Publishing services for Value Analysis dashboards.

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05-02-2019 08:55 AM
deleted-user-aIw_A3YQRnA9
New Contributor III

Hello Geonet,

I'm in the beginning stages of making a Value analysis dashboard for my assessor's office but before I get started I'd like to get some feedback about what I can achieve based on the system setup that I have (and what I don't have).

Here's what I'm working with: 

I can only use arcmap and publish out to arcgis online. I do not have access to servers, I can't publish out through a server, and I don't have access to arcgis pro. 

What I don't  want to do is have to recreate and republish the service, and reconfigure the widgest within Operations Dashboard on a continual basis when tax parcel boundaries and information changes. If there's a way to make this happen automatically, that would be excellent.

Given these considerations and my limitations, can anyone provide me with some insight to what my best options are? I've emailed the ESRI team in Chicago and Jordan Miller has been super helpful in helping me understand a few things.

He's told me that I could use Pro (this isn't an option for me, sadly) and take advantage of the solution deployment. He's said that it'll be more of a manual process to work with the widgets within the Ops dashboard to put it together doing it through Arcmap.  I know that I'll be publishing to AGO with Arcmap with a join in place on the parcel data and the assessor's data tables..

What I'm looking for are:

* resources for configuring the widgets within Operations dashboard manually

* resources for updating the data automatically, so that I don't have to republish and reconfigure on a continual basis. Is this possible with a python script? (FYI, I have zero experience with scripting - I know, I need to learn a few things!)

 I'm just looking for some best practice scenarios that might help me avoid having to republish out every few months to keep the information up to date. If that's not possible given the setup I have, I'd like to know that as well. It might be the catalyst for getting me access to what I need  Appreciate any insight!

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AndyShoemaker
Esri Contributor

Hi Allison,

Based on what you have described for your editing workflows, the behavior you are looking for is possible with ArcGIS Enterprise. 

If you register the database with ArcGIS Enterprise and create an ArcGIS Server Service, the data will be dynamic. Once the reconcile/post is complete the data in the dashboard will reflect any edits that have been made. 

This workflow is not possible with ArcGIS Online or if you publish the data as a hosted service (ie copy the data to the server). In those scenarios, it will simply be a static copy of the data. More information on registering the data base can be found on the link below. 

Registering Data with ArcGIS Server:

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/latest/manage-data/windows/registering-your-data-with-arcgis... 

If you are locked into using ArcGIS Online, then you will either need to manually update the data periodically or set an update script. Links with resources for this are below.  ArcGIS Pro will definitely be the better option for these workflows as it will be much easier to visualize what you are doing with the Python API.

Updating Hosted Feature Services:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/api-python/analytics/updating-your-hosted-feature-services...

Overwrite File Geodatabase:

https://cloudygis.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=2d7027b148e24005916e55ab2cb74b50

With regards to editing the dashboard, there is quite a bit of documentation out there on how to do this (link below). If you are looking for the exact way the Value Analysis Dashboard is set up, it will be easiest to use the Solution Deployment tool. If you can't create this in your own organization, you can deploy to another place (such as a developer organization) and then manually copy the settings in each card (time consuming, but very effective). 

Operations Dashboard:

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/operations-dashboard/help/what-is-a-dashboard.htm 

The documentation for the old version of the Value Analysis Dashboard is available here: http://solutions.arcgis.com/local-government/help/value-analysis-dashboard/  A word of caution with this, though. The previous version of the dashboard was designed for the old desktop version of Operations Dashboard (now in mature support). The set up interface is completely different and the dashboard itself no longer looks like the current release. The steps won't be much help other than showing expressions we used in the designed etc. Even then, this may be more of a hindrance than a help because it is so different. 

Overall, if there is any chance you can get access to ArcGIS Pro, it will make the entire process you are looking at much easier. 

Cheers, 

Andy

Andy Shoemaker

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6 Replies
AndyShoemaker
Esri Contributor

Hi Allison, 

From what it sounds like, you are interested in using Value Analysis, but using ArcGIS Server Services instead of services from ArcGIS Online, is that correct?

