Vector Tile Layers Querying/Legends

8031
21
11-17-2016 11:12 AM
Status: Open
deleted-user-wgzH2d-p_0_f
New Contributor III

Would love to see the capability to query vector tile layers and to see the symbology in ArcOnline legends.  Currently, I am creating a vector tile layer and also a feature layer.  I'm making the feature layer transparent so I can still get the functionality of the vector tile layer (fast drawing) with the capability of querying.  However, this results in two layers I have to remember to turn on, and it makes it hard for non-GISers to understand.  As for the symbology, I think we're just hoping that people won't need to see what the individual symbols mean at a small scale.  Our only other option is to make a static legend in the map window, but it will be quite large, and users don't always need to see it.

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21 Comments
MikeLeech1

Is there a work around for this in the meantime (to display vector tile legends in AGOL)?  

deleted-user-RAnWn8DDSd1P

So there's currently no way to get use the legend widget with a vector tile layer?

EricPeña

I think legends may be possible in the future, but querying may be out of the question.  I think vector tile layers strip out the attribute tables of participating features so there'd be nothing to query.  I could be wrong, but I think that's how they work.

Joao_PauloPaschoal

Any update from Esri about supporting Legend capability to VectorTileLayers? We have a lot of data we plan to service as Vector Tile but without a legend it wont be much useful to end users. Best regards.

deleted-user-RAnWn8DDSd1P

Almost 2 years since this idea was suggested.  Unbelievable there's no solution to legend for vector tile layer yet.  

ThorstenDey1

I voted this up. Any Workaround? I hope ESRI will soon present a solution. For some datasets only this format makes sense, but without a legend ...

by Anonymous User

Seriously disappointing

by Anonymous User

Here is what my understanding was. They would pair it with a featureService for querying and symbology.  The tile layer would be for rapid visual display; its twin featureService would respond to queries. In other words it would function like a featureLayer but ... way, way faster. For now I use map image/dynamic layers because I've found feature service layers to be too slow.  Vector tiles held promise, I thought. Because seeing is believing, I went to Dev Conf this year and saw them tile all the roads in New Zealand in 30 seconds into 20 megs. So... I was sold.  I was envisioning just running vector tiling on all our SDE layers that are in viewers every Fri night and so it would update over the weekend to a replicated wkid 3857 fGDB or something, to power viewers.

Now, the thing is we all want popups for our layers, and perhaps supporting querying and having symbology in legends and working like "regular" vector layers vis a vis feature services or dynamic services. I hope Esri can make this happen.  Now.... In parallel, they've created the webGL layers. I tested those over the summer. Seemed like that was the compromise- lots of speed, while working just like feature layers. Well.. they usually didn't work, Chrome says there are too many "web GL workers" and it crashes or halts the page. In other words, after a few minutes I concluded the webGL layers are not ready for prime time. Whichever way they go, webGL layer or Vector Tile, I am looking forward to. Mostly for speed. Users have a "need for speed".   These both look promising.

Douglas_Sauer

calling all Redlands vector tile dev peeps: 

https://youtu.be/uhiCFdWeQfA 

Here's to keeping this 2016 idea live into 2019

anyone, anyone???

JoelMcKechnie1

I've had the exact same issue and solution, querying vector tiles directly would be a godsend. 

My work around involved three layers. One for viewing (vector tile), one for querying (transparent feature layer) and one for the legend (symbolised completely, but with 0 features to draw). I then set the legend widget to only view the 'legend' layer. The limitation of this method: it cannot be dynamic with your view extent, and doesn't allow the user to fettle the transparency, layer order, etc. without giving away your secret multi-layer method...  

Craig Shephard‌, Andy Clark, Jeremy Wolff‌ please up vote this idea.