Work together in ArcGIS Pro | Shared update groups & portal projects

The ArcGIS Pro 3.5 release introduced a brand-new way to store and share projects: portal projects. A portal project is an ArcGIS Pro project that is created, stored, and managed in ArcGIS Enterprise (version 11.4 or later). Instead of sharing files manually or relying on network drives, you can now save and access projects right from your organization’s portal—keeping your work connected and consistent.  

This is a milestone accomplishment and a step forward in further integrating ArcGIS Pro with the rest of the ArcGIS system. To make this possible, portal projects rely on shared update groups in ArcGIS Enterprise to control access and editing. In this blog, we’ll show you how they work and how to get started. 

Shared update groups

If this is the first time you’re hearing about shared update groups, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! 

A shared update group is a type of group that allows members to update items that are shared with the group. When we talk about item updates, we mean changes to the item details and updates to the content. In the context of portal projects, updates include the things you usually think of when you save a project: changes to maps, layers, layouts, and other items stored in the project file. 

If a portal project is shared with a shared update group you belong to, you can make edits and save changes right back to the portal. If it’s shared with a regular group you belong to, you can view and open the project, but you can’t save changes to the portal. 

It’s worth noting that you cannot turn a regular group into a shared update group after creating it. You must enable the shared update group designation when creating the group. 

Access levels

Now that we know what a shared update group is, let’s explore how they fit into the different access levels for ArcGIS Pro portal projects. There are four core access levels: 

Organization administrator

This can be any user with the Administrator default role that is part of the ArcGIS Enterprise organization. In the context of portal projects, the Organization Administrator can: 

• Create and own portal projects of any collaboration type  

• Change the ownership of a portal project (without needing any special privileges) 

• Create and own shared update groups (without needing any special privileges) 

• Change the ownership of a shared update group (without needing any special privileges) 

Portal project owner

This can be any user with a User or Publisher default role, or a custom role based on the User or Publisher default roles. The portal project owner always has write access to the portal project (see Table 2). 

If the user is creating a portal project with a For me and others collaboration type, they must belong to an existing shared update group that the portal project is being shared to. 

Note: creating a shared update group is an administrative privilege. If the portal project owner needs to create a shared update group to share the portal project, they must have a custom role with the Groups: Create with update capabilities privilege.   

Write access user

To have write access to a portal project, the user must belong to a shared update group the portal project is shared with. Only users with a User or Publisher default role, or a custom role with privileges based on the User or Publisher default roles, can belong to shared update groups.  

The user can open the portal project, view its contents, edit data through it, update it, and save changes to the portal. The user is also able to save changes to a local copy or a new portal project (with the appropriate permissions). 

View-only access user

If the portal project is shared to the whole organization, all members have view-only access. Otherwise, to have view-only access to a portal project, the user must belong to a group the portal project is shared with; this group must not be a shared update group.   

The user can open the portal project, view its contents, and edit data through the portal project. The user is not able to update the portal project and/or save changes to the portal project item in ArcGIS Enterprise. 

Key Takeaways 

We’ve covered a lot of information, so here are five key takeaways to round things out: 

1. Organization administrators can create and change the ownership of both portal projects and shared update groups 
2. The portal project owner doesn’t have to be the owner of the shared update group 
3. Creating a shared update group is an administrative privilege; if the portal project owner needs to create a shared update group, they must have a custom role 
4. To gain write access, users must belong to the shared update group the portal project is shared with 
5. Users that need view-only access must belong to a regular group the portal project is shared with-not a shared update group 

Final thoughts 

Portal projects represent a major step forward for ArcGIS Pro—enabling flexible, organization-based collaboration through ArcGIS Enterprise. Whether you’re supporting another user or collaborating with a group, portal projects and shared update groups give you the structure you need to stay organized and productive. 

Organization administrators have all the permissions they need to manage shared update groups and, by extension, portal projects.  

Want to delegate some of these responsibilities? Custom roles are a great way to give other users the privileges they need. 

Want to share a portal project with users that need write access? Create and share it with a shared update group. 

Want to share a portal project with users that need view-only access? Create and share it with a regular group. 

Got questions or tips from your own experience? Drop them in the comments—we’d love to hear how you’re using portal projects.