The Smart Editor Widget: A Few Years in Review

AlixVezina · ‎06-30-2021

The Smart Editor widget has seen many updates in the last few years. Major enhancements and new functionality include:

Custom Fields matching when copying features
Geometry transformations when copying features
Copy an increased quantity of features with complex geometries
Support for graphics when copying features
Edit layers added from the Add Data widget
Store attributes for My Location coordinates
MGRS as a coordinates option
Save attribute and geometry updates automatically
A value picker for Intersection Attribute Actions
Honor the settings in the web map
Expand related records on load
Licensing update: the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service requires an ArcGIS Online organizational subscription for Address Attribute Actions.

For more information, review the (summarized) list below for each ArcGIS Online release date:

Note: this is not an all-encompassing list of all the bugs and enhancements implemented.

You can also check out the video series Get Smart About Editing to learn some tips and tricks about this widget.

March 2023

(JSAPI 3.43, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.27, Enterprise 11.2)

No major enhancements for this release.

Fixed bugs related to the copy graphics functionality.

The Smart Editor widget will follow the ArcGIS Web AppBuilder Roadmap for Retirement (esri.com).

November 2022

(JSAPI 3.42, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.26, Enterprise 11.1)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

You can now create features by selecting and copying graphics, either from the default graphic layer or from any graphic layers created at runtime. For example, you can copy a route generated by the Directions widget to create a line feature.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000123869: Country field does not populate when using reverse geocoding.
- A change was implemented to fetch updates from the geocoding service when the address attribute actions configuration opens. This will automatically pick up any changes that were made to the candidate fields options when updates were made to the geocoding service.
Inconsistent date presentation for selected date values in preset attribute actions.
Dates were written using epoch date format into target string fields for intersection attribute actions.

June 2022

(JSAPI 3.41, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.25, Enterprise 11.1)

No major enhancements for this release.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

Preset Attribute Actions cannot be created in the widget configuration when an editable feature layer has the "Editors can't see any features, even those they add" setting enabled.
Selected features on the map are loaded into the attribute inspector after the layer visibility is changed in the Layer List widget.

March 2022

(JSAPI 3.40, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.24, Enterprise 11.0)

No major enhancements for this release.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000145096: Unable to Add Expressions in the Smart Actions settings for the Smart Editor widget.
Preset Attribute Actions are not populated if the field's feature template is not present in the JSON of the service REST endpoint.
Smart Actions do not trigger when navigating back from a related record to the attribute inspector of the parent feature.

December 2021

(JSAPI 3.39, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.23, Enterprise 11.0)

No major enhancements for this release.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

Only individual features can be copied into a target service where the geometry field index is unique.
Intersection Attribute Action is not successful when copying values from a map service sublayer.

September 2021

(JSAPI 3.38, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.22, Enterprise 11.0)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

You can now set a default reference system from the widget’s General Settings when you enable moving point features to a new coordinate location.
When copying features and using the Fields matching options, the fields are matched automatically based on their similarity irrespective of case and spaces.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000140027: Editing the geometry of a feature selected with the Select widget should not be allowed if the feature is not open in the Smart Editor widget.
BUG-000140144: Clearing the selection from a layer in the Select widget should only clear the respective layer’s selection from the Smart Editor widget. The features from other layers should remain selected in the Smart Editor widget.
BUG-000137718: The Smart Editor widget does not save edits made to feature layers that were created using ArcGIS Survey123 due to missing templates in the layer’s JSON.
Miscellaneous issues when copying features with attribute fields that are missing in the templates of the layer’s JSON.
BUG-000143147: Unable to add attachments in Smart Editor widget when "Update Only" is checked.
BUG-000143116: Unable to edit features by clicking directly on the map when using the Smart Editor widget with Update Only configuration.
The list of selected features is blank when copying features from a KML layer in the web map.
Attribute Actions are not populated in a field when features are copied if the field's feature template is not present in the JSON of the service REST endpoint.
The Smart Editor widget should allow editing features when public editing is enabled but a user with “Viewer” permissions is logged in.

June 2021

(JSAPI 3.37, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.21, Enterprise 10.9.1)

Review the main enhancements for this release in the What’s New in the Smart Editor widget (June 2021) ArcGIS Blog.

