What's new?
ArcGIS Explorer Online now in extended phase support
ArcGIS Explorer Online will continue to be available; however it is no longer being updated or actively developed.
For more information, see Esri Product Life Cycle Policy.
February 2012
Language—ArcGIS Explorer Online and the ArcGIS Online website can now be viewed in different languages. Language determines the text shown in the user interface, and the way time, date, and numerical values appear.
Region—Featured maps, and the default extent of new maps, can now be set for a specific region.
Language and region can be set in your ArcGIS Online account details using the ArcGIS website, or detected from the settings in your browser. For more information about setting language and region in your ArcGIS Online account, including a list of supported languages, see the ArcGIS.com help topic Setting language and region.
Note:ArcGIS Explorer Online has also moved location, from http://explorer.arcgis.com to http://www.arcgis.com/explorer. You will be automatically redirected to the new location if you try to open Explorer Online using the old location.
This release also includes a number of small usability enhancements and bug fixes. ArcGIS.com also includes many enhancements.
December 2011
- Support for KML—You can now add KML layers to the map, and KML services to your content. Explorer Online supports placemarks, ground overlays, time-enabled KML layers, network links, and refreshing by interval and after navigation.
- Importing CSV by reference—You can now import a CSV file with latitude and longitude coordinates from a URL. Every time the map is opened, the data will be refreshed from the URL, so you can keep your map up to date with the latest information.
- Easier to share maps—You can now more easily access the sharing settings of a map, using the Share links shown next to all items in the home screen, and the Share button in the Mapping toolbar. Explorer Online will now warn you if you attempt to copy a link to an item that may not be visible to all users. You can also share public items that you do not own with groups of which you are a member.
- Searching for symbols—It is now easier to quickly find the symbols that you want to use to draw the items in your map, by searching for them by keyword.
- Filtering search results—When you perform a search in the home screen or the Add Content drop-down panel, you can now filter the results to see only results from your own content, from the groups of which you are a member, or from a specific group.You can also choose to show only results from within your organization (if your organization administrator has configured the application to also let you see results from outside your own organization).
This release also includes numerous small usability enhancements and bug fixes.
September 2011
- Layer properties saved to feature service items—Added support for saving layer properties on feature service layers. You can now automatically enable pop-ups on feature services (in addition to map services which was already supported) and maintain symbol changes and layer visibility on map and feature service layers.
- Update properties of all symbols in a renderer—For unique value and class breaks renderers, you can make changes to all the symbols at once, rather than having to modify them each individually.
- Set the scale range for a layer—For feature layers you can specify a scale range that determines whether the features will be drawn on the map or not at a particular map scale.
- Generalize features uploaded from shapefiles—You can now choose to generalize the features imported from a shapefile, which can help maps with large numbers of features or more complex features to display more efficiently.
This release also includes a number of minor bug fixes and minor enhancements to the user interface.
August 2011
- Cross-dateline navigation—Explorer Online now wraps the map across the international dateline so you can pan around the world.
- Support for WMS Services – You can now add WMS services directly to Explorer Online by specifying the URL in the Add Content panel. A WMS service no longer has to be an item in ArcGIS.com to add it to your map.
- Support for adding data from GPX files – You can now import features from a GPS Exchange Format (.gpx) file into your map.
- Support for Natural Breaks classification— When configuring a layer to draw based on classified attribute values, a new classification option is available: natural breaks. Natural breaks classes are based on natural groupings inherent in the data. Class breaks are identified that best group similar values and that maximize the differences between classes.
- Learn more about drawing features classified by value
- Measure enhancements —When measuring a point, you can now specify the format of the coordinate display. You can also copy measure values to the clipboard.
- Find locations by coordinates —You can find locations on the map by specifying latitude and longitude coordinates in a variety of formats by typing them into the Find box. This capability was available is past versions of Explorer Online and is now back in this release.
There are also numerous minor bug fixes.
July 2011
- Undo and Redo—You can now simply undo and redo changes that you make to your maps and presentations, using the buttons at the top left of the screen.
- Map Dashboard—You can configure a digital dashboard for your map. The map dashboard allows you to provide information about the features in your map beyond the symbols used to draw them in an easy to read fashion. The dashboard is displayed on the right side of the map. When you open a map that has a configured dashboard, the Dashboard panel will be displayed automatically.
- Feature display—The appearance of features in a feature layer can now be configured, allowing you to choose to draw features using a single symbol of your choice, or draw based on attribute values either based on classes of numeric values, or unique values. You can do this on any feature layer whether it references a feature service, references features imported from a CSV or shapefile, or a map service sublayer that’s been added to the map as a feature layer.
