I like the concept of Story Maps, and it really adds qualiy to the end user. But why cant I use Story Maps with data exposed as services from our ArcGIS Server, with images as attachments? Shouldnt ESRI support their own data format and protocols in these templates? I create alot of web maps and "web application builder"-maps to bring GIS-data along with field photos to the end user, but I dont have an URL to my images. Most images are created with Collector. Maybe I can calculate the url to the image provided by the popup in my web map, back to the attribute table somehow. Any ideas?
Hi Peter,
Can you provide a little more information -- what type of story map are you trying to make (there's a list here)?
Owen
The "Story Map Shortlist (beta)" is most attractive for our business. I have made some tests with "Story Map Tour" as well.
Hi Peter,
Thanks for interest in story maps. As we continue to enhance our templates we are always looking for the best way to integrate multimedia within our apps, especially in ways that can be easily integrated with the GIS workflow. That being said, we pay special attention for how we integrate with every service we showcase in our builder, including our own services.
First and foremost, Story Map apps are designed to be lightweight applications that allow you to tell your story to anyone you wish and should not be dependent on their browser connection or device speed. When we make decisions about integrating FS attachment support, we always want to provide the best user experience the end viewer. Feature services have powerful enterprise database capabilities but using them in certain ways can have detrimental effects on the end user performance.
Both Map Tour and Crowdsource (and soon Shortlist) which are point based stories do allow you use FS attachments. When creating a new Map Tour, you will first encounter a screen that asks “Where are your image or videos?” If you choose the “ArcGIS” option, the app will create a FS in your account to store the point data. As you upload photos in the app, the app will automatically optimize the photos for the web and upload them as attachments to your feature service. It will then grab the URLs to these attachments and store them in field of the FS service so the app doesn’t need request each attachment URL every time the app loads. The map tour also allows you to use an existing FS with attachments if you create a new web map with that layer and share it into the Map Tour app. However, this is not recommended for the reason below. Crowdsource will always use a FS with attachments since that is layer type which allows other users to edit your data. The crowdsource app does not store URLs to the attachments in another field but works with the new query API call mentioned in reason 2 below.
In our new Cascade app (and soon Map Journal and Series), we are also starting to use a new API call which will allow you to upload photos directly to the application item from within the app. These photos can be managed in the app builder or through the REST API and will keep the same sharing properties as the story you are creating.
There are three main reasons that make it difficult for our apps to use FS attachments that have been added outside of a story map builder.
Thanks for your answer.
I understand the challange with large image sizes and the lack of thumbnails regarding our workflow with field surveys. Maybe I can export feature data with images as files with python scripts or arcobjects, reducing image quality and create thumbnails, to create the data required for a Story Map. I felt like I was very close when I had everything already availible on my maps on ArcGIS Online. I will try it again when there is a FS attachment support on the shortlist template. And I will urge the need for reducing image quality settings on the tables taking those pictures. You are doing a marvelous work developing content on ArcGIS Online/Portal.
Keep it coming! 🙂