Enable ownership-based access control on features on the Server in conjunction with 'Disable Update Geometry' in a Web AppBuilder not working.

[AbiDhakal]

Hello GIS friends,

I have a feature service that was behaving as expected when I had it on a Web AppBuilder app on ArcGIS Online. However, now I have Portal installed and the same feature service is not behaving as expected. I have "Enable ownership-based access control on features" checked especially so no one can alter or edit the geometry except for the creator of the data. Unfortunately, I do not seem to get it to work. Others are not able to edit the attributes or delete the geometry which is great,  but they are able to alter the geometry (cut, reshape, union, etc.) despite of checking 'Disable Update Geometry' in the Web AppBuilder. This was not the case on the same feature service in an ArcGIS Online Web AppBuilder application. Unfortunately, this is the case on the same feature service in a Portal Web AppBuilder application. I need your input so I can resolve the issue. Thank you in advance.

[xlt208 · Accepted solution]

Hello Abi,

Thank you for contacting Esri Support Services today. It was a pleasure working with you again! And I am posting our findings here just in case other GIS friends run into similar situations.

In Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS within Portal for ArcGIS 10.61, the "Merge", "Cut", and "Reshape" geometry modifying operations will change the geometries of a feature service layer, even when the feature service has "Allow Geometry Updates" unchecked in ArcGIS Server Manager, or has "Disable Update Geometry" checked in the widget configuration dialog.

This behavior is related to how the "Merge", "Cut", and "Reshape" options of the Edit widget are designed in Portal for ArcGIS 10.61. According to the documentation of Edit widget in Portal for ArcGIS 10.6, checking the options will individually allow these geometry modifying operations via the editing toolbar. Therefore, the other geometry settings will be bypassed. 

I understand that the way the Edit widget works is a little bit counterintuitive from what we observed in Portal for ArcGIS 10.61. Our product team did make some improvements to this widget in the newer version(s) of Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS, which is available in Portal for ArcGIS 10.7 and ArcGIS Online -- 

1. Checking the "Merge", "Cut", and "Reshape" options will only make those operations visible on the widget, and will not enable the operations for services or layers that do not allow geometry updates.
2. With "Allow Geometry Updates" unchecked in ArcGIS Server Manager, the options for the layer to "Add", "Delete", and "Update geometry" will gray out; and the "Merge", "Cut", and "Reshape" operations will become invisible even if they were set to be visible from the widget configuration dialog.
3. Option to honor settings in the web map for the editable layers is also provided.

To summarize, there are two possible solutions here -- 

1. To uncheck the "Merge", "Cut", and "Reshape" options for the Edit widget in Portal for ArcGIS 10.61;
2. To upgrade to ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7 or 10.71.

Here are some related documentation pages: 

1. Edit widget—Portal for ArcGIS | ArcGIS Enterprise (10.6)
2. Edit widget—Portal for ArcGIS | ArcGIS Enterprise (10.7)
3. Upgrade ArcGIS Enterprise—ArcGIS Enterprise | ArcGIS Enterprise 
4. About release versions—Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS (Developer Edition)

Hope that helps a bit!

Thank you,

Lingtao

Esri Support Services

[AbiDhakal]

Thank you Lingtao!! My option will be to upgrade the version.

Thank you again!

Abi