Introduction to Cloud Mapping with ArcGIS Online and Story Maps
This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating interactive maps and story maps using ArcGIS Online, a cloud-based platform that allows you to share your GIS data and maps on the web.
Adding Tabular Data
In your first exercise, you will be visualizing a table that contains descriptive geographic data (country names) and create interactive maps and graphics that you can embed on your website or blog.
Sample Data set: Movement of people across borders
The table used for this example contains migration data per country and was downloaded in the World Bank Website:
http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/6.13#
Download the data as an Excel spreadsheet. Make sure to save the table as an Excel (.xls) file and not as a web HTML file. A copy of the original data as an Excel sheet can be downloaded here.
Edit the column names to have one cell only per column name and add "Country" to the first attribute of the table that contains the names for each country.
A copy of the clean spreadsheet can be found here. Any field with no data as been converted to an empty field and the format has been saved as a number format. These steps are necessary for ArcGIS Online to read the table properly.
Save the clean version of the table to your computer as a CSV file. You will use this file on your next step.
Getting Started with ArcGIS Online
Log into ArcGIS Online: Go to arcgis.com and sign in with your free trial account.
Click on My Content. Here is where you will upload all your geospatial datasets and keep track of your interactive web maps and applications.
Adding your table of countries with movement of people across borders
Click on Add Item - From my computer and browse to the location in your computer where you saved the csv file by clicking the Choose File button.
Notice that a new window opens up warning you that not all of the "addresses" were matched. Click Yes to review the unmatched addresses.
A map with all the locations that have been geocoded opens up. At the bottom of the map there is a table that contains the records that haven't been matched. The reason for this is due to the mismatch between the country names in our table and the list of country names in the ArcGIS Online database. If two countries have different names, then the geocoding process cannot match them.
Scroll down to Egypt, Islamic Rep. Double-click to change its name to simply Egypt. When you press Enter, you will notice a window on the left hand side that has possible suggestions, as well as a list of locations on your map. Zoom to the Egypt area and click on one of the blue markers that appear on the country. A pop-up window shows up. Click MATCH to assign that location to the record in your table which country name is Egypt.
When you match a new location to your record for Egypt, a green check-mark appears to the right of the table for Egypt, under the Reviewed column. Your number of unmatched addresses should decrease. Do this for a couple of other countries and click Done Reviewing when you are finished.
- Click on Add Item. This will not only upload the csv file, but will create a Feature Service. A Feature Service allows you to serve your tabular data as a geographic service over the Internet as well as the symbology and query capabilities that you normally would set up in ArcGIS Desktop.
- Review your settings so they match the image on the left.
- Review the field types to make sure they match their functionality. Most of the fields should be integer or double instead of string types. Make sure that Country is selected as Location Fields.
- Choose Address to locate features
- For Country: select World
- On the Title box, make sure to add your initials at the end of the file name
- Add a Tag: country.
- Make sure the checkbox next to Publish this file as a hosted layer is selected. This will make any tabular content in your table available as interactive content.
Let's explore your new feature service. In your content panel, click the ... to the right of your feature service layer as displayed in the image on the left. Select Zoom to. This action will display the extent of your features in the map.
For each record in our original table there is a corresponding location (orange dots) in your map. Click on any dot on your map. Notice that each point as a pop-up window displaying the attributes in the original table for each country.
In our next steps we will be changing the symbology and the display window for this feature.
Changing the symbology
- You can change your Basemap to one that offers more contrast with your data. On the left hand-side of your screen, click on Basemap and select the one you think it fits better, for example, Light Gray Canvas.
Changing the pop-up window
Click on one of the symbols in your map and notice the default pop-up window. By default, Arcgis Online displays every field from your attribute table.
When designing your interactive online map, you want to think about the functionality of your pop-up window for each feature layer. Think of the attributes that you would like to display and how you would like to display them. With ArcGIS Online, you can display numeric attributes as charts. You can also display photos, videos or website urls.
To change the pop-up window, click on the ... below your, and select Configure Pop-up. A new panel appears on the left of your screen: the Pop-up Properties panel.
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To change the symbology of your feature service, make sure the panel at the left of your screen is showing the Content of your map. Browse over your Movement layer and click the Change Style button below it.
- Choose an attribute to show: select the field RefCO_2013 (represents the "Number of refugees by country of origin in the year 2013")
- Select a drawing style: select Counts and Amounts (Size). Click on Options.
- Click on Symbols. Here you can change the shape of your symbol and color. Select the Fill option and choose a purple color.
- Classify data: Using Equal Interval, set up 5 classes, and round them to 1,000.
- Size: set the Minimum to 7 and the Maximum to 54.
- Transparency: Set the values from RefCO_2013.
Click OK. Press the Done button to go back to your map.
Change the Pop-up Title to: "Movement of people across borders, WorldBank 2013"
- Pop-up Contents:
- Display: A list of field attributes
- Click on Configure Attributes. Uncheck everything except for Country and Net_migration_2012. Change the title for Net_migration_2012 to say Net migration in 2012 by clicking the Field Alias. Make sure the Use 1000 Separator box is checked for this field. Click OK.
- Pop-up Media:
- Let's add a chart that displays graphically the amount of personal remittances paid and received per country in the year 2011. To do this, click the Add button, and select Bar Chart.
- Title: Refugees
- Caption: Data provided by the World Bank for the year 2013.
- Chart Fields: select RefCO_2013 and RefCA_2013. Change the alias to: Refugees by country of origin, and Refugees by country of asylum, respectively. Click OK.
- Click on SAVE POP-UP to save all your changes to your configuration window. Check your results. It should look something similar to the image below.
Click on Share. A new window opens with the options to share this map. If you want to embed this map in a public website, you need to share the web map and the feature service that it is calling with the public.
Check the box next to Everyone (public) and click the Embed in website button.
In the new window that appears, check the size of your map that you would like to have in your website (large) and additional elements that you consider useful for the public (zoom control, scale bar, and legend).
Copy and paste the link into your website making sure you are editing your site in HTML mode. Your map should look something like this:
Try adding other layers to your map. Click on Add, Search for Layers, In: ArcGIS Online.
Search words: refugees, world population.
- World bank - Age and Population
- LandScan 2010 World Population
- ESRI_Population_world
- World Bank - Gross Domestic Product
Saving your map
Once you configure your symbology and your pop-up window, you are ready to save your map. In this case, we only have one feature layer, but we will be adding vector and raster files to this map as we continue working through this workshop.
To save your map, go to the Save button and select Save As.
- Title: Movement of People Across Borders in 2013 by (your initials)
- Tags: migration
- Summary: write a brief description of the purpose of your map
- Save in folder: leave the default.
Click on SAVE MAP. This will save the map in your ArcGIS Online account.
To review the items in your ArcGIS Online account, click on Home, and select My content. Notice you have three elements in your content:
- The CSV file that you originally uploaded.
- The Feature Service layer created from the CSV file
- The Web Map that is using that feature service with customized symbology and display properties. A Web map is made of services. Like in ArcMap, you can use the same dataset or feature service in different web maps.
You can decide to share each one of these three elements with a group of collaborators or with the public. Keep in mind that if you share a Web Map with the public, you have to share its feature services as well.
Embedding your web map into your website or blog
You can embed your web map into any website or blog as an interactive feature. To do this, go to My Content and click on the inverted triangle next to your feature service and select View item details.
Click the Share button and check Everyone (public) so you can make your layer public on the web. Click OK.
Go back to your content and open your web map, as displayed on the image on the right.
Select Open in ArcGIS.com map viewer.
