More query operators for the Category Selector in ArcGIS Online Operations Dashboard

14402
58
12-27-2018 03:17 PM
Status: Implemented
Zach_Robinson
New Contributor III

The Category Selector in Operations Dashboard currently allows Single choice selections and Multiple choice selections. The query operators for Multiple choice selections are "include" or "does not include." These operators do not offer the same functionality as the operators "contains" or "does not contain." ESRI Customer Support explained this to me in an email:

I've done some digging into this issue and I think I've pinpointed the confusion.The 'include' operator works as an 'equals' operator when only one value is selected, works as an 'IN' operator when multiple values are selected, but never works as a 'contains' operator. This means that the query is looking for fields that exactly match the string you've configured as the query value. The result of this is that when you select multiple values, for example [category1] AND [category2], the category selector will filter to show only features that have [category1] OR [category2] as the value for the selected field. However, a feature that has the value of [category1,category2] would not be shown because the value is not an exact match despite containing both search terms.

My idea is to add two additional operators to the Category Selector in Operations Dashboard: "contains" and "does not contain." These operators will allow querying categories that are comma-separated in a single field. (This comma-separated format is standard for Multiple Choice data from Survey123.)

58 Comments
JoeBryant1

I also created an idea for adding a Null Category Selector for string fields here:

Add Null Override Category to Dashboard Selector 

Amanda__Huber

"Add two additional operators to the Category Selector in Operations Dashboard: "contains" and "does not contain.

To contribute our voice to this, our organization is desperately looking for this solution as well. We have multiple dashboards that need this functionality for end users and we have no solution for this. 

@DerekLaw , could you please provide us with an update for when or if this functionality will become available?

 

Thanks a million!

Amanda

 

DerekLaw

Hi @Amanda__Huber ,

Regarding your specific inquiry,

"Add two additional operators to the Category Selector in Operations Dashboard: "contains" and "does not contain.

 

This is not on the short term Dev roadmap, but is still being considered by the Dev team. Right now, they are focused on getting ArcGIS Dashboards Beta to a final, official release. They're also working on improving the UX for viewing dashboards on mobile devices.

Hope this helps,

 

 

 

WilliamRockwell1

Odd that I can do number and date filters in a dashboard, but not text?

Why no text selector?

 

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Amanda__Huber

@DerekLaw Thanks so much for the update back in February. Just thought I'd see if there was any plan to implement this functionality? 

We're currently using the S123 data tab filters as the workaround, but we would love to leverage dashboards instead!

Thank you, and hope you're doing well!

DerekLaw

Hi @WilliamRockwell1,

Odd that I can do number and date filters in a dashboard, but not text? ... Why no text selector?

Why can't you use a Category Selector to emulate this functionality?



Hi @Amanda__Huber,

Just thought I'd see if there was any plan to implement this functionality? 

Sorry, I don't have any update to share. As I said previously, it is being considered, but is not currently a priority.

Hope this helps,

WilliamRockwell1

@DerekLawI have thousands of possible text to choose from, the category selector is not really capable of doing this. (that I'm aware of)

For example, if I have an location field, and I want to be able to filter all the records that have "Main Street" or "1st Ave" and thousands of other options, there's no way I can do this. I could use a category selector of features and get each individual location (not what I want) or defined values (also not what I want) and group values for every street isn't feasible. And that's even before you run into the maximum category issue.

Oddly you can accomplish this in an Experience, but it lacks the easy-to-use nature of a dashboard. I was just hoping the functionality can be added to the dashboard since you can do it in an Experience.

DerekLaw

Hi @WilliamRockwell1,

Thanks for the additional info and context on your use case. I suggest that you create a new, separate enhancement request on ArcGIS Dashboards ideas for this, so others can vote for it.

Hope this helps,

MikeLachance1

I am also interested in this functionality. I have a multi-select field in my survey and I would like to create a category selector that can filter for individual values in that field. Currently the includes operator will not pick up the selected staff name if another staff name appears in the field value separated with a comma. It feels like labelling this as 'includes' is a bit misleading based on the functionality it offers.

MikeLachance1

I will add that I would find it useful to have all the operators available in the 'Filter' available in the selector. I'd love to be able to define categories and be able to have my category values be used in a 'starts with' or 'like' operation.