Crowdsource Story Map Settings Not Saving

LisaSchmidt3 · ‎01-09-2017

Hi! I am building a Crowdsourced Story Map. I've been working on it for about a month, now, but the settings tab (for Cover photo, Contributions, Header, etc) recently started having a pop-up message at the bottom:

Your story could not be saved. Check your internet connection and reload the page to try again.

My internet connection is fine. In fact, this message comes up on a few different computers and I can add new photos to the map, etc. I've deleted old browsing data and cookies, but I don't really know what it could be and did not see any other inquiries quite like mine. Any other ideas I can try? Thanks!

StephenSylvia · ‎01-10-2017

I'm sorry for the trouble you're having. Can you share a little more information about how you're using the app, specifically if there were any changes before the story stopped being able to save?

Do you change anything outside of the story builder?
Are you using the app on ArcGIS Online or have you downloaded the code?
What browser and OS are you using?
Do you know if there has been any changes to your ArcGIS Online organization's security settings?
Do you have a public version of the app that you can share so I can investigate more?

LisaSchmidt3 · ‎01-19-2017

Thanks for getting back to me! I was not nearly as quick in return.

I should add that I can upload my own photos into the map, which are saved and others can submit photos for approval and those are also saved just fine. It's only the settings menu on the left that is not saving and has the pop-up:

That said, I've tried numerous times to change the header. One time it nearly changed the header logo. The old one went away, but still left the old link.

I have been using the app online through my Google Chrome browser on a personal PC and same on a work PC, both using Microsoft Windows 8 or10. I have been playing with the crowdsource layer and other layers in the map view, trying to change symbology, layout, extent, etc. I also edited the crowdsource menu for adding photos, using the ArcGIS Online Assistant, just changing the type of inputs I want from contributors. Those look fine in the public view of the story map.

I do not know if my organization's (employer) security settings have changed.

Here is the short link to the public view: http://arcg.is/2iBfUzg.

Thank you very much for your help and let me know if I can provide any other clues or try other remedies to my own issue.

StephenSylvia · ‎01-19-2017

I'm not sure exactly what is happening. It's possible if you added an invalid character or modified the app JSON through the AGO Assistant, it could have corrupted the data or become incompatible with something the app is reading. However, I tried duplicating you app in my account by copying the JSON data you used and I was still able to save the changes in my account. Are you able to reproduce this in a new crowdsource? If you start making changes, especially outside the builder can you verify the app save between each step.

LisaSchmidt3 · ‎02-19-2017

I finally gave up on trying to figure out what was wrong with my Crowdsource map that was having difficulty saving settings.

Now, I am building a new crowdsource map and I'm trying to figure out how (or if) I can use the same feature layer that I created in the last map ( it contains about 70 features). Since it's a crowdsource map- but I have well over 100 total inputs, myself- I really don't want to have to input individual photos/info again.

Any ideas?

Thank you for your help!!

StephenSylvia · ‎02-20-2017

Yes, you can add your old feature service to a new crowdsource app but will require editing the underlying JSON configuration through the AGO Assistant tool. Here are the steps:

Open the webmap that we created in the in your new app in the ArcGIS Online map editor.
Remove the current crowdsource layer. It will say "Do not remove" but you can ignore this since you'll be replacing it.
Add the feature layer from the old app into this webmap.
Open the AGO Assistant and choose "View item JSON" in the navbar dropdown. Then click on this same webmap item.
Copy the layer id of the feature layer you just added to the webmap under the data section. Should be the only layer under "operational layers." (Fig. 1)
Now choose the app item, scroll down in the data section till you find the map and crowdsource layer reference. Replace this layer id with the id you just copied (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1

Fig. 2