Loss of "ID" tool in ArcGIS.com

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03-09-2011 08:37 AM
RobbWright
New Contributor III
Recently ArcGIS.com made an update to the whole system.  One of the changes rolled out is an info popup tool - but unfortunately this has replaced, instead of augmented the ID tool.

Previously it was a 2-click process to see the attributes of a feature: click the ID tool, then click on the feature.  Now, with the new version, it take *6* clicks.  Six clicks is already terrible, but how you do it now isn't even intuitive:

1) click on "Details"
2) click on the "show contents of map" icon
3) click on the map service to expand the layers
4) click the little arrow next to the layer you want to query
5) click "enable popup"
6) back on the map, click on the feature you want information about

I haven't seen any settings in the map service setup (10, sp1) that can "enable popups" by default - if that existed then we could make popups appear in two clicks again.
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5 Replies
MikeMinami
Esri Notable Contributor
Yes, the goal is to expose the pop-up properties at the map service item level and eventually at the service itself. So then, it will only be a single click to get information.

Thanks,

Mike
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JeffJackson
New Contributor III
While it might be six clicks to configure the popups for a layer, after you save the map it's only 1 click after that, and the end result can be far more informative than a simple list of unformatted attribute values.

So if you open up the map and click on 3 features, everything after that is a bonus compared to the old Identify tool. More importantly, every user that opens your map gets a superior user experience out of the box with no need for configuration or using tools.
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MichaelLohr
Occasional Contributor II
I thought from the help file, that enabling the pop up windows was a one time setting for that layer, which would save with your settings when you resave the online map.

But I don't even get the Enable Pop Up choice in the little box under the little arrow to the right of the layer. I get move up, move down, transparency, etc. But no Enable Pop Up.
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MichaelLohr
Occasional Contributor II
Oops, I found it. You have to be down on the individual layer level to get the Enable Pop Up option.

If you are displaying multiple layers, like from an MXD, you won't get the option until you expand the content item to see all the individual layers. Then you have to enable on each layer.

Why not make Enable Pop Ups the default (since they have taken away the old ID tool). A lot simpler if you have a lot of maps already built.
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MikeMinami
Esri Notable Contributor
We did consider enabling popups on all layers by default. However, it would have been too much of a performance hit on the server. Also, our goal is for map authors to be thoughtful about what information they want to display to an end user.  For a GIS analyst, they may be fine with a long list of attributes. However, a casual user would appreciate a more "authored" view of information.

As I mentioned before, we do plan on pushing the authoring of pop-ups into the item that references a map service, so when the item does get added to a map, it will already have a pop-up definition. Ultimately, we want to allow people to define it at the service level too. So when the service gets added to arcgis.com, it will already have a pop-up defined.

Thanks,

Mike
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