Make new ArcGIS StoryMaps self-hosted

[Kara_Shindle]

Love the new StoryMaps, but cannot really utilize them in my organization (mid-size county) as we need the ability to self-host the apps on our own server like the classic Story Maps.

Please give us the option to self host so we can download and customize, insert into other framework, customize URL, add Google Analytics, etc.

Creation due to thread found here: Is the new ArcGIS StoryMap self-hostable? 

[OwenGeo]

All -- Providing a way to self-host ArcGIS StoryMaps is still under consideration, but is not on our roadmap for at least the next six months.

If you are looking to customize the URL for your stories, we've just published a blog that describes several options for doing this that can be implemented now.

Customizing your StoryMap’s URL (esri.com)

[MartySchnure]

To add to all of the other reasons folks have mentioned here (custom url, fonts, more freedom with iframe embeds, etc.), our organization needs to be able to embed facebook tracking pixels in order to do our audience targeting. Not being able to do this with the new Story Maps has been a dealbreaker for us. 

Ability to self-host would be great, but even better would be a place to embed a facebook pixel in the same way that we can embed Google Analytics codes right in the platform itself. 

Thanks!

[FOkoye]

If another use case helps, at my organisation we use tools like hotjar to add surveys and heatmap generators to websites. Being able to self host would mean we could add some feedback widgets to a Story Map and find out what people think of the content, how they rate the experience etc. This is because tools like hotjar need you to add some javascript to the document in order to do any tracking.

Currently we would have to add a link to an external survey and that would severely reduce the likelihood of users giving us the feedback we need to make better experiences.

[GIS_Fox]

This is a great idea I would like to see implemented as well. Sharing long links internally or externally of the organization can be a hassle if you have to make a link to a link, eg the insert/edit link option on most platforms like this LINK (it's just colored text here but the same idea) . A clean cut link also builds the professional brand look of a website/service like via storymaps. Either way I'm glad to see the community so engaged on such a great topic.

Cheers, 

[wayfaringrob]

Yes, this needs to happen for the great reasons everyone is sharing. As a regional agency, we often produce maps/sites for member governments and other organizations, and we're unable to offer them the ability to self-host because of this equivalency issue.

[MichelleDiNicola]

I just wanted to add to this: My agency uses custom headers and footers across all of state government and this feature was extremely useful in the past for us and we would very much like to see it return for this and many of the other reasons mentioned here.

[PeterKnoop]

Our primary interest in this idea relates to the ability to host a StoryMap on a user's own domain in order to demonstrate the trustworthiness and authenticity of the story. 

The post, Customizing your StoryMap’s URL, suggests some partial workarounds, however, each alternative has limitations that impact the ability to control the domain name in URLs related to StoryMaps (the story itself, section links, etc.)

Projects often use more than just StoryMaps for their web content. The whole project might have a WordPress site, regular web pages, Instant apps, JavaScript Web Maps, etc. When users navigate a project's web content or look at search results, and the domain is different, then they are often hesitant to consider content trustworthy or authentic 

[PeterKnoop]

The lines that shape our cities nicely illustrates the aspect of self-hosting as it relates to hosting custom CSS and JavaScript along side the StoryMap in which you are embedding it. In other words, hosting both the story and embedded custom code on the same domain.

In this specific case, since it is an Esri authored StoryMap, they appear to have access to the storymaps web server to host their embedded custom code  (i.e., https://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2020/redlining-timeline/timeline-horizontal.js)

As far as I know, the rest of us don't have access to similarly post custom code to the storymaps web server. So self-hosting would be an avenue to enable us to host our storymap and our embedded custom code on the same domain.

[CrystalVanKooten]

I request that Esri provide an option for authors to download the HTML code files for their work in Story Maps. I am a professor who publishes academic articles and digital scholarship in peer-reviewed academic journals and through academic presses. I would like to publish a Story Map that I've composed using Esri Story Maps (through my university's paid Esri license) in a peer-reviewed online journal in my field that hosts all published content on their own servers for sustainability. Publishing and sharing via this academic venue would make the Story Map available to many more and different kinds of readers and users, and it would be a prestigious location for an Esri Story Map to be published, providing more exposure for the author and for Esri products.  

This journal requires standalone HTML files in order for digital work to be considered for publication and eventually published. As the editor wrote to me, "we wouldn’t be able to just embed the original using an embed code—we’d need to host all files on our servers and accounts for sustainability purposes (so that we don’t have to scramble to do something if StoryMaps goes down in 5, 10, or 20 years—or lose everything if we don’t know a change is happening)." Authors, journals, and libraries have no control over the sustainability of work in Story Maps in the current model where Esri does not allow for the downloading or editing of HTML files. 

Providing access to HTML code files would give authors a way to save and archive their work (which is their intellectual property), and open up publishing options for authors who would like to share their work via journals or presses who host work on their servers - authors like me. 

In addition to aiding in sustainably publishing and sharing Esri Story Maps in more places, giving authors access to the HTML code of Story Maps would provide more options for editing and altering templates in productive and creative ways. I was interested in adding drop-down menus to my Story Map, for example, but learned that this feature could not be added, nor could I gain access to the html code to make the changes there (see my post asking about drop-down menus here). 

I have valued using Story Maps as a composing tool, and I hope that my work can be published and shared in its current version - which looks and sounds fantastic. Esri's policies surrounding the inability for authors to access the code, however, may make it impossible to share my work through Esri in the end.

Thank you for your consideration and any help you can offer. 

Dr. Crystal VanKooten
Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures
Michigan State University