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Find and work with content

Use the content page to organize, access, browse, search, and work with content on the website. The content page is organized by tabs that allow you to browse and work with your own content (My Content), items you've marked as favorites (My Favorites), content shared with you through groups (My Groups), content from your organization (My Organization), and content from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World (Living Atlas). Each tab allows you to browse and search for content in a focused way. The tabs you see, as well as some of the information and options on the tabs, depend on your account type (organizational or public), whether or not you are signed in, and your privileges.

Another way to find and work with content is using the website search at the top of the site. Use the website search to perform a broader search for items in your organization, and, if your organization is configured to allow searching outside the organization, to find items shared by other organizations.

Browse content

Click Content at the top of the website to browse items using the My Content, My Favorites, My Groups, My Organization, and Living Atlas tabs.

Note:

You must have privileges to create content or own items to see the My Content tab.

You only see the Living Atlas tab if your portal administrator has configured the portal to access Living Atlas content from ArcGIS Online.

When browsing content using the content page tabs, you can do any of the following to help you explore and find items:

  • Display items in different ways using the view menu.
  • Sort items using the available sort options (and reverse the sort order as needed).
  • Limit the display to items that interest you using the filters on the left. For example, you can filter by item type, date modified, date created, tags, and how the item was shared. The Item Type filter has additional filters to further refine the results.

    To find items that have been marked as authoritative or deprecated in your organization, use the Status filter (available on the My Content and My Organization tabs only).

    If your portal administrator configured categories, you can also use the Categories filter on the My Content and My Organization tabs to find items. Even if your administrator did not configure categories, you can also filter Living Atlas content using the Categories filter on the Living Atlas tab. For groups that have group categories configured, group members can use these categories to filter group content from the My Groups tab.

    Tip:

    When searching for apps, you can choose to narrow your search to registered apps only by clicking the Registered Apps Only button under the Apps filter.

    Tip:

    Active filters are shown at the top of the results page. Click the x beside the filter to clear it. Clear all active filters at once by clicking Clear filters.

  • Explore content shared with you through a specific group by selecting the group on the left of the My Groups tab.
    Tip:

    You can also view items shared with a specific group using the Content tab of the group page.

Search content

To search for specific items, you can enter search keywords into the focused search box on any of the tabs on the content page. Only content relevant to that tab will be displayed. For example, you can search only your favorite items using the focused search box on the My Favorites tab. To narrow down your search results, use the filters on the left. Use the view option buttons to change the way the results are displayed, and sort the items as needed.

If you prefer to search the entire website instead of searching using the tabs of the content page, use the search box at the top of the site to find maps, layers, apps, scenes, tools, files, and groups. Enter keywords in the search box and choose the type of items you're looking for from the search drop-down menu, for example, Search for Apps. A list of relevant results appears. If you don't see the result you want, do any of the following to narrow or broaden your search results:

  • To further refine your search results, use the filters on the left. For example, you can filter by item type, date modified, date created, tags, and how the item was shared. The Item Type filter has additional filters to further refine the results.

    To find items that have been marked as authoritative or deprecated in your organization, use the Status filter (available on the My Content and My Organization tabs only).

    If your portal administrator configured categories, you can also use the Categories filter on the My Content and My Organization tabs to find items. Even if your administrator did not configure categories, you can also filter Living Atlas content using the Categories filter on the Living Atlas tab. For groups that have group categories configured, group members can use these categories to filter group content from the My Groups tab.

    Tip:

    When searching for apps, you can choose to narrow your search to registered apps only by clicking the Registered Apps Only button under the Apps filter.

    Tip:

    Active filters are shown at the top of the results page. Click the x beside the filter to clear it. Clear all active filters at once by clicking Clear filters.

  • Sort search results using the available sort options (and reverse the sort order as needed).

