Chapter 15Establishing a distributed collaboration

Objectives

• Create and join a distributed collaboration.
• Understand the role of the host, guest, and workspace.
• Synchronize edits between organizations.
• Leave and end a collaboration.

Introduction

Distributed collaboration is a technology that allows multiple organizations, often located in different geographic regions, to work together on a common project or goal. The collaboration can be established between ArcGIS Enterprise organizations or an ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise organization. This allows for content, such as items, feature layers, web maps, web apps, and more, to be shared between these organizations. This approach uses cloud-based services and web GIS to ensure that all collaborators have access to the most up-to-date information, supporting a more integrated and efficient workflow.

This approach significantly enhances the ability to make informed decisions quickly and accurately. By breaking down silos and enabling real-time data sharing, organizations can respond more effectively to emergencies, plan urban development more efficiently, and manage natural resources more sustainably. Additionally, distributed collaboration promotes transparency and accountability, because all stakeholders have access to the same data and insights, reducing the risk of miscommunication and errors. In essence, it allows organizations to harness the full potential of their GIS data, driving innovation and improving outcomes across sectors.

Create a new collaboration

When you plan a collaboration between organizations, it is important to understand the data considerations and concepts of collaboration, such as the roles of the host organization, guest organization, and workspace.

Before creating the collaboration for the web feature layer you published in the previous chapter, it is necessary to confirm that the web feature layer and its three feature classes have the right capabilities enabled to support data sharing in a distributed collaboration. When you published the Medio Public Assets web feature layer to ArcGIS Enterprise, you enabled the following capabilities:

• Archiving: To support syncing operations and distributed collaboration
• Replica tracking: To support bidirectional syncing in a distributed collaboration
• Global IDs: Enabled as part of the publishing process
• Sync capability: Enabled as part of the web feature layer configuration

These are the minimum requirements to share your data with another organization using distributed collaboration.

Next, you will review the responsibilities of the host and guest organizations in a collaboration.

Next, you will review the workspace properties in this chapter’s tutorial.

Tutorial 15: Share data through a distributed collaboration

In this final tutorial of part 3, you will collaborate with a local road company to begin work on some of the unpaved roads. The dashboard created in the previous tutorial was a success, and the stakeholders have approved funds for roadwork. The local contractor firm undertaking this project has an ArcGIS Online account to host all its data.

Now you will establish a distributed collaboration between your ArcGIS Enterprise organization and Medio Contractors LLC’s ArcGIS Online account. The first synchronization will make the Medio Public Assets layer available to the ArcGIS Online organization. The organization will use this layer to make edits as the project progresses. During the scheduled workspace synchronizations, the data collected becomes available to the ArcGIS Enterprise organization. This process repeats throughout the duration of the project. Once the project is complete, the guest leaves the collaboration, and the host can delete it.

You will start with the host, the ArcGIS Online organization. The host creates the distributed collaboration, the workspace, and invites the guest organization to join the collaboration. For this tutorial, you will need an ArcGIS Online account with Administrator privileges.

1. In a new browser, navigate to .
2. Sign in as an ArcGIS Online member who has administrative privileges to manage the organization’s collaborations.
3. Once connected, on the navigation bar, click the Organization tab and go to Settings.
4. On the left, click the Collaborations tab.

   You will see two types of collaborations that can be created: (1) a partnered collaboration, which is established between two ArcGIS Online organizations, and (2) a distributed collaboration, which is established between an ArcGIS Online and an ArcGIS Enterprise organization to share content.

5. Scroll down to the Distributed section. Click Create a distributed collaboration.
6. In the Create a distributed collaboration window, provide the following name and description for the collaboration:
   • Collaboration Name: Roadwork project.
   • Collaboration Description: This is a distributed collaboration between Medio County and Medio Contractors LLC to support roadwork around school locations.
7. Click Next.
8. Provide the following name and description for your collaboration’s initial workspace:
   • Workspace Name: Medio roadwork.
   • Workspace Description: This workspace is to share the Medio County data and give access to the ArcGIS Online organization to make edits to the legacy data as the roadwork advances.
9. Click Next.

   Next, you will create a new group that will be associated with the collaboration workspace. Once the ArcGIS Enterprise workspace shares the Medio Public Assets data, it will be stored into this group.

