# Publish a layer as a service
Turn a project layer into a GIS service, keep it up to date, and remove it again.
Publishing a layer as a service is an administration task, done from the Publish GIS services page, which lists every layer in the project that is eligible for publishing.
# Publish a layer
Open your project.
From the navigation bar, click Administration.
In the left sidebar, under your project's name, click Integrations and then click Publish GIS services.
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If Integrations or Publish GIS services is missing, the Publish layers feature is not enabled on this project, or your account does not have project administrator rights or the Layer create/edit group role. See Before you start.
The page lists every layer in the project that can be published - that is, every vector layer and every uploaded imagery layer. Use the Filter box to find a layer by name.
Switch on the Published toggle for the layer you want to publish.
The toggle is disabled while a layer is being processed, so you cannot start a second job for the same layer by accident.
# Watching progress
Publishing a Civillo layer can take several minutes. It prepares the layer's geometry and attributes, registers the service, and clears any previously cached map tiles for that layer.
While the layer is being published, the row shows a status message and a progress bar. Typical messages are:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
Starting | The job has been queued. |
Publishing "{layer}" ({geometry type}) | Data for one geometry type is being written. |
Publishing "{layer}" ({geometry type}) - extracting keys | Attribute names are being collected. |
Publishing "{layer}" ({geometry type}) - extracting data | Attribute values are being written. |
Processing {layer} | An imagery layer is being tiled. |
Complete | The service is registered and ready. |
Jobs also queue behind other processing work in the project, so a job can sit at Starting for a while before it begins.
When the job finishes, three quick links replace the progress bar on that row:
- OGC API - opens the project's feature collections, filtered to this layer.
- ArcGIS Services - opens the project's ArcGIS service list, filtered to this layer.
- WMTS - opens the project's WMTS service list, filtered to this layer.
A link is only useful for the service types that apply to the layer: a vector layer appears under OGC API and ArcGIS Services, and an imagery layer appears under WMTS.
Once at least one layer in the project is published, the project's Service URL appears at the top of the page. That is the address to hand to whoever is consuming the data.
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A newly published layer can take some time to appear in the portal. If a link opens a page that does not yet list your layer, wait a few minutes and reload.
# Revising a published layer
You do not need to re-publish a layer after revising it. When a published layer is revised - a new source file uploaded through Layers → Create / Revise - Civillo automatically re-runs the publish job against the new data. A new job appears on the Publish GIS services page and runs to completion on its own.
The consequence worth knowing about is that the service reflects the latest revision of the layer. There is no way to publish an older revision, and consumers of the service will see the new data as soon as the job completes and their own client-side caches expire.
For how to revise a layer, see Loading data into Civillo.
# Unpublish a layer
Switch the layer's Published toggle off.
Unpublishing removes the layer service and clears its cached tiles. The layer disappears from the service listings, and requests for it stop returning data. The layer itself and its data in Civillo are untouched.
# When a job fails
A failed job shows a red error message on the layer's row instead of a progress bar, and the toggle becomes available again so you can retry. Common causes:
- The layer is not a vector or uploaded imagery layer. The error names the layer and its type.
- The layer has no name, or its data could not be read.