MobileMap: ArcGIS Licensing

Overview

MobileMap (and InventoryManager) are built upon the ArcGIS system and require ArcGIS ‘named user’ accounts for authentication and all data access. All users, therefore, must have an ArcGIS account. These named user accounts can be AGOL accounts (including AGOL access provided with ArcGIS GIS Professional Basic/Standard/Advanced licenses), ArcGIS Enterprise (AKA Portal) accounts, or limited ArcGIS user accounts that can be purchased from WSG as a part of our Inventory Management Solution. This third option is only relevant for clients that want to use MobileMap but are not Esri customers and do not need broader access to the ArcGIS system (e.g., access to other applications like ArcGIS Field Maps or Survey123).

ArcGIS Online (AGOL)

AGOL User Types and Roles

AGOL user accounts include 2 complimentary attributes: User Type and Role. The user type drives the cost of that user account as well as the types of functionality the user as access to. Role is more focused on permissions. The image below shows the intersection of User Types and Roles as they pertain to aspects of MobileMap use. Note that this was generated based on Esri’s online documentation as of 9/2021. Please see these links below, or talk to your Esri contact, for additional/current information:

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/reference/roles.htm

https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-online/buy

The discussion below this image makes recommendations for appropriate combinations for different testing and deployment scenarios.

Scenarios

  1. Test in which Feature Service is published in WSG's AGOL organizational account. External tester needs to be invited to join a group, thus needs

  2. Test in which Feature Service is published in WSG's AGOL organizational account and WSG provides a temporary user account for tester (preferred)

  3. Test in which client will publish Feature Service in their AGOL account and WSG staff are invited to join the client-created AGOL Group

  4. Test in which client publishes Feature Service in Portal. Typically, WSG staff are given domain or Portal user account

  5. Production use for MobileMap/IM only (not needed for other Esri mobile apps)

  6. Production use for MobileMap and other Esri apps (e.g., Field Maps, Survey123)

 

Most MobileMap users will create or edit data, thus they need editing capabilities. Therefore, they will typically need Data Editor, User or Publisher roles.

For testing and collaboration with other organizations, users may need to be able to join AGOL groups created by other organizations' AGOL administrators. To join external groups, users must have the proper permissions. By default, only the ‘User’ or higher roles (see green cells above) have this permission. If this permission needs to be enabled for the Editor or Field Worker user type, this can be accomplished by creating a custom role, and then toggling on the “Join external groups” option (see 2 images below).

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/administer/configure-roles.htm

 

 

 

The sections below recommend different AGOL user types and roles for different testing and deployment scenarios.

Demo/Testing

When evaluating MobileMap within your organization, there are three possible scenarios for gaining access to a demo feature service.

  1. WSG publishes a service, creates a new AGOL group, and invites client AGOL users to join this group

  2. WSG publishes a service, creates a new AGOL group, and provides client with temporary WSG AGOL user account(s) for a short evaluation period

  3. WSG provides the materials needed to publish a service (data model, file geodatabase, map document/project file, documentation) and supports client in publishing a service, creating a new AGOL group, and inviting at least one WSG user to join this group.

Production

The pattern for deployment into production with ArcGIS Online is very similar to testing scenario 3 above, where WSG provides the materials needed to publish a service (data model, file geodatabase, map document/project file, documentation) and supports client in publishing a service, creating a new AGOL group, and inviting at least one WSG user to join this group. The only difference is that this may follow testing scenario 1 or 2 in which the data model was developed and tested within WSG’s AGOL organizational account. WSG cannot host production feature services for our clients unless we are also providing ArcGIS user accounts.

WSG-Provided ArcGIS Access

Under some circumstances WSG can provide ArcGIS access ('named user' accounts) to customers who do not otherwise have ArcGIS accounts. This is possible only for our Inventory Management System users and only provides access to MobileMap and InventoryManager (not other ArcGIS applications). This capability is typically implemented for smaller customers, contractors or other users that don’t have an immediate need for other GIS capabilities but want to be able to utilize our Inventory Management System. In this scenario, customers must purchase, at a minimum, one user account for each MobileMap license.

Portal

ArcGIS Portal can be used as the production instance of ArcGIS for organizations that have ArcGIS Enterprise accounts. For these organizations there may be benefits in terms of simplifying the resources they manage, simplifying their licensing, or benefits such as direct access to databases for data management and system integration tasks. ArcGIS Portal is not typically used for demos/testing as it required a higher level of configuration within MobileMap and InventoryManager. For this reason, it is common to use ArcGIS Online for evaluations of MobileMap and testing of initial data models, prior to implementing within Portal. For more information on using Portal with MobileMap see