topic Re: Join failure - unable to add feature service definition in ArcGIS Online Questions

Join failure - unable to add feature service definition

K_Rocks — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 17:08:42 GMT

Hi all,

I'm trying to make a (dynamic) feature layer from join analysis in AGOL. I own both feature layers and the join is based on attributes. However, I keep getting an ""Unable to add feature service definition" error, with a corrupted layer being created as a result.
One of the feature layers is a view. Is that a problem? I have attempted the join using the original feature layer that the view is based on and still get the error.

Layer 1 has the following fields: Username, Port, County, Email, Vessel, SurveyYear, Initials.
Layer 2 (the view) has a lot more fields, which include: start, end, username, email, deviceid, version, datesSurveyStart, datesSurveyEnd, surveyID, datesTrip, datesTripDay, dateTrip. The other field names are specific to the project and are clearly not reserved words.

Are there any reserved words that jump out from those lists as causing the problem?
The intention is for the one-to-many join to be based on Layer 1's 'Username' and Layer 2's hidden 'Creator' attributes.

Thanks for any help.

Re: Join failure - unable to add feature service definition

Anonymous User — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 21:28:22 GMT

Hi K. Rocks‌ -

It looks like Layer 2 is associated with a Survey123 survey. Was this layer created from Survey123 Connect and by chance is there a select one question in the survey?

Also start and end are reserved database keywords - can you publish a test version of the Feature Service without those fields and try the join again?

If you create a case with Esri Support they can look into your specific services further to figure out what is going on: https://support.esri.com/en/contact-tech-support

Hope that helps,

Peter

Re: Join failure - unable to add feature service definition

K_Rocks — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 16:44:52 GMT

Thanks Peter. Yes, Layer 2 is a view based on a layer generated from a Survey123 form published through Connect. There are several select_one questions and repeats. Would that prevent a join working?

I downloaded the hosted feature layer view as a geodatabase, replaced the start and end fields, uploaded the altered geodatabase, published a feature service and was able to join it to Layer 1 without a problem. Given that there are repeats, and therefore related layers/tables within the feature service, there is a reluctance to change the survey form too much to the extent that it would create a new feature layer, as we would then have to merge the data already collected.

Re: Join failure - unable to add feature service definition

Anonymous User — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 20:30:59 GMT

Hi K. Rocks‌ -

Thanks for the response on this. It's possible that the Survey123-created Hosted Feature Layer may be preventing the Join from working, but we would really want to confirm this through an Esri Support case. Your test certainly indicates that this might be happening. The issue is described more here; some alternative workflows are described briefly as well. It's possible that these might help with a solution.

I've sent you a direct message on GeoNet with next steps for getting a Support case created to look into this further.

Thanks,

Peter

Re: Join failure - unable to add feature service definition

K_Rocks — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 13:33:42 GMT

Thanks Peter.

The BUG-000117882 that you've linked to refers to the error being thrown when 'Use current map extent' is selected. I had actually unselected that option and chose 'Create results as hosted feature layer view' (as the alternative solution suggests) in the attempted joins, so I can't blame that bug. My understanding was that creating a view was required anyway in order to have a live/dynamic join layer that updates as the Survey123 form adds to the underlying feature service.

We are going republish the form (and therefore create a new feature layer) with the start and end field names replaced in order to see if it will allow a join now. I'd rather not waste someone's time raising a support case if that solves the issue for us anyway. However, if it doesn't, might there be another general reason that feature layers deriving directly from Survey123 forms fail to join?

Re: Join failure - unable to add feature service definition

Anonymous User — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 14:04:24 GMT

Thanks for the update on the workflow - it does seem that in this case the reserved keywords might have been causing the issue. Let me know how that goes. I don't know of any general reason why Hosted Feature Layers created from Survey123 forms would fail to join other than the issue linked above.

Thanks,

Peter

Re: Join failure - unable to add feature service definition

K_Rocks — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 14:48:48 GMT

The join works fine now, Peter, and updates as required, so it was indeed the reserved words.

Thanks for your help in pointing us in the right direction.

Re: Join failure - unable to add feature service definition

Anonymous User — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 00:08:11 GMT

Great to hear! Happy to help out.