Use distributed collaborations
A distributed collaboration establishes trust between two ArcGIS Enterprise environments or an ArcGIS Online organization and one or more ArcGIS Enterprise environments. The organization that initiates the collaboration is known as the host, while the organizations that are invited to the collaboration are the guests.
Note:
If an ArcGIS Online organization participates in a distributed collaboration, they must be the host.
If your organization is part of a distributed collaboration, you can share and edit content with members of collaborating organizations using distributed collaboration groups. Once shared, your content is discoverable by collaboration participants in their own environment.
Share content
To share content in a distributed collaboration, you must be a member of a distributed collaboration group. Distributed collaboration groups are the same as any group in ArcGIS Online but have a designated badge and provide additional cross-organizational sharing capabilities. These groups must be created by the host or guest administrator. You can join a distributed collaboration group by invitation or request. Each distributed collaboration group you belong to has an access mode defined by the host administrator that gives you and your organization’s members permission to send, receive, or send and receive content. To view the access mode of a distributed collaboration group you belong to, visit the group page.
Note:
In a distributed collaboration group, ArcGIS Online members always have permission to send and receive content because their organization must be the collaboration host.
Send content
You can send content from your organization to a participating organization if the host administrator has defined the distributed collaboration group access mode as either Send or Send and Receive. To send content to a distributed collaboration group, follow the same workflow you would when sharing content with any group in ArcGIS Online. You always retain ownership of your shared content within your organization. When you share content, it is sent either as a copy or by reference depending on the content type and how the host administrator configured the collaboration. The way in which you send your content determines the editing capabilities of the participating organization. You can share the following content in a distributed collaboration:
Feature layers, hosted feature layers, and hosted feature layer views can be sent as copies or references based on how the host administrator has configured the collaboration.
Other layers and services are shared as references.
Apps, maps, scenes, and files are shared as copies.
Note:
When a collaboration member sends an item, the sublayer metadata is also shared. Only the sending organization can make edits to the metadata. Edits made to the metadata are shared with collaboration participants.
If you remove content from the collaboration group, unless the participating organization has the Prevent this item from being accidentally deleted option enabled, the content is removed from the participating organization’s environment during the next sync.
Receive content
You can receive content from a participating organization if the host administrator has defined the distributed collaboration group access mode as either Receive or Send and Receive. When another organization participating in the collaboration shares content, you gain access to the content in your organization’s distributed collaboration group. You can edit content you have received if the participating organization has shared the content as a reference or two-way copy. Content refreshes and appears in the group according to the sync schedule.
Items received from other organizations display the Collaborated Content badge. This badge is not visible on items in the originating environment.
If you share content with a distributed collaboration group and your access mode in the collaboration is Receive, the content remains in the group but is not shared with collaboration participants in other organizations.
View collaboration details
If you are a member of a distributed collaboration group, you can view details about how the group is configured to share content. For example, you can view the group’s access mode to determine whether you have permission to send, receive, or send and receive content. Consult the collaboration details to understand how your content is shared with collaborating organizations, and whether your content has been successfully synchronized. You can view the following distributed collaboration details on the Overview tab of the group page:
Collaboration name—The name of the collaboration.
Your organization’s participation—How your organization participates in the collaboration. If your organization created the collaboration, it’s the host; otherwise, it participates as the guest.
Note:
ArcGIS Online organizations must be the host in a distributed collaboration.
Sync status—The synchronization details of content shared with the collaboration. Details include the date and time of the most recent synchronization, whether it was successful, and the synchronization method.
Note:
The sync schedule of a distributed collaboration must be configured by the guest organization.
Immediate sync—Specifies whether your group content is synchronized immediately with collaboration participants.
Permissions—Your group's access mode.
Feature layers and views are sent as—How your feature layers and views are shared with other collaboration participants.