AGOL equivalent of multipart to singlepart?

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12-05-2014 06:44 AM
KatyAppleton1
Occasional Contributor II

I am developing a class decision-making exercise in which students overlay two datasets to erase one (a buffer around a road network) from the other (a large single polygon). This creates many distinct polygons in the output, but the table shows one record. Essentially, I have what Desktop would call a multipart shape. The next step for the students is to reject some of the areas based on their size, but they cannot do this if they cannot treat each spatially distinct polygon as a separate feature.

In Desktop I would use the Multipart to Singlepart tool, but I need this exercise to be 100% in AGOL. How can I achieve what I need to do?

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6 Replies
KatyAppleton1
Occasional Contributor II

Two years and not a single response? This is a really neat exercise that would work well in AGOL, if only...

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MicahBabinski
Occasional Contributor III

Do you have access to ArcGIS Server? I am guessing you could publish this as a Geoprocessing Service and then add that to an application you could make with Web App Builder.

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KatyAppleton1
Occasional Contributor II

Thanks for the suggestion. We don't have Server at present but I think that by this time next year when I try again to implement the exercise we will do.

It's a shame that it's not a native capability, since this sort of processing is a natural companion to buffers and overlays. 

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KellyGerrow
Esri Frequent Contributor

HI Katy,

Can you share your proposed workflow including the publishing method and tool used to erase the feature? I don't think this functionality exists, but understanding the specific workflow would be helpful.

-Kelly

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KatyAppleton1
Occasional Contributor II

Sure, although I don't know what info to add above the first post.

An example would be:

Buffer a set of features (supplied as a layer I own, shared to our group), dissolving the output at the time of creation. (= "inclusion zones") 

Buffer a different set of features, again dissolving the output. (= "exclusion zones")

Overlay the two sets of buffers, using the Erase option to cut out one set from the other and leave holes, some of which are large enough to break up the inclusion zone into separate parts. (= "suitable areas")

In all cases we save the output to the user's own account. I don't ask students to view the item in My Content so no changes are made to publishing/sharing, it's just the default file output from the tool.

I am just looking for an analysis tool within the Manage Data set, almost like a reverse of Dissolve.

If you need other information I'll do my best - please be as specific as you can. I am not very experienced in the ways of AGOL.

KatyAppleton1
Occasional Contributor II

Six years on and still no specific tool...  but for the benefit of anyone googling this  I wanted to share a workaround, which is to run Dissolve Boundaries, based on Areas Which Overlap (of which there are none, so it's not intuitive), and untick "create multipart features".

The output is a layer with singlepart polygons, and their area is calculated.

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