Frequently asked questions—ArcGIS Insights

Listed below are common questions about ArcGIS Insights.

General

Publishing

Data

Visualization

Is Insights available in ArcGIS Online?

Yes, Insights is available through both ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise.

For more information, see Overview of ArcGIS Insights.

How is Insights licensed?

Insights is a premium app that requires a specific licence to be applied to your account by the administrator of your organization. Talk to your account manager about licenses for Insights.

For more information on Insights licenses, see Administer Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights in ArcGIS Online and Licensing.

What is required to install ArcGIS Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise?

To use Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise, you must have a base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment that is compatible with a supported Insights version.

For more information, see Install ArcGIS Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise.

What is required to install Insights desktop?

Insights desktop is available to all existing Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights in ArcGIS Online users and can be installed on Windows and macOS computers.

For more information, see System requirements and Install Insights desktop.

Can I customize Insights using an Application Programming Interface (API)?

No, Insights does not currently support customization using an API. However, Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights desktop do support Python and R scripting, which allows you to expand the capabilities available in Insights.

For more information, see Scripting in Insights.

Can I use my Insights analysis in other ArcGIS applications?

Insights creates several different types of outputs, both automatically when performing analysis and through publishing. Most item types created in Insights can only be opened or used within Insights. Feature layers created from publishing data can be used in other applications, such as Map Viewer Classic or ArcGIS Pro. Publicly shared reports can be embedded in web sites and ArcGIS StoryMaps.

For more information, see Share your work.

Why can't I create a workbook?

If you are unable to create a workbook (the New workbook button is not available), you may not have the required licensing to use Insights (Insights is in view-only mode).

The following licensing is required to use Insights:

Creator or GIS Professional user type
Publisher, Facilitator, or Administrator role
Insights license

For more information, see Administration of Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights in ArcGIS Online.

Are published reports live?

Published reports include a snapshot of the data at the time the report was created. Therefore, you must update the report to view changes to your datasets or analysis.

There are some exceptions when the data on a published report will be live, including when a cross filter is applied. For more information, see Publish or share a report and Map database connections.

Can I publish individual cards?

No, individual map, chart, and table cards cannot be published. However, you can publish the model used to create a card or publish a report with a single card and display the report using an <iframe>. When a report is embedded with an <iframe> only the cards are displayed.

Who can see my published reports?

The visibility of your published reports depends on the sharing settings used when publishing. For Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise deployments, other factors in your setup, such as firewalls and disconnected environments, will also affect visibility.

For more information, see Publish and share a report.

Which types of data can be used in Insights?

Insights supports data from several sources, including feature layers, files, and database datasets (available in Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights desktop).

For a full list of data sources, see Supported data.

Which databases can I connect to from Insights?

You can connect directly to Google BigQuery, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SAP HANA, and Snowflake databases from Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights desktop. You can also use additional configurations to add connectors for databases that are not supported out of the box. For more information, see Supported databases.

Can I connect directly to a geodatabase from Insights?

You can connect to a supported Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, or SAP HANA database containing an enterprise geodatabase from Insights in ArcGIS Enterprise and Insights desktop. Geodatabase support enables you to browse and add geodatabase user tables to your Insights workbook.

For more information, see Supported databases.

Can I use custom symbology?

The only way to add custom symbology in Insights is to add data that has already been saved with custom symbology. One way to do that is to apply your custom symbology in ArcGIS Pro, and publish the data to your ArcGIS organization as a feature service.

If you have map or chart cards that are styled by unique symbols, you can change the colors of the individual symbols from the Layer options pane. For more information, see Create a map or Create a chart.

Can I use a custom color ramp?

Insights does not currently support loading custom symbology, including color ramps.

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