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GIS FAQs

What is GIS?

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a framework that can organize, communicate, and understand the scope of all of your assets and where they are located out in the field. Asset Essentials can bring your GIS data to life by taking data on a spreadsheet or within a database and turning it into an actual point on a map. To integrate your GIS data with Asset Essentials, you must have an ESRI based hosting service such as, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Portal and/or ArcGIS Enterprise. For more information about GIS, visit ESRI's 'What is GIS' web page. *Note: Brightly does not own the content provided in this link. We are an ESRI business partner and are not responsible for documentation provided by ArcGIS Online.

Integrating GIS with Asset Essentials FAQs

GIS is able to integrate with Asset Essentials by taking your GIS data and turning it into assets that you can start to develop a work history on. GIS data within Asset Essentials allows users to manage and maintain spatial assets. Users have the ability to associate work orders to these assets on the web portal or the mobile app. This allows completed work to be tracked, reported, and analyzed. Below are some common questions you may have about integrating GIS with Asset Essentials.

For the non-technical user

Is GIS data required for using the map in Asset Essentials?

No. GIS assets enhance your work order tracking and reporting functions. Location based work orders can still be created from the map even without GIS assets.

I have GIS data. How do I get it into your solution?

For your GIS data to be visible in Asset Essentials, you will need a single ESRI hosted map service. The map service URL should look like one of the three options below:

  • Map Service published from ArcGIS Enterprise: http://arcgis.yourorganization.com/arcgis/rest/services/AssetEssentials/MapServer
  • Web Map Service published from ArcGIS:  https://yourorganization.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1391b43d6c48315016efcb09615 *Note: If you are using a secure web map service in ArcGIS, each one of your users will need unique login credentials for your ESRI account.
  • Map Service published from ArcGIS Portal: https://arcgis.yourorganization.com/server/sharing/rest/
    • In addition to a URL, you will be required to provide a Portal Map ID provided by ESRI. *Note: If you are using a secure web map service in ArcGIS Portal, each one of your users will need unique login credentials for your ESRI account.

Do I need to make any changes to my GIS data in order to create assets in Asset Essentials?

Two fields are required in your GIS data in order to sync the data into Asset Essentials and be able to create work orders tied to those assets. *Note: If you just need to view the GIS data on the map then these fields are not required.

  • Asset Name: This is a unique ID for each one of your GIS features. Your work orders will be associated to this ID. *Note: ESRI ObjectID field is excluded.
  • Global ID: This field allows your GIS data to be synced as assets within Asset Essentials.

Do I need to add asset ID and global ID fields to all of my data?

No. You choose which GIS layers will be linked to work orders versus which layers will be view only. The Asset Name and Global ID fields are only required for the layers you would like to associate to work orders.

For the technical user

If using ArcGIS Online Enterprise, what are the requirements?

For basic displaying and identification of GIS data: 

  • ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 or higher
  • Single Map Service for all data
  • ObjectID & Shape fields available
  • No duplicate layer names

 

For GIS syncing and importing in order to link work orders:

  • ArcGIS Server 10.3.1 or higher
  • Single Map Service for all data
  • ObjectID & Shape fields available
  • GlobalID field available
  • No duplicate layer names
  • Requires the "Supports Pagination" function
  • SSL certificate configured to be 10.3 or higher *Note: Please make sure you have SSL (https) configured on your ArcGIS Server. This is a requirement for integration with Asset Essentials. It insures a secure transfer of your username and password, as well as your GIS information.

If using ArcGIS, what are the requirements?

To display or sync GIS data into Asset Essentials you must meet the following requirements:

  • Each user will need unique login credentials for your ESRI account as a Viewer role or higher
  • A single Web Map Service (web application is not allowed)
  • Share all Contents of the Web Map with your users in ArcGIS Online if the web map is secured (public web maps are allowed)
  • ObjectID & Shape fields available
  • No duplicate layer names

  • Do not use feature services that were published from shapefiles, from GeoJSON files or from csv files

  • Do not group feature layers within the web map

Can I use a feature service?

A feature service can only be used if it has been added to the Web Map Service being used for Asset Essentials. Currently, Asset Essentials does not support feature data editing so feature services cannot be used alone.

Can technicians perform feature data editing?

Data within Asset Essentials is read only. A user cannot edit GIS data from within the application.