idea Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder in ArcGIS Web AppBuilder Ideas

Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

ClaytonCooley2 — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 12:46:09 GMT

I would like to see the ability to select a feature, click a button that says "Copy Shape", then select the feature class I want to add it to. This works great in Collector but I've yet to figure out how to replicate it in a web app.

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

AmberKelly — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 05:09:21 GMT

Hey ESRI,

Any movement on this tool? I have a number of customers chasing this kind of functionality - would be really useful!

Any updates would be much appreciated!

Cheers

Amber

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

JasonRogers1 — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 13:23:01 GMT

This would be HUGE for our operations. I have been looking for this functionality for years. I would need to ensure that the selected features could be copied to any of the following:

- A new layer

- An existing layer

- The same layer

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

Peter_LohmannWeiss2 — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 08:43:04 GMT

I agree. This functionality should have high priority. I have made many Web AppBuilder applications where users have to draw existing geometries from scratch where snapping to existing features when drawing is only the help. They cannot understand why selecting and copying existing features, perhaps then making som adjustments, is not possible.

Basic tools and functionality like this should have higher priority rather than producing a large number of specific widgets.

Looking forward to see when something will be done to this issue...

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

JasonRogers1 — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 14:07:55 GMT

This is an absolute necessity for our operations. It would save a TON of time when we identify multiple instances of the same object on a web map, with the only difference being the coordinate.

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

AmberKelly — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 22:14:27 GMT

Hey everyone,

I found an AGOL widget that will do this process for me - hopefully will help most of you as well. The Smart Editor widget in web app builder allows you to copy polygons from one layer and copy to another, while copying over attributes (provided schemas are matching).

Tick:

Allow user to create new features from existing features option

and

Copied feature values override defaults

Then click on New Feature, then from the drop down "Select features to copy" option in the tool and drag select the polygons you'd like to copy.

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

LauraMawhinney — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 19:13:27 GMT

Hi Amber,

My co-worker and I are very interested in getting a functionality such as what you mention in this previous post. i.e. We would like users to be able to copy and paste while editing. We tried following your instructions above, but couldn't see the select feature to copy option while editing in smart editor. Please see attached image. Any guesses as to what we didn't do?? This would totally make our week and month...

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

AmberKelly — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 23:29:23 GMT

Hi Laura,

Did you tick the 2 options below?

You also need to set the layer you want to edit in the "Layer Settings" tab of the widget config

If you have done both of these steps, make sure when you test the widget you dont have any polygons of your editable layer selected (when i do this i see the same window configuration you showed above). If you hit the "Clear" button in the widget your window should return to the default state, see below

From this point - click one of your templates, eg "Do not Survey", you will see "New Selection" change to "Polygon" (or i guess point/line) -> click the drop down arrow next to polygon and chose "Select features to copy"

You then need to drag select a polygon and then chose "Create Features"

You should be good to go from there i think.

Let me know if my workflow doesn't make sense!

Cheers

Amber

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

FPCWAGIS_Admin — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 06:32:41 GMT

Hi Amber. Your workflow worked for me almost perfectly (I'll have some happy field staff now!). It works fine for polygons but seems to be struggling with Line features. I select the line feature to copy and it just sits there thinking about it.

I've only done limited testing so far but it seems that it doesn't like the source data being something that was added to the WebApp via the Add Data tool (Zipped shapefile). It worked fine when copying data from layers in the webmap by default. Will continue to test further, though this seems a bit like a bug!

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

StefanoToni — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 11:53:06 GMT

Hi everyone,

in my web app it doesn't even work with polygons, it tells me no selected features (see figure).

Some idea?

Thanks

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

AmberKelly — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 01:25:14 GMT

Hi Stefano,

Are you selecting features after you have changed the dropdown option from “Polygon” to “Select features to copy”.

You need to drag-select to select features as well. I cant seem to get the tool to select from a simple click.

Cheers

Amber

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

StefanoToni — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 08:39:28 GMT

Hi Amber,

yes of course, I dragged to select the feature, either by including the entire polygon or by intersection.
I discovered the reason for the non-functionality: the web map contains both the feature layer and the map image layer; if I remove the map image layer then it works.
I don't know if it's a bug, it's strange because all the other functions where a selection is required work well with the web map containing both layers.

Thank you for your answer.

Cheers

Stefano

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

jonathanmolineaux — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 23:15:21 GMT

Hi Amber,

I am not sure of your purpose for using this functionality but I was wondering if you were able to get this tool to work without having to configure the layer settings each time you wanted to use a new web map for your app. For example, the Edit Widget currently has a layer setting that allows you to choose "Honor settings in the web map". I was wondering why this was not the same for the smart editor widget and if you may know of a way to get around it. I would essentially like users to edit new feature layers in the map without having to check the editable feature layers each time I want to use the widget.

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

AmberKelly — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:46:38 GMT

Hi Jonathan,

I never had the requirement to edit newly added layers myself, essentially for me thus far the map sourced into the Web App has never been updated with new datasets. I can see how frustrating that would be. Unfortunately I don’t have any answers for you except maybe suggesting that ESRI consider this in their next update.

Best of luck!

Amber

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

jonathanmolineaux — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 13:08:10 GMT

Thanks Amber!

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

GoulburnBroken — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:34:35 GMT

This is an excellent idea.

The suggested idea by could obviously piggyback off the Copy Feature function now in Smart Editor.

In regards to copy features use within Smart Editor - as Stefano Toni‌ mentions the copy feature function does not work when trying to select a map service feature. We experience the same thing.

Is there anyone who has been able to customize the Smart Editor/Copy Features function so that a Map Service feature can be selected? I assume it is possible as upon the query task on the map service where Return Geometry = True the geometry could be returned as part of the feature set.

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

KristalWalsh — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 00:24:41 GMT

Hi Amber, I ran across your post today about using Smart Editor and this potentially could save our folks alot of time in the field! I just ran through a test this evening and on the first trial of copying a polygon feature and pasting it to another feature class, it worked famously! I am not sure why my "create" template looks a little unorganized but I guess it's not a big deal at the moment. It won't let me resize the window. We are using Collector in conjunction with this webmap/app but I'm thinking any copy/pasting would need to be done in AGOL only and that there is no functionality in Collector. That's not a problem, but just thinking about workflow. Any tips you have had with the back and forth between mobile and desktop would be appreciated. This is so very helpful! Thank you! Kristal

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

AmberKelly — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 22:15:54 GMT

Hi Krystal,

Glad its been of use to you!

Collector does have a copy function (to copy from one feature to another). If you don’t need any of the other web app functionality maybe that will solve some of that back and forth?

Below is a mobile workflow. Ive run through it on a Desktop install of Collector and it all worked, but haven’t tried on mobile.

https://support.esri.com/en/technical-article/000017946

Good luck!

Amber

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

KristalWalsh — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 21:17:12 GMT

Hi Amber, I tried this a couple months ago and got it to work initially but now it's being finicky and thought I might see if you would have an idea of what could be causing the problem. I have played around with the editable tab because there were layers I did not want to show up in the template. I realized I could just turn these off in the map but now with "editable" on, only the site visit layer shows up. All these feature service layers are editable in my AGOL map, they are turned on, etc. I'm going to rearrange the layer that is off in case that could be causing the problem which would be very strange. Also, I thought it odd that my template name does not appear on top of the shape. Thoughts? Thank you!

Re: Select, Copy, and Paste feature in WebApp Builder

DanCronin — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 14:14:07 GMT

Hi Goulburn, we would also benefit from the ability to copy from a map service, specifically, massive tile caches of land ownership information. Have you heard anything further?