Using "Feature=" Efficiently

[MaryEllen_Perko]

Hi.  I am wondering if there is a more efficient way to do a feature search through the "feature=" parameter than what we're doing.  We're trying to connect a list of attribute information with the corresponding features on an embeded agol hosted web map and while it works, using the following zooms first to the full state (i.e. the saved map extent) and then to the feature each time.  In our opinion, it seems inefficient and could be confusing to our end users.

http://www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=d248e5b1966040d48fab9059db857f21&feature=NCDOT_Re...   (this will not actually work outside our domain)

I appreciate any help.

[KellyHutchins]

In that app we wait for the map to be created in order to get the layer specified in the feature param. Once the layer is retrieved we query to get the specified feature and then zoom to that extent.

That template supports a few additional url parameters (center and extent) that could help if you know the extent or center where the feature is located. If you know that you could specify the extent or center so the web map doesn't zoom to its initial extent.