Why not let the creator of a story map choose which sub layers to display?

[HerdisGudbrandsdottir]

I get the principle of not displaying a TOC to the users - I like the simplistic approach.

But I do not understand why I as a creator/configurator of a story map can't turn on and off (sub) layers when setting the map content in a section?

I have a web map consuming a service with 8 layers. As it is - to display the layers individually in a story map, I have to add the map service several times to my web map with different layers in the map service turned on and off.

I only get the option to turn on/off a whole map service at a time. Not the layers or sub layers in the map service.

Please understand - I do not want the users to be able to toggle layers on/off - I just want to be able to define it when setting up my story map.

Any good reason for this?

[OwenGeo]

Hi Herdis,

We have considered adding that capability, but it does add some complexity to the builder code and experience.

It's good to practice to design simple web maps for story maps, so adding several multi-layer map services is not always the best idea. The technique of adding individual map service layers to a web map is helpful here. For example, if you wanted to use two of the four layers in this map service:

http://sampleserver6.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Census/MapServer 

you can add only those layers directly to the web map using the layer URLs like this:

http://sampleserver6.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Census/MapServer/0 

http://sampleserver6.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Census/MapServer/1 

etc...

You can then manage them as individual layers in the web map and story map builder, which makes configuration much easier. Does that help?

Owen

[HerdisGudbrandsdottir]

Yes and no - the map service I consume uses symbology apparently not supported when added as individual layers. The drawing info in N/A for several of the layers after publishing to ArcGIS Server - even though they display as expected in the web map when added as a service, the symbology is lost when adding as single layers.

So of course a work around is to go through the map service and change symbology - but this is not a simple exercise - these symbols (pies and flags) has been consistent for many years, and a change has to be agreed with many parties.

Although adding the option would be complex in the builder code - would you consider it again?

You are not as such discouraging more than one layer in a service? So why not enable the story map editors to switch them on and off?

Thank you for your time

Herdis

[OwenGeo · Accepted solution]

Hi Herdis,

Thank you for the additional information you've provided to further help me understand your situation. I did a search for your idea on ideas.arcgis.com but did not find it, so I'd encourage you to submit your enhancement request there so others may vote for it. We use the information from that site to help prioritize enhancement requests as we do our planning for future releases.

Owen