Continue to refine your keywords and search again as needed to find the items you want. For example, if you want to find a street map, you could enter street and choose Search for Maps. You would see a list of all the maps related to streets. If the list is too long, you can filter the results for a category of maps—web maps or map files. You could also search again for streets AND europe and you would then see only street maps for Europe. You can also try an advanced keyword search to get the results you want.

Work with content

When you discover items by browsing and searching the content page and tabs or using the website search at the top of the site, you can view and access information about the items and work with them in various ways. For example, you can see an item's thumbnail, read a short summary about the item or open its item page to see more details, mark an item as a favorite, quickly see who owns the item and how many times it's been viewed, and open the item.

Do any of the following to work with items from the content page:

  • Click a thumbnail image to open the item in the most appropriate app. For example, when you click a map thumbnail, it opens in Map Viewer; when you click a web app thumbnail, its website opens.
  • Click the More Options button More Options to select where the item opens. For example, you could choose to open a map in Map Viewer.
  • To open the item page and see details about an item, click the item title or click the More Options button More Options and click View item details.
  • Click the owner name to learn about the author of the item. The profile includes links to the user's public items and groups.
  • If you have privileges to create content, click Add Item on the My Content tab to add items from your computer, the web, or an application.
  • If you have privileges to create content, click Create on the My Content tab to create new maps, scenes, hosted web layers, apps, and so on.
  • If your portal administrator configured categories for the portal, you can categorize items you own or administer on the My Content tab by selecting one or more of your items and clicking Categorize.
  • To delete an item, select the item you want to delete, click Delete, and confirm that you want to delete the item.
  • To assign an item to a different owner, click the My Content tab, select the item, click Change Owner, select a new owner and folder, and click Change Owner. To do this, you must have privileges to reassign ownership of content.
  • To move an item you own to a different folder, click the My Content tab, select the item, click Move, browse for a folder or create a new one, and click Move.
  • To filter content by folder name on the My Content tab, type the name of the folder in the search box above your folders. Click the x to clear the filter.
  • To share an item, select the item and click Share. Your privileges determine whether you are allowed to share the item and with whom you are allowed to share it.
Note:

To select an item in table view, check the box beside the item. To select an item in list view or grid view, hover over the thumbnail and click the circle in the upper left corner to add a check mark.

Content categories

You can use content categories to organize group content and content across the portal. Content categories make it easier to discover maps, scenes, apps, layers, and other types of content.

ArcGIS categories

The ArcGIS content category set includes a selection of topic categories and subcategories that can be used to categorize many types of geospatial content. This category set is used to support ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, and can be customized to support other collections or organizations. The category set includes a small number of top-level categories on general topics that can be browsed for broad coverage of that topic, and more specific subcategories for finding specific types of content.

CategorySubcategory

Trending

Maps and apps that are new and noteworthy additions to Living Atlas or particularly relevant to current events, such as natural disasters, sporting events, and national elections, or holidays.

New and Noteworthy—Maps and apps that are new and noteworthy additions to Living Atlas.

Current Events—Maps and apps that are particularly relevant to current events, such as natural disasters, sporting events, and national elections, or holidays.

Basemaps

Maps and layers that provide reference maps for the world and context for your work. The basemaps can provide general reference information, creative styles for focused maps, component layers to create basemaps, and historical maps.

Reference Maps—General purpose and contemporary reference maps that can be used independently or as a background map for other map layers.

Creative Maps—A variety of creatively designed maps that can be used independently or as a background map for specific types of map layers.

Vector Tiles—Maps and layers referencing vector tile layers.

Component Layers—Tile layer components that can be combined to create multiple types of basemaps, such as an imagery hybrid map.

Historical Maps—Historical maps that can be used independently or as a background map for other map layers.

Imagery

Imagery of various types, such as multiscale imagery built for use as a basemap, multispectral imagery that reveals different characteristics, temporal imagery that reveals change over time, and imagery of places affected by major events.

Basemap Imagery—Imagery maps and layers that are designed to be used as a background map for other map layers.

Multispectral Imagery—Imagery maps and layers referencing multiband imagery that can be configured in various band combinations to reveal different characteristics, such as healthy vegetation or impervious surface.