Additional changes include:

Amendments to the checkbox dependencies in the Layer Settings of the Smart Editor widget configuration: options are not available until you check the Editable box so it's more obvious which layers will be editable in your app.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000139090: An error message is displayed in the Smart Editor when a layer's settings are set to allow update only.
BUG-000138387: Display issues in the Dashboard theme when updating a feature’s attributes.
BUG-000119369 and BUG-000112493: The use of 1000 separators for numbers should honor the settings from the pop-up configured in the web map.
BUG-000139795: Date-Time input options do not honor the widget settings.

April 2021

(JSAPI 3.36, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.20, Enterprise 10.9.1)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

ENH-000135291: Allow editing layers added from the Add Data widget
- Editable layers added to the app using the Add Data widget can now be edited using the Smart Editor widget if the end-user of the application has the required privileges. Make sure to enable this option in the Feature Template and Filter value Settings section of the General Settings in the widget configuration.

ENH-000128795: Store attributes for My Location coordinates
- When defining a Coordinates Attribute Action to collect location information in a feature’s attributes, you can determine the coordinates based on the location of the user editing the feature by selecting the My Location option for the Coordinates Source parameter.

Save attribute and geometry updates automatically
- You now have the option to save attribute and geometry updates automatically when editing existing features on the map. Make sure to enable this option in the Save Settings section of the General Settings in the widget configuration.

Streaming the selection of features to update
- Switching between selections of features to update has been streamlined when selecting features with the Select widget and the Attribute Table widgets.

Select_Attribute Table.gif

Licensing update for Address Attribute Actions
- For licensing reasons, choosing to use ArcGIS World Geocoding Service for Address Attribute Actions requires specifying valid ArcGIS Online credentials (for which each successful request to the service uses credits from your subscription).

Store attribute values from intersecting map services
- When defining Intersection Attribute Actions, you can now use map services as the layer from which to extract values.

Update to the default messages displayed in the widget pane for different layer states and editing privileges.
- If editable layers are not visible in the map due to layers being turned off in the Layer List widget:
  - Make sure layers are visible in the map to create or modify features.
- If editable layers are not visible in the map due to the visibility range:
  - Layer(s) not visible at the current zoom level. Zoom in or out to create/modify features.
- If editing is not permitted or there are no editable layers:
  - Your account does not have permission to create or modify data, or this web map does not contain any editable layers.

Group the results by layer when searching for a feature template. Make sure to enable this option in the widget configuration.

Allow for copying a larger number of features (points, lines, and polygons) and display a progress bar to indicate the percentage of completion of a copy operation.
Add coordinates attribute output options for Coordinate Attribute Actions to include both Latitude Longitude and Longitude Latitude, along with X Y and Y X.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000129338: Map Services are not available in the “Layer(s) to extract a value” option when configuring Intersection Attribute Actions.
BUG-000138138 and BUG-000129074: Copied features are generalized and do not copy full geometry.
BUG-000118325: The hints configured for fields in the web maps’ pop-up configuration are not displayed as tooltips when editing a feature’s attributes.
BUG-000137538: Cannot snap to the last line segment and a line's endpoint while editing.
Fix broadcasting issues between the My Location widget and the Smart Editor widget when using the “Enable moving of selected point feature to GPS location” capability.

December 2020

(JSAPI 3.35, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.19, Enterprise 10.9)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

The Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) coordinates was added to the options when moving a selected point feature to an XY location.

Move to MGRS.jpg

Provide an option to set the tolerance for feature selection (pixels) in the General Settings of the widget configuration.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000125656: Display issues in the Dashboard theme when copying features.
BUG-000119349: The pixel tolerance for selecting features on the map is inconsistent between the Edit widget and the Smart Editor widget.
The domain’s coded value is written into the target string field rather than the value description for Preset Attribute Actions.
Copying multiple features into a target layer with a field requiring unique values fails. Only support copying single features in this case.
The Preset Value defined in the Group Filter widget and specified in the application’s URL parameter is not populated into the hidden Preset Attribute Action quickly enough to enable the "Use preset values (new features only)" checkbox.
A configuration refresh is required to honor layers that are added or removed from the web map when the widget is set to Honor the settings in the web map.

