Prevent Zooming to Map Extent When Clicking a Map Action

[Anonymous User]

A colleague posted a question to our group regarding zooming after click a map action. What he is trying to accomplish is make it so when a user navigates a large map and zooms to a particular area, and if they select a map action, then it will not zoom back to the original extent.

Here is an example of what he is trying to accomplish. User opens a big nationwide map, then zoom into their forest and wants to start flipping between layers. There are a series of map actions that will change the layers and they want to stay at the current zoom level. We were previously able to do this in Journal and Series but the capability has not transferred over.

I did find a similar post but it doesn't apply to StoryMaps, https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-online-questions/storymap-how-prevent-zooming-to-the-map-extent....

[OwenGeo]

Thanks @Anonymous User -- This is an ENH to map actions that we are considering. I'll convert this question to an idea so others can register their support for this request and weigh in with their use cases and how it could bring value to their storytelling.

[NathanWalker2]

I published a StoryMap recently, and got this feedback repeatedly from users. When they saw a big national map, the first thing they would do would be to zoom to their area of interest, then they'd want to compare the different layers in their area, and the second they clicked on a layer, it would zoom them back out to the national extent. It would be really helpful if there were a way to set the map actions to just change the layers, and not the extent! Thanks!

[OwenGeo]

Thanks for the additional feedback Nathan!

For now, you can embed one of the simple Instant Apps that has a layer list widget that allows readers to toggle individual layers on and off. That will allow your readers to do the free exploration you're looking for in your situation.