OpenData can't search content in an uploaded geodatabase

KevinMacLeodCAI

I uploaded a geodatabase with around 200 datasets to ArcGIS Online. I added this to my Hub / OpenData group. The goal is for the public to be able to search for these layers and download them.

Apparently, Search does not work for data in a geodatabase. What I mean is let's say I have Trees, Roads, Buildings and Parcels in a geodatabase. If I upload it, I want users to be able to type in "Trees" and get the Trees result(s) in the autocomplete from the Search box. They click Trees, go to the download page, and download it. Maybe as a .shp, maybe a geodatabase, KML, etc. Well... nothing. I then realized, search only finds this geodatabase by name. So if I named it MyGeodatabase, then if I type in "MyGeodatabase", sure it comes up. And then from there, I see the sublayers and can download them. But that is not discoverable/searchable. Am I missing a step? Support thought everything looked correct.

Interestingly, this concept works great, when I share an Item with embedded credentials from an on-prem Enterprise server. If I share a service with 10 items, they all appears in results, as desired above. Which in reality is probably the best way to do it now that AGOL caches on-prem content on their CDN. However for some various reasons we want to upload the geodatabase to AGOL, and then point OpenData at the uploaded geodatabase item. And for users to be able to search by name of the datasets in this uploaded geodatabase.

ThomasHervey1 · ‎07-13-2021

This is good feedback and I'll incorporate your comments into our search roadmap.

Search within a dataset is an area of search that intend to enhance towards the end of 2021 and into 2022. However, at the moment these search enhancements are only available for public content on Hub. Private content uses the Portal search API, and Hub is limited to the depth of what can be searched. If I am understanding you correctly, your FGDB is not public. If possible, you should share your FGDB publicly and produce a public hosted feature service. When you add this service to your site, Hub will automatically split out each layer into it's own search result, making it easier to discover layers by their titles.

KevinMacLeodCAI · ‎07-13-2021

@ThomasHervey1 perfect! That did it. Thank you. I had not shared public yet since we had not released it, but it's all public data. Yes it now 'sees' all the items in the hosted feature layer from the uploaded gdb. And that is good to know that search will (soon) support searching when data is only shared to the Org. That way, both the public and town staff users will be able to leverage OpenData.

If I upload a new copy of the gdb and I add some new datasets, and change a schema or two of existing datasets... will the hosted feature layer that got created when I first uploaded the gdb, get updated and pick up these changes?

ThomasHervey1 · ‎07-13-2021

If you create a new item, then the original item will not pick up updates. Typically we recommend that customers orient their publication around hosted services so that any updates you make will be reflected in those services. Then, if the hosted service item is shared to a Hub site, those changes will be reflected.

KevinMacLeodCAI · ‎07-13-2021

Initially I'd wanted to use the CDN caching for content coming from an on-prem Enterprise server. For various reasons, we now want to upload the data directly to AGOL and then provide that to OpenData for public downloading.

I uploaded a fgdb. It asked me to create a hosted feature layer which I did. It looks like that was necessary. If I hadn't done that, the sublayers wouldn't appear in the search or be able to be downloaded. They don't show for the uploaded gdb item, just the corresponding hosted feature layer that got generated. I am wondering - if I use the blue "Update" button on the gdb's Item page, will the corresponding Hosted Feature Layer get updated? Thank you for your insights Thomas.