September 2020

(JSAPI 3.34, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.18, Enterprise 10.9)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

Provide a prompt to populate required field values when copying multiple features into a target layer with required fields.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000131074: The Preset Values from the Group Filter widget are not applied when new features are created in the Smart Editor widget if the Preset Attribute Action is hidden.
BUG-000129283: The related table icon should not be displayed under “Actions” in the Layer Settings if the related table is not in the web map.
BUG-000116759: The related table does not appear in the widget configuration after being removed and then added again to the web map.
BUG-000127316: When editable layers are checked on or off in the Layer List widget while the Smart Editor widget is opened, feature pop-ups cannot be displayed in the web map until the Smart Editor widget is closed.
BUG-000129976: The Smart Editor widget allows members with a Viewer user type to edit data if it’s coming from a stand-alone ArcGIS Server.
When a Date field is required, both the date and the time values should also be required.

June 2020

(JSAPI 3.33, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.17, Enterprise 10.9)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

ENH-00012595: Allow a user to select which values to populate based on the attribute information of intersecting data.
- A new Value Picker capability was introduced to allow selecting values from multiple intersecting records when leveraging Intersection Attribute Actions.

ENH-000122267: Provide the ability to configure the widget to be used for simple geometry updates only.
- You are only required to display at least one field for an editable layer and all other fields can be hidden to allow geometry updates only with no attribute updates.

Provide the option to “Honor settings in the web map” in the Layer Settings of the widget configuration.
- The widget will honor the display and editing settings configured for each layer and its fields in the web map.

Provide an option to “Expand all related tables/layers on load” in the Layer Settings of the widget configuration.
- When creating and updating features with related records, the list of related records will be expanded on load to minimize the number of clicks required to access these records.

Provide the ability to copy features from layers added through the Add Data widget, including shapefile, KML and GPX files.
The setting "Remove feature from selection on save" in the General Settings is enabled by default when adding the Smart Editor widget for the first time.
When configuring Attribute Actions, the warning is shown for fields that are already in use in another action group of the same type specifying the group name.

Select from existing date values in the data when configuring a fixed Date Preset Attribute Action.

Provide the capability to reorder Preset groups from the Attribute Actions settings tab.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000130044: Coordinate values are rounded to 3 decimal places in the 'Move feature to XY location' dialog.
BUG-000128889: Cannot edit features when a query is applied using the Query widget.
BUG-000126558: Cannot create new features with Smart Editor if the Attribute Table widget is open and the editable layer has a field defined with an Arcade Expression.

March 2020

(JSAPI 3.32, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.16, Enterprise 10.8.1)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

Add a “check all” experience for checkboxes in the Smart Actions and Attribute Actions configurations.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000127373: Smart Editor hangs when saving edits for a layer with only system fields and attachments enabled.

December 2019

(JSAPI 3.31, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.15, Enterprise 10.8.1)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

Provided a new option in the General Settings of the widget configuration to define a default intersection tolerance (pixel value) to be applied for point features only. This intersection tolerance value applies for intersecting point features for configured Intersection Attribute Actions.
Add an indicator to identify which fields are domains in the Preset Attribute Actions builder.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000121850: The Smart Editor widget requires nullable GUID fields to be filled in before allowing to save changes.
BUG-000117330: Clicking a feature with offset symbology shows the web map pop-up instead of the attributes inspector (editing form).

October 2019

(JSAPI 3.30, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.14, Enterprise 10.8)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

Provide a new builder experience for Presets in the Attribute Actions settings.
Support relative dates when defining a new Preset group, including Current, Past, Future, or Fixed date types.
Provide the capability to define Preset Attribute Actions though the application’s URL parameters.

For more information on this release, check out the Get smart about editing (esri.com) blog.

We’ve fixed the following issues:

BUG-000113215: The Smart Editor widget truncates read-only text data type fields due to the static size of display box.
BUG-000122641 and BUG-000118826: Unable to tab between fields when editing attributes in the Smart Editor widget.

June 2019

(JSAPI 3.29, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.13, Enterprise 10.8)

No major enhancements for this release.

We’ve fixed the following issue:

BUG-000121552: The Smart Editor widget does not allow creating new features if a Field Value Type is defined.

March 2019

(JSAPI 3.28, Web AppBuilder Developer Edition 2.12, Enterprise 10.7.1)

We’ve implemented the following enhancements:

Provide the ability to create new features from existing features in the map (copy features capability).
Provide new configuration experiences for Attribute Actions and Smart Actions in the widget configuration.