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'll 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'll 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 September 2, 2025.

Requirements

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

Create a sharing group

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

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organizational account.

   Note:

   If you don't have an organizational account, see options for software access.

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, add the tags SDI, data space, and collaboration.

   

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

   First, you want to ensure any organization's members can be in this group, which 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.

   You'll have people join the group by invitation. If you want to instead send a link to the group so that partners can request to join, you could alternatively set the group to be joined by request. It is not recommended that you allow users to add themselves to the group, as this setting will not give you control over who can publish data to the group.

   You'll also allow all group members to contribute content. You'll only be admitting people to the group who have data to contribute, so there is no need to restrict content sharing to managers.

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.
   • For How can people join this group, choose By invitation.
   • For Who can contribute content, choose All group members.

   

6. Click Save.

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

7. For Description, click the Edit button.

   

8. 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.

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

   

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

    

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

12. On the ribbon, click Settings.
13. Enable Prevent this group from being accidentally deleted.

    

    The change is saved 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'll 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, enable Search all ArcGIS Online organization members.

   

4. If necessary, disable Collaboration coordinators only.

   

   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'll enter a username.

5. In the search box, type ivan_toshare.

   

   Note:

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

6. Click the user to select them. 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.

You have created a sharing group, set its properties, and invited a user to be a member of the group.

Add data to the sharing group

Next, you'll 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.

   

   The Add items to group window appears. You'll 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. Scroll to the feature layer hosted by Ivan Toshare.

   

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

   Note:

   The feature layer has a warning that it is deprecated and hot recommended for use. You can ignore this message as this is a layer created for demonstration purposes. If you see this warning on other layers, you should explore that more.

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

   

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

   

   The item appears on the group's content page.

   

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

Add the partner group to the hub

Next, you'll 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.

   Note:

   The OneMap hub site 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 before continuing this one.

2. On the left toolbar, click Edit.

   

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.

    

    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.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• Water exploitation data provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
• Digital elevation model for Europe provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
• Topographic map sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community