Analysis widget is using generalized display polygons as input to the tools

Question

I think I have seen this warning from Esri before.  It is generalizing polygons for display then uses these as the input to tools.  I remember at the time I did not agree with that at all!  I think what it does is the generalized polygon is client side so it grabs that and sends it to the toolbox when really it should go back and get the real vertices then send that to the tool.  Should not be too hard to implement.  When zoomed out it can be way off.

We use these polygons to do an intersect on our point layer, then that selection of points in used in our reporting summaries.  We just had a user find points being left out of a report.  These reports are used to make important decisions and often end up in court.  So these are a big deal!  Its not a minor issue or bug.

The funny thing is if we add the same exact polygon service to Pro and run the exact same analysis tool in pro it DOES find the point.  So that tells me Pro has figured this out somehow.  We really need ExB to act like other Esri software but it does not - and this has come up again and again.   We have seen over the years that Esri teams are each are in their own silo.  I get that, it happens to all of us, but it needs to start to be addressed.

Again I ask that please someone from the ExB team can at least acknowledged they are seeing these posts as the list of issues just with the Analysis widget is really hurting our reputation.

As listed here, just me alone has now found this many issues in just the Analysis widget.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/more-analysis-widget-issues-if-a-feature-is-found/m-p/1674410

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/more-analysis-widget-woes/m-p/1660577

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/select-widget-cannot-connect-to-analysis-widget/m-p/1626374

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-ideas/analysis-widget-support-for-toolbox-categories/idi-p/1619071

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/analysis-widget-hanging-with-a-spinning-run-in/m-p/1647330

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-ideas/analysis-widget-add-support-for-parameter/idi-p/1619080

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/analysis-widget-hoping-for-enabled-false-support/m-p/1617567

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/set-as-analysis-input-will-open-the-tool-if-its-in/m-p/1635671

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-ideas/analysis-widget-does-not-display-messages-from/idi-p/1678456

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-ideas/users-request-tool-history-in-the-analysis-widget/idi-p/1678478

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/analysis-widget-cannot-get-a-field-list-if-the/m-p/1678485

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/analysis-widget-is-using-generalized-display/m-p/1677142

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/one-or-more-layers-not-publicly-accessible/m-p/1627413

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/analysis-widget-fails-to-send-some-polygons-into/m-p/1690080#M22788

I understand all of us are busy, as am I I chasing all these down, but some of these are serious issues that should not get through testing and need to be addressed.

Can anyone from the team please let me know if these are being seen or on the list.  Some of these we brought up in person at the last 3 dev summits and with our rep also. I do not have the ability to make support tickets.  Maybe @AlixVezina or @Jianxia ?

Thank you very much!

dougbrowning · Answer

Thanks a lot

For #1 on acting more like Pro.  The big one there is how selections are used.  In WAB if a feature was selected then the GP tool widget would see that selection just like Pro does.  But in ExB it does not know anything is selected.  This is true in a number of was to select from the select widget to the attribute table.

I did a big write up on it here  https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-questions/select-widget-cannot-connect-to-analysis-widget/m-p/1626374#M19453

For #2 2. For your described problem here "It is generalizing polygons for display then uses these as the input to tools.": Based on my understanding, you are seeing different intersection point result in Pro and ExB analysis. Unfortunately I cannot reproduce using my own tool. We do need more details to work on this. We would highly recommend you contact Esri support so stuff can help you narrow down the problem provide a workaround if possible, and importantly provide develop team detailed information and repro steps that help team to investigate and fix. We appreciate your feedback posting on GeoNet which bring us quicker attention but for solutions we think it is better and more efficient actually give us a support ticket with details.

We had a point right near a polygon boundary.  If the user is zoomed out to see the entire polygon the point gets skipped on an intersect.  If you zoom way in on the exact same polygon then that point does get included on the intersect.  That tells me the polygons are being sent with a different vertex list on each run.  I did see a UC demo that talked about this.  I would check the ExB code there and see if it is in fact sending the client side generalized polygons to the tool.  I am pretty sure if you ask the coder who did it they will see it.  It should go get the full real polygon from the server and then send that vertex list to the tool.  In Pro it is not generalizing so it all works fine.  Hope that makes sense but I do think if you ask on the code you will see it.

On #3 thank you for taking the time to read them!  I am responding to each now.  Some have gotten out dated enough that I no longer have a ExB sample to show you as we had to move on after a few months.

Thanks again @Wei_Ying

Wei_Ying · Answer

Hi @DougBrowning, thanks a lot for your feedback and sorry about the problems you are encountering. Here are my comments: 
1.  "We really need ExB to act like other Esri software but it does not - and this has come up again and again.   We have seen over the years that Esri teams are each are in their own silo. "

We are sorry that you have such feeling. ExB's Analysis widget is actually not developed solo by EXB team. It use arcgis analysis components, which provides reusable ArcGIS analysis web components to build web analysis tools so it caters to the different needs of our internal customers like Pipelines, Map Viewer analysis , ExB, GeoPlanner and external developers. So that means we do try to sync up the behaviors across different products by using same components. But it also means ExB has the limitation to solve all issues at our paces (WAB gp widget is developed independently however so the team itself have more control). 
But I do agree that we need more work to sync behaviors with desktop products like Pro. The analysis components are developed by a specific team which include exact team members working on Pro GP tools. So when you are seeing different behaviors, that is not because tools are developed by different team and logic. Desktop Pro tools and Online web service do have different standards and limitation. And the analysis components are still relatively new and they are growing. We would appreciate your feedback to help both ExB and analysis component improve.

2. For your described problem here "It is generalizing polygons for display then uses these as the input to tools.": Based on my understanding, you are seeing different intersection point result in Pro and ExB analysis. Unfortunately I cannot reproduce using my own tool. We do need more details to work on this. We would highly recommend you contact Esri support so stuff can help you narrow down the problem provide a workaround if possible, and importantly provide develop team detailed information and repro steps that help team to investigate and fix. We appreciate your feedback posting on GeoNet which bring us quicker attention but for solutions we think it is better and more efficient actually give us a support ticket with details.

3. I reviewed all your listed posts and made sure all got replied. Again we really appreciate your feedbacks. We will try our best to solve these issues, and I have logged issues for the problems that I can reproduce based on your description. But the difficulties still exist in some issue repro cases. The beset way is actually working with support team who can help customers narrow down problems and also provide develop team clear repro steps if confirmed.

Thanks again,
Wei