10. For New Group name, type Medio County Group and click Next.

    In this step, you will determine how the web feature layers will be shared between these two organizations. There are two options:

    • Share as a copy: In this case, the data is copied from the source organization to the recipient organization as a hosted feature layer. The web layer needs to support syncing, because the edits will be synced on a set schedule.
    • Share as a reference: Here, the layer is created in the recipient organization that references back to the source layer. Edits are available immediately.
11. Select the Copies option. Check the box for Allow two-way sharing of feature service edits to eligible participants.

    This ensures that both organizations can make edits.

    

12. Click Save and Invite.
13. For the Guest Organization URL, add the ArcGIS organization URL you used for publishing the Medio County data.
14. For Guest Organization Access to Workspaces, click the drop-down menu and select Send and Receive Content.
15. Click Send Invitation.

    An .invite file is generated in the Downloads folder. You will use this file as the guest organization to accept the invitation to join the collaboration.

Join a collaboration

In this section, you will act as a member of the ArcGIS Enterprise organization—the guest. You will create a new group and the data of interest to that group. Then, you will accept the host’s invitation to join the collaboration, join the workspace, and determine the sync interval.

1. In a new browser, connect to your ArcGIS Enterprise portal and sign in with an administrator account.
2. On the navigation bar, click the Groups tab and then click Create group.
3. In the Create a group window, apply the following settings:
   • Name: Collaboration group.
   • Summary: This group is used in the Roadwork collaboration.
4. Leave the remaining parameters as default and click Save.
5. On the Collaboration group item page, click Add items to group.
6. Add the Medio Public Assets web feature layer.

   This will be the layer used to make edits.

   Now that the group is created and the layer is prepared, you will accept the collaboration invitation.

7. Click the Organization tab and then go to Settings.
8. On the left, click the Collaborations tab. Under Distributed, click Accept Invitation.
9. In the Accept Collaboration Invitation window, click Choose File and navigate to the .invite file generated when the collaboration was created. Click Open.
10. When done, click Accept Invitation.
11. In the Save Invitation Response window, click Save Response.

    This downloads a file that contains your response to the invitation from the ArcGIS Online organization.

    After accepting the invitation, the Roadwork project appears as an active collaboration on the guest side.

    

    Next, you will join the collaboration workspace.

12. Click on the link for the Roadwork project collaboration.

    This takes you to the list of workspaces.

13. Click the Action icon and then click Join workspace.

    On the guest side, the workspace will be linked to an existing group, the Collaboration group you created earlier.

14. Select Existing Group and change it to the Collaboration group.
15. Change the Feature layers and views option to be sent as Copies.
16. Check the box for Allow two-way sharing of feature service edits to eligible participants.

    The final step as a guest is to define the feature layer sync interval.

17. Scroll down. For Start syncing at, type 05:00, and for repeat every, select 24 hours.
18. Click Join Workspace.

    To finalize the process, the host, the ArcGIS Online organization, receives the response file from the guest and accepts it.

19. Return to the ArcGIS Online browser and navigate to the Collaborations page.
20. Under the Distributed collaborations, click the link for Roadwork project collaboration.
21. Click View Guests.

    The ArcGIS Enterprise organization is listed as a guest, but the collaboration invitation is still pending.

22. Click the Action icon and click Accept Guest Organization.
23. Click Choose File and navigate to the .response file received by the guest. Click Open.
24. Click Accept Guest Organization.

    The guest organization status is set to Active. The collaboration has successfully started, and the organizations are ready to share data.

Make edits and sync workspace

In this section, the host organization will edit the Road Centerlines layer. These edits will become available to the guest organization at the next scheduled sync. When the guest organization joined the workspace, a sync process was automatically initiated, making the feature layer available to the host organization, ArcGIS Online. You will confirm this by checking the Medio County Group from the host organization.

1. In the ArcGIS Online browser, on the navigation bar, go to Groups. Then locate the Medio County Group.
2. On the Groups page, confirm that Medio Public Assets web feature layer is now listed under Recently added content.

   Next, you will use this layer to make edits to unpaved roads within school proximity.

3. Click Medio Public Assets and then click Open in Map Viewer.
4. In the Layers pane, expand Medio Public Assets and click the Road Centerlines layer.

   This activates the layer for editing.

5. On the Analysis toolbar, click the Edit tab.
6. Because you are not creating new features but editing existing ones, in the Editor pane, click the Select icon.
7. Select any unpaved road within school proximity and change the Street Category field value to PAVED. Click Update.

