What is the suggested offline workflow for storing features from a service in a mobile .NET MAUI application?

[KevinCheriyan]

I have a requirement for my .NET MAUI application that I need to access a feature service from the client's Enterprise Portal and make it available to the user when their device is offline later.

I started with geodatabase as a potential solution, but creating and managing replicas turned out to be a bigger headache for the client than I thought. Otherwise, geodatabases would've been a perfect solution. Is there a way to create a geodatabase with a feature service WITHOUT creating a replica?

I won't use MMPKs, because I just need to take a single layer online. There are also other requirements for the application that prevents us from using MMPKs here.

Is my best option to create a ServiceFeatureTable and then export the features to a custom .sqlite database and then load them into the map page?

Or is this a workflow better done using REST to export features from the service to a .geojson and then somehow load them into the map? 

Thanks for the help! I would be at DevSummit this week asking the Maps SDK team myself, but unfortunately, couldn't make it out there this year. Community ESRI is the next best option!

[JoeHershman]

@KevinCheriyan I am not sure I 100% understand your objective nor do you mention platform as that can impact workflows.

It is possible to generate a replica (using Rest or the SDK).  You could then share then distribute that replica and sync.  At this point you are finding a way to side load those replicas.  This can hard in an Android/iOS world, Windows can be easier.

The big issue one would encounter with this approach is permissions.  The esri model is designed around the idea of a replica owner syncing their own replica.  The only way for someone to sync a replica they do not own is if they have administrator rights on ArcGIS Enterprise.

[KevinCheriyan]

Thanks for your reply @JoeHershman . The platform is iOS. The goal was to create an offline, local version of the feature service that we could use for display on map and edit attributes for. 

After consideration of client requirements, we decided that geodatabase sync with replica is too much of a headache to create client-side and/or download from REST. 

The solution we settled on is to create a local geodatabase with custom TableDescription created from FeatureService and populated with features from the service. To edit features (still being developed), I think we will use ApplyEdits instead of syncing with the service.