Arcade: Add $datastore and $map to the Layout profile
Removing the $datastore Arcade profile from ArcGIS Pro Layouts is a significant regression for users who rely on dynamic text expressions to drive quality control and consolidated reporting from multiple related tables. Our team has used $datastore successfully for years to generate one‑page Data Summary PDFs (via map series) that combine values across many layers and related tables and apply custom QA flags. When $datastore stopped resolving in 3.5.5 (“Object not found $datastore”), these summaries and the QC flow they enable were immediately impacted.
Why this matters
- Dynamic text beyond Min/Max/Avg/Count: Layouts are most powerful when Arcade lets us query and compare values across related tables and parent layers. That’s how we surface missing, unusual, or inconsistent data in a way crews can act on without opening attribute tables or bouncing between maps.
- Production automation: We run nightly jobs to generate page‑per‑site summaries from multiple services and repeat tables; $datastore is the only practical way to stitch those relationships directly inside the layout so analysts see the whole picture in one page.
- Performance: Even with >40 expressions per page, layout performance has been acceptable and stable relative to other Pro tasks. Removing $datastore isn’t justified on performance grounds from our experience.
Request
If $datastore must be removed from the Layout profile, please add an equivalent—for example, make $map available in Layout Arcade so expressions can reference layers in the project’s map(s). Today, Layout dynamic text doesn’t recognize $map, and documentation indicates $map availability varies by profile (e.g., popups vs. field calculations). Bringing either $datastore back or enabling $map in the Layout profile would preserve long‑standing workflows without forcing users to re‑platform.
What we’ve tried
- Reverting to a prior Pro build restores behavior, but that’s a temporary workaround and not feasible long‑term for enterprise environments.
- Re‑implementing in Reports/Dashboards or pre‑aggregating outside the layout undermines the single‑page QC workflow and removes the ability to craft targeted flags from related tables at render‑time.
- Attribute rules are not an acceptable solution and do not solve any of the problems listed above.
We’re happy to share sanitized .pagx and a list of expressions illustrating the QC logic. Thank you for considering a path that keeps Layouts a first‑class home for serious data QA.
Below is an example of a Data Summary PDF that is impacted by $datastore being removed, an example of a code snippet using $datastore that has worked for the last 5 years, and an example of how my aprx is set up showing how $map should be an acceptable profile type if $datastore must be removed.
