Migrating your MXD and Web Maps from DataHub Services to Free ArcGIS Online Services

Due to the retirement of the free DataHub services from 1st July 2016 these services need to be replaced by our free UK Content within ArcGIS Online. This post will guide you through the steps you need to take to update services within MXDs, Web Maps and developer APIs. Use the table at the end of this article to discover which new GB basemaps you can use, along with the URL to each.

How to update your MXD:

1. Open the MXD containing the DataHub service.
2. Locate the layer within the Table of Contents and consult the table below to decide which ArcGIS Online basemap is the correct one to replace the existing DataHub service.
3. To add the new basemap, either go to File, Add Data and then add basemaps, or go to the Add Data tool on the standard toolbar.
4. Select the OS Open basemap you want to add and select Add.
5. Once the new basemap has been added to the MXD, remove the existing DataHub service and save the MXD.

Listing which MXD’s contain DataHub services:

If you are unsure which of your MXD’s are using DataHub services, download the Esri UK Free Content Finder python from GitHub and follow the ‘Read Me’ documentation. The script will produce a csv with a list of MXD’s containing any of the free DataHub services.

How to update your Web Maps within ArcGIS Online:

You can update your Web Maps within ArcGIS Online manually, if you don’t have many to update. Alternatively, you can use free admin tools (provided by Esri Partner Geo Jobe) to update multiple web maps, if you have a large number of web maps which need updating.

Manual Process to use on a small number of Web Maps:

1. Log in to your ArcGIS account, navigate and open your Web Map which you want to update.
2. Use the basemap icon to select the new ArcGIS Online basemap you wish to use (refer to the table below for guidance). If the DataHub service was previously added as a basemap, this will automatically be replaced by the new ArcGIS Online basemap added. However if the DataHub Service was added as a layer you may need to manually remove the layer from the Table of Contents after the new ArcGIS Online basemap has been added.

Process to use on a large number of Web Maps:

1. With a web browser go to: http://apps.geopowered.com/admin-tools/basic/#. Login using your ArcGIS Online organisational login and you will be taken to the GEO Jobe Admin Tools for ArcGIS Online.
2. Within Quick Links, go to Browse Item Tools. There are a number of update tools, the two which you may choose to use are listed below. We recommend that you use option a.(update Web Map Services URLs) initially on a test web map to make sure it updates the Web Maps correctly before doing a bulk update using option b. (Find and Replace Web Map Service URLs).

• Update Web Maps Services URLs – Manually select the Web Maps which you wish to update the URL’s for either within your individual account or within your entire organisation if you are an administrator in the organisation. Use the filters to specify which Web Maps you wish to update. Once the Web Maps have been selected add in the new Service URLs to replace the DataHub services for each of the Web Maps (please refer to table below for the correct URL’s to use).
  • Pros – By using the filter function all accounts within one organisation can be updated by one admin user
  • Cons – The Web Maps need to be manually selected, therefore you need to know which Web Maps are using the DataHub Service.

• Find and Replace Web Map Service URLs – Use this tool to locate all Web Maps containing a specified DataHub URL and replace them directly with the new ArcGIS Online URL. You can choose which of your web maps to update once you have selected ‘Next’. Please refer to table below for the correct URL’s to use.
  • Pros – Updates all Web Maps within your organisational account.
  • Cons – The tool will need to be run by each member of your organisation as it cannot update Web Maps within the whole organisation

How to update services through developer APIs:

To update the DataHub Service to a new ArcGIS Online you need to replace the existing DataHub URL with a new ArcGIS Online URL within your JavaScript code (refer to the table below). The code example below highlights the URL which you would need to update:

require([
"esri/map", "esri/layers/ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayer", ... 
], function(Map, ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayer, ... ) {
var map = new Map( ... );
var agoServiceURL = "http://datahub.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/gb_basemap/os_open_background/MapServer";
var agoLayer = new ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayer(agoServiceURL, { displayLevels:[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7]});
map.addLayer(agoLayer);
...
})

Service names and URL’s for current and new basemaps:

Current Esri UK Online ServicesDatahub Service NameDataHub URLNew Service NameNew URL