Desired Option 1: The option to display data's native time on the time slider.
1. Provide the appropriate/comparable step by step workflow to help illustrate the request.
a. When viewing any layer or map in AGOL/Portal with time enabled data, select the “Configure” button to the right of the time slider widget.
b. Click on the “Show Advanced Options” link to expand advanced options.
c. Provide an additional option under the “Time Display” section to either disable/enable the automatic conversion of the time to the user’s local timezone OR make an option to display the time in the data layer’s time zone.
d. After pressing “OK” the times displayed on the time slider widget would update accordingly, probably with the time zone indicated to prevent ambiguity.
2. What is the problem feature X is trying to solve? (i.e. What is the problem/limitation/design choice that is preventing you from moving forward?)
In its current state, the ArcGIS Online/Portal time slider converts the data's time to local, human-readable time. This feature is problematic for our users (emergency managers, hydrologists, etc), who desire to read UTC time when viewing time-enabled data. Our data is formatted in UTC time, so the option to disable the time-zone conversion is necessary.
3. What are the benefits or changes that would result from the enhancement? (i.e. How does making this change help your workflow or business?)
This enhancement would give developers more control over how time is displayed on the time slider widget in portal, giving it similar functionality to the time widget in ArcMap.
4. How critical is the enhancement to your organization?
Being able to display times in UTC on time enabled layers is critical for data services we develop to be used in operations. There are cases where the NWS has avoided using time enabled layer functionality in portal to get around this limitation.
5. How do you believe this enhancement may benefit other organizations?
I would think this enhancement would be of interest to many users, especially those in the earth sciences.
Desired Option 2: The option to exclude data at the end of a time window when displaying time-enabled data.
1. Provide the appropriate/comparable step by step workflow to help illustrate the request.
a. When viewing any layer or map in AGOL/Portal with time enabled data, select the “Configure” button to the right of the time slider widget.
b. Click on the “Show Advanced Options” link to expand advanced options.
c. Provide an additional radio button under the “As time passes” setting that allows the user to display data for only the beginning time step of the time interval or at a single time step rather than an interval.
NOTE: another option would be to change how the “only display the data in the current time interval” option works, such that rather than including both timesteps at the beginning and end of the interval, it only includes the beginning timestep and any intermediate timesteps, but not the last time step (i.e.: beginning_timestep >= timesteps_to_display < end_timestep).
2. What is the problem feature X is trying to solve? (i.e. What is the problem/limitation/design choice that is preventing you from moving forward?)
In its current state, the ArcGIS Online/Portal time slider provides two options for displaying time-enabled data: 1) only display the data in the current time interval, and 2) progressively display all the data. Even when the first option is checked, data from two time steps are displayed: the data relevant for the current time-step and the data for the following time-step. This is problematic for all of our time-enabled weather data, where we only desire to show the data for one particular time-step. In ArcMap, there is an option to exclude data at the end of the time-window, but this option is not available in ArcGIS Online.
3. What are the benefits or changes that would result from the enhancement? (i.e. How does making this change help your workflow or business?)
Providing accurate displays of information is key to the success of our forecasting mission at the NWS. Showing two data sets at a time on the time enabled layer is confusing and dangerous. We need the ability to show only one time step at a time to provide a clear picture to forecasters and decision makers.
4. How critical is the enhancement to your organization?
This is a critical need for our organization to be able to adopt and fully utilize ArcGIS Enterprise. It is impossible for us to create accurate time-enabled data products without this functionality.
5. How do you believe this enhancement may benefit other organizations?
This seems like fairly basic functionality, that many would benefit from. I was surprised that this wasn’t an option, to be honest.
