Vaguely related: Enable MMPK as a Referenced Basemap in Field Maps - Esri Community
Background:
Well, I lost a bet with a coworker.
We were discussing MMPKs and how they don't work for dynamic content, and I suggested using the "reference online content" option during the creation process so that you could get updates throughout the season as necessary without having to republish the map. She didn't think it would work.
As it turns out, it doesn't. To be fair, it works great for online use, but completely falls apart during offline use.
To test this:
- I published an mmpk with a hosted feature service and set it to reference the content.
- I then got it onto my phone, add a point to the service from my computer, refreshed the map, and there it was.
- I turned on airplane mode, edited the service from my computer, turned off airplane mode, and there my edits were.
- I closed Field Maps, turned on airplane mode, reopened field maps, and the service's layer didn't load at all, giving me an error.
This is pretty disappointing to find out. I was betting that this setting would make a replica of some sort that would get updated whenever we were back in cell service, since that is pretty much how an offline area works for a webmap. What I got instead was an mmpk that only kept half of the information I needed.
Proposed Solution:
I would like to be able to use referenced content in an offline setting when using MMPKs.
Justification:
This would allow us to set up big maps to be sideloaded onto the device while ALSO letting us update key data throughout the mmpk's life cycle without having to republish and reshare out the packages to our users. For example, hazards such as abandoned mines or H2S areas that we discover throughout the year. These are in the same remote areas we do our work (which is generally how we discover them), and having a semi-live, semi-regularly-updated copy of them on our maps would be pretty useful. Ditto for things like bird nests.
I suppose a response to this would be "use a webmap". That's not what I want. We're trying to use mmpks for reference, and because we don't have to worry about offline area size, we can pack them with as much data as we need with really very little consequence. Using a webmap instead would mean having to
1) manage a billion services
2) managing access to the webmap
3) manage download sizes.
MMPKs avoid all of those issues:
1) Just pop whatever you need into your map, export it, and you're good to go.
2) I can make an mmpk and release it to the wild without having to make a public map or public services or make sure John Smith is in the correct group to access everything
3) Offline map areas are suuuuuuper touchy in my experience, both in just lining everything up to be downloaded and also making sure they're not so big that the packaging and download fails. MMPKs are just "how long do you feel like waiting for this file to transfer?"
All in all, I feel like the lack of replication for services into an mmpk is a really serious hole in the functionality and would love to get it patched.
