Portal service

The portal service is the content management service for a portal. The service can create, store, manage, and access different types of content.

Use the portal service to search for different types of public or private content.

Key features

You can use the portal service to:

  • Securely store and access content in the cloud.
  • Store different types of content such as web maps, web scenes, hosted layers, services, app configurations, and files.
  • Manage content properties with items.
  • Search for items.
  • Access content items and content data.
  • Share content with groups of users.
  • Manage users and groups.

How the portal service works

The main operations you can perform with the portal service are:

  • Search: Query to find private and public content.
  • Items: Create, store, manage, and access items.
  • Users: Search for users and manage user content.
  • Groups: Create, search, and manage groups and group content.

Anonymous vs. restricted requests

The portal service can be accessed anonymously to perform some operations, such as searching for public content, while other operations are restricted (private). Examples of restricted operations include accessing private content, creating and sharing content, and performing administration tasks.

To access restricted operations, you must include an access token with the request. The service will grant or deny access to the operation based on the token's credentials.

Learn more about credentials and access tokens in Security and authentication.

Service URL

The portal service only supports an enhanced endpoint. The base URL is:

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https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest

Learn more about standard and enhanced endpoints in Service endpoints.

Required parameters

f

The format of the data returned. f=json f=pjson f=html f=geojson.

token

The access token used to access restricted operations or private content. The value can be an API Key or OAuth 2.0 token.

Code examples

Search for an item

Use search to find different types of items.

REST API

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## Public

curl https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/search \
-d 'q=title:"Seven Natural Wonders of the World" AND type:"web map" AND owner:"esri_devlabs"' \
-d 'f=pjson'

## Private

curl https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/search \
-d 'q=title:"Seven Natural Wonders of the World" AND type:"web map" AND owner:"<YOUR_USER_ID>"' \
-d 'f=pjson'
-d 'token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>'

Access an item

Use items to access an item directly. To do so you need the item ID. You can get the item ID by using ArcGIS Online, the developer dashboard, or building an application to search for items. If the item is private, you need to include an access token.

REST API

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## Public

curl https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/5a5147abe878444cbac68dea9f2f64e7 \
-d 'f=pjson'

## Private

curl https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/<ITEM_ID> \
-d 'f=pjson' \
-d 'token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>'

Access item data

Use data to return the actual stored content for an item. The type returned depends on the item storage types. To access a private item's data, you need to include an access token in the request along with the item ID.

REST API

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## Public

curl https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/5a5147abe878444cbac68dea9f2f64e7/data \
-d 'f=pjson'

## Private

curl https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/<ITEM_ID>/data \
-d 'f=pjson' \
-d 'token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>'

Create an item

Use addItem (POST) to create an item. At minimum, you need to set the title and type parameters in addition to your access token. You can also upload files to create an item in supported formats like CSV.

REST API

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curl https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/users/<USER_NAME>/addItem \
-d 'f=pjson' \
-d 'title=World geography' \
-d 'description=This is the map of the world' \
-d 'type=Web Map'\
-d 'tags=map, world, geography' \
-d 'token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>'

Update sharing permissions

Use share (POST) as the item owner to edit your item's level of access. The sharing parameters are: everyone (accessible to the public), org, and groups. To perform this call, specify the item ID and set each parameter to a boolean (true or false) and, optionally, the group-id for sharing. When sharing is set to false, your item permissions are set as private.

REST API

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curl https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/users/<YOUR_ORG>/items/<ITEM_ID>/share \
-d 'everyone=true' \
-d 'org=true' \
-d 'groups=<GROUP_IDs>' \
-d 'f=pjson' \
-d 'token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>'

Authentication

To make authenticated requests you need to use one of the following:

  • API key: A permanent token that grants your application access to ready-to-use services and, with an ArcGIS Developer account, private hosted layer (items) and data services.
  • User authentication (formerly _ArcGIS identity): Grants a short-lived token, generated via OAuth 2.0, giving your application permission to access the content and services authorized to an existing ArcGIS user's account.

Learn more about getting access tokens in Security and authentication.

API support

SearchItemsUsersGroups
ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript11
ArcGIS Maps SDK for .NET11
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Kotlin11
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Swift11
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Java11
ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt11
ArcGIS API for Python
ArcGIS REST JS
Esri Leaflet2222
MapLibre GL JS2222
OpenLayers2222
Full supportPartial supportNo support
  • 1. Limited operations, use HTTP requests.
  • 2. Access via ArcGIS REST JS.

Pricing

To determine how much it costs to access the service:

  1. If you have an ArcGIS Developer account, go to Pricing. Transactions are billed in US dollars. A free tier of transactions may be available.
  2. If you have an ArcGIS Online account, go to Understand credits. Transactions are billed in credits.

Tutorials

Use tools to create different types of content and build content-driven applications.

Web maps

Web scenes

Feature layers

Vector tile layers

Basemap layers

Tools

Use tools to access the portal and create and manage content for applications.

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