180 degree wrapping around basemap for Story Map, Map Tour template

[TomokoAcoba1]

Hello,

I am not sure if this is a place to post requests/suggestions for changes in the story map template. If it is not, please let me know where I can post this. 

I am with Coral Reef Ecosystem Program of NOAA at Honolulu Hawaii, and we are ready to go on a 3 month long expedition to survey coral reef ecosystems in Mariana Archipelago in 2 weeks. We would like to create a story map to document the expedition (e.g., what scientists observe and what they do out there), using a map tour template. However, we discovered that the basemap for this template doesn't span around international date line (180 degree).A web server is not available to us, so that we can't download the template and customize it to have the map wrapping around.

Unfortunately time is not our side, but is there any way to achieve this?

There will be another expedition coming up in June. Would it possible to implement the change in the template by then if it is not possible for this expedition?

Story map is a great way to communicate what we do out at sea. Having to have a continuous Pacific ocean on a map is very critical to our mission.

Thank you so much for consideration. 

Tomoko Acoba

[OwenGeo · Accepted solution]

Hi Tomoko,

We are in the process of redesigning Map Tour from scratch, so we are not planning to make any updates to the existing Map Tour app. The new Map Tour (in which we plan to have support for panning across the date line) should be released in beta later this year, but likely not in time for your June expedition report.

I would recommend creating your story using the Map Journal app, which does support panning across the date line. Use a single map with an appropriate basemap (Oceans?) and any other layers you want, and then for each section set the map to show the location you want and add your photo(s) and text to the side panel to tell the story for that location.

Here are two Map Journal stories that follow this pattern as examples:

• http://story.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=dc91db9f6409462b887ebb1695b9c201 
• http://clarion.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=55f4caa384c84c87b257089da4d9d634 

I hope this is helpful,
Owen

[OwenGeo]

Tomoko,

I just remembered something that will help you! Esri's new vector basemaps DO pan cross the dateline when used in a Map Tour.

If you create a web map with one of the vector basemaps and then Share > Create a Web App and create a Map Tour then the map will pan across the dateline.

Unfortunately, we don't yet have a version of the