Cascade Beta Feedback

[StatisticsEnvironment_Program]

Re: Client No.: 104256

We recently gained some extensive experience with the beta version of the cascade template and noted a few items/considerations that may or may not have already been raised by others: 

• Superscripting: Unable to superscript text within the body of the story map (e.g. km²).

• Performance: Files do not load in all environments, i.e. all layers are under 10MB in size, and may appear in a map series outside of the cascade, but once embedded only some layers appear.

• Pop-ups: When a chart is included in the pop-up and you scroll over it to see the data point, the text appears to straddle part of the box it appears in.

• Enlarging: The button to enlarge an image/chart on the side panel of the map series template may or may not appear when this template is embedded into a cascade.

• Erasing: Unable to select a block of text and simply erase it. To erase large bodies of text, must erase word by word. If I select an entire block of text and hit erase, it does not erase. Only gives me the hyperlink and text edit options.

• Videos: Inability to auto play, loop, specify start time and end time of embedded YouTube video content.

• Hyperlinks: Unlike map series and map journal, when html text is copied into cascade, hyperlinks are not maintained.

• Arrows: The arrows that help navigate through the pop-ups do not consistently appear on the map.

• Text: If adding a block of text at the of my story, then decided to erase that text, the template doesn’t allow me to delete the block of text and leaves an extra blank space at the end of my story map. This in turn does not appropriately bookmark that section of the story map.

Immersive: It would be nice to have the option to turn off the floating panel in the immersive portions of the story map. Would also be nice to have an enlarge button option for images.

User Authentication: The Story Map Cascade Beta application/template can be hosted on an IIS server on site. The application is open-source and it offers two ways of authenticating users for displaying contents of private stories hosted on ArcGIS Online.

1.   1. Using oAuthAppId. The oAuthAppId is generated when an application is registered with the ArcGIS Online. Unfortunately using this method of authentication makes it impossible to include the application in an IFRAME. The application redirects users to ArcGIS user authentication page. The URL redirect does not work inside an IFRAME.

2.        Using OAuth2 protocol. In this case, an additional proxy application needs to be used and hosted on IIS on site. The proxy application is used for generating authentication tokens by calling authentication service with clientID and clientSecret attributes/parameters. The clientID and clientSecret attributes are generated when an application is registered with the ArcGIS Online. The proxy application requires some development in order to work with the corporate proxy. Also, all the elements of the story have to be created using the same ArcGIS Online account used to register the application. The organizational groups created on ArcGIS Online are not working with this method of user authentication.

• Data loading: When viewing a map with several layers, there is no indication to the user that the data is being loaded. So, when a layer is slow to load, a user who has no prior knowledge of the data may assume that all the layers are being displayed. Adding some sort of message (e.g. the initializing story map message that appears as the story map is loading) that communicates that layers are in the process of loading would be ideal.

[OwenGeo]

Thanks for your detailed feedback! Responses below...

> Superscripting: Unable to superscript text within the body of the story map (e.g. km2).

We plan to enhance the text editor with more text styles. I noted your request for superscripting in our system.

> Erasing: Unable to select a block of text and simply erase it. To erase large bodies of text, must erase word by word. If I select an entire block of text and hit erase, it does not erase. Only gives me the hyperlink and text edit options.

This is a known issue with the text editor when the previous block is a media item. As a workaround, if you select all text in the paragraph except the first character you should be able to use the DELETE key to remove it.

> Videos: Inability to auto play, loop, specify start time and end time of embedded YouTube video content.

We plan to enhance the video player to support these features in a future release.

> Hyperlinks: Unlike map series and map journal, when html text is copied into cascade, hyperlinks are not maintained.

This is a known issue, we'll look to address this in a future release.

> Immersive: It would be nice to have the option to turn off the floating panel in the immersive portions of the story map. Would also be nice to have an enlarge button option for images.

If you don't put any text in an panel it won't appear when someone views your story. I logged an enhancement for an enlarge button for narrative panel images.

> Data loading: When viewing a map with several layers, there is no indication to the user that the data is being loaded. So, when a layer is slow to load, a user who has no prior knowledge of the data may assume that all the layers are being displayed. Adding some sort of message (e.g. the initializing story map message that appears as the story map is loading) that communicates that layers are in the process of loading would be ideal.

I agree this would be a helpful feature. We have some ideas as to how to implement this and will consider adding this enhancement in a future release.

> Performance: Files do not load in all environments, i.e. all layers are under 10MB in size, and may appear in a map series outside of the cascade, but once embedded only some layers appear.

> Pop-ups: When a chart is included in the pop-up and you scroll over it to see the data point, the text appears to straddle part of the box it appears in.
> Enlarging: The button to enlarge an image/chart on the side panel of the map series template may or may not appear when this template is embedded into a cascade.

> Arrows: The arrows that help navigate through the pop-ups do not consistently appear on the map.

> Text: If adding a block of text at the of my story, then decided to erase that text, the template doesn’t allow me to delete the block of text and leaves an extra blank space at the end of my story map. This in turn does not appropriately bookmark that section of the story map.

> User Authentication: The Story Map Cascade Beta application/template can be hosted on an IIS server on site. The application is open-source and it offers two ways of authenticating users for displaying contents of private stories hosted on ArcGIS Online.

I'd suggest that you please work with Esri Support to submit incident reports for these issues with a reproducible test case for each one.

Owen

[StatisticsEnvironment_Program]

Thanks so much for your responses Owen! For the issue related to the immersive, would your response also apply if I'm viewing in preview mode? Or only when live? 

[OwenGeo]

Yes, if a narrative panel is empty it should not appear in an immersive section when you preview your story.