Why Can't I See a Layer in Collector on Windows 10 Tablet?

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01-30-2018 09:01 AM
FaithJohnson
New Contributor II

Hi,

I have a map published to AGOL. The services in the map were published directly to ArcGIS Online and are hosted feature services. We are using Collector to create and update the data on Windows 10 devices (Dell Latitude tablets). We are on Collector 17.0.3.0.

In Collector, I can download the map, work offline, and synchronize successfully. However when I try to view the online map in Collector, one of my layers comes up with an error. First is says "1 layer is unavailable" then when I click on the View button, it says "The following layers are not accessible:" It lists the layer, "Routes" and says "The field already exists : Creator." That is untrue. As you will see there is only one field named "Creator" in the file. I downloaded it to make sure.

Here is what I have been able to figure out what's going on; just don't know how to fix it. I published the Routes layer (with other layers) from ArcMap. This particular feature class has edit tracking fields (listing field name / alias) that are published as part of the feature layer:

CreationDate / Create Date

Creator / Create User

EditDate / Last Edit Date

Editor / Last Edit User

Turns out the feature class Routes had a problem that I had to fix in ArcMap. Rather than deleting the original service, I overwrote the existing service. When I did this (or perhaps when I enabled edit tracking through the service settings), ArcGIS Online created some additional fields:

CreationDate_1 / CreationDate

Creator_1 / Creator

EditDate_1 / EditDate

Editor_1 / Editor

Notice that the alias for "Creator_1" is Creator which is the name of the original field, and that the error message is on the field "Creator." Not sure if that is related.

It appears that the original fields are the fields that ArcGIS Online is using for the edit tracking information. 

It's also important to note that NONE of these fields are visible in the pop-up configured in the feature layer view Visualization settings.

This is definitely related to re-publishing AND having changed something to the feature class when I re-published because there are 6 layers in this feature service and only Route has the problem even though they all have the same edit tracking fields. Also I have done this for 4 other maps (without having to re-publish and overwrite) and none of those maps have this problem.

I tried to change the field alias in the pop-up, but Collector was not fooled. What do I need to do to fix it? Re-publishing is not feasible because we have 12 teams using the maps offline spread across the state.

A little more background is that our QA teams use the live maps in Collector. The QA teams are the ones that are getting the error and cannot see the Routes layer. Our data entry teams use the offline maps. They have not reported any problems with the Routes layer and it is visible in the downloaded maps. They are both using the same feature layer, but are using different views and different web maps. I'm hoping for a way to fix the issue in the QA view and/or QA web map, maybe through the rest services.

In case you are curious, the reason that I had to republish was that I originally published the Routes layer as "M-enabled." This caused use to not be able to download the map for offline use. I replicated the feature class, except not M-aware and re-published, overwriting the feature layer.

Thanks,

Faith

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SMauri
by
Occasional Contributor III

Hi Faith,

try to disable Editor tracking before publishing and activate monitor for editing from ArcGIS Online "Settings" of feature layer hosted after publishing.

Cheers

Stefano

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4 Replies
JoeHershman
MVP Regular Contributor

Did you ever find a solution?

Thanks

-Joe

Thanks,
-Joe
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SMauri
by
Occasional Contributor III

Hi Faith,

try to disable Editor tracking before publishing and activate monitor for editing from ArcGIS Online "Settings" of feature layer hosted after publishing.

Cheers

Stefano

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FaithJohnson
New Contributor II

It has been a while but I think Stefano is right. What has helped us the most is switching to iPads. 

I agree with Stefano - I no longer publish anything with editor tracking enabled in Pro or desktop as AGOL will simply add new fields. However, occasionally the need arises where you need to re-publish existing data. If you delete the editor tracking fields before re-publishing, and then re-enable after it's published, you will lose your edit history. On the other hand, if you re-publish with edit tracking still enabled, all of the edit history is overwritten by the publishers information. I believe there's a way to disable this in Pro, but I haven't tested it yet. Currently, we add a set of editor tracking "hold" fields. That way we can copy the edit history into those field before we delete the editor tracking fields and re-publish.

It's just been pretty clumsy working around editor tracking in AGOL when you're publishing existing data with editing history. Please let me know if you have a more simple solution to maintaining edit history in AGOL / Collector.

Thanks,

Faith

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JoeHershman
MVP Regular Contributor

Seems like this might be something the AGOL team might want to look into.  We have a Runtime app, not Collector and on iOS, but based on error being captured seems to be the same underlying cause.

Thanks,
-Joe
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