idea Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online in ArcGIS Online Ideas

Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

JamesMitchell6 — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 00:02:03 GMT

ArcGIS Online (AGO) does not support linear referencing/dynamic segmentation of events in tables. Linear referencing is an essential workflow in transportation organizations which store much of their data in tables that require dynamic segmentation to visualize or spatially analyze. The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) also relies on liner referencing to place water supply and water quality features on the NHD network.
Without linear referencing support in AGO, web-based users have no access to use the power of GIS analysis on much of their enterprise tabular data. Organizations have huge investments in legacy data and data collected and stored in event tables that are not available to AGO users, only Desktop users.
This could be implemented by allowing an organization to add a Roads and Highways LRS Service to their organization, like Address Locators are handled, now. User could access the service by adding data in a spreadsheet or CSV format (like geocoding is done).

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

JamesMitchell6 — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 18:13:55 GMT

Getting linear referencing into AGO will really open-up access to our enterprise and legacy data for lots of new users.

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

BenKoostra — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 15:59:44 GMT

Example use case -

A basic set of routes for a road / highway / pipeline / railroad network can be created with the out-of-the-box linear referencing tools in ArcGIS Desktop.
The route layer would be published to ArcGIS Online as a feature layer that is "m-value aware".
An "Identify Route Locations" tool would allow a user to select a location along a route and the route / m-value is returned.
A set of geoprocessing tools would include common linear referencing tasks like "Locate Features Along Routes" and "Make Route Event Layer".
A Measure-to-Geometry service and a Geometry-to-Measure service are exposed for this feature layer for custom tasks / tools / applications. For example, a mobile app that allows a user to input a m-value on a form and the location is stored as geometry. Or, a mobile app with a locate button that snaps to the nearest m-value of the nearest feature.

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

ThomasWesthoff — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:16:13 GMT

A query of m values in AGO and in the Collector app would greatly facilitate detection on site.

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

RyanKelso — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 21:45:42 GMT

I support this idea. I would also add that linear referencing tools are available at the basic ArcGIS Desktop license level without the need of any extension, this should NOT come as an extra cost for an additional ArcGIS Server extension.

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

NicoleHanson — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 17:09:25 GMT

This would be a great asset to our organization if it was implemented!!!

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

GavinJackson3 — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 11:10:18 GMT

Any implementation of ArcGIS online and portal supporting linear referencing functionality WITHOUT having to buy a separate server extension ($$$$). We've always had this ability in Arcmap, how hard is it to port across?

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

JamesMitchell6 — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 16:44:19 GMT

Gavin,

I have been working with AGO developers on this topic. This is a key point have tried to make. LRS support requires a route reference system, but does not require it to reside on a server or from a service URL. The approach I have tried to promote has several options:

1. Tread LRS the same way as Address Locators – provide the ability to specify a service that is available to all AGO Organization or Portal members .

2. Allow the AGO user to upload or access AGO content that is a polyline_m feature class – use this as the route reference.

3. Preferably both of the above.

Users who have Event Tables should be able to access a route reference system and do LRS, just like in ArcMap.

AGO developers tell me they are working on a prototype for Q1 in 2019. We’ll see…

Thanks,

Jim

James E. Mitchell, Ph. D.

State of Louisiana

Office of Technology Services

Louisiana Dept. of Transportation & Development

Computer Center

1201 Capitol Access Rd

Baton Rouge, LA 70802-4438

Voice: 225/379-1881

FAX: 225/379-1850

Email: Jim.Mitchell@la.gov<mailto:Jim.Mitchell@la.gov>

WWW: http://www.dotd.la.gov<http://www.dotd.la.gov/>

http://gis.dotd.la.gov<http://gis.dotd.la.gov/>

http://LADOTD.maps.arcgis.com<http://ladotd.maps.arcgis.com/>

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

GavinJackson3 — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 11:50:30 GMT

James

Good to hear that our cries have been heard... Well sort of!

With linear referencing being around since the dawn of time, most road agencies, most rail agencies, and now with the new utility model from esri, most pipeline companies using linear referencing or its functionality it is very hard to see a future without at least some support in the ArcGIS online, portal or server space.

I'd be very keen to see if you can get some further information regarding this "development".

The fact that linear referencing is just another geometry type and that event tables are intermediate by nature shouldn't hold ESRI back from actually supporting (across the entire ArcGIS platform - ArcGIS online and portal especially) all those Dot's who contribute many hundreds of thousands of dollars each year (us included)

Cheers

Gavin

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

JamesMitchell6 — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 13:57:01 GMT

Gavin,

First, do have this in ArcGISIdeas and votes for that subject help move these things along.

