topic Enable referenced Feature Layer for task in ArcGIS Field Maps Questions

Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

AndreasHall — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:17:38 GMT

Hi, I am trying out the new tasks functionality in Field Maps. I want to use a EGDB layer published as a Referenced Feature Layer as my task layer. I get this message:

I am the owner of the layer and it has editing enabled. I have manually created the fields that are needed:

I have enabled sync:

Is there something that I am missing?

I am on Enterprise 11.5.0.

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

AndreasHall — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 08:25:51 GMT

I have now added some missing domains and enabled Replica Tracking. Perhaps some more things that I have forgot already. Still not working.

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

Faiez — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:15:18 GMT

This works in ArcGIS Online but not in ArcGIS Enterprise because Field Maps applies stricter ownership and permission rules in Enterprise. Tasks are not supported on referenced ArcGIS Server feature services or layers published from an Enterprise geodatabase. Publishing the layer as a hosted feature layer may resolve the issue.

Good luck!

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

AndreasHall — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 06:36:17 GMT

The communication I have received from Esri INC says it is also supported for existing feature layers that are referenced or hosted. The documentation is not super clear on this but there are mentions of ArcGIS Server Manager there: Prepare tasks—ArcGIS Field Maps | Documentation.

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

PiyaliKundu2 — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 14:49:04 GMT

Hello @AndreasHall - It appears your Due Date field is incorrectly entered. The field name should be esritask_duedate (duedate being one word). You entered esritask_due_date (with the underscore).

Please try deleting the field and re-adding it, and let us know if that works.

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

Faiez — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 09:57:03 GMT

@PiyaliKundu2

A user can have a display name with spaces, but the field name can’t include spaces or special characters. The display name is what the user sees, and the field name is used for machine processing. Would there be any problem if the user changes the field name?

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

PiyaliKundu2 — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 16:01:34 GMT

Hello @Faiez - I'm a bit confused - which scenario are you referring to when asking whether changing a field name would be okay?

With regards to the Field Maps tasks, the field names for the required esritask_ fields must be spelled specifically as stated in the documentation. This is purely because, with this currently release of the capability, Field Maps Designer looks for those fields in the data to build the tasks configuration off of - whether it is by adding them in the enabling process, or the owner of the data manually adding them and the domains prior to enabling.

Once tasks is enabled on the layer in Designer, the fields that are required for tasks to function appropriately on mobile are esritask_status, esritask_type, and esritask_assignee. The data owner could technically get rid of the fields for priority, due date, description, and notes and use their own fields for those concepts in the workflow.

In the future, we are considering adding the capability to allow users to "point" the tasks enablement process to their own existing fields, so they wouldn't have to add any additional fields if they didn't want to.

Hope that helps explain things a bit better.

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

Faiez — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 22:19:28 GMT

Hello @PiyaliKundu2

Thank you very much for your clear explanation. What I meant to ask is what happens if a user sets the field alias (display name) as “Due date” and the field name as “Due_date” before creating any tasks in ArcGIS Field Maps as shown below:

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

AndreasHall — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 08:06:25 GMT

Thanks, this seems to have solved the issue. Interesting that a wrongly spelled optional field had this big impact.

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

PiyaliKundu2 — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:53:32 GMT

Based on your screenshot, nothing would happen. Your screenshot shows that you already have the field esritask_duedate in the schema which is the field we are looking for in order to enable tasks.

After enabling tasks, you can use your other Due_date field if you'd like instead. Just make sure to reference that field in the Form and task configuration as you build your layouts and actions. The esritask_duedate field is only required to enable tasks in Field Maps Designer. You don't need to keep it in order for tasks to be used in Field Maps mobile - so you can use your other Due_date field instead after tasks has been enabled.

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

TomBrenneman_CGEO — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:44:12 GMT

I struggled getting the schema right myself. I put together a blog article to explain the process we use now to avoid this with referenced feature services.
https://www.cultivategeospatial.com/creating-field-maps-tasks-with-referenced-feature-services/

Re: Enable referenced Feature Layer for task

Jennifer_Parmeley — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:58:23 GMT

This is great, but didn't work exactly for me. Your note about domains helped get me there. Thank you!

For whatever reason the domains weren't moving over into our ENT database. I manually copied the 4 domains that were needed from the file geodatabase to our ENT database, renamed them, hooked them up in the attribute table, republished my layer, and then was able to enable tasks on my reference layer.

Now wondering if having and adding these is enough, maybe the field copy and paste (that I tried before finding this) will work if you have the domains. That's a test for another day.