How to create longer "leader line" for popup infoWindow?

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05-31-2013 07:38 AM
JoanSteinbacher
New Contributor III
I'm using the basic viewer template but creating the webmap via json (not ArcGIS online).

The popup infoWindow works great, but as you navigate the features the window itself hides the outline for part of the feature. I've attached an image so you can see what I mean.

Is there any way to make the "leader line" (not sure if that's the proper name for it) longer so this doesn't happen? Where and how do you control it?

Thanks,
Joan
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4 Replies
TracySchloss
Frequent Contributor
I wish I could find the thread I read not too long ago that discussed this.  As I remember, the short answer is "You can't control it".  I agree that it is almost always WAY too close and often overlaps the feature it's  labeling.
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SteveCole
Frequent Contributor
You can't modify what ESRI provides straight out of the box because the leaders are actually portions of images (called sprites) which are extracted from a larger mosaic of images. That being said, if you are a masochist, I think you could accomplish this but you would have to put in some serious time creating all new sprites and tweaking the associated CSS so that it all works well. For that, I think someone from ESRI would have to chime in with some pointers.

This is the actual image from the v3.3 API which all the leaders are extracted.

Perhaps this could be an enhancement request for a second set of longer leaders for the infoWindows which would be enabled as an option parameter when creating the map (leaderType: normal / extended)?

Steve
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TracySchloss
Frequent Contributor
I like that suggestion, Steve.  I think there are a few existing ones that are just too short that it would be nice if ESRI adjusted what is in the existing sprite file.  Especially the ones that generate just to the left or right are too close.  The ones that are at a angle aren't quite so bad.

I did dig enough to see they were sprites and that was where I stopped.  I'm not ready to generate my own custom sprites!
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KellyHutchins
Esri Frequent Contributor
We have a help topic that contains some info on how to modify the existing popup sprite here:

http://developers.arcgis.com/en/javascript/jshelp/intro_customizepopup.html
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