Temporal Imagery—Imagery maps and layers referencing multitemporal imagery that can be enabled to display imagery captured on different dates or times to better understand change over time.

Event Imagery—Imagery maps and layers captured for specific events, such as natural disasters, to reveal the impact of those events.

Boundaries

Boundaries and places of different types, such as administrative areas, environmental areas, and various geometric areas (for example, hexagons and grids).

Administrative—Boundary maps and layers for administrative areas, such as countries, states and provinces, counties and districts, cities and populated places, census geographies, and postal geographies.

Environmental—Boundary maps and layers for environmental areas, such as protected areas, ecological regions, and watershed boundaries.

Geometric—Boundary maps and layers for geometric areas of various types and sizes, such as hexagons, triangles, and rectangular grids.

People

Essential information about population, the housing and neighborhoods in which people live, the jobs that provide their incomes, how they spend their time and money, and their health and safety.

Population—Statistical information about human population, including population counts, density, growth, age, gender, race, marital status, household sizes, and more.

Housing—Statistical information about housing for people, including housing units, occupied and vacant housing, home value, housing fuels, and other characteristics of housing.

Neighborhoods—Information about the neighborhoods in which people live, including neighborhood names, boundaries, and types, and the lifestyle characteristics (for example, how they spend their time and money) of people that live in these neighborhoods.

Jobs—Information about the jobs that people have, including population of employed civilians and military, labor force by occupation, unemployment rate, daytime population, commuter population, and more.

Income—Information about the income that people have, including per capita income, household income, disposable income, food stamps, income by age, net worth, and more.

Spending—Information about the spending habits of people, including annual budget expenditures and spending on food, restaurants, clothing, housing, insurance, entertainment, personal care, and more.

Health—Information about the health of people, including median age, health insurance coverage, health care spending, persons with a disability, and more.

Education—Information about the education of people, including level of educational attainment, population enrolled in school, types of schooling, and more.

At Risk—Information about people who are "at risk" and may have additional needs (for example, transportation or medical care) related to an incident. This may include senior citizens, children, or persons with a disability, limited language proficiency, or limited transportation options.

Public Safety—Information about the public safety of people, including crime rates, accident rates, workplace injuries, access to emergency services, and more.

Infrastructure

The things and institutions that people create, such as transportation networks, structures, utilities, businesses, governments, and agriculture.

Transportation—Information about transportation systems created to move people and goods, including highway networks, rail networks, airport facilities, shipping lanes, public transportation, transit access, bridge conditions, and more.

Traffic—Information about traffic conditions on transportation networks, including traffic counts, live traffic services, traffic recorder stations, traffic cams, traffic accidents, commute times, travel speeds, and more.

Structures—Information about structures created by people, such as buildings, factories, museums, monuments, towers, housing, schools, hospitals, and more.

Utilities—Information about utility facilities for energy and water supply, communications infrastructure and services, and sewage and waste management, including power plants, electricity and gas distribution, telecommunication and radio networks, and more.

Businesses—Information about businesses, including type of business, number and type of employees, levels of revenue, impact on local economy, and more.

Agriculture—Information and resources related to agriculture, including the cultivation and breeding of plants, animals, fiber, and biofuels needed to sustain and enhance human life. Topics include vegetation and crop types, agricultural facilities and workers, and more.

Environment

Characteristics of the world's land and oceans, such as elevation and bathymetry, soils, geology, energy resources, fresh water, habitat, species, conservation, land cover, weather, and climate.

Earth Observations—Information about the earth's systems captured via remote sensing and surveying techniques, such as wind and weather conditions, weather radar imagery, live stream gauges, wildfire activity, recent earthquakes, soil moisture, sea surface temperature, air quality, and more.

Oceans—Information about oceans (salt water bodies excluding inland waters), such as coastal information, coral reefs, bathymetry, sea surface temperatures, seafloor geomorphology, seafloor characteristics, ocean currents, and more.

