idea Save Arcade Expressions in ArcGIS Online Ideas

Save Arcade Expressions

MegHoole — Wed, 15 May 2019 18:11:25 GMT

I want to be able to save Arcade Expressions in AGO. Business case: I wrote an arcade expression to style a layer. I then clicked the "reset to default style" button and saved. And to my chagrin, it blew away my recently written arcade expression ... requiring me to rewrite the expression so that I could use it instead of the default style, after I changed my mind.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

BillSchlatter — Fri, 17 May 2019 20:40:00 GMT

I agree, and I would add that it would be very nice if there was an easier way to copy/access arcade expressions between layers and webmaps. I'm working on a series of maps right now that display the same basic information in a variety of ways, and I'm probably spending more time switching between AGO tabs, opening expressions, and copy/pasting code than most of the other phases of the project combined. One layer with a heavily-customized pop-up has 19 attribute expressions, a custom-configured pop-up that uses all of them, and Arcade-based styling. I use multiple versions of the layer at different zoom levels (zoom-based styling in AGO would also be nice, come to think of it), and keeping the pop-ups consistent between layers is increasingly labor-intensive.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

Anonymous User — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 08:08:19 GMT

we should create an arcade expression library to save our favorites expressions

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

MartijnJansma — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 11:51:46 GMT

Being able to simply (re)apply an expression from a personal library would be terrific.

Being able to update an expression for all Layers within a Webmap without pushing all their seperate buttons would be the next step.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

FranklinBailey — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 17:57:42 GMT

Bill Schlatter‌

I know you are probably past this project but for future help you can use ArcGIS Online Assistant to copy and paste the expressions between different layers. You have to be careful that you do not alter any of the other json, but it sure beats copying at pasting x amount of expressions back and forth between 2 layers in a webmap or visualization screen and having to go through creation process all over again.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

DanielTaylor_GIS — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 17:51:25 GMT

I agree with everyone's comments above. I am building a web map with a lot of different infrastructure categories added as different layers. Within their respective popups I have an arcade expression asking the same question of the surrounding data.

As a result I spend my time copying and pasting arcade expressions from layer to layer. What would be cool would be having our Arcade expressions saved within our AGOL content. We do name them after all. So in practice, I could open a popup Attribute Expression editor and view a drop down menu of existing scripts. 👍

Maybe an option within the editor to "Save this expression."

That would also help in cases such as @MegHoole described at the start of this thread.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

WoodyMoney — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 01:04:36 GMT

Yes we need this! I repeatedly create the same product for different clients. I need this functionality.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

MikeLachance1 — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 13:54:52 GMT

I would love to see an Arcade library as well.

It would be great to be able to:

Draft and save expressions between work sessions (with errors and before you get them working)
Use existing saved expressions as a starting point for new ones (an option from within a webmap, dashboard, etc).
Categorize expressions by profile type ( Web Maps: pop-ups, symbology, labelling / Dashboards: Data expressions, indicator and list formatting / etc).
View which apps, maps, and other AGOL products a saved expression is being used in.
Edit and test expressions from within the library like the Arcade playground

I don't want to have to save my very important code in documents outside of AGOL if I am only ever using them (and updating them) in AGOL.

Cheers!

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

erica_poisson — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 15:53:23 GMT

I agree with all comments above. It would be great if we could save Arcade expressions and re-use them no matter where they are written (e.g. dashboard, web map).

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

AnninaHirschiWyss — Fri, 17 May 2024 10:16:40 GMT

Yes, please! Would be so useful to be able to reuse and even load into another environment (e.g. when passing from dev to prod...)

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

Kristin_Dillard — Tue, 06 May 2025 16:25:42 GMT

Adding support for this suggestion. I need to build several web mapping applications for various departments at my organization, and a lot of those applications need to display data in the same way for cohesion. Being able to save and re-use arcade expressions easily would be a HGUE time-saver.

Seeing as we've been asking for this for at least five years, I'm guessing it won't be implemented any time soon; but here's to hoping.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

JanetBrewster1 — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 20:27:03 GMT

Yes -- this is still an issue. I've used Arcade in Dashboards and have had to create a separate text document to save my script when (not if!) it gets wiped out from some other change. It's very frustrating.

And I just experienced this in a StoryMap when using a Field Calculator to concatenate fields and incorporate HTML for formatting. When I go back into the FC, I can't see what was used -- it would be really nice if the script saved.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

ANRGIS — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:45:57 GMT

An Arcade Library that can be used in multiple layers, in multiple web mapping applications would be great! It would be like creating a global parameter at the organization level. They could even be shared to groups and outside orgs if needed.

I see this a lot when creating some arcade expressions that are referencing feature layers based on the feature location. Being able to include this in the popup for all of the layers in a web map would be huge.

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

HollyTorpey_LSA — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 14:50:58 GMT

I agree wholeheartedly. And on a related note, please don't wipe out the existing symbology every time we edit the expression!

Re: Save Arcade Expressions

Marc_Patti — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 18:32:17 GMT

I'm not very optimistic that ESRI will end up implementing this, but an Arcade Library of some kind would be such a big help. I've configured a number of expressions for pop-ups and labels for one of our feature layers across a variety of maps. We recently experienced a bug from the June 2025 update, and the 'fix' for that is going to wipe every single one of those expressions out. I now have to go through every web map to save those pop-up configurations in GitHub or a separate repository manually, which is going to take a very long time and put a lot of other projects on pause.

It would be very nice if I could just store those expressions in a repository within AGOL so that I don't have to do all of this manual work.