Layers, maps, and scenes shared from ArcGIS Pro are stored as items in your active portal. These items can be consumed across the ArcGIS platform, including ArcGIS Pro, Map Viewer, and Scene Viewer.
Web layers
When shared from ArcGIS Pro, web layers are portal items that expose a service or service layer available privately, to your organization, or to the public. Depending on the type of service being exposed, a different layer type is created.
Web layers and their corresponding services
| Web layer | Web service |
|---|---|
Feature service | |
Cached map service, hosted | |
Vector tile service | |
Dynamic or cached map service | |
Cached scene service | |
3D tiles service | |
Dynamic or cached image service | |
Cached image service that uses a LERC compression tiling scheme | |
Feature service |
Web layers can store configured settings such as symbology, pop-up information, and permissions for who can access the layer. Because these settings are stored with the layer instead of the service, you can have multiple layer items referencing the same service with different configurations. See the Configured settings section for more information on where these settings are stored.
Web maps and scenes
Web maps and web scenes are composed of web layers. Web maps are used to visualize 2D data, while web scenes are used with 3D data. When existing web layers are shared as part of a new map or scene, any changes in the configuration of the layer are stored with the new web map—the original web layer is not modified.
Configured settings
When sharing from ArcGIS Pro, layer configurations (such as labels, symbology, and pop-ups) are stored at the lowest possible level. From lowest to highest, configurations can be stored at the service, web layer, and then web map or web scene level. Basic settings, such as visibility range, that are supported by the service will be stored there. If the setting is not supported by the service, it will be saved with the layer, and if the setting is not supported by the layer, it will be saved with the map or scene.
For example, when sharing a point layer with labels as a web feature layer, the labeling settings will be saved to the web layer because labels are not supported by the service. In this case, the labels are maintained when interacting with the feature layer but not the service.