idea Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted in ArcGIS StoryMaps Ideas

Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

Kara_Shindle — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 18:25:53 GMT

Love the new StoryMaps, but cannot really utilize them in my organization (mid-size county) as we need the ability to self-host the apps on our own server like the classic Story Maps.

Please give us the option to self host so we can download and customize, insert into other framework, customize URL, add Google Analytics, etc.

Creation due to thread found here: Is the new ArcGIS StoryMap self-hostable?

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

OwenGeo — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 19:28:12 GMT

Thanks for creating this idea. We are considering this, but want to get a good understanding of why the ability to self-host the ArcGIS StoryMaps code is being requested.

Many of the reasons customers self-hosted our classic storytelling templates (you can read about those here) are already supported by the cloud-hosted version of ArcGIS StoryMaps or are under consideration for future release. For example, authors can already add Google Analytics to stories created with the new ArcGIS StoryMaps, and the builder automatically provides rich social metadata so stories look good when they are shared on social media.

We'd love to hear from customers about all the reasons you'd like to self-host the new ArcGIS StoryMaps so we can build a better product that meets more customer needs. Please comment below with the reasons you're requesting the ability to self host, and also provide examples of the specific types of customizations or configurations that were made to the code for classic templates that were self-hosted.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

Kara_Shindle — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 12:38:30 GMT

While I currently do insert Google Analytics & tweak colors on the self-hosted story maps, the two main reasons are :

1. Ability to give it our own URL under our own domain - this is important for us and the multiple projects we do. We are also unable to setup redirects with our current site provider (we are trying to rectify this but it is hard to get a county government to spend money especially right now) so being able to not only insert our own domain but edit the entire link to make it intuitive (i.e. I have to serve out an application to the public with an easy to remember link like https://gis.franklincountypa.gov/taxparcelviewer/

2. We have packaged apps in other framework - a good example is our Subscription Parcel Viewer https://gis.franklincountypa.gov/taxparcelviewerplus/- a 3rd party vendor created the framework so that we could create login, purchasing, and user management screens for managing public subscriptions and access to a county parcel viewer. Being able to download source code like this allows us more options for utilizing ESRI products instead of having to go elsewhere.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

MonicaAlmeida1 — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 17:49:57 GMT

The main reason to self-host would be to be able to tailor the URL.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

MatthewHampton2 — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 18:25:42 GMT

Our agency uses a specific brand/typeface on our website and we would like to have our StoryMaps on our site reflect these design choices.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

JessicaWeinberg — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 17:24:27 GMT

As others have mentioned, we need the new StoryMaps to show up under our domain. We also need more capacity to brand the templates, eg. to have our logo to show as the favicon, and to be able to customize the theme colors. Another example of the latter for NPS would be always having a black bar at the top (part of our brand) but still allowing users to chose a white background for all of the rest. In the past, NPS had to also make a lot of accessibility updates to our versions of the classic templates.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

AmyFish1 — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:52:04 GMT

We need this functionality to create a customized URL.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

CharlesHanley1 — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 21:53:34 GMT

Frankly, the out of the box templates are ugly. We need full customization control over the appearances of the story maps. I host my story maps to give them friendly URLs and make them beautiful. In addition, I can add extra features into the browser window when I have access to the full source code.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

VHolubec — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 18:28:18 GMT

Dear @OwenGeo ,

from our customers we are getting these reasons.

Make a custom/nice URL - especially on the domain of the customer.
Embedding the StoryMap to their existing websites, like another page within their website structure (partially similar request to the first one.)
Customization when user reach some limits of the StoryMap (like limit for Collections - earlier this year it was 30, now (thanks to it) 60).
Style customization to follow the style of the rest of their web.

Downloading the StoryMap template/StoryMap app to self-hosting would help to solve the above-mentioned issues.

Thank you!

Vladimir

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

ThierryGregorius — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 12:02:06 GMT

Customised URL is key. You can't expect organisations to publish story maps exclusively on the arcgis.com domain - many have to use their own domain for branding, commercial, legal or other reasons. Ideally without the need to scrape the template from Github and doing it all yourself.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

LindsayWithers1 — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 06:35:04 GMT

@OwenGeo I wonder if a self-hosted version of ArcGIS StoryMaps would also make it easier to transfer ownership of a story map (using the new StoryMaps platform/builder) between organizations (something we're looking into for a project). Right now, is this the best option for doing that?

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-storymaps-blog/cloning-arcgis-storymaps/ba-p/903716

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

OwenGeo — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 16:53:14 GMT

All -- Providing a way to self-host ArcGIS StoryMaps is still under consideration, but is not on our roadmap for at least the next six months.

If you are looking to customize the URL for your stories, we've just published a blog that describes several options for doing this that can be implemented now.

