Custom basemaps for the Roadway Characteristics Editor

GIS basemaps provide a visualization framework on top of which you can add your operational GIS layers in web GIS applications. In some cases, you will need to build and serve your own basemaps for a particular area of interest or specific information theme. Some examples include imagery, topo maps, parcels, engineering drawings, facilities management, hydrology, utilities, geology, planning, and so on.

Often, in these situations, you are typically compiling fundamental, authoritative base information for your web GIS application. This approach leverages content that your organization builds and maintains. The Roadway Characteristics Editor (RCE) allows you to add your own custom basemap for your event editing tasks. You can create a custom basemap using vector data, raster data, or imagery and publish them as a map service. You can switch between the custom basemap and the list of ArcGIS Online-provided basemaps in RCE.

A custom basemap in RCE

You can add a custom basemap to the Roadway Characteristics Editor in one of two methods:

• Using ArcGIS Online
• Using a web map as a local file on the web server

Using ArcGIS Online

The process for adding a custom basemap using ArcGIS Online is the following:

1. Publish a map service using basemap data such as imagery or point locations with labels.
2. Author a web map for the Roadway Characteristics Editorusing a web map on ArcGIS.com.
3. Add the map service you published in process 1 as a basemap to the web map from process 2.

   

   Add a map service as a basemap using ArcGIS Online

Using a web map as a local file on the web server

The following adds a custom basemap using a web map as a local file on the web server:

1. Publish a map service using basemap data such as imagery or point locations with labels.
2. Author a web map by modifying the URL parameters in the sample web map that can be found within the Roadway Characteristics Editor web application. For more information, see Authoring a web map for the Roadway Characteristics Editor.
3. Edit the Basemap parameter in the sample .json file to add the URL for the map service you published in step 1. Add a title for the basemap.

   

   Edit the Basemap parameter

   You can add multiple map services from multiple sources to create a basemap. As shown in the following example, the first map service contains orthoimagery for the east side of the state using source 1; the second map service contains orthoimagery for the west part of the state using source 2; and the third map service contains the labels for locations in the state using source 3.

   

   Add multiple map services to a custom basemap.

   The drawing order in the table of contents is Map service 3, Map service 2, and Map service 1. Choose unique IDs when using multiple map services.