The ESRI developer expressed some concern that if AGO/Portal support LRS, that ESRI would have to provide some sort of route reference system . They recognize the impracticability of that; an “LRS for the whole world.” However, that is not the point. Organizations who want to have online LRS capabilities already have an LRS and want to use that. Some generic LRS is of no use to them. Thai want to share their LRS within and outside of the organization to promote interoperability across systems and organizations. They want people to be able to “Locate Features” on their LRS and create GIS features that can be further analyzed or visualized. Specifically, they want the capability to work with linear events, not just pints .

We are all looking forward to these developments.

Jim

James E. Mitchell, Ph. D.

State of Louisiana

Office of Technology Services

Louisiana Dept. of Transportation & Development

Computer Center

1201 Capitol Access Rd

Baton Rouge, LA 70802-4438

Voice: 225/379-1881

FAX: 225/379-1850

Email: Jim.Mitchell@la.gov<mailto:Jim.Mitchell@la.gov>

WWW: http://www.dotd.la.gov<http://www.dotd.la.gov/>

http://gis.dotd.la.gov<http://gis.dotd.la.gov/>

http://LADOTD.maps.arcgis.com<http://ladotd.maps.arcgis.com/>

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

JackButler — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 14:39:59 GMT

I agree, Jim, but this will be a function that only works with user data, not the generic online stuff. It could conceivably be how the public comes to interact with HPMS data on a national level. Does Esri have a way to reserve some ArcGIS Online functions for use only with user-supplied data sets?

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

JamesMitchell6 — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 15:57:38 GMT

There were no “hard” specifications, when we spoke early, this fall. I provided them with some of the requirements, as I saw it, from a stte DOT perspective. The foundation of this was providing a state DOT with the opportunity to expose their LRS for public use and allow “external” as well as “internal” users the ability to crept point and linear events that could be exported as feature classes. Getting feature classes out of AGO will become complicated.

HOWEVER…

“Simple” linear referencing is a thing of the past. Users will need to incorporate temporal concepts into their event tables and LRM results. Additionally, AGO/Portal will need to enforce this.

Temporal concepts for the LRS and the events will need to be understood by desktop and online users, alike. This is more complicated than locating tables of X,y values or geocoding addresses. The details that we commonly ignore with respect to these processes cannot be ignored when implementing an LRS solution. The results could be disastrous.

Users will need to be better trained and informed on the proper use of LRS data.

Jim

James E. Mitchell, Ph. D.

State of Louisiana

Office of Technology Services

Louisiana Dept. of Transportation & Development

Computer Center

1201 Capitol Access Rd

Baton Rouge, LA 70802-4438

Voice: 225/379-1881

FAX: 225/379-1850

Email: Jim.Mitchell@la.gov<mailto:Jim.Mitchell@la.gov>

WWW: http://www.dotd.la.gov<http://www.dotd.la.gov/>

http://gis.dotd.la.gov<http://gis.dotd.la.gov/>

http://LADOTD.maps.arcgis.com<http://ladotd.maps.arcgis.com/>

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

PeteJordan — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 16:08:07 GMT

Totally agree with this. We have been using the LRS in ArcMap Basic for years and this is something we do rely on and need to have in ArcPro as a part of the base system...

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

GraemeBrowning_Aurizon — Sun, 25 Sep 2022 23:24:47 GMT

I have been using ArcGIS Pro 3.0, ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0 and ArcGIS Roads and Highways (that includes Location Referencing), and I have been looking for web maps to have much more OOTB support for linear/location referencing, routes and measures at:

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

PeterMacKenzie2 — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 03:00:16 GMT

linear-referencing-comes-to-arcgis-field-maps

how's this looking for people? is this a solution to some of the requests listed here, at least in Field Maps?

Re: Add Linear Referencing Support to ArcGIS Online

NickShannon2 — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 04:36:33 GMT

@PeterMacKenzie2

I had a brief play with this.
It's good, but limited for the moment.

How it works: for a road network — you select you the road you want to search on — then you type in the linear reference you're after e.g., 5.6 — it zooms to the location & you can add a marker to the map.

What it doesn't do: You can't click the road network to find the linear reference at the point of click. Search is limited i.e., no global search option. You can't search for a road segment i.e., road between 5.6 and 7.9. And of course, it doesn't work in ArcGIS Online Map Viewer.

It's a step in the right direciton though.

Note: The road network (or any network) needs to be m-aware i.e., uploaded to AGOL from an FGDB.