topic Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services in ArcGIS Online Questions

Question about Hosted Feature Services

JamesBoggs1 — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 13:30:57 GMT

I am trying to create a web app where I can use the search function to find parcel polygons based on their attributes. My understanding is that in order to configure the search feature it has to be a hosted feature service. How do you get the feature in your "My Content" section to be hosted services?

So far I have uploaded my shapefiles in a .zip and created a map using the shapefiles. I’ve also created a web app using the “Finder” template and added my created map to it. All of my attributes are there and they appear in a popup when I click on a parcel. But when I am configuring the app it says that “No find layer has been configured” and “No layers available. Check your web map for valid layers”. How do I actually host a layer so that I can configure the search feature?

I have tried configuring the feature search based on the documentation, but I do not have the “Find Locations” setting available under the application settings.

Also, I am using a 60 day trial of ArcGIS Online if that makes a difference.

Attached are screenshots to help explain my problem.

Thanks.

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

RussRoberts — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 15:27:08 GMT

It sounds like the map you created is using a shapefile layer and not a hosted feature service. You will need to publish your shapefile and then you will be able to use the hosted feature service to configure a find places off of that search.

Publish features—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS

Cheers

Russ

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

LaneHowerton — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 15:34:06 GMT

Hi James,

How is your data normally stored (PGDb, FGDb, Enterprise GDb)? Do you have ArcGIS Server? Knowing this may keep you from having to upload anything as you can create a feature searchable map without the data being hosted on arcgis online depending on your answers above. For example, if your data is stored in an EGDb behind a firewall not facing the public side of the internet and you have ArcGIS Server, you can use ESRI's WebAdapter as a reverse proxy server to expose it and allow your data to feed to your AGO maps.

However, if you have to upload data, I don't think feature searching will work on a shape file. It must be a FGDb. Which you should be able to create and upload. You also, don't have to create an app for features to be searchable. You can just go to the details of the map and enable searching by layer, tell it the layer name and attribute to search on, and whether the search value should be an exact match or just contain the value.

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

JamesBoggs1 — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 03:18:28 GMT

Russ,

When I am uploading my shapefile as a .zip folder, I am not getting the option to check the box "Publish this file as a feature layer" that is mentioned in the docs. Any ideas to why this wouldn't be an option for me?

When I edit the properties of the file after it is uploaded, I do not see any option to publish it there either.

Thanks,

James

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

JamesBoggs1 — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 03:38:43 GMT

Lane,

Essential what I am trying to do is create a web map for the public to use that works exactly like the one at this link. http://kcassessor.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Solutions/s2.html?appid=6011913fb81f49dbb25f323ecc68ccf9

I'm pretty sure this map is simply using the "Finder" template for their web app. The office I currently work for is paying several thousand dollars a year for a company to host our maps online and we only get two online updates per year. I'm pretty sure they are using geoserver as their backend to host our maps, but whatever they are using doesn't seem to work as smoothly as the ESRI hosted maps at the above link. I am currently using a 60 day trial of AGO, but figured that the annual $2500 subscription would be less than what we pay the company we are currently working with, we could update the maps as needed, and the service would be smoother and easier to use for the public.

Would I need ArcGIS Server to achieve results similar to those on the link above? While one of the primary reasons to do this is to be able to update our own online maps when needed and make them easier to use for the public, if it ends up costing more than what we currently are paying, I doubt the office would go for it, so I'm not sure paying for ArcGIS server would be in the cards.

While I am able to upload my shapfile, I am unable to publish it as explained in my reply to Russ, so I am not sure if that has anything to do with it not being searchable. I will attempt to create an FGDb and upload it to AGO tomorrow at the office, and let you know the results.

Thanks,

James.

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

RussRoberts — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:04:44 GMT

The account you are using in your subscription is it the admin of the org or were you invited into the trial? Can you go into your profile page you sign into AGOL with and see what your role is?

Thanks

Russ

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

JamesBoggs1 — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:07:02 GMT

I created the trial account. To my knowledge the organization I work for didn't have a previous AGOL account. When I view my profile I do not see a role listed. It only has my name, email, username and bio. When I visit My Esri though, it says that I am not currently connected to an organization. Do I have to be connected with an organization to publish features?

