idea Keep explore popup open when creating new feature in ArcGIS Online Ideas

Keep explore popup open when creating new feature

Bud — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:10:00 GMT

I have an AGOL map open in the map viewer that has two hosted feature layers:

Survey Items - raw info from Survey123 entered by members of the public
Artifacts - verified records entered manually by internal staff

Using the web map, a non-technical person needs to review the Survey Items points and enter new points into the Artifacts layer, where applicable. We've intentionally made this a manual process to ensure that the data is thoroughly audited and improved, since the Artifacts layer will be displayed publicly on a separate web map.

The user wants to copy some of the info from the Survey Items popup and paste it into a new Artifacts feature. However, it doesn't seem possible to keep the Survey Items popup open while creating a feature. So that makes it impractical to copy/paste text field values from one dialog into the other dialog.

Could the map viewer be enhanced with an optional setting that keeps the explore popup open when creating a new feature?

Re: Keep explore popup open when creating new feature

EmilyGeo — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:56:08 GMT

Hi @Bud,

Thank you for sharing your idea and explaining your use case.

Currently, the workflow is designed with the assumption that you are either viewing or editing information, rather than doing both at the same time. Because of this, the pop-up closes when you start creating or editing a feature.

As a possible workaround, you could open the table for the layer. This will allow you to view and copy values from the table while filling out the form.

We appreciate your feedback — it helps us better understand how you’d like to work, and we’ll make sure your suggestion is shared with the team for consideration in future updates.

Re: Keep explore popup open when creating new feature

Bud — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:48:15 GMT

@EmilyGeo Thanks!

Re: Keep explore popup open when creating new feature

Bud — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:15:00 GMT

For my notes:

As a novice, it looks like the deprecated Web AppBuilder can do this using the Smart Editor widget. The Smart Editor widget stays open while the pop-up from the other layer is open.

Re: Keep explore popup open when creating new feature

Bud — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:05:24 GMT

The solution I will go with is an Experience Builder app that has two editing tools, one for each layer. I see now that I need to edit the features from both layers.