ArcGIS Online Warning/Estimation Button when using credit costing services

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03-01-2013 12:50 PM
BarbaraKent
New Contributor II
Add a "warning" message in ArcGIS Online that notifies users they are about to consume a large amount of credits.  For example,  "Be careful! You are about to execute a process that will consume "x" credits.  You will have approximately  "x" credits left in your account if you proceed. Do you want to continue?"....yes/no.

ArcGIS credits are a nebulous concept for most people, and we do not necessarily know which processes are credit intensive.
14 Comments
TravisSmith8
Why hasn't a pop-up warning been added to any/all processes that use credits yet? After all this time and all of the credit admin tools that have been added, there still isn't a prompt warning users when he/she will be using credits in all credit using functions. It's been over a year now. An ESRI rep himself told me that ESRI knows the two processes that can consume the largest amount of credits are generating tile/caches and geocoding using the world service/locator. For example, if you perform geocoding from within ArcMap, and use the world service there will be no prompt warning the user that credits will be used. If you geocode a significant amount of addresses, you can wipe out an entire years worth of an organization's credits in a matter of minutes. Why wouldn't ESRI want to be up front and forthright with its users? Is this being avoided/neglected by ESRI on purpose? I really hope not... Please, please get this added. 
MarcGalle

Consume large credits in terms of what % of organisation allocation or a discrete number?

NickDierks1

I just came across another area where ESRI is not at all clear on credit usage: premium maps/data. Take a look at the information page for the US Crime Statistics map, for example. The item's brief description warns that an AGOL subscription is required, but says nothing about credit usage. Without any prior knowledge of what premium content is, one might assume (as I did) that the Premium tag simply referred to that need for a subscription and nothing more.

There are exactly two warnings on this page about credits: one in a mouse-over popup on the Premium tag (very easy to miss), and another in very, very small font way at the bottom of the description. Incidentally, the hyperlink embedded in the latter does not actually take you to any description of credit usage--it just makes you log in again (even if you already were), and then drops you back at your organizational account page. Super helpful.

Reading through this breakdown of credit usage, it's not immediately clear how a map like this uses credits. My best guess is the line that reads "Demographics and Map Layers: 10 credits per 1,000 map requests (pan, zoom, and identify)" in which case, yikes, just exploring a map like that for more than a few minutes can really start to eat into your credit budget, especially if you don't have a whole lot to start out with.

Perhaps a pop-up warning when you click "Open Map" that explains not just the fact that you'll be using credits, but how those credits will be used up is in order. At the very least, maybe a big bold warning in the item's brief description. Because otherwise, it really does feel like ESRI is intentionally obfuscating credit usage in an effort to trick users into spending more credits than they realize.

by Anonymous User

At the December 2021 ArcGIS Online update, when publishing layers from My Content that involve geocoding a source file such as a CSV, credit estimates are now provided and you will not be able to publish the layer if you do not have enough credits.

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