Time-Slider Layers Draw Too Slowly on AGOL

[AmeliaNewsam]

I successfully uploaded a Web Layer to AGOL (Yay!), and the time-slider function works (yay!), but the layers draw much too slowly, so it goes blank in between layers, and then draws the layer in jumps and starts.  Should I try sharing it again, but instead of selecting the Feature option, do a tile or vector tile format?

Another issue is that the time-slider function won't allow me to do custom time periods, but I see other's with the same problem on GeoNet and no solutions yet.

[AmeliaNewsam]

update:  Tried doing Vector Tile instead of Feature, but got the error: "The layer can not be added to the map because its coordinate system or tiling scheme can't be adjusted to align properly with the basemap."  Tried projecting the layer to WGS84 and sharing again, but got the same error.  Why would the layer projection be OK when shared as a feature web layer but not when shared as a vector tile layer?

[KellyGerrow]

Hi Amelia,

How many features are you trying to display in your time enabled layer? If the entire data-set can be retrieved from the server in a single query, the animation will be more smooth than if each time windows needs to be queried individually. This is due to the response time of the request.

Are you able to share your app and or map? 

[AmeliaNewsam]

Hi Kelly, there are about 3800 features.  I've shared the map with public, but since I tried to project the original layer to WGS84 it's way off alignment with the basemap, but that's another problem.  The behavior I described is still there.  Here's the link, I think:  http://ucmerced.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c17a8f6df9764972a36b8f4524863cbe 

However, I did get a warning when I uploaded it that it might not display properly for some reason (I can't remember the wording now, would have to go back and try it again I guess).  So, if you can't see it, let me know and I'll try to redo it.

Thanks for your help!

[AmeliaNewsam]

Well, now the layer is no longer out of alignment.  Don't know what changed, but simply closing and reopening in map viewer seems to have helped it align better.  ??? 

[AmeliaNewsam]

Tried publishing as Tile layer from AGOL (in Overview page of the hosted feature layer), but it didn't retain the time-slider functionality.

[KellyGerrow · Accepted solution]

HI,

Sorry for taking so long to reply. It is not possible to enable time animation on a tiled layer as the tiles are static moments in time. 

The reason that your time layer started speeding up is probably because your browser cache stored the results, allowing it to display faster. Below I'm going to get into the weeds of how we make requests to services, but have these three high level recommendations.

1. Reduce the amount of features in the layer

2. Reduce the complexity of the features (generalize)

3. Increase the Max Record Count (I generally don't recommend this ever, but the number of features you have is so close to a limit that this may get you by).

The Weeds:

When displaying time data in the Javascript API (what the web map is built with) time data is requested in one of two ways : Snapshot mode or On-demand. Snap Shot mode involves the web map requesting all of the features from the server in a single request and storing the data in the browser. This allows for a smooth transition from timeframe to time frame as the web map has all of the data to display up front.

On demand is triggered automatically when a request a feature layer has more data to display than the max record count set on the service. When its determined that the amount of features is to large, the web map sends individual requests to the server for each time frame. This can cause a blink or some animation issues as the web map waits for the response from the server at each time interval. Improving the server response time, like reducing the complexity of the data (vertices and/or number of fields) can reduce the lag.

The max record count on your service is 2000. You could try and increase this following these instructions to see if it helps

The reason I generally don't recommend this is that when the max record count is increased, it can bloat the amount of data being requested which can lead to a long response time from the server or cause a browser to crash. I'd suggest giving it a try and seeing if it makes a difference.

Overall, can you add an idea about this on ArcGIS Ideas as it looks like we need to improve the performance of time animation so there are no lags when using on-demand mode to request features.

-Kelly

[AmeliaNewsam]

Hi Kelly,

OK, thanks for the detailed and very informative reply! I will try

reducing the scale of the map in order to reduce the number of features.

Thanks,

Amy