ArcGIS Online has enabled the capability for you to add layers from a file such as a shapefile compressed into a zip file, delimited text file (.txt or .csv), or a GPS Exchange file (.gpx) when creating a map using the free online map viewer. This allows even more functionality and map creation possibilities when using the map viewer to develop maps.
The map viewer acts similar to other ArcGIS programs such as ArcMap and draws the features by using the location information as well as stores any attribute information that is included with the data. By including the attribute information, the map viewer allows you to create pop-up windows for your map based on this data.
To add a layer from a file from the map viewer:
– Click “Add”
– Click “Add Layer from file”
– Navigate to the file location on your computer
– Click “Import Layer”
If you are using Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, you can import the data directly by dragging the data from your computer and dropping the file into the map
There are a few things to keep in mind when adding features from a file:
– Delimited text files must have latitude and longitude information stored in separate fields
– The map viewer will display the first 1000 waypoint, track, and/or route features from a GPS exchange file
– You must compress the shapefile into a .zip file which must contain the .shp, .shx, .dbf and .prj files that comprise a shapefile. In addition, the zip file and shapefile must have the same name and be under 1 MB since larger datasets will experience poor performance