This is possible by simply switching out the layers int he web maps the Value Analysis Dashboard is based on. If your server services have the same schema. You can then flip the layers in the web map to point at the ArcGIS Server Layers instead of the default layers generated by the Solution Deployment Tool. 

Depending on the schema differences between your layer and the default layer, you may need to repoint some of the indicators and filters in the dashboard. I'd suggest poking around in the dashboard when everything is working with the default layers (and no data) to get a better idea of how everything is linked. 

Andy

Andy Shoemaker
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deleted-user-aIw_A3YQRnA9
New Contributor III

Andrew, 

Thanks so much for responding to my inquiry. I have updated this question to better reflect what my questions were. I thought the original question was too vague. My original question asked best practice scenarios based on if I could publish out from a server. And your response is informative, but I've totally changed this question now. Could you help me once more?? 

I am not able to publish from a server. I will be publishing from a database connection from Arcmap. I am the parcel editor in my organization. I work in a versioned environment and my edits get reconciled and posted to a default database by our administrator. What I think I should do is grab the published parcel information and share it directly to Arcgis online. But I don't know if these parcels get updated automatically when I make changes to them in arcmap. Will the parcels that I publish be a static dataset? There's so much I don't know! 

What I'm looking for are ways to automate the data update process and how to configure the widgets from within operation dashboard. 

I really appreciate you answering my first question and you'd be a real hero if you saw this and could offer up a few suggestions to this question a well.

Many thanks, 

Allison

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AndyShoemaker
Esri Contributor

Hi Allison,

Based on what you have described for your editing workflows, the behavior you are looking for is possible with ArcGIS Enterprise. 

If you register the database with ArcGIS Enterprise and create an ArcGIS Server Service, the data will be dynamic. Once the reconcile/post is complete the data in the dashboard will reflect any edits that have been made. 

This workflow is not possible with ArcGIS Online or if you publish the data as a hosted service (ie copy the data to the server). In those scenarios, it will simply be a static copy of the data. More information on registering the data base can be found on the link below. 

Registering Data with ArcGIS Server:

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/latest/manage-data/windows/registering-your-data-with-arcgis... 

If you are locked into using ArcGIS Online, then you will either need to manually update the data periodically or set an update script. Links with resources for this are below.  ArcGIS Pro will definitely be the better option for these workflows as it will be much easier to visualize what you are doing with the Python API.

Updating Hosted Feature Services:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/api-python/analytics/updating-your-hosted-feature-services...

Overwrite File Geodatabase:

https://cloudygis.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=2d7027b148e24005916e55ab2cb74b50

With regards to editing the dashboard, there is quite a bit of documentation out there on how to do this (link below). If you are looking for the exact way the Value Analysis Dashboard is set up, it will be easiest to use the Solution Deployment tool. If you can't create this in your own organization, you can deploy to another place (such as a developer organization) and then manually copy the settings in each card (time consuming, but very effective). 

Operations Dashboard:

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/operations-dashboard/help/what-is-a-dashboard.htm 

The documentation for the old version of the Value Analysis Dashboard is available here: http://solutions.arcgis.com/local-government/help/value-analysis-dashboard/  A word of caution with this, though. The previous version of the dashboard was designed for the old desktop version of Operations Dashboard (now in mature support). The set up interface is completely different and the dashboard itself no longer looks like the current release. The steps won't be much help other than showing expressions we used in the designed etc. Even then, this may be more of a hindrance than a help because it is so different. 

Overall, if there is any chance you can get access to ArcGIS Pro, it will make the entire process you are looking at much easier. 

Cheers, 

Andy

Andy Shoemaker
deleted-user-aIw_A3YQRnA9
New Contributor III

Thank you so much Andy! This really helps clarify everything for me, and the resources you've provided are a spectacular help. Many thanks!

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MichaelVolz
Esteemed Contributor

Don't your requirements state that you do not have access to ArcGIS Enterprise and you can only publish from ArcMap to AGOL?

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deleted-user-aIw_A3YQRnA9
New Contributor III

That is correct Michael. We do have ArcGIS Enterprise, but I can only publish to ArcGIS Online from ArcMap at this time. 

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