In case you do not know it yet, ArcGIS Maps for SharePoint has just been updated – ArcGIS Maps for SharePoint 4.2! (And for those who are just hearing about it now. . . ArcGIS Maps for SharePoint is Esri’s SharePoint add-in that allows you to add maps to your SharePoint sites, load ArcGIS data on them, and share that location information across your organization.)

Esri’s Scott Ball explains that ArcGIS Maps for SharePoint 4.2 “is a quality and compatibility release that lays the foundation for some big new features coming later this year and early 2018.” Ball advises starting right away by downloading ArcGIS Maps for SharePoint 4.2 now and installing it into your SharePoint site collection. Ball cites some of the highlights of the 4.2 like the following:

• Updated Compatibility - Maps for SharePoint now works with Microsoft SharePoint 2016 and ArcGIS Enterprise 105.
• Improved Security Options – Upon installation, SharePoint admins can now choose whether to store security credential info at the SharePoint farm level or at the site collection level.
• Added Support for Vector Tile Layers – Vector tile layers provide visual and performance improvements over raster tile layers, and they now work with your maps in SharePoint.

Ball adds that “there are also many, many other bug fixes and workflow improvements baked in. You’ll also notice that we’ve re-branded the product from Esri Maps for SharePoint to ArcGIS Maps for SharePoint, which emphasizes the relationship between the ArcGIS platform and this product. . . .[and] for those using SharePoint Online, we have an updated version coming soon! It has been submitted to the Microsoft store and will hopefully be approved in the coming days. Also, this version of Maps for SharePoint finally deprecates Silverlight-based map web parts.”

To download, ArcGIS Maps for SharePoint, click here. For a more complete list of what has changed in ArcGIS Maps for SharePoint, go to What’s New.