Elevation and Bathymetry—Digital elevation models and various derived elevation datasets, such as hillshade and slope maps, for land, ice and sea surface. Includes terrestrial elevation, bathymetry and shoreline.

Weather and Climate—Information about weather and climate, such as current and forecasted weather conditions, precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration, wind speed, atmospheric conditions, climate change, and severe weather events such as hurricanes and tornadoes.

Land Cover—Information about the physical and biological cover of the earth's surface, such as artificial surfaces, agricultural areas, forests, natural areas, wetlands, and water bodies.

Energy Resources—Information about natural energy resources, such as hydrocarbons, hydropower, bio-energy, solar, and wind.

Soils and Geology—Information about soils and geology, including the types, textures, composition, and structure of soil and geology units.

Fresh Water—Information about fresh water, including naturally occurring water in ice caps, ice sheets, glaciers, lakes, ponds, bogs, rivers, streams, and groundwater in aquifers.

Habitat—Information about habitat, which is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other organism and is used to provide food, shelter, protection, and mates for reproduction. Includes terrestrial and aquatic areas.

Species—Information about various animal and plant species, including their geographic distribution, endangered status, and impact on the environment.

ISO categories

The ISO content category set includes topic categories from the International Organization for Standardization that provide a method for describing and cataloging geographic information.

CategoryDescription

Biota

Flora and/or fauna in the natural environment.

Boundaries

Legal land descriptions.

Climatology, Meteorology, Atmosphere

Processes and phenomena of the atmosphere.

Economy

Economic activities, conditions, and employment.

Elevation

Height above or below sea level.

Environment

Environmental resources, protection, and conservation.

Farming

Rearing of animals or cultivation of plants.

Geoscientific Information

Information pertaining to earth sciences.

Health

Health, health services, human ecology, and safety.

Imagery, Base Maps, EarthCover

Imagery, basemaps, and the earth's cover.

Inland Waters

Inland water features, drainage systems, and their characteristics.

Intelligence, Military

Military bases, structures, and activities.

Location

Positional information services.

Oceans

Features and characteristics of salt water bodies (excluding inland waters).

Planning Cadastre

Information used for appropriate actions for future use of land.

Society

Characteristics of society and cultures.

Structure

Man-made construction.

Transportation

Means and aids for conveying persons or goods.

Utilities, Communication

Energy, water, and waste systems and communications infrastructure and services.

INSPIRE categories

The INSPIRE content category set includes a comprehensive set of spatial data themes set out in the INSPIRE Directive.

CategoryDescription

Addresses

Location of properties based on address identifiers, usually by road name, house number, or postal code.

Administrative Units

Units of administration, dividing areas where member states have and/or exercise jurisdictional rights, for local, regional, and national governance, separated by administrative boundaries.

Cadastral Parcels

Areas defined by cadastral registers or equivalent.

Coordinate Reference Systems

Systems for uniquely referencing spatial information in space as a set of coordinates (x, y, z) and/or latitude and longitude and height, based on a geodetic horizontal and vertical datum.

Geographical Grid Systems

Harmonized multiresolution grid with a common point of origin and standardized location and size of grid cells.

Geographical Names

Names of areas, regions, localities, cities, suburbs, towns, or settlements, or any geographical or topographical feature of public or historical interest.

Hydrography

Hydrographic elements, including marine areas and all other water bodies and items related to them, including river basins and subbasins. Where appropriate, according to the definitions set out in Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (2) and in the form of networks.

Protected Sites

Area designated or managed within a framework of international, community and member states' legislation to achieve specific conservation objectives.

Transport Networks

Road, rail, air, and water transport networks and related infrastructure. Includes links between different networks. Also includes the trans-European transport network as defined in Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1996 on Community Guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (1) and future revisions of that Decision.

Elevation

Digital elevation models for land, ice, and ocean surface. Includes terrestrial elevation, bathymetry, and shoreline.

