How to build a fully offline app

1. Define app functionalities

Before you start building your fully offline appA fully offline app is a type of offline app built with ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps that is designed to work where network connectivity is entirely absent.Learn more, you need to define the functionalities you want to offer in your app. Your specific use case will determine the most suitable mobile data source for your application. Some questions to get you started are:

• Will you be working with preconfigured 3D scenes or 2D maps?
• Will you be editing data offline and synchronizing offline edits?
• Will you be geocoding, routing, or finding an address using a locator file?

Once you have outlined the requirements of your fully offline app, you can begin to prepare a mobile data source.

2. Prepare a mobile data source

To start building a fully offline app, you first select a mobile data source as the foundation for your app. You can author an ArcGIS ProArcGIS Pro is a professional desktop GIS application that can explore, visualize, analyze, and manage 2D and 3D data.Learn more project containing scenes or maps and export it as a mobile map packageA mobile map package (MMPK) is a standalone file that contains one or more map definitions, including the basemap layers, data layers, layer styles, and pop-up styles for use in offline applications built with ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps.Learn more (.mmpk) or mobile scene packageA mobile scene package (MSPK) is a standalone file that contains one or more scene definitions, including the basemap layers, elevation layers, data layers, layer styles, and pop-up styles for use in offline applications built with ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps.Learn more (.mspk) to use in your offline app. Alternatively, you can generate or download data filesA data file is a stand-alone file containing geographic data that can be sideloaded on to a device. It is typically used in offline applications that never connect to a network.Learn more containing geospatial features to incorporate as a layerA layer is a reference to a collection of geographic data that is used to access and display data. The data for layers are typically provided by the basemap layer service and data services.Learn more on your mapA map is a collection of layers that are displayed in 2D. It is typically composed of a basemap layer and data layers.Learn more or sceneA scene is a collection of layers that are displayed in 3D. It is typically composed of a basemap layer, data layers, and 3D data.Learn more. Some types of supported data files by ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native AppsArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps, previously known as ArcGIS Runtime SDKs, are developer products for building mapping and spatial analysis applications for native devices.Learn more include vector tile packageA vector tile package, also known as a VTPK, is a read-only data file containing static tiles of vector data.Learn more, image tile packageAn map tile package, formerly known as image tile package, is a read-only data file containing static, pre-rendered map tiles.Learn more, geodatabaseA geodatabase is a spatial data storage format that can contain multiple datasets of geographic features and non-spatial tabular data, as well as attachments, field domain definitions, and relationships between layers/tables.Learn more, and shapefilesA shapefile is a vector data storage format that contains geometry and attribute data for geographic features. It can also include spatial and non-spatial indexes.Learn more.

Use the following table to help select your mobile data sourceA mobile data source is a data format used to build offline apps. The formats include offline maps, offline data, mobile packages, and data files.Learn more.

Once you select a mobile data source, the general steps to prepare the mobile data source are:

3. Build the app

Once you have prepared a mobile data sourceA mobile data source is a data format used to build offline apps. The formats include offline maps, offline data, mobile packages, and data files.Learn more, you are ready to build an offline application. Use the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native AppsArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps, previously known as ArcGIS Runtime SDKs, are developer products for building mapping and spatial analysis applications for native devices.Learn more to create a fully offline app that runs on your preferred platform.

Example code to access data from a mobile data source in an offline app:

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try
{
    var mobileMapPackage = await MobileMapPackage.OpenAsync(path: "path\\to\\file.mmpk");
    await mobileMapPackage.LoadAsync();
    MainMapView.Map = mobileMapPackage.Maps.First();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
    // Handle error.
}

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var shapefileTable = new ShapefileFeatureTable("\\path\\to\\shapefile.shp");

var shapefileLayer = new FeatureLayer(shapefileTable);

MainMapView.Map.OperationalLayers.Add(shapefileLayer);

Tutorials

ToolsAPIs

Create a mobile map package

Use ArcGIS Pro to create a mobile map package.

ArcGIS Pro

Workflows

Create an app using a mobile map package

Learn how to build an offline app using a mobile map package created with ArcGIS Pro.