We're planning to put up a bunch of our maps into ArcGIS Online and we'd like to create a streamlined process to do so, with as much automation (Python) as possible. This is our first test with a map of a city park with lots of unique symbols. We figure we'd get a map up there, then figure out what can be scripted.
Anyhow, so, we have an .mxd of a park where pretty much each layer has fancy symbols for things like parkbenches, bathrooms and the like. Upon fiddling around with ArcGIS Online, it looks like it only takes .txt, .csv, and .gpx files. I managed to get layers into "My Content" but it doesn't let me add it into a map. When I go "Add>Search for Layers" and tell it to search in My Content, nothing shows up. I then shared the layer in My Content so it was public on ArcGIS Online, and tried seeing if the search func. would see the layer in ArcGIS Online. No luck.
How do I get it to take attribute data, but also the symbology data from my layers?
Best Answer
If you have and ArcGIS Online for Organizations (AGOL) account and ArcGIS Desktop v10.1+, File >> Share as >> Service >> My Hosted Services will transfer the data and it's symbology to the online service.
If you're using custom symbols, there is degradation of quality as they are converted to coarse bitmaps, but at least it resembles what you start with.
As far as I know for the free community ArcGIS Online accounts the only choice you have for symbolizing is as outlined in Mapperz' answer.