Geology

Geology characterized according to composition and structure. Includes bedrock, aquifers, and geomorphology.

Land Cover

Physical and biological cover of the earth's surface including artificial surfaces, agricultural areas, forests, (semi)natural areas, wetlands, and water bodies.

Orthoimagery

Georeferenced image data of the earth's surface, from either satellite or airborne sensors.

Agricultural and Aquaculture Facilities

Farming equipment and production facilities (including irrigation systems, greenhouses, and stables).

Area Management, Restriction, Regulation Zones and Reporting Units

Areas managed, regulated, or used for reporting at international, European, national, regional, and local levels. Includes dumping sites, restricted areas around drinking water sources, nitrate-vulnerable zones, regulated fairways at sea or large inland waters, areas for the dumping of waste, noise restriction zones, prospecting and mining permit areas, river basin districts, relevant reporting units, and coastal zone management areas.

Atmospheric Conditions

Physical conditions in the atmosphere. Includes spatial data based on measurements, models, or a combination thereof, and includes measurement locations.

Biogeographical Regions

Areas of relatively homogeneous ecological conditions with common characteristics.

Buildings

Geographical location of buildings.

Energy Resources

Energy resources including hydrocarbons, hydropower, bio-energy, solar, wind, and so on, where relevant, including depth and height information on the extent of the resource.

Environmental Monitoring Facilities

Location and operation of environmental monitoring facilities, including observation and measurement of emissions, and of the state of environmental media and of other ecosystem parameters (biodiversity, ecological conditions of vegetation, and so on) by or on behalf of public authorities.

Habitats and Biotopes

Geographical areas characterized by specific ecological conditions, processes, structure, and (life support) functions that physically support the organisms that live there. Includes terrestrial and aquatic areas distinguished by geographical, abiotic, and biotic features, whether entirely natural or seminatural.

Human Health and Safety

Geographical distribution of dominance of pathologies (such as allergies, cancers, and respiratory diseases), information indicating the effect on health (biomarkers, decline of fertility, and epidemics) or well-being of humans (such as fatigue and stress) linked directly (air pollution, chemicals, depletion of the ozone layer, noise, and so on) or indirectly (food, genetically modified organisms, and so on) to the quality of the environment.

Land Use

Territory characterized according to its current and future planned functional dimension or socioeconomic purpose—for example, residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural, forestry, and recreational.

Meteorological Geographical Features

Weather conditions and their measurements, precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration, wind speed, and direction.

Mineral Resources

Mineral resources such as metal ores and industrial minerals, where relevant, including depth/height information on the extent of the resource.

Natural Risk Zones

Vulnerable areas characterized according to natural hazards (all atmospheric, hydrologic, seismic, volcanic and wildfire phenomena that, because of their location, severity, and frequency, have the potential to seriously affect society)—for example, floods, landslides and subsidence, avalanches, forest fires, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Oceanographic Geographical Features

Physical conditions of oceans (such as currents, salinity, and wave heights).

Population Distribution and Demography

Geographical distribution of people, including population characteristics and activity levels, aggregated by grid, region, administrative unit, or other analytical unit.

Production and Industrial Facilities

Industrial production sites, including installations covered by Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (1) and water abstraction facilities, mining, and storage sites.

Sea Regions

Physical conditions of seas and saline water bodies divided into regions and subregions with common characteristics.

Soil

Soils and subsoil characterized according to depth, texture, structure, content of particles, organic material, stoniness, erosion, and, where appropriate, mean slope and anticipated water storage capacity.

Species Distribution

Geographical distribution of occurrence of animal and plant species aggregated by grid, region, administrative unit, or other analytical unit.

Statistical Units

Units for dissemination or use of statistical information.

Utility and Governmental Services

Utility facilities such as sewage, waste management, energy supply, and water supply, administrative and social governmental services such as public administrations, civil protection sites, schools, and hospitals.