Thanks,

James

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

RussRoberts — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:31:24 GMT

When you login to the trial account you created you should see under your My Profile under arcgis.com trial org:

Role

Administrator

Did you create your trial under this link?

https://www.arcgis.com/features/free-trial.html

Once you get signed up here you should get an email to activate your free trial and from there you setup your organization and will be able to upload that shapefile and check the box that says publish and create a hosted feature service.

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

LaneHowerton — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 15:49:09 GMT

Hey James,

Ok, took a look at the link. I agree, looks like the Finder app. So I did some testing on a shapefile I already had uploaded to AGO previously. Mine is already published as a feature service/layer and I do have the option to publish again if needed. Not sure why you don't have this option but in my testing I can't even create a map from the actual shapefile. The only option I get when clicking the Open pulldown is Download. When viewing the details of the feature service/layer created from the shapefile and clicking the Open pulldown, I get the option to create new map from this layer. I save the map and click Share and Create A Web App. From there I used the Finder app, configured to search the attribute I wanted and bingo it worked! Shapefile Finder Test screenshot on Screencast.com

I checked what I said earlier about just enabling Feature Search from the shapefile details>Edit screen and from the feature service/layer details>Edit screen and neither gave me that option. However, searching within the app worked fine. I've had this happen before when trying to figure out why I couldn't enable Feature Search from the layer details page and my conclusion is that AGO has coded these two methods of searching features differently.

Long-winded I know, but said all that to say, I think Russ is correct in that your problem seems to be stemming from the fact that you can't publish your shapefile as a feature service/layer.

No, you should not need ArcServer to do what you wanting to do as long as your fine with periodically uploading updates for your maps.

Hope this helps,

Lane

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

MatthewCarey — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 18:16:34 GMT

Can I suggest approaching this a different way? I just tried to step through it myself and it seemed to work fine.

- Start with an .mxd in ArcMap and symbolize the (locally stored) data as you want it to appear when shared

(You don't need a basemap, just the operational stuff)

- In ArcMap, sign in to AGOL

- Do file>share as a Service and step through that

-This will give you a Feature Layer in AGOL

-From the My Content page, hit the little down arrow next to the feature layer and say 'add layer to new map'

-Save the map when you're happy

-Choose Share>Create a Web App>pick the Finder template

When it opened, I was able to configure the Feature Layer for 'finding', and it worked.

Any help? I wise man once told me, 'always start with an mxd and publish it from ArcMap' and it's worked well for me so far. Hope it works out.

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

RussRoberts — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 18:27:09 GMT

This will work if you are connected to an org account and have a role that supports publishing hosted feature services.

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

JamesBoggs1 — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 20:15:25 GMT

Russ,

I'm pretty sure that is the link I used to sign up. I tried signing up again and it said that the email was already used to sign up for a trial. Here is a screenshot of my profile as I see it. I did receive an email to activate my account. I thought I clicked the link, but am not certain. When I click it now it says "The token has expired or is invalid". Would I even be able to create maps and apps if my trial wasn't activated? Thanks for all the help, James

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

JamesBoggs1 — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 20:27:10 GMT

Matthew,

I am stuck at the part where is says to choose a connection. When adding a connection how do I get my server URL? Is a subscription to ArcGIS Server required to do this?

Thanks, James

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

JamesBoggs1 — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 20:29:33 GMT

Thanks Lane,

Hopefully I can resolve the issue of not being able to publish my files and will be able to go from there.

Thanks, James

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

MatthewCarey — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 20:40:53 GMT

If you first do File > Sign In.... and sign in to ArcGIS Online, and that's successful (that menu item should then change to Sign Out - <username> ) , you should then have the option of this:

File > Share As > Service > Publish a service > Choose a connection and you choose My Hosted Services(<your org name which should be automatically in there>) then you change parameters as needed and hit Publish.

Hopefully this is what you get, maybe you have different options because of your free trial?

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

RussRoberts — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 13:48:04 GMT

this is a public/free account and not a trial account. You should be seeing your account profile under your orgs URL which would look something like jameswv.maps.arcgis.com . Right now you are just under arcgis.com and that is a view that public accounts would see. Also the role information would be displayed in the same colum as region, units. You would also see organization and organization URL on this page.

Can you try and spin up a free trial under the URL i posted in a comment above.

Thanks

Russ

Re: Question about Hosted Feature Services

JamesBoggs1 — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 14:50:02 GMT

Okay, I feel like a dumb dumb. I did sign up for the trial, but apparently I never clicked on the link in the email to complete registering for the profile. All seems to be working as it should. Thanks to all for your help and patience.

-James