Curate partner content with a sharing group

Through ArcGIS Online, sharing data, maps, and apps and collaborating with other users and organizations is at your fingertips. A big part of a having a successful geospatial infrastructure is that your data and apps are shared and discoverable by the GIS community. You can share items from your ArcGIS organization to the public, and so can your partners. Another way of sharing is to create a group in ArcGIS Online that only certain members can access and share data to. In this tutorial, you will create a sharing group in ArcGIS Online, invite members to it, and share data from a trusted partner into the group. Once you have the group created and added the data, you will expand its reach by adding it to your OneMap hub so users can search the hub for shared content.

This tutorial is based on the guide available in this story.

This tutorial was last tested on March 20, 2024.

Requirements

• Completion of the tutorial Deploy the OneMap hub template
• ArcGIS organizational account with a Publisher, Facilitator, or Administrator role in an ArcGIS organization (see options for software access)
• ArcGIS Hub

Create sharing group and invite members

ArcGIS Online has many sharing capabilities for users to streamline collaboration and integrate an inherently disconnected world. One of the capabilities is sharing to a group. A group is a collection of items related to a specific area of interest, or in this case, a specific partner. When you share to a group, only the group members can access the items.

Note:

Throughout this tutorial, the term OneMap is used as a placeholder for your community GIS branding. For example, Ireland GeoHive, NC OneMap, IndianaMap, HIFLD Open Data, and UAE 1Map.

Create a sharing group for partners

You will create the partner content sharing group in ArcGIS Online. Later, you will add the group to your OneMap hub site.

1. Open your ArcGIS Online account and sign in.
2. On the ribbon, click the Groups tab.

   

   The Groups page appears. If you have any groups created, they will display here.

3. Click Create Group.

   

   Note:

   It is a best practice to create a unique sharing group for each partner who will be sharing content into your hub site.

4. In the Create a group window, enter the following information:
   • For Name, type OneMap Partner Shared Content.
   • For Summary, type or copy and paste This group enables partners of OneMap to share content and easily work together in a common collaboration space. The group was created for the tutorial Curate partner content with a sharing group.
   • For Tags, type SDI and press the Tab key. Type data space and press the Tab key. Type collaboration and press the Tab key.

   

   Next, you will specify the group membership settings. These settings determine who can access and add to the content in the group.

5. In the Group membership section, make the following selections:
   • For Who can view this group, choose Everyone (public).
   • For Who can be in this group, choose Any organization’s members.

     This is important, as it will allow partners to share their data into the group and ultimately into the hub site without having to add them as members of your ArcGIS Online organization. They can share their content from where it is currently maintained.

   • For How can people join this group, choose By invitation.

     You will send invites to the partners whose data you want to include in the hub site. If you want to instead send a link to the group so that partners can request to join, change this setting to By request. It is not recommended that you use the By adding themselves option, as this will not give you control over who can publish data to the group.

   • For Who can contribute content, choose All group members.

     You will only be admitting people to the group who have data to contribute, so there is no need to restrict content sharing to managers.

   • For Who can see the full list of members on the group’s Members tab, choose Anyone who can view the group.

   

6. Under Group designations, for Open data, click the toggle button to allow the group’s content to be accessed in open data sites.

   

   You have entered all the information to create the group.

7. Click Save.

   The group is created and its Overview page is displayed. Here you can add a description and other information.

8. For Description, click the Edit button.

   

9. For the Description, copy and paste the following information: Good practices for shared content - see the Good Practices for Authoritative Data Providers story for guidance about managing your shared content. This group is a space for sharing and collaboration. Shared content automatically flows from the group and automatically appears in the Hub catalog.

   Note:

   It is also good practice to add your contact information in the description.

10. In the paragraph, select the text Good Practices for Authoritative Data Providers and click the Create Link button.

    

11. For URL, copy and paste the following link, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/480c3a6b4bfd4f2984c3698558ca3549?item=4 and click Update.
12. Click Save.

    

    Next, you will specify a setting that will protect the group from being accidentally deleted by you or any of the members.

13. On the ribbon, click Settings.
14. For Delete protection, click the toggle button to enable it.

    

The change will save automatically.

Now you have a group that you and your partners can use to curate and share specific content. Currently, there are no group members, so you must invite members to join the group.

Invite members to join the group

Now that you have created the group, you will invite your organization’s partners so they can start sharing content in the group to be highlighted in the hub site.

1. On the ribbon, click the Members tab.

   

2. Click Invite members.

   

3. Under Filters, for Search all ArcGIS Online organization members, click the toggle button to enable it.

   

4. If necessary, for Collaboration coordinators only, disable it.

   

   In the Invite members window, you can enter the email address or ArcGIS Online username of the partner you want to invite to the group. You will enter a username.

5. In the search box, type ivan_toshare.

   You should see the following profile:

   

   Note:

   Ivan is a fictitious persona for your data-providing partner.

6. Click the user to select them and click Invite members.

   

Ivan must accept your invitation before he appears in the members list and can start contributing content to the group. When the partner signs in to their account, they will see the invitation in their notifications—the bell icon on the ribbon next to their username. After the partner has accepted the invitation and joined the shared group, they can now share their content into the group. For this tutorial, the invited member does not have to accept the invitation for you to proceed.

Add data to the sharing group

Next, you will curate a layer specifically for the partner group and integrate it into the hub for enhanced collaboration and accessibility.

Curate a layer to the partner group

As the administrator of the sharing group, you can also curate the shared content to your group, adding content yourself and choosing what to highlight.

1. On the ribbon for the group, click the Content tab.

   

2. Click the Add items to group button.

   

   You will add publicly shared partner items from ArcGIS Online to the group.

3. Click My Content and choose ArcGIS Online.

   

4. In the search box, type or copy and paste water exploitation index plus of Europe q3 2015 and scroll to the feature layer hosted by Ivan_Toshare.

   

   The item you will share is a feature layer containing the water exploitation index for Europe.

5. Check the check box for the item to select it for sharing.

   

6. At the bottom of the window, click Add items.

   

   The item appears on the group’s content page.

   

   You just added an item from ArcGIS Online that is available in the partner shared group.

Add the partner group to the hub

Next, you will highlight the partner content by adding the group to the hub.

1. If necessary, sign in to your ArcGIS Online account and open the OneMap hub site. This is the site that you created in the Deploy the OneMap hub template tutorial. If you have not created a hub site, complete that tutorial then return to complete these steps.
2. Click Edit on the left toolbar.

   

3. On the ribbon, click MyHub (or the name of your Hub) and choose Groups Manager.

   

4. Click the Add Group button.

   

5. Search for the OneMap Partner Shared Content group.
6. Select the group from the search results and click Add to add it to your hub.

   

   Now the content of the group is automatically indexed in the hub catalog and you can view its content in the hub.

7. On the ribbon, click the X to close the Groups Manager.

   

8. On the ribbon, click the OneMap tab to preview the site's home page.

   

9. In the search box, type water to see the group content that you shared.

   

10. Click the result to be taken to the data.

    

    You have accessed the content that you shared to the group from your hub site.

You have successfully created a sharing group, added partner content to it, and integrated it into your OneMap hub. Visitors to your hub can now view the content you have added, and any new content shared to the group will be automatically reflected in the hub site without the need for manual refresh. Any updates made by the data partner to the data that is shared to the group will also be reflected in the hub site.

Acknowledgements

• Water exploitation data provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
• Digital elevation model for Europe provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA).