Latest Contributions by mpboyle

Came across this post when looking for a similar workflow. I wanted to mention now that ExB supports creating feature sets from Arcade, you can create a feature set on the fly using Arcade to return distinct "categories" based on field values from your target feature layer.  The resulting Arcade feature set can then be used as the selecting list using the same workflow as above. Below is a sample Arcade script I used to generate a feature set that was then used as a selecting list: // set portal var p = Portal('...{url}...'); // set item id var item_id = '...{item id}...' // set layer index var layer_index = 0 // set desired field var field = '...{field name}...' // set where clause var where = field + ' IS NOT NULL' // set order by clause var order_by = field + ' ASC' // set base feature set var fs_1 = FeatureSetByPortalItem(p, item_id, layer_index, [field], false); // set distinct feature set var fs_2 = OrderBy(Distinct(Filter(fs_1, where), field), order_by) // return distinct feature set return fs_2   ... View more

This is what I have been using.  I was hoping there was a method using the Python API that could replace this workflow. ... View more

There are some limitations to the FeatureLayerManager.truncate method, which are shown below (REST docs found here), one of them being sync enabled feature layers. ... View more

I can see scenarios where you may just want to delete certain features using a where clause. For example, we have a hosted feature layer that stores point-in-time data and has data written to it every 5 minutes. Once the data is written, it's not going to change, so there's not really a point in deleting all rows and replacing them. However, at some point we do want to trim the data within the feature layer, so we use delete_features to delete those feature older than a certain date. The graph below shows the item size for thisparticular feature layer. It's still growing over time, but at a much slower rate...possibly (likely?) because we aren't removing ALL features when it's updated, but rather deleting features once a day based on the date value. If you're going to be replacing ALL features within a hosted feature layer, I think this makes the case to use truncate over delete_features.     ... View more

Yea, when we're doing anything with internal datasets (ex: file gdb or enterprise gdb), we use truncate over deleting features. Makes sense to use it with feature layers too. ... View more

I was aware of the truncate method within the FeatureLayerManager and was hesitant to use it due to its restrictions, outlined here. However, I did change one of our scripts to use this rather than FeatureLayer.delete_features to see if it provided any change. And...it seems to have done the job! I made the change to this script around 11:30AM, and by about 1PM the feature layer showed a substantial reduction in item size, see first graph below. The item size looks to have remained consistent since making the change to use FeatureLayerManager.truncate. In the second graph below is one of our hosted feature layers that's still using FeatureLayer.delete_features. You can see this feature layer continues to grow in item size. I won't speculate on what's being done behind the scenes by Esri, but it does seem that using the truncate method flushes/resets/removes something that the delete_features method is not.   Example 1: Hosted feature layer changed to using FeatureLayerManager.truncate at around 11:30AM on 12/8/2025. Substantial drop in item size noticed around 1PM and item size looks to remain consistent.   Example 2: Hosted feature layer still using FeatureLayer.delete_features and the item size continues to grow.     ... View more

I was curious about the same, so I created a script that pulls the size of some of our hosted feature layers. It includes a mix of those that we update via publishing a file geodatabase, and those that we update via deleting/adding features. The feature layers that are published from a file geodatabase do NOT show increased item size. Those that are updated using delete/add features DO show increased item size even though the number of features is NOT increasing proportional to their shown size. We ARE seeing this ballooning reflected in our credit usage. Below are some charts displaying what we're seeing.   Example 1: This feature layer is updated every 30 minutes using delete/add features. On Friday afternoon the size of the feature layer was about 17-18MB. It is now showing about 45MB. The number of features and populated fields in this feature layer remains relatively consistent.   Example 2: This feature layer is updated every 2 minutes using delete/add features. On Friday afternoon the size of the feature layer was about 2MB. It is now showing about 7MB. The number of features in this feature layer does oscillate but is likely never above 40 features.   Example 3: This feature layer is updated once a day by publishing a file geodatabase. The size remains consistent.   Example 4: Below is snapshot of our available credits near the end of the day for the past few days (the DateValue field is set to noon UTC for our time zone).  The "CreditsUsed" field is calculated from the previous day's value. We first noticed one of our hosted feature layers ballooning in size on Friday, 12/5/2025.  Once we noticed it, I changed this feature layer to be updated via publishing a file geodatabase. You can see the noticeable bump in credit usage on Thursday, 12/4, and Friday, 12/5.  Once the feature layer in question was changed to be updated via a file geodatabase, the credit usage remained steady on Saturday, 12/6 and Sunday, 12/7.   I would really like an explanation from someone at Esri as to why this is happening (apologies to the Esri staff I tagged, you all showed up as top collaborators). @EmilyGeo @RussRoberts @George_Thompson    ... View more

Editing is not enabled, sync not enabled. ... View more

@SSWoodward  To the best of my knowledge, having the ability to define precision and scale, specifically on the Create New Feature Class/Table interface has NEVER been available in Pro. This IS available in ArcMap/Catalog, and as many commentors have mentioned, having this ability seems rather simple given that it's available in ArcMap/Catalog and for certain Pro tools (ex: Add Field tool), and its omission is frustrating, especially going on 10 years of having Pro. Pro Create New Feature Class Interface --- this is an enterprise geodatabase --- no ability to define precision and scale in the field properties   ArcCatalog Create New Feature Class Interface --- same enterprise geodatabase as above --- ability to define precision and scale   Pro Add Field tool --- Precision and Scale ARE available       ... View more

I'm already handling the dates if they're prior to 1900 (code below).  I'm really wondering why I'm getting an error at all when trying to insert a feature with a date prior to 1900...are these dates not supported by the Python API? def format_date(input_value): if isinstance(input_value, datetime.datetime): if input_value.year <= 1900: return None else: return input_value else: return None   ... View more