Improved support for arcgis.apps.storymap module: Block.add_content() - "fit" parameter

ATFerguson — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 21:24:30 GMT

Adding an image to a StoryMap Briefing using the GUI automatically fits the image to the size of the Block. After adding the Image, I can inspect the items JSON with the following code:

from arcgis.apps.storymap.briefing import Briefing briefing = Briefing('<my_briefing_id>') briefingItem = smBriefing.save() briefJson = briefingItem.get_data(try_json=True)

If I inspect the node for the Image that I added via GUI in briefJson, the 'config' property is as follows:

"config": { "placement": { "type": "fit", "fill": { "x": 0.5, "y": 0.5 }, "fit": { "color": "backgroundColor" } } }

When adding an image to the StoryMap Briefing via the Python API, the arcgis.apps.storymap.story_content.Block.add_content() method does not offer a "fit" parameter, and the image is added to the Block at it's default size. When adding an image to a block via Python API, the config property in the image node is:

"config": { { "size":'' } }

It is cumbersome to resize images based on the block size, especially when the block size isn't immediately clear.

My idea is to add more flexibility to adding media content to blocks by offering a "fit" parameter.

EDIT: Upon looking into the API documentation further, I realized that I'd missed the Image.display property. Unfortunately, the size of the image that I added via API does not change, no matter what display value I set.

from arcgis.apps.storymap.briefing import Briefing from arcgis.apps.storymap.story_content import Image, SlideLayout myImage = Image(imagePath) slide = briefing.add(layout=SlideLayout.SINGLE, title='Slide Title') contentBlock = slide.blocks[0] #only 1 content block in SINGLE layout slides contentBlock.add_content(myImage) imageContent = contentBlock.content[0] # Edit image after adding it to the briefing per API standard: # "Once you create an Image instance you must add it to the story to be able to edit it further." imageContent.display='small' #or 'float', 'wide', 'full' -> it doesn't matter, the size of the image in the output briefing slide doesen't change. brief.save()

After saving the Brief, I am able to change the size of the image to fit in the content block via GUI by clicking image options, and selecting the radio button for Fit (do not crop). Unfortunately, I still can't find a way to do this via API.

idea Improved support for arcgis.apps.storymap module: Block.add_content() - "fit" parameter in ArcGIS API for Python Ideas

Improved support for arcgis.apps.storymap module: Block.add_content() - "fit" parameter