- Support for adding data from CSVs and shapefiles—You can import points from a comma separated (CSV) file using latitude and longitude or addresses. You can also import features from a shapefile by browsing for a .zip file containing the constituent files for your shapefile (.shp, .dbf, etc). In both cases, the features are stored in your map as feature layers so you can configure their popups and how they are displayed; and you can configure dashboard gadgets for them.
- Home screen with services—The Map Center is now the home screen, and allows you to view and manage not only maps, but also services in ArcGIS Online. You can search for services and add them to your map right from the home screen.
- Managing layers and features—The frequently used Layers and Add Features panels are now permanently available at the left of the map. The panels can be collapsed or expanded as required.
- Legend—The Legend panel is automatically shown if legend information is available for the map, and is displayed on the left side of the map with the contents panel.
- Queries—The Queries drop down has been replaced by the queries panel that is displayed on the left side of the map with the Layers and Add Features panels. You click the same Queries button on the toolbar to access the queries panel. To execute a query, double-click it in the panel, or click the execute button next to the query you want to execute.
- Multiple selections—You can now select multiple features on the map at once. Hold down the SHIFT or CTRL key on your keyboard as you click features to add or remove them to and from the selection. You can also click the Select Features button on the toolbar to drag a box around the features you want to select.
- Support for WMS services—You can now add WMS services from ArcGIS Online as layers to your map. You can turn sublayers on or off, and adjust the layer’s opacity.
- Support for adding map service features as feature layers—You can add the features from a map service sublayer to your map as a feature layer. You can choose to include all the features, or specify a query to filter the features you want to include. Once added as a feature layer, you can adjust how the features are displayed and configure dashboard gadgets for them.
Learn more about adding map service features as feature service layers
- Filtering features—You can specify a query to filter the features that are displayed for any feature layer that references a feature service or a map service sublayer. In the Layers panel go to the Layer Details view, under Filter click Add, then specify your query criteria.
- Custom symbols—You can now use your own image as the symbol for point features. Select Custom from the symbol gallery drop down and specify the URL to the JPEG or PNG image you would like to use.
- More ways to share your maps—When sharing your map, if it has a presentation you can specify that it will open in presentation mode automatically when found and opened by anyone you have shared it with. Additionally, it’s no longer necessary to open your map in the ArcGIS.com map viewer to embed it; you can now embed your map or presentation in a blog post or other web page from right in Explorer Online.
April 2011
- Time-enabled presentations—Presentations can now make use of time-enabled layers; time spans can be set for each slide, and also the map can be animated over time while in presentation mode.
- Configuration of pop-up windows—If you configure pop-up windows for a layer which references a service that you have added as content to ArcGIS Online, you can choose to save that configuration back to ArcGIS Online. This automatically enables the same pop-up window configuration when the content item is added to other web maps from ArcGIS Online. Note that the configuration applies to the item in ArcGIS Online only and not the actual service running on the GIS Server.
- Automatic show and hide of the Time Navigator—The Time Navigator is now shown automatically when there are time-enabled layers visible in the map. The Time button is no longer required and has been removed from the toolbar.
This release also includes numerous minor bug fixes and enhancements to pop-up windows, adding contents, and other areas of the application.
March 2011
Highlights of this release of ArcGIS Explorer Online include:
- User Experience—A new streamlined user experience, providing a more intuitive user experience for working with maps, and allowing more screen real estate for the map by replacing the ribbon with contextual toolbars.
- Interoperability—Improved interoperability with other clients, including a model shared with the ArcGIS.com map viewer for features stored in the map, and templates for creating new layers and features.
- Configurable information pop-up windows—Information pop-up windows, configurable to include the display of images, feature attachments, and charts derived from feature attributes. The Identify tool has been removed, as the intent is that the user is better able to explore information about features in the map by using these configured pop-up windows.
- Simplified query builder—An improved user experience for defining queries on layers, making creation of queries much simpler for the non expert user.
- New editing functionality—Support for editing, including editing feature services powered by ArcGIS Server, and a shared, cross-client, user experience for editable layers.
- Time-enabled maps—Support for the display, configuration, and animation of time-enabled map and image services.
- Open presentations directly—Sharing of presentations via direct URL access to the presentation of a map, making it much simpler to share your presentation with a user who has never used the application before.
You can continue to open and use maps created by previous versions of ArcGIS Explorer Online; however, there are some small incompatibilities which may affect how the map displays; refer to the question Can I open maps saved by older versions of ArcGIS Explorer Online? in the Frequently asked questions topic for more information on these incompatibilities.
This release of ArcGIS Explorer Online requires the Silverlight 4 platform from Microsoft and a browser that supports the Silverlight plug-in, for example, current versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Google Chrome on Microsoft Windows, or Safari on Macintosh OS. If you do not have the appropriate Silverlight runtime installed, you will be informed when you try to open ArcGIS Explorer Online, and a link to install the correct runtime will be displayed.
3/11/2013