Swipe Story Maps: Ability to choose from a list?

Question

I work in Texas Health and Human Services. We have engaged in consolidation of agencies in recent years, and I think that Swipe maps could help people understand the various regions, service areas, catchment areas, zones (any other name for how a program area has divided the counties in Texas for a particular purpose). There are many (many!) ways different program areas have chosen to divide the state. I've created a Swipe map to illustrate this:

http://txhhs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/StorytellingSwipe/index.html?appid=389468bc960b487498c603f36aee4d2f#

I would like to avoid creating such a map for all of the possible combinations of ways the state has been divided. Is it possible to create a Swipe Story Map that lets the user choose which layers to display for the right and left maps?

The other benefit would be for Emergency situations where, for example, the TX Dept. of Public Safety is talking about their regions or districts, and TX HHSC people are trying to understand how that area corresponds to TX HHSC regions. I currently have an app with enormous numbers of layers that can be turned on and off. I have included TX DPS Region and District layers, but it's much easier to see with a swipe map, and it would be even better to let them choose DPS Districts and HHS Regions in a swipe map, then switch to comparing DPS Regions to (former) Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Compliance Zones - in the same map. No one wants to deal with remembering different maps while dealing with a hurricane. Does that make sense? Thanks!

MaryPetkovsek1 · Answer

Correct. The Swipe and Spyglass story map templates only support two maps that are being compared.

There is a widget in the Web Builder that allows you to choose two layers to compare. As you mentioned, you ca only choose two layers already in the app. Yes. We agree on those counts.

I do not know of a way to label both sides in the swipe widget. I admit, it has been a while since I've tried, so there may well be a new capability that I don't know of. (heck, that's ALWAYS a possibility!)

Also, last I checked, You could turn on two layers that you want to compare in the widget, then click the widget and pick ONE layer, and you'd get the comparison with the selected layer on the left and the other layer on the right. HOWEVER, if you actually choose the second layer in the widget, it does not display. See this app and play with it and you'll see what I mean.

http://txhhs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b3cac5e92f0c45768020619496b1342a

So, that's a bug. Like I said, it's been a while, and if I remade the app, it may not have that same idiosyncrasy. I hope that this widget or swipe story maps continue to improve this capability (to choose between multiple maps/layers), because there is always a need to compare different collections of counties in Texas, and creating a swipe map for every combination is just not practical.

Happy mapping,

Mary

ArthurPoon · Answer

Thanks Mary!

Yes, I set that up as well.  So, the Swipe & Spyglass story map doesn't enable toggling between multiple layers like the WebBuilder, correct?  Whereas the WebBuilder can only swipe layers in the same webmap, correct?

I also found that you can't simply choose and swipe any two layers in the list.  You can pick one layer to compare with the others.  I checked the box to hide the layer choosing panel so that it would look like there was only one step to select/unselect the layer to swipe)

I've a follow up question: Is there some way to add a label or text to identify the layers being swiped? e.g. some kind of text on either side of the swipe bar?

MaryPetkovsek1 · Answer

I just found the swipe widget this morning! It allows users to choose layers from the map content! This is what I was asking for, and I'm very excited to see it! There are a couple of rough spots. When you want to use the widget, it's better to first go to the layers and unselect all except the ones you want to use. Then click on the swipe widget. Then the layer that is first on your list will be on the left, and the other visible layer will be on the right. Cool so far, but if you actually select the second layer in the widget, it will disappear. So, that probably needs fixing. That along with not being able to go straight to the widget to select the layers you want to compare. But THANK YOU! This is the function I've been looking for!!!