All My Widgets are Broken in Dashboards! Again!

[Curt_H]

I just opened a dashboard that uses a single hosted layer and all widgets are broken with a "Data source error"! Its shared only within the NIFC ArcGIS Online Organization. This happened a few years ago due to an issue with filtering by date. No idea if its the same issue. The data loads in the map and feature details without issue. Can someone from ESRI please reach out?

[jcarlson]

Are you allowed to edit the dashboard? If so, can you look at how the widgets are configured?

Is the dashboard public?

Is the data updated regularly? And if so, what does that update process look like? When I've seen this kind of thing, it's because of overwriting a hosted feature layer and corrupting the underlying table.

[Curt_H]

@jcarlson  Yep - allowed to edit dashboard (org sharing only on D-board - same as hosted layer). Data is a hosted layer with 307 records (only) that I update weekly through the item page using append with a common attribute field and an csv to update the attribute table. Geometry doesn't get updated (points). Been following that process for months w/o issue. When I go to settings for any widget now, it takes me to select layer dialog. The layer shows there, it loads in the map just fine and like I said the feature details, the data loads no problem.  Do you know when ESRI completed an update that affected Dashboards? - Thanks!

[jcarlson]

Okay, the append/update method is safe, so it's not likely a schema issue.

Can you create a new widget successfully?

[Curt_H]

Thanks again for you replies! Yeah I can create new widget no problem. I'm pretty sure I could spend the time (begrudgingly) and repair ALL the widgets and LOADS of actions, but honestly, I think it may be time to move on and bin this. I find it pretty ridiculous. This happened a few years ago apparently caused by using the time/day filter "in the last xx number of days", but ESRI fixed that (it wasn't and still isnt shared publicly). This time however even widgets that have NO filter are broken as well. Tried clearing the cache and that didn't help.

Couldnt find Font? I cant tell if this is really showing the hang up

[jcarlson]

Don't bin it just yet! There might be some advanced diagnosing we can do.Try this:

1. Save a copy of the dashboard (just in case you break something!)
2. Pick one broken widget as your test case
3. Create a brand new widget that recreates the broken widget as closely as you can
4. Save the dashboard
5. Open the JSON of the dashboard
   1. Go to https://arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/your-dash-itemid/data?f=json
   2. You may need to append "&token=<some token>" with a valid token
   3. If that doesn't work, try using https://assistant.esri-ps.com/ to view the JSON
6. Locate the JSON definition of the broken test case and its "clone"
7. Compare and see if a difference can be identified

If there's some simple adjustment that needs to be made to the JSON, you may be a simple find-and-replace away from a working dashboard.

[Curt_H]

Appreciate the suggestions. It would probably be easier for me just to fix I think. Another issue is I wont be around to repair if this happens again and it definitely wont get addressed by anyone one else in the agency. So its longevity would be very much in question, regardless. Thank you for your help @jcarlson !

I wont lie, this is pretty discouraging, but not altogether that surprising. I'll leave it at that.

[jcarlson]

No problem. Personally, I'd still want to verify whether the issue was something in the data, or if was truly a breaking change introduced by an update. We've got dashboards that have been running for years without issue, so longevity is possible.

[MartinCopping]

I recommend you reach out to Esri Support to open a support ticket. Esri Technical Support is already aware of this issue and should be able to provide guidance. They’re tracking it as BUG-000156053

In a nutshell, the Layer IDs stored in the Dashboard JSON are out of sync with those stored in a map/feature service. This can happen (for example) when a dashboard element gets created by pointing to a standalone layer, and then at some point afterward, the service that backs the layer gets re-published/overwritten and the layer IDs do not get preserved.

One possible "fix", is to use the ArcGIS Online Assistant first to figure out the ID of the feature services being used by each widget and second change the LayerID for each widget in the dashboard.

[Curt_H]

@MartinCopping  Hi Martin - thanks for your reply. A little confused by your post as you noted there is a bug, but then suggest the layer could have been re-published or overwritten? Sounds like it may happen inadvertently on the server side? I use the data in other apps (EB) and no data breaks there. It also seems curious that the feature details widget (and the map widget) didn't lose connection but all the lists, gauges, indicators did. I just went ahead and fixed the widgets and actions. Didn't think to look at AGO assistant. Just a little concerned as I mentioned to Josh, above, that when I'm through with my role at NPS, that if it happens again, someone else's 'fix' would be with the delete button, most likely. Sincerely appreciate your post reply.