idea Add support for Shape_Length and Shape_Area labelling when publishing to AGOL and Enterprise in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Add support for Shape_Length and Shape_Area labelling when publishing to AGOL and Enterprise

David_Brooks — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 11:40:04 GMT

Currently, you can label features in ArcGIS Online based on the Shape_Length and Shape_Area fields.

You can also do this in ArcGIS Pro.

However, you cannot publish a feature service with these labels, instead you get these errors.

So both environments support it, but the sharing process doesn't.

Simple fix?

Please all upvote.

Re: Add support for Shape_Length and Shape_Area labelling when publishing to AGOL and Enterprise

Bud — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 21:11:24 GMT

Disregard.

I don't have much experience with AGOL or Enterprise, but this might be a viable workaround for Enterprise:

For Enterprise, you might be able to create a database view or a query layer that has a calculated field for LENGTH.

For example, in Oracle, it would be:

SELECT 
   SDE.ST_LENGTH(SHAPE) AS SHAPE
   --other fields
FROM
    MY_FC

The same would apply for AREA: SDE.ST_AREA(SHAPE).

I imagine you could publish the query to Enterprise and label based on that calculated field.

Notes:

If using a database view, you might need to register the view with the geodatabase.
The problem with using a view or a query layer might be: neither is editable.
If you want to edit the layer in Enterprise, then maybe an attribute rule could be used instead to populate a LENGTH field in the actual feature class.

Just thinking out loud as a non-expert. I agree that out-of-the-box functionality would be better.

Edit:

After re-reading your question, I see that you specifically want to publish a feature service, likely for editing. So the idea above for creating a query won't work. Please disregard.

Can you create dynamic joins in Enterprise? For example, could you create a view or query layer that has a calculated LENGTH field, then create a dynamic join from the FC to the query, allowing you to still edit the FC in the feature service, but also letting you label using the joined query's LENGTH field?

Re: Add support for Shape_Length and Shape_Area labelling when publishing to AGOL and Enterprise

TanuHoque — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 20:09:46 GMT

@David_Brooks

are you publishing the feature service on your on-premises enterprise server/portal (by ref)? or as a host feature service in agol?

if it is enterprise server, did you try publishing as a map service w/o enabling feature service? did that work?

Re: Add support for Shape_Length and Shape_Area labelling when publishing to AGOL and Enterprise

David_Brooks — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 21:07:15 GMT

This is for a hosted feature service in AGOL, nothing in Enterprise. Otherwise I wouldn't have written this as an Idea. Some good suggestions if it was Enterprise though.

Re: Add support for Shape_Length and Shape_Area labelling when publishing to AGOL and Enterprise

CascadeHampton — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 20:44:44 GMT

Best idea I've read all day @David_Brooks and it would really help when building basemaps in ArcPro and publishing them to AGOL. Curious if you've found a quick solution?

Re: Add support for Shape_Length and Shape_Area labelling when publishing to AGOL and Enterprise

MarkGo — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 23:09:13 GMT

This is a very stupid limitation. I can use the Shape.STlength field as part of a label in Pro. I can use it in a label on an already published service in Portal. But I cannot publish from Pro to Portal with that field included as part of the label. Seriously?!?

Re: Add support for Shape_Length and Shape_Area labelling when publishing to AGOL and Enterprise

SimonSchütte_ct — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:15:49 GMT

This limitation was introduced in the ArcGIS Pro Version 3.x if I remember right. For unknown reason, it is now longer possible (as described above). I opened a Bug report back then, because those fields were set by default as display fields, which caused issues if you just wanted to create a new feature class for a quick test and directly publish it as a service.
Recent versions no longer use these fields as default, but no reason was provided why this limitation was introduced in the first place.

My best guess is, that only user defined/editable fields are allowed and this is not the case for Shape_Length/Shape_Area.