topic Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer? in ArcGIS JavaScript Maps SDK Questions

How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 14:51:03 GMT

Hello,

I'm creating a web map in which I will need to change/toggle the selectability of a Feature layer. Is there any way to do this? I've looked through the API for the FeatureLayer class but don't see anything like what I'm looking for:

FeatureLayer | API Reference | ArcGIS API for JavaScript 3.22

I would expect to see something like "IsSelectable" or "Seletable" but don't see anything like it. In Server Manager there is also nothing to change the selectability of my service. Is it not possible to do this at all, or am I missing something?

Thanks

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 15:06:23 GMT

John,

The ArcMap concept of selectability is not something that exists in JS API. What exactly are you wanting to prevent in your app?

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 15:20:31 GMT

I have a Measurement tool that is also selecting the underlying parcel layer when the user clicks on the map to make a measurement. When that happens I have a popup with some features from that parcel layer that also pops up. That is, when the user tries to make a measurement they also get this annoying popup from the parcel they happened to click on. If I could temporarily disable the parcel layer's selectability I could have them make a measurement without having this other annoying popup come up.

In ArcGIS Online somehow they manage to make the measurement tool not select the underlying layers when you're clicking on the map to make a measurement. But I don't know how they achieve that. That's what I'm trying to replicate.

In general the whole selectability issue is a bit annoying, because even when I set my parcel layer to "not visible" or turn it off, it's *still* selectable.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 15:37:31 GMT

John,

OK, I understand your use of "selectablity" now. To disable the layer popup you just set the map.setInfoWindowOnClick method to false:

https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/3/jsapi/map-amd.html#setinfowindowonclick

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:18:37 GMT

Doesn't work. I need a way to have the user disable the popup when they click on a measurement tool. I tried this:

measurement.on("tool-change", disablepopup);
function disablepopup()
{ map.setInfoWindowOnClick(false); }

This would make it so that when the user clicked on one of the measurement tools to make a measurement, the popup would be disabled. Then, I would do something like this:

measurement.on("measure-end", enablepopup);
function enablepopup()
{ map.setInfoWindowOnClick(true); }

Unfortunately, the first one (disable) does nothing. I know the function is getting invoked because when I put an alert box in there it does pop up, but it doesn't disable my info window.

I think maybe the setInfoWindowOnClick event only lasts the duration of the function I've put it in. I tried writing it like: measurement.on("tool-change", map.setInfoWindowOnClick(false));

...but it just hangs.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:22:48 GMT

John,

Is your map coming from a WebMap?

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:41:22 GMT

I have a basemap and a parcel layer, which is a feature layer. Pretty standard stuff.

Another thing I just tried is to set the activation of the IdentityTask info window on a double click instead of a single click. That way when the user selects a measure tool they only click once to get the measurement started and the popup doesn't pop up. Unfortunately, they need to double-click to complete the measurement, at which point the info window still pops up anyway. So all I did was reduce the # of popups from two to one.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:44:50 GMT

Also, having them double-click on a parcel to get the info window to pop up makes the map zoom in, which is a bit annoying and is something I don't want.

As I said before, in ArcGIS Online when you use the measure tool it doesn't select any underlying features, so it must be possible to do what I want to do ... somehow.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:50:33 GMT

John,

It absolutely is the issue is that I need more info to help. So back to my last question are you using a WebMap coming from AGOL/Portal or are you adding Layers in your code to the Map class? Are you using an IdentifyTask or just a standard PopupTemplate for your parcel layer?

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:58:29 GMT

I'm adding layers to code in my web map. This is a javascript map not an ArcGIS Online map.

I'm using an IdentifyTask, not a standard popup template.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 23:50:59 GMT

John,

So you say "in my web map" do you mean you are using code like this?

var webMapItemID = "c41d5f3b4e304806a047702fbfc2759e";
deferred = arcgisUtils.createMap(webMapItemID, "ui-map", createMapOptions);

Then you say you are using IdentifyTask so the code I was providing will have no impact as you are seeing (these are the type of details you should lead with). Normally developers fire the IdentifyTask from a map.on('click', dosomething); event is that your case? If so then you just need to use a pauseable event listener or remove the map on click event and then re-add it after the measure is done.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 19:19:51 GMT

No, this is a javascript web map. I'm making it in Visual Studio, with some C# code-behind (the latter of which is irrelevant to this particular issue).

Yes, I'm doing a map.on('click', dosomething);

Not sure what you mean by a pausable event listener??

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 19:27:33 GMT

John,

Sorry you keep using terminology that has specific meaning to developer using the JS API (web map is an AGOL/Portal item that is a map that can be referenced by item id). So when using Dojo "on" you can create a pausable event listener.

https://dojotoolkit.org/reference-guide/1.9/dojo/on.html#pausable

Using on.pausable is my recomendation for your use case.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 19:41:31 GMT

OK thanks for the link. Didn't know there were pausable listeners.

So if I have:

map.on("click", executeIdentifyTask);

How would I change that to a pausible one? Would it be:

var handler = on.pausible(map, "click", executeIdentifyTask);

Not sure if I can use "map" where the code in your link says "button"??

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 19:44:03 GMT

Nevermind that worked. Thanks for the help!

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 20:50:17 GMT

Actually, I just figured out it doesn't really work after all. To clear a measurements graphic after you're done drawing it, you have to click on one of the measurement tools . Unfortunately, doing so pauses the pausable listener that I just created to prevent the popup from popping up. So, if you want to resume clicking on parcels and getting the popup, you're not allowed to clear the measurement graphic first. That's unrealistic to expect users to figure out.

Basically I solved one problem but created another.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 20:59:39 GMT

John,

The measurement tools are toggle buttons so when there is no tool toggled on then you unpause the map click event listener.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

JohnAdams — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 21:10:44 GMT

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there is no way to un-toggle one of the measurement buttons via code.

Measurement | API Reference | ArcGIS API for JavaScript 3.22

Clicking on the buttons creates the problem I described above. Once the measurement is done drawing, I'd need to write some code like: distanceButton.Clicked = false in the "measure-end" handler. However I don't see anything like that in the API.

In the code for my "tool-change" handler I tried:

if(handler.pause()) handler.resume();
else handler.pause();

Unfortunately, pause and resume don't seem to return anything. Would be nice if they returned a boolean.

Not making layers selectable and unselectable seems to be a major shortfall in the API.

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 21:14:07 GMT

John,

It is just a matter of your coded workflow. The API is fully capable of handling your desired work flow with out issue. Can you share your code on how you are adding the click handler and how you are pausing it using which measure dijit event?

Re: How to toggle/change selectability of a Feature layer?

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 23:51:02 GMT

The way I handle this situation in my code is:

aspect.after(measurement, 'setTool', lang.hitch(this, function() {
  if (measurement.activeTool) {
    disableWebMapPopup();
  } else {
    enableWebMapPopup();
  }
}));‍‍‍‍‍‍‍