Advanced search

When searching for items using the website search or the focused search on any of the content page tabs, you can perform advanced keyword searches to narrow your results. Advanced keyword search is also available when you search for layers to add in Map Viewer and Scene Viewer. You can use any of the following in your advanced search: fields, range searches, boosting, Boolean operators, and grouping. These are described in the following sections.

Fields

When performing a search for content or groups on the website or in Map Viewer or Scene Viewer, you can either specify a field or use the default fields. For items, the default fields are title, tags, snippet, description, type, and typekeywords. For groups, the default fields are id, title, description, snippet, tags, and owner. The best match is always returned. See the tables below for descriptions of these fields.

You can search a specific field by typing the field name followed by a colon and the term you are looking for (for a term with multiple words, use double quotation marks, such as "washoe county"). If you do not use a field indicator, the default fields are searched. For example, if you want to add a layer to your map and know the name of the owner, you can enter owner: followed by the owner's user name in the search to narrow a potentially long list of results.

Item fields

You can refine your item searches using specific fields in your search string. These fields include the following:

Field Details

id

ID of the item; for example, id:4e770315ad9049e7950b552aa1e40869 returns the item for that ID.

owner

Owner of the item; for example, owner:esri returns all content published by Esri. Field and value are case sensitive.

created

The date, expressed in UNIX time, that items were created; for example, created: [0000001249084800000 TO 0000001249548000000] returns all items published between August 1, 2009, 12:00 a.m., and August 6, 2009, 8:40 a.m.

title

Item title; for example, title:"Southern California" returns items with Southern California in the title.

type

Type returns the type of item and is a predefined field. For example, type:KML returns items with KML as the type and type:"Geocoding Service" returns items with Geocoding Service as the type. Use quotation marks for more precise results, especially for types that include a space.

description

Item description; for example, description:California finds all items with the term California in the description.

tags

The tag field; for example, tags:"San Francisco" returns items tagged with the term San Francisco.

snippet

Summary; for example, snippet:"natural resources" returns items with natural resources in the summary.

spatialreference

The spatial reference; for example, spatialreference:102100 returns items in the Web Mercator auxiliary sphere projection.

accessinformation

Access information, for example, accessinformation:esri returns items with esri as the source credit.

access

The access field; for example, access:public returns public items. This field is predefined, and the options are public, private, or shared. You will only see private or shared items that you have access to.

group

The ID of the group; for example, group:1652a410f59c4d8f98fb87b25e0a2669 returns items within the given group.

numratings

Number of ratings; for example, numratings:6 returns items with six ratings.

numcomments

Number of comments; for example, numcomments:[1 TO 3] returns items that have one to three comments.

avgrating

Average rating; for example, avgrating:3.5 returns items with 3.5 as the average rating.

orgid

The ID of the organization, for example, orgid:5uh3wwYLNzBuU0Ef returns items within the given organization.

modified

The date, expressed in UNIX time, that items were last modified; for example, modified:[0000001249084800000 TO 0000001249548000000] returns all items modified between August 1, 2009, 12:00 a.m., and August 6, 2009, 8:40 a.m.

categories

Organization content categories; for example, categories: "Historical Maps" returns items that are categorized in the portal as historical maps.

Group fields

You can filter your searches on groups using specific fields in your search string. Only public groups or groups that you have access to will be searched. These fields include the following:

Group field Details

id

Group ID; for example, id:1db70a32f5f84ea9a88f5f460f22557b returns the group for that ID.

title

Group title; for example, title:redlands returns groups with Redlands in the title.

owner

Group owner; for example, owner:esri returns groups owned by Esri.

description

Description; for example, description:"street maps" returns groups with street maps in the description field.

snippet

Summary; for example, snippet:transportation returns groups with transportation in the group summary.

tags

The tags field; for example, tags:"bike lanes" returns groups tagged with the term bike lanes.

phone

Contact information; for example, phone:jsmith33@esri.com returns groups with jsmith33@esri.com as the contact.

