What happened to Export to KML in Pro?

ThomasColson — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 19:22:37 GMT

So during a pretty big multi-agency incident a few weeks ago (we found the guy!), had to tie in with some state and county EMA units that were using SARTopo - Backcountry Mapping Evolved , which is a pretty slick online doo hickey for folks in that business whom don't have embedded GIS support. So by the time I get on scene, we're starting the 3rd op period and everyone wants everything in SARTOPO in Pro, and all the goodies that I have in Pro, in SARTOPO.

A pretty common workflow in the emergency response GIS workflow is to delineate "Assignment" (where folks are going to go looking for something, dig a fire line, etc...), unit boundaries (search zones, division breaks, etc...), clues (found items, hotspots, drop points, etc...). At a minimum, you're putting some sort of identifier on all these features (Team A, Division 1, Assignment A1, Shoe, Candy Wrapper, ICP).

So back to the story here: The EMA folks are needing stuff I'm generating in Pro, in SARTOPO. Easy 'nuff, just "Layer to KML", give them the KMZ and....

To clarify, in this layer, I made the feature name the "Display Name" and turned off all other fields in Pro. Just care about the name.

Note that I get no name in SARTOPO, and the raw XML as the attribute.

Same workflow in ArcMap:

A little better. At least the export to KML (KMZ) honored my Display Name setting, but still the XML in the attribute, which I don't think is ESRI's fault. Where I do point a finger though...

If we look at the raw XML (in the KML in the KMZ)...in both workflows I'm doing this:

But the output of Layer to KML is:

Pro is not honoring the name element.

So what ended up happening is, we weren't able to provide the EMA folks the data they needed. We could have lived with the XML in the attribute but not having the feature name was a deal breaker, and I didn't have ArcMap on that particular laptop.

An idea is forming about exporting from Pro to support the XML/KML schema of other platforms. In this same situation, I needed to whip up a KML schema (several fields, a few with picklists) to use in Avenza, which you can do (in 2 years) in the Avenza map itself, or 2 minutes in NP ++. But a little concerned that the XSI schema seems to be modified going from Arc to Pro when exporting to KML.

Re: What happened to Export to KML in Pro?

DrewFlater — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 18:37:59 GMT

Hi Thomas, I could not repro a blank <name> in the kml file using some very simple repro data in Pro (two points with a Name field marked as the display field in the properties as you showed).

I do have that display name also as the label field, so perhaps you could try the same. This definitely seems like a bug to work with tech support to enter if you continue getting a blank name in the exported kml.

Drew

Re: What happened to Export to KML in Pro?

arussodivito_overit — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:15:51 GMT

Hi @ThomasColson and @DrewFlater,

I think I'm experiencing a similar issue, exporting to KML.

Since it is post of more that 2 years ago, did you have any update on this topic?

Has the KML not exporting Coded Domain Descrition being addressed as a bug?

Thanks to anyone wants to share news on this.

topic What happened to Export to KML in Pro? in ArcGIS Pro Questions

What happened to Export to KML in Pro?

Re: What happened to Export to KML in Pro?

Re: What happened to Export to KML in Pro?