Publishing shapefiles using your browser

ArcGIS Online can be used as a repository for GIS data and files. Putting these files up in ArcGIS Online allows you to access the information anywhere you have an internet connection, much like Google Drive or DropBox. It also allows you to use that data to create web maps and share them with others. This can greatly increase the overall flexibility of you GIS by making the data available whenever you need it, and not just when you are back in the office.

If you are going to upload and publish files to ArcGIS Online, some of them may need to be prepared or configured before you upload them. For example, a shapefile must be compressed into a single ZIP file before you are able to publish it to ArcGIS Online. This is because each shapefile actually consists of multiple files. If you remember from Chapter 2, Creating and Storing Data, a single shapefile will consist of a SHP, SHX, and DBF file at a minimum. Additional files such as a PRJ, SBN, and SBX...