Publishing Vector Tile Layers

Question

When publishing a vector tile layer with ArcGIS Online, there is an option to Select Attributes.

https://developers.arcgis.com/documentation/mapping-apis-and-services/data-hosting/tutorials/tools/convert-a-feature-layer-vector-tile/

Upon opening this option, all the attributes from my hosted feature layer appear.  I select several of them and proceed to publish the vector tile layer with success.  The ‘implication’ if you will of having this option to select attributes is that the values are somehow accessible when working with the vector tile layer in the Map Viewer, but have found no method to access them.  Is there one?  If not, what would be the advantage of Selecting the attributes?

I am hoping to use a Vector Tile Layer to improve the display of complex polygons the Map Viewer and configure the attributes from the Vector Tile Layer in a pop up for a web app.  I found a previous discussion of this here - https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-online-questions/can-you-have-attributes-display-for-vector-tiles/td-p/631569/page/2 which indicates this functionality was under development quite a few years ago, but has no conclusion as to whether it is now, or ever will be possible.

Thank you!

MappyIan · Answer

Hi there, not sure if this helps but I stumbled across the following page which states:

"At this time, attributes in vector tiles are only used in custom applications created using third-party software."

So it sounds like you won't be able to get at the attributes, but I could be wrong.

Info copied off this page: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/manage-data/manage-hosted-tile-layers.htm (bullet point 6 in the Manage Vector Tile Layer Settings section).

Hope this helps.

jcarlson · Answer

It's been a while since I played around with those settings, but you should be able to access those attributes in the tile layer. Thing is, you will likely need to define such things in the style JSON itself, as there doesn't seem to be a "nice" way of doing it, at least not yet.

Typically, symbology settings in vector tile features come through the "_symbol" attribute, and are seen in a filter, as in

"filter": [
    "==",
    "_symbol",
    26
]

I don't have a layer with additional attributes handy to test this, but you ought to be able to add any attribute to a filter in this way, and thereby adjust very specific symbology groups.