Map Layers: ArcGIS Feature Service

1. What the ArcGIS Feature Service layer does

The ArcGIS Feature Service layer overlays live geographic features from any public ArcGIS FeatureServer onto the tracking map — wildfires, weather warnings, earthquakes, traffic incidents, infrastructure, boundaries, and thousands of other datasets. Features draw with the service's own symbology, so a fire-perimeter service shows its perimeters in the same colors and styles its publisher designed.

A ready supply of publishable services is Esri's ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World at livingatlas.arcgis.com — a curated catalog of authoritative public layers. Find a Feature layer there, copy its URL from the details page, and paste it straight into the map layer form (Section 2).

The layer suits Government and Emergency Response teams adding incident context (active fires, storm warnings) around their assets, Energy and Utilities operators overlaying infrastructure and hazard data, Maritime operations adding official boundaries and zones, and any team that wants an authoritative public dataset behind their fleet.

Figure 1 — An ArcGIS Feature Service layer (USA Wildfires) active on the map.

2. Enabling it (administrator): create the map layer

Creating the layer is a one-time, administrator-only step. It stores the service URL and which of the service's layers to draw.

Step 2.1 — Find a Feature Service URL

Any public ArcGIS FeatureServer URL works. The easiest place to browse is the ArcGIS Living Atlas at livingatlas.arcgis.com: search or browse for a dataset, and filter to Feature layer item types.

On any Feature layer's details page, find the URL panel and copy the service URL — it ends in /FeatureServer. That single copy/paste is all you need from the ArcGIS side.

Figure 2 — Copying a Feature layer's URL from the Living Atlas.

Tip: A URL for one specific layer (ending in /FeatureServer/0) works too — the form converts it to the service root and pre-selects that layer for you.

Step 2.2 — Add a map layer

In GSatTrack, go to Manage › Map Layers, then click Create Map Layer.

Step 2.3 — Choose the ArcGIS Feature Service type

Set Type to ArcGIS Feature Service. The form shows the URL field with a Load layers button and a Service Layers picker.

Figure 3 — The map layer form configured for an ArcGIS Feature Service.

Step 2.4 — Paste the URL and load its layers

Paste the copied service URL into URL and click Load layers. The form contacts the service and lists every layer it offers as a checkbox — numbered id, name, and geometry kind (point, line, or polygon), for example:

0 - Current_Incidents (point)
1 - Current_Perimeters (polygon)

If the URL can't be read, the form says so — check the URL is a public /FeatureServer address and try Load layers again.

Step 2.5 — Pick the service layers to draw

Tick the layers you want on the map (a fresh load starts with all of them ticked). At least one must be selected — Save stays disabled until then. All selected layers draw together under the single map-layer toggle.

Step 2.6 — Optional: limit the zoom range

Field	What to enter	Required
Name	A friendly label for the layer, shown to users in the Layers menu.	Yes
URL	The service URL from Step 2.1 (ends in `/FeatureServer`).	Yes
Service Layers	The service's layers to draw (Step 2.5).	At least one
Minimum zoom / Maximum zoom	Only draw the features within this zoom range (0–18). Useful for dense datasets that only make sense up close.	—

Step 2.7 — Preview, then save

Click Preview Map Layer to see the selected layers drawn on a preview map before anyone else does — features render with the service symbology and are clickable, exactly as they will appear on the tracking map. Then click Create Map Layer (or Save Changes when editing) to save.

Figure 4 — Previewing the layer before saving.

Editing later: reopening a saved layer automatically reloads the service's layer list with your saved selection ticked, so you can confirm or adjust it at a glance.

3. Turning the layer on

Open the Layers control from the Map Mode Indicator in the top-right corner of the map and toggle your ArcGIS Feature Service layer on. Toggle it off the same way to clear the features from the map.

Figure 5 — Turning the layer on from the Layers menu.

4. Reading the map

Features draw with the service's symbology

Points, lines, and polygons appear in the colors, icons, and styles the service's publisher designed — including services whose styling is computed from feature attributes (for example, wildfire perimeters shaded by containment). What you see matches the dataset's own maps.

If you set a zoom range (Step 2.6), features appear only while the map is inside it.

Click a feature for its details

Click any feature to open its details popup: a Property / Value table of everything the service publishes about that feature. Long tables scroll inside the popup, and you can search the properties or click a column header to sort — handy on feature-rich datasets with dozens of attributes.

Figure 6 — The feature details popup.

Quick reference

Where to find it: Map Mode Indicator → Layers → your ArcGIS Feature Service layer.
Prerequisites: an administrator-created layer pointing at a public ArcGIS /FeatureServer URL.
Find services: browse the ArcGIS Living Atlas (livingatlas.arcgis.com), open a Feature layer's details page, and copy its URL.
Enable it (admin): Manage › Map Layers › Create Map Layer → Type ArcGIS Feature Service → paste the URL → Load layers → tick at least one service layer → Preview Map Layer → save.
Sublayer URLs: pasting a /FeatureServer/0-style URL auto-converts to the service root with that layer pre-selected.
Reading features: drawn with the service's own symbology; click a feature for its searchable, sortable property table.
Zoom range: optional Minimum/Maximum zoom (0–18) limits when features draw.