiles should be published. A service definition can be transferred and published to any machine running ArcGIS Server 10.1 or later.

Build and share a tile package in ArcMap and publish

ArcMap allows you to build tiles for a map document and store them in a transferrable tile package file. You can create a tile package in ArcMap, share it to ArcGIS Online, and publish it as a hosted tile layer. This workflow allows you to build the tiles using your own computing power rather than your ArcGIS Online credits.

Tip:

You must publish a feature layer along with the hosted tile layer if you want to configure pop-ups.

There are two ways you can create and share a tile package from ArcMap.

• To package and share a small amount of data (less than 1 GB), create and share the tile package directly from a map. When you publish the package in ArcGIS Online, elements of the map document, such as the legend and text elements, are preserved.
• If you have more than 1 GB of data, use geoprocessing tools to package and share the tiles. This method maintains only the data when tiles are published from the tile package, which improves tile creation performance.

At ArcMap 10.7, you can specify the results of either workflow to be either a .tpk file or a .tpkx file. The new .tpkx format uses a simplified file structure, which provides improved performance when running in the cloud and shared network locations, and is an open-specification format. You can use either format in both of the following workflows.

Publish small tile packages

If the tile package you create in ArcMap is smaller than 1 GB, use the following workflow to publish:

1. Open the map in ArcMap.
2. Sign in with an organizational account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers.
3. Click Customize > ArcMap Options > Sharing and ensure that Enable ArcGIS Runtime tools is checked.

   This enables the menu option you'll use in the next step.

4. In ArcMap, click File > Share As > Tile Package.
5. Configure all the settings in the substeps below. Optionally, configure other settings.
   1. On the Tile Package tab, choose Upload package to my ArcGIS Online account.
   2. On the Tile Format tab, choose ArcGIS Online / Bing Maps / Google Maps as the Tiling Scheme.
   3. On the Item Description tab, provide the items marked as required.
   4. On the Sharing tab, choose whether to share the package with the public or specific groups.
6. Click Share.

   You may be prompted to save the map before ArcMap creates the tile package.

   It can take a while for a tile package to be generated, especially if you have included large scales.

7. When the tile package has finished generating, sign in to ArcGIS Online using your organizational account and click Content > My content.
8. Click the tile package to display its item page.
9. Click Publish.
10. Type a title and tags and click Publish.

The tiles are unpacked and hosted as a tile layer on ArcGIS Online. The hosted tile layer appears in My content.

Once you have verified the tile layer is present and working, you can optionally delete the original tile package so that you don't have to pay credits to store it.

Publish large tile packages

To build and share large amounts of data, use the Tile Cache toolset instead of using the previous workflow. These tools can take advantage of multiple processing cores to improve tile generation and publishing performance.

Run these tools in the following order:

1. Run Generate Tile Cache Tiling Scheme to define the tiling grid and image format.
2. Run Manage Tile Cache to build the tiles.
3. Run Export Tile Cache to create the tile package.
4. Run Share Package (in the Package toolset) to upload the tiles onto ArcGIS Online.
5. When the tile package has finished generating, sign in to ArcGIS Online using your organizational account and click Content > My content.
6. Click View details for the tile package to display its item page.
7. On the Overview tab, click Publish.
8. Type a title and tags.
9. If your organization has set up content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find the item.

   You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.

10. Click Publish.

The tiles are unpacked and hosted as a tile layer on ArcGIS Online. The hosted tile layer appears in My content.

Once you have verified the tile layer is present and working, you can optionally delete the original tile package so that you don't have to pay credits to store it.

Publish from a service definition file

Another way to share tile layers and data is to create a service definition file and upload it to ArcGIS Online. The map author defines the data and symbology required for the hosted tile layer and includes that in the service definition file.

Create a service definition file

See Save a service definition file for instructions on creating a service definition file in ArcGIS Pro.

To create a service definition file in ArcMap, follow the steps below.

1. Start ArcMap and sign in with an organizational account.
2. Create and save a map.

   For information on creating and publishing a map, see the map service topics in the ArcGIS Server help.

Now, create a service definition file.
3. Click File > Share As > Service.
4. Choose Save a service definition file and click Next.
5. Click Choose a connection and choose My Hosted Services from the drop-down list.
6. Type a name for the file and click Next.
7. Specify in which directory on the client machine to create the service definition file and click Continue.

   The Service Editor window appears.

8. In the left pane of the Service Editor window, click Caching.
9. Choose a Tiling Scheme option.
10. Choose the minimum and maximum scales for the tiles and click Calculate Cache Size.
11. Click Build cache manually after the service is published.
12. Optionally, click Advanced Settings and set additional cache settings for the tile cache.
13. In the left pane of the Service Editor window, click Item Description and provide information for the tile layer.

    You must provide at least a summary and tags before you can create the service definition file.

14. Click Analyze to be sure there are no errors.

    You must fix any errors before you can stage the service definition file. Optionally, you can make corrections for any warnings and messages returned.

15. Once you've fixed the errors and, optionally, any warnings and messages, click Stage .

The service definition file is saved in the location you specified.

Load the service definition and publish

Once you obtain the service definition file from the author, you can upload it to ArcGIS Online and publish a tile layer.

1. Sign in with an organizational account that has privileges to create content and publish hosted tile layers.
2. On the My content tab of the content page, click New item.
3. Choose Your device.
4. Choose the service definition file.
5. Choose Add <service definition file> and create a hosted feature layer.
6. Click Next.
7. If your organization has set up content categories, click Assign categories and select up to 20 categories to help people find the item.

   You can also start typing a category name to narrow the list of categories.

8. Optionally, type tag terms separated by commas.

   Tags are words or short phrases that describe your item and help people find your item when searching. Federal land is considered one tag, while Federal,land is considered two tags.

9. Click Save to add the service definition file and publish the tile layer.

   The tile layer is published, and both the service definition and the tiles are added to My content.

10. When the tile layer finishes publishing, click the Start building tiles option to create the tiles.

By default, only you have access to the service definition file and hosted tile layer. You can share the file and tile layer.