Customizing your StoryMap’s URL (esri.com)

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

MartySchnure — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 19:13:51 GMT

To add to all of the other reasons folks have mentioned here (custom url, fonts, more freedom with iframe embeds, etc.), our organization needs to be able to embed facebook tracking pixels in order to do our audience targeting. Not being able to do this with the new Story Maps has been a dealbreaker for us.

Ability to self-host would be great, but even better would be a place to embed a facebook pixel in the same way that we can embed Google Analytics codes right in the platform itself.

Thanks!

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

FOkoye — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 11:08:28 GMT

If another use case helps, at my organisation we use tools like hotjar to add surveys and heatmap generators to websites. Being able to self host would mean we could add some feedback widgets to a Story Map and find out what people think of the content, how they rate the experience etc. This is because tools like hotjar need you to add some javascript to the document in order to do any tracking.

Currently we would have to add a link to an external survey and that would severely reduce the likelihood of users giving us the feedback we need to make better experiences.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

GIS_Fox — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 21:13:50 GMT

This is a great idea I would like to see implemented as well. Sharing long links internally or externally of the organization can be a hassle if you have to make a link to a link, eg the insert/edit link option on most platforms like this LINK (it's just colored text here but the same idea) . A clean cut link also builds the professional brand look of a website/service like via storymaps. Either way I'm glad to see the community so engaged on such a great topic.

Cheers,

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

wayfaringrob — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 22:53:01 GMT

Yes, this needs to happen for the great reasons everyone is sharing. As a regional agency, we often produce maps/sites for member governments and other organizations, and we're unable to offer them the ability to self-host because of this equivalency issue.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

MichelleDiNicola — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 15:26:42 GMT

I just wanted to add to this: My agency uses custom headers and footers across all of state government and this feature was extremely useful in the past for us and we would very much like to see it return for this and many of the other reasons mentioned here.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

PeterKnoop — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 20:49:41 GMT

Our primary interest in this idea relates to the ability to host a StoryMap on a user's own domain in order to demonstrate the trustworthiness and authenticity of the story.

The post, Customizing your StoryMap’s URL, suggests some partial workarounds, however, each alternative has limitations that impact the ability to control the domain name in URLs related to StoryMaps (the story itself, section links, etc.)

Projects often use more than just StoryMaps for their web content. The whole project might have a WordPress site, regular web pages, Instant apps, JavaScript Web Maps, etc. When users navigate a project's web content or look at search results, and the domain is different, then they are often hesitant to consider content trustworthy or authentic

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

PeterKnoop — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 20:21:04 GMT

The lines that shape our cities nicely illustrates the aspect of self-hosting as it relates to hosting custom CSS and JavaScript along side the StoryMap in which you are embedding it. In other words, hosting both the story and embedded custom code on the same domain.

In this specific case, since it is an Esri authored StoryMap, they appear to have access to the storymaps web server to host their embedded custom code (i.e., https://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2020/redlining-timeline/timeline-horizontal.js)

As far as I know, the rest of us don't have access to similarly post custom code to the storymaps web server. So self-hosting would be an avenue to enable us to host our storymap and our embedded custom code on the same domain.

Re: Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

CrystalVanKooten — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 21:48:01 GMT

I request that Esri provide an option for authors to download the HTML code files for their work in Story Maps. I am a professor who publishes academic articles and digital scholarship in peer-reviewed academic journals and through academic presses. I would like to publish a Story Map that I've composed using Esri Story Maps (through my university's paid Esri license) in a peer-reviewed online journal in my field that hosts all published content on their own servers for sustainability. Publishing and sharing via this academic venue would make the Story Map available to many more and different kinds of readers and users, and it would be a prestigious location for an Esri Story Map to be published, providing more exposure for the author and for Esri products.

This journal requires standalone HTML files in order for digital work to be considered for publication and eventually published. As the editor wrote to me, "we wouldn’t be able to just embed the original using an embed code—we’d need to host all files on our servers and accounts for sustainability purposes (so that we don’t have to scramble to do something if StoryMaps goes down in 5, 10, or 20 years—or lose everything if we don’t know a change is happening)." Authors, journals, and libraries have no control over the sustainability of work in Story Maps in the current model where Esri does not allow for the downloading or editing of HTML files.

Providing access to HTML code files would give authors a way to save and archive their work (which is their intellectual property), and open up publishing options for authors who would like to share their work via journals or presses who host work on their servers - authors like me.

In addition to aiding in sustainably publishing and sharing Esri Story Maps in more places, giving authors access to the HTML code of Story Maps would provide more options for editing and altering templates in productive and creative ways. I was interested in adding drop-down menus to my Story Map, for example, but learned that this feature could not be added, nor could I gain access to the html code to make the changes there (see my post asking about drop-down menus here).

I have valued using Story Maps as a composing tool, and I hope that my work can be published and shared in its current version - which looks and sounds fantastic. Esri's policies surrounding the inability for authors to access the code, however, may make it impossible to share my work through Esri in the end.

Thank you for your consideration and any help you can offer.

Dr. Crystal VanKooten
Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures
Michigan State University