Blog discussion: Control access to data in Collector through feature layer views

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06-08-2018 02:51 PM
Kylie
by Esri Regular Contributor
Esri Regular Contributor

I've written a blog about ways you can Control access to data in Collector through feature layer views. It talks about how you, as the admin of your data, might need to give different mobile workers different access to the same data. Perhaps they need different editing permissions or access to different attributes. You can use feature layer views to give them a customized view. Give the blog a read, then come here to discuss it.

 

Esri Education Team
10 Replies
RobertKrisher
Esri Regular Contributor

While I love the idea of using hosted feature layer views the limitation of only being able to use them on hosted feature layers definitely limits how I can use this right now.  Any idea on when / if there will be support for something like this with feature services?

Kylie
by Esri Regular Contributor
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Robert -- Could you expand on that a bit for me? What would you want to use layer views for with your feature services? One of the biggest benefits that hosted feature layer views brings is different views into the same data, and you can get that today by publishing multiple feature services off the same underlying data. Is there something else hosted feature layer views bring that you'd want to see for your feature services?

Esri Education Team
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RobertKrisher
Esri Regular Contributor

Kylie - I'll be attending the Esri UC if you want to have a follow up conversation about this.

My area of interest is in the Utility space where we're dealing with the constraints imposed by Branch versioning feature services.  In terms of editing, one of the biggest constraints around this is that any versions (and therefore edits) created against a given feature service can only be seen within that feature service.  So if I set up a separate feature service for Collector (or web editors) that only exposes a subset of the data to my editors, then when the data is being reviewed / cleaned for posting the reviewer will be limited to seeing the same amount of data.

This becomes incredibly important when you have field personnel collecting a subset of required information and require back office personnel to do a lot of the heavy lifting to get the data prepared.  The way I handle this right now is by just using client side configuration to use settings on the layers (definition queries, field visibility, field highlighting, etc) to control these behavior.  The challenge with the client-side constraints is that they are easily bypassed by advanced or malicious users.  By enforcing these constraints at a service level I am able to safeguard against this.

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Kylie
by Esri Regular Contributor
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Robert --I will be at UC. Can you send me a message (email is kdonia at esri dot com) and we can find a time to chat. Thanks!

Esri Education Team
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by Anonymous User
Not applicable

I would like to sub-set a Living Atlas layer for use in webmaps/Collector deployments. Would a feature layer view be appropriate in this case?

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Kylie
by Esri Regular Contributor
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Brian -- Only the owner of a hosted feature layer can create a hosted feature layer view from the original layer, so unless you happen to own the layer in Living Atlas that you are using, it won't be an option for you. What of the original layer are you trying to bring to Collector?

Esri Education Team
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by Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi Kylie - I would like to use a few of the Landscape Layers collection that I just discovered: https://www.arcgis.com/home/group.html?id=38f9a41bdea24e9b9d913cedbfc9216b#overview

The idea is to sub-set these layers for any given project area and have the features and attributes carry through to Collector for use as reference data. Thanks!

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Kylie
by Esri Regular Contributor
Esri Regular Contributor

Thanks for clarifying, Bryan! In this case, you can't use hosted feature layer views. Why do you want to limit the reference data to the extent of the project?

Esri Education Team
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by Anonymous User
Not applicable

We want to minimize the size of the data that has to be downloaded to Collector, since we are often using slower-than-average wifi connections. Most of our project areas are only a few square miles in size, so it makes sense to only take NHD, NWI, etc. features that land in the project area.

These reference data layers are Map Image Layers. As soon as I add them to a webmap, that webmap is no longer available for download to Collector. So I need a good workflow for creating subsets of these layers inside the webmap environment.

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