Strategy for updating attributes in On Line?

JustMapSynch · ‎08-18-2018

I have a map on ArcGIS On Line, with a popup displaying news items. They must periodically be freshened from a Googlesheet that I maintain. So far, I've been doing the updating by completely rebuilding and configuring a duplicate of my feature layer based on a fresh CSV version of the Googlesheet I use to track the news. I post under a pseudonym so I can admit to that level of incompetence. I spend a bunch of time doing boring stuff and risk screwing something up each time.

But what is the smart way? I can only find sledgehammer solutions or weak ones:

- setting up my own ARC server where I can set up some sort of dynamic link,

- learning Python and programming it to work with Arc Map to alter the feature layer service at the press of a button,

- manually searching the attribute table and copying and pasting updates into the right rows, one by one,

- manually making a duplicate of my feature layer, but with a new CSV file, cleaning out the old feature layer, and appending features from the new duplicate layer into the now empty (but properly configured) original layer.

Many thank to anyone who can save me with a smarter approach!

RobertScheitlin__GISP · ‎08-19-2018

MapSynch,

If it understand your situation correctly then you can just set the layer refresh interval on your CSV layer that you add to the Web Map.

JustMapSynch · ‎08-19-2018

Thanks for responding! I've now read up a bit on refreshing, and am realizing that I was too ambiguous about my CSV file. My CSV file is a text only file that I join to a set of boundaries in a feature layer using a district code. (If I'm understanding your screen shot correctly, your CSV Layer is a point file that you can render as a visible layer.) I brought my CSV file in as a 'table', like this:

My CSV isn't even refreshable:

It is the feature layer just above the CSV layer in my screenshot that I need to refresh. It contains the news items - sentences filched from newspapers - that I need to refresh. The news items were originally from a CSV file that I joined with a boundary file to create the feature layer. The notes sit in the layer's geodatabase like sacks of undynamic potatoes.

If you have the patience to have another go at this for me, I'd be very appreciative.

XanderBakker · ‎08-19-2018

You might want to link directly to the Google sheet: Using Google Docs in your ArcGIS Online maps

The other option would be to drop the Google sheet and update the data directly in ArcGIS Online. Is there any specific reason why you want to update the data in the Google sheet (there can be many, I'm just wondering about your specific use case)?

RobertScheitlin__GISP · ‎08-20-2018

MapSynch,

Your workflow is a bit difficult then. Because your csv does not contain location information and you have to manually join it with a spatial dataset, the auto-refresh will not work for you. I guess you could build a model in model Builder in ArcGIS Desktop (that does the join on the spatial layer) and publish it as a GP Service and have a task scheduler run this GP service every so often and force a restart of your map service. But this could be quite a task.