Set Feature Display Order workaround in Enterprise 10.9.1 and below

Question

I am having issues with the way a feature layer is displaying. It seems to randomly order the features which leads to features that should be on top being obscured. The symbology was all set in ArcGIS Pro and the features were displayed in the correct order. Once the map service is published into my organization's Enterprise environment, the feature order is reshuffled.

I understand there is a solution to this in the latest versions of Enterprise:
https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/use/set-feature-display-order.htm

My organization is still a bit out from implementing Enterprise 11.0 so I'm looking for a solution in our current environment of 10.9.1.

I came across some advice that a feature's object ID would dictate the order in which it is drawn by default. This appears to be the case for drawing the feature layer in Map Viewer right now with lower IDs on the bottom. Though I'm not sure if this is always the case. However, we still use Map Viewer Classic at times and the object ID is not determining the drawing order there. Is there a more effective way to workaround the drawing tendencies in ArcGIS Enterprise and get the map to follow the order laid out in ArcGIS Pro?

MitchJohnson · Answer

Hi,

I am having the same issue with map image layer.  The drawing by feature order is set up in ArcGIS Pro and is reflected in the feature popups.  However, the features are re-scrambled in the map viewer after publishing.

Thanks,

Mitch

TanuHoque · Answer

thanks.

first, if you use map image layer, of course features should draw in the same order they appear in Pro. As you know that because they get drawn on the server side by ArcGIS Pro runtime.

that said, when you add it as a 'feature layer', it is Map Viewer (powered by ArcGIS js api) that pulls all features and draws them on the client side. Sometime it sends queries in tiled fashion to pull those features. Because of these two reasons, how they draw (or authored) in Pro doesn't really matter here.

Since you can't move to the new map viewer, I can't see any workaround other than using map image layer. Any reason, you can't use map image layer here?

Sorry about that.

NeilPennanen_dnr · Answer

It is a "feature layer". I'm just opening a the feature layer right now and viewing it in an unconfigured web map. I haven't produced a web app yet since I'd like to get this feature drawing issue sorted out first.