created

The date, expressed in UNIX time, that groups were created; for example, created:0000001247085176000 returns groups created on July 8, 2009.

modified

The date, expressed in UNIX time, that groups were last modified; for example, modified:0000001247085176000 returns groups modified on July 8, 2009.

access

The access level of the group. Values are private and public. Private is the default; for example, access:private returns private groups.

isinvitationonly

The isinvitationonly field returns groups that require an invitation to join. For example, isinvitationonly:false returns groups that do not require an invitation to join. This field is predefined with the options true or false.

orgid

The ID of the organization, for example, orgid:5uh3wwYLNzBuU0Ef returns groups within the given organization.

Range searches

Range searches allow you to match on-field values between the lower and upper bounds. Range queries can be inclusive or exclusive of the upper and lower bounds. Inclusive range queries are denoted by square brackets. Exclusive range queries are denoted by curly brackets.

For example, to find all items created between December 1, 2009, and December 9, 2009, use created:[0000001259692864000 TO 0000001260384065000].

The created field contains the date and time an item is created in UNIX time. UNIX time, also used for the modified field, is defined as the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight January 1, 1970. The website stores time in milliseconds, so you need to add three zeros to the end of the UNIX time. Additionally, you need to add six zeros to the front of the number. This is because the number is stored as a string in the database.

Range searches are not restricted to date fields. You can also use range queries with nondate fields, for example, owner:[arcgis_explorer TO esri]. This will find all items from the owners between arcgis_explorer and esri, including arcgis_explorer and esri.

Boost a term

Boosting allows you to control the relevance of an item by boosting its term. To boost a term, use the caret symbol (^) with a boost factor (a number) at the end of the term you are searching. The higher the boost factor, the more relevant the term will be. For example, if you are searching for recent fires and want fires to be more relevant, create the expression recent fires^5.

Boolean operators

Boolean operators allow terms to be combined through logic operators. The website supports AND, plus sign (+), OR, NOT, and minus sign (-) as Boolean operators. Boolean operators must be uppercase.

Boolean operatorDetails

AND

The AND operator is the default conjunction. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the AND operator is used. The AND operator performs matching where both terms exist in either the given field or the default fields. This is equivalent to an intersection using sets.

OR

The OR operator links two terms and finds a match if either of the terms exists. This is equivalent to a union using sets.

To search for an item that contains either the term recent fires or just fires, use the query "recent fires" OR fires.

+

The plus sign, or the required operator, requires that the term after the symbol exist somewhere in the given field or the default fields.

To search for items that must contain fires and may contain recent, use the query recent +fires.

NOT

The NOT operator excludes items that contain the term after NOT. This is equivalent to a difference using sets. To search for documents that contain California but not imagery, use the query California NOT Imagery. The NOT operator cannot be used with a single term.

-

The minus sign, or the prohibit operator, excludes items that contain the term after the symbol.

To search for documents that contain California but not imagery, use the query California -Imagery.

Grouping

You can create subqueries using parentheses to group clauses. This can be very useful if you want to control the Boolean logic for a query.

To search for either California or recent and fires, create the expression (California OR recent) AND fires.

You can group multiple clauses to a single field using parentheses.

To search for a title that contains both the phrase population change and the word recent, use the query title:(+"population change" +recent).

Browse and search tips

  • When doing a field search, use a colon (:) after the field name, for example, owner:esri.
  • Use double quotation marks to surround terms with multiple words; for example, "map services" returns items with the term map services in a field, whereas map services returns items with either maps or services in a field.
  • You can create a search string by linking fields together in your search string with the AND operator, for example, owner:esri AND tags:streets.
  • Use uppercase for search operators: AND, OR, and so forth.
  • Narrow your search results using available filters and sort them as needed.
  • In addition to searching for content through keywords, you can also use the gallery to browse featured items.
  • If you want to search for layers with a specific extent to use in a map, use Map Viewer. Open a new or existing map, set the extent, click the Add button, and click Search for Layers.
  • Only English terms are supported.