Just a friendly heads up that in January or February of 2020, OCTO's DCGIS team will discontinue support of unsecure map services (HTTP) and only allow secured map service URLS (HTTPS) from ArcGIS Server. This guide will help you understand if you are affected and give you some tips on how you can migrate existing content.

Step-by-step guide

Who is affected?

If you have ever created an ArcGIS Online map or app, you will likely be affected.

What does all this mean?

If you have an ArcGIS Online map or app which uses DCGIS map services containing 'http://' in the beginning of the URL, this service/layer will soon no longer work.

How can I make sure I use the right URL?

The fix is simple: just update the service URL from http to https.

For example:

http://maps2.dcgis.dc.gov/dcgis/rest/services/DDOT/Cityworks/MapServer/0 BAD
https://maps2.dcgis.dc.gov/dcgis/rest/services/DDOT/Cityworks/MapServer/0 GOOD

As you can see from the above, the change is quite simple - just make sure that you begin using 'HTTPS' for all Map Services and Apps.

What if I already have a few apps or maps up in ArcGIS Online?

For beginning users of ArcGIS Online who have already created maps, there are a couple of techniques:

If you only have a limited amount of maps: Update each ArcGIS Online map or layer individually.

Log in to ArcGIS Online
Go to 'Content'
Filter for either Maps or Layers (both are affected by this change); select the map or layer
Go to 'Settings'
Scroll down to 'Layer Settings' and click on 'Update Layers to HTTPS'. Confirm to Update
Any layers which were HTTP have now been converted to HTTPS!
Repeat for each map and/or layer in your 'My Content'

I have a TON of apps or maps in ArcGIS Online. What should I do?

If you have a ton of maps/layers, the previous guidance will likely take forever. Instead, use ESRI's AGO Assistant, which will allow you to access each of your content items and rapidly change their settings.

Here is a basic workflow:

Go to AGO Assistant
Log in with your DCGov enterprise username and password
To the left will be your content folders in ArcGIS Online. Click on them to open and reveal content
Select one of the maps or layers inside - the right panel will reveal the layer details (and the URLS) contained within the map or layer.
If any of the layers have an 'HTTP' (and not 'HTTPS') in the beginning, you'll need to update this item like this:
- You can individually update the URLs, adding an 's' to make it HTTPS; or, if there are a ton of layers...
- You can use the Find and Replace at the top to search for http: and replace with https:
- Click Update at the bottom
- Note: the Find/Replace is case-sensitive.
Before the change:
After the change, you should see a 'Success' message:

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