Streaming Location of Vehicle Shared Publicly?

[ArmstKP]

I have noticed that any streaming service created/stored in Velocity is NOT able to be shared publicly?

We would love to share location of plows on our public map, but currently this seem not possible???

[PeterNasuti · Accepted solution]

@ArmstKP Thanks for reaching out with your question! At the current release, ArcGIS Velocity backed feature layers and stream layers can be shared with groups or with your organization, but cannot be shared to the public.

The current option in ArcGIS Velocity to share data to the public is to create an output feature layer hosted in an ArcGIS Online layer using the Feature layer (new) or Feature layer (existing) outputs.

With our 3.3 release in early November 2022, the Feature layer (existing) output will also support writing to ArcGIS Enterprise/ArcGIS Server backed layers which of course can be configured to be public facing.

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/iot/disseminate-and-notify/feature-layer-new-.htm

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/iot/disseminate-and-notify/feature-layer-existing-.htm

[ArmstKP]

@PeterNasuti Perfect!  Thank you for that information; very helpful!

[ArmstKP]

@PeterNasuti Peter, I have followed your steps in creating an output feature layer hosted in ArcGIS Online, by creating a new Feature layer.  When I go to share it publicly, I get this error:

[PeterNasuti]

@ArmstKP If ArcGIS Online is not providing any additional information or context associated with that error, please reach out to Esri Support Services for assistance investigating why the given layer cannot be shared to the public. Once Velocity creates an ArcGIS Online hosted feature layer, it is a native ArcGIS Online layer that could be treated like any other online layer.

[ArmstKP]

@PeterNasuti Peter, I noticed that the icon is not the normal ArcGIS Online Hosted Feature layer icon, but has the Velocity Feature layer icon.  Is this the issue, that it is still seeing it as coming from Velocity?

[PeterNasuti]

Based on the icons and the fact that there is an accompanying map image layer, you have created a "Velocity feature layer" with data stored in a spatiotemporal layer. This layer type cannot be shared to the public, thus the error message you witnessed.

ArcGIS Online hosted feature layers however can be shared to the public. The Velocity "Feature layer (new)" output can be configured to create an ArcGIS Online hosted feature layer. See the following screenshot for reference. By unclicking the toggle "store data in a spatiotemporal feature layer", when unchecked the corresponding feature layer created will exist in the ArcGIS Online hosted feature layer. You can also use the "Feature layer (existing)" output to write to an existing ArcGIS Online hosted feature layer.

[ArmstKP]

@PeterNasuti Thank you.  I have tried this as well, but our AVL snowplow feed is usually around 10 e/s and thus our average is above 2 e/s in our feed.  So, I am not able to save and start the feed to create the Feature layer (new) output.  Does this basically mean that I just won't be able to share last vehicle locations to the public?

[PeterNasuti]

Thanks for your reply - it is correct that the Feature layer (new or existing) output when writing to an ArcGIS Online hosted feature layer is limited to an average of 2 events/second (120 records per minute, per output). This is a limit imposed from the ArcGIS Online team that ArcGIS Velocity follows. ArcGIS Online organizations with a premium feature data store are able to sustain/allow higher data write speeds. This will be available with the following release of ArcGIS Velocity in early 2023. 

For some public facing applications, organizations will utilize the Control Event Volume tool to reduce the number of updates/records sent to an output based on feature Track ID. This could be leveraged in your circumstance to keep your update Velocity around/under 2 e/s to be able to write to an ArcGIS Online hosted feature layer if you need to share this layer with the public. The downside to this workflow would be that vehicle location updates to the public could be slightly delayed (likely under a minute, it depends on your number of vehicles and update frequency).

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/iot/analyze/control-event-volume.htm

We have also implemented a validation enhancement to change the 2 event per second validation error to be a validation warning. There are perfectly valid cases where a feed has a higher rate than 2 e/s but the analytic flow reduces the number of features to under 2 events per second at the output. This will be implemented with our 3.3 release in early November, however the current workaround is to start the feed, and then start the real-time analytic before the feed has started (or start the real-time analytic first).

[ArmstKP]

Peter, this is great.  Thank you for the detailed information and workaround.  Can't thank you enough!