Unable to upload images in map tour from feature service

[EthanMcGhee10]

Hi there! I am trying to update an old ArcGIS Storymap using the Map Tour feature (more specifically Explorer Grid). I am creating a tour using the feature service layer that exists in our AGOL organization, however I am not able to edit the location/title/description or add photos. If I start a tour from scratch, I am able to do these features (see images for context). Does anyone know how I can fix this? Thanks in advance!

[OwenGeo]

Hi @EthanMcGhee10 -- When building a map tour, you can choose to create the tour manually in the story builder, or you can point to a feature service as the data source for your tour places.

If you are using a feature service you can edit your tour data by editing the feature service on ArcGIS Online and those changes will be reflected in your story. There is not an ability to also edit the feature service data from within the tour builder.

[EthanMcGhee10]

Hi Owen, 

Thanks for your response. I was able to add a title and description to my points, but I am still having difficulty with uploading images. In my attribute table, I have a field with a link to the photos I would like to use for each tour point (see attached image), but when I update the storymap the tour still shows null photos. Is this a problem in the way I have linked the photo in the attribute table, or am I missing something else?

Best, 

Ethan

[OwenGeo · Accepted solution]

@EthanMcGhee10 -- The data-driven tour currently supports images stored as feature service attachments. This is because the primary use case for the data-driven workflow is to create a tour from a feature service created by another ArcGIS app, such as Survey123, Field Maps, or Quick Capture.

We are considering a future enhancement that provides the ability to configure a data-driven tour to point to a field in the feature service that contains links to images. One thing to be aware of, however, is that even if this ability were available, it is not an optimal/recommended workflow. Linked images are not optimized for display on a variety of devices like uploaded images and feature service attachment images are, and using linked images can lead to performance issues and/or extra preparation work.

[RachelFunke]

Just her to say that the option to display media stored as a link in a field would be a great option for our organization! We were able to do this in the old Storymaps and miss this functionality. 

[mcolwin]

Hi Owen - 

I'd like to echo the other comments here and say that removing the functionality of allowing these points to have images that are based on links is really limiting, especially as our large organization attempts to rebuild many StoryMaps from the Classic map tour format to the new one. This rebuild becomes exponentially more time consuming if we have to manually attach all the photos to the feature services and cannot simply reference URLs in already existing fields. Our organization already manages our photos in a specific way and being able to reference these managed photos instead of essentially creating a copy of the photos is also a benefit.

Please consider adding this functionality rather than limiting it based on what Esri thinks are the primary use cases.

[NataliyaLys]

Yes, I agree as well. When building story map from the existing feature service, it would nice to be able to display images stored as a link in fields. And it would be nice to have an option to use multiple images.

The only good things about using images from attachments is that story map allows to use multiple photos (max 5 I believe). 

[JaredPilbeam2]

Navigate to your feature service in AGOL --> Overview --> Enable attachments

Then open your feature service in a webmap --> click a feature in the map --> Add Attachment

Or open the attribute table and add the attachment that way

Then it will show up in your data-driven map tour story map

[AdriannaBuxrude]

Hello!

I am trying to create a data-driven map tour, but I need help. I logged into AGOL, went to the overview tab for my feature layer, and scrolled down to find the attachments section, but I didn't see one. I don't have the option to enable attachments. I attached a screenshot of what I see. 

[OwenGeo]

@AdriannaBuxrude -- Please review the documentation for allowing attachments on features layers here: Manage hosted feature layers—ArcGIS Online Help | Documentation

One thing I can think of is that you haven't yet enabled editing on the feature layer, which is a requirement for enabling attachments.