Can I use an SDE Feature Class with Photo Attachments for my images source in one of the Storymap types?

[GregConiglio]

I am looking into the different story map types.  I see several of interest, including the "Tour".  I would like to have a storymap that takes field biologists through a review of sites they have visited.

I see how you can manually upload geotagged images, reference to albums on Picasa, Facebook, etc.

I already have a Point feature class in ArcSDE (SQL) that has attached images through a relationship class (created by ArcGIS Collector)

Can I use this as my source to create a Storymap Tour?  If so how dynamic is it when more content is added to the feature class?  Thanks!

[OwenGeo]

Hi Greg,

The current version of Map Tour does not support that data source, but we are intending to rewrite Map Tour later this year and hope to include that.

If you are able to host a version of the app then there is a customized version of Map Tour that Sam Berg​ created that supports feature services created with Collector (or GeoForm) that only have a single image attachment. It's been a while since I looked at the Collector workflow so I'm not sure how the relationship class part of your explanation fits with this version, but you can find the code and information here to see if it would work for you:

GitHub - sam-berg/map-tour-storytelling-template-js: A storytelling template combining an interactiv...

Owen

[GregConiglio]

Thanks Owen!  Sam's customized version looks great!!!  We've worked with Sam before and he is always very helpful.

I assume the 'limitation', other than Sam's customized code, is true for the other flavors of Storymaps beyond the "Tour" template?

Looking forward to the updated version.  We've played with story maps and they are great!  But a workflow where there is less manual manipulation, and an easier way to story tell 'dynamic' data, will be great!!

[OwenGeo · Accepted solution]

The limitation here is that Map Tour is designed to look for two fields with image attachments when used with a feature service, so it's more of a data model limitation. All our storytelling apps always read data in your web maps each time the story is loaded. App like Map Journal, Map Series, and Swipe/Spyglass can be used to tell stories where the data in you map(s) changes or is added to over time.

You might also be interested in this workflow to create a Map Tour that can be easily added to over time.

Create a Story Map Tour from a Google Sheet | ArcGIS Blog

Owen

[GregConiglio]

Thanks for this info Owen! That makes sense....  This is the workflow I am talking about..

We have field environmental scientists that go out and visit multiple sites of concern in a day. They record information about each site as well as photo documentation, using Collector.  It would be awesome if Story Maps could be used then as an easy way for they, or their manager, to review the results periodically, without much manual modification of the Storymap from the GIS team.  I have not looked into it in depth yet but it seems like Sam's modification would really help us with this work flow.

I do understand right now that the Story Maps are more static and maybe in many cases meant to tell a more static story rather than be part of a dynamic workflow.like above (We do also have a use for the latter case and so far they are working out great)

We really appreciate your help!