   For example, the UVX Road is in close proximity to the Cornerstone Christian Academy (red pin) and is unpaved.

   

8. When finished, in the Layers pane, next to Road Centerlines, click the Options button (three dots). Click Save.

   This ensures the edits made are committed.

   Next, you will manually synchronize the workspace as the guest organization, ArcGIS Enterprise, and confirm that the changes made by the host organization are now available.

9. Activate the ArcGIS Enterprise browser and go to Collaborations.
10. Click the Roadwork project, which will take you to the list of active workspaces.
11. Go to the Action icon and click Sync workspace.
12. Click the Medio roadwork workspace to see the sync status.

    The current status is In Progress. Once the status is changed to Succeeded, you can confirm the edits are now available to the guest organization, ArcGIS Enterprise.

    Once edits are synchronized with ArcGIS Enterprise, the changes are reflected not only in the Medio Public Assets source web feature layer but also in all applications powered by this web feature layer. This means that the edits made to the road segments will be immediately visible in the School Accessibility – Spatial Analysis web map.

    

    The changes are also available in the Medio County Annual Report dashboard. If you check the list of unpaved roads, you will confirm that these two road segments are no longer listed. This confirms that the edits made by the host organization are also reflected in the dashboard.

    

    

    Additionally, because the data was published by referencing a registered data store, these edits are also updated in the enterprise geodatabase. Once you connect to your ArcGIS Pro project and access the Medio County data from the database connection, you will confirm that the changes are reflected to the source enterprise geodatabase. The Street Category is now listed as PAVED.

    

    This exemplifies the power of ArcGIS Enterprise, where all components are interconnected, ensuring data consistency and real-time updates across the entire system.

Leave the organization

The editing and sync process is performed multiple times until all the road segments near the school locations have been paved. When the project is complete, the collaboration between these two organizations ends. In this final part of the tutorial, you will perform the steps needed for the guest to leave the collaboration and for the host to delete the collaboration.

1. Return to the ArcGIS Enterprise browser tab and navigate to Collaborations.
2. Find the Roadwork project collaboration. Click the Action icon and click Leave Collaboration. Confirm by clicking Leave Collaboration.

   The guest organization has successfully left the collaboration. There are no listed active collaborations.

   

3. Navigate to the ArcGIS Online browser tab and go to Collaborations.
4. Find the Roadwork project collaboration. Click the Action icon and click Delete Collaboration. Confirm by clicking Delete Collaboration.

   The collaboration was deleted successfully.

   On the guest side, both the ArcGIS Online group and the Medio Public Assets web feature layer are not deleted after ending the collaboration. However, since the project has ended and the organization no longer needs the data, it will delete the group and the data.

5. On the navigation bar, click the Groups tab.
6. Open Medio County Group and go to the Settings tab.
7. At the top of the page, disable the delete protection.
8. Then, click Delete group.

   The group is successfully deleted. However, the Medio Public Assets web layer remains.

9. Go to the Contents tab and check the box for the Medio Public Assets web layer.
10. Click the Delete option.

    With these steps, you have successfully deleted the data from the Roadwork project.

Summary

In this chapter, you successfully collaborated with a local road company to begin work on unpaved roads, using the dashboard created in the previous tutorial. By establishing a distributed collaboration between your ArcGIS Enterprise organization and Medio Contractors LLC’s ArcGIS Online account, you enabled seamless data sharing and editing. You took on the roles of both the host and the guest organization to fully understand the process of sharing data through a distributed collaboration. You also confirmed firsthand that synchronized edits are reflected throughout the entire ArcGIS ecosystem, including dashboards, web maps, web feature layers, and the source enterprise geodatabase.

In this section of the book, you improved your department’s data accessibility by publishing a web feature layer to your organization ArcGIS Enterprise portal. You then tested the web-editing experience by making attribute and geometry changes using Map Viewer. You were then tasked to assess the road conditions around the school locations for which you performed a spatial analysis. Toward the end, you presented your analysis to the entire department. To do that, you conveyed the results of the spatial analysis in a more interactive and easy-to-read format for the public using ArcGIS Dashboards. Finally, you collaborated with a local firm to act on the roadwork. To share data between an ArcGIS Enterprise and an ArcGIS Online organization, you created a distributed collaboration. In essence, through these five tutorials in part 3, you created a comprehensive authoritative workflow by using the power of ArcGIS Enterprise.

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