Manage feature layers

Owners of feature layers that reference registered data and administrators can control editing access, allow data exports, and configure advanced editing options.

Control editing access

As the owner of a feature layer that references registered data or an administrator, you can change the settings on the layer to control whether editing is allowed and what types of edits can be made.

The settings described in this section apply only to users who are not the layer owner, not an administrator, and not a data curator. To perform the editing operations enabled on the layer, these users must be members of a default or custom role that has the privilege to edit features.

Enable editing and configure the types of editing that are allowed

1. Sign in to the organization as the item owner with publishing privileges.
2. Open the item details page for the feature layer.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Scroll to the Feature Layer section and expand the Configuration heading.
5. Check the Enable editing box.
6. Choose from the following options for the What kind of editing is allowed? section.
   • Add—Allow editors to add feature geometry. Editors can also provide attribute values when they create the feature. Once it's created, editors must have the Update privilege to change the feature or its attributes.
   • Delete—Allow editors to delete features.
   • Update—Allow editors to update feature geometry attributes. To allow editors to update attributes only and not update feature geometry-in other words, you don't want them to move features-choose Attributes only.
7. Choose one of the following options for the What features can editors see? section.
   • Editors can see all features—Enable this option when the editor should be able to see all features.
   • Editors can only see their own features (requires editor tracking)—Enable this option if the layer contains sensitive or proprietary information, such as medical records or research data for which editors may only have clearance to work with the data they collect.
   • Editors can't see any features, even those they add—Enable this option when the editor doesn't need or shouldn't see newly added features. For example, if you have people collecting survey information from the public using apps such as ArcGIS Survey123, you may not want the editor to see the information the survey respondents provide, as it could be private or sensitive information such as the respondent's home address.
8. Choose one of the following options for the What features can editors edit? section.
   • Editors can edit all features—Allow editors to delete or modify features created by themselves and others.
   • Editors can only edit their own features (requires editor tracking)—Allows editors to delete or modify the features they create but not delete or modify others' features.
9. Click Save.

   The edits are applied immediately.

Allow offline editing or collaboration

To allow others to take the feature layer offline and work with it while disconnected from the network, or to share feature layer data as a copy in a distributed collaboration, you must enable synchronization on the layer.

When you enable synchronization, it allows offline editors to get the latest updates to features at the time they connect. Any edits they made to features while disconnected are also applied at the time they connect. It also allows changes made to the layer in the sending organization of a collaboration to be synchronized to the feature layer in the participating organizations.

1. Open the item details page for the feature layer you want to allow others to edit.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Scroll to the Feature Layer section and check the Enable Sync (required for offline use and collaboration) box.
4. Click Save.

   The edits are applied immediately.

Allow data exports

Follow these steps to allow others to export from a feature layer when they access the layer in your organization:

1. Sign in to the organization as the item owner with publishing privileges or as an administrator.
2. Open the item details page for the feature layer.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Scroll to the Feature Layer section and expand the Configuration heading.
5. Scroll to the Export data section and check the Allow other to export to different formats box.
6. Click Save.

   The edits are applied immediately.

Configure advanced editing options

Follow these steps to configure additional editing-related properties:

1. Sign into the organization as the item owner with publishing privileges or an administrator.
2. Open the item details page for the feature layer.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Scroll to the Feature Layer section and expand the Configuration heading.
5. Scroll to the Advanced Options section.

   Choose to set the following properties:

   • Allow default z-value when inserting or updating features—Allows you to specify a default z-value. If an editor adds or updates a feature through the feature layer and does not specify a z-value, the default z-value is applied.
   • Allow geometry updates without m-values—Use this setting if layers within your feature service are enbled to store m-vales, but you are not using the m-values. When editors edit feature geometries through the feature service, NaN m-values will be inserted if the client does not provide a value.
   • Add realm to user name when applying edits—Allows you to specify a value to be appended to the usernames recorded when editing through the feature layer. This allows you to differentiate when a user is editing through the feature service rather than directly against the data in the geodatabase. To enable this, check Add realm to user name when applying edits and type the realm value you want added to usernames.
   • Sanitize HTML to remove unsupported entities and attributes—Prevents the input of unsupported HTML entities or attributes. This option is enabled by default and, unless your editors require the ability to input these unsupported HTML entities, do not disable this option. Disabling this option allows a user to enter any text into the text boxes, which exposes the service to potential cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

6. Click Save.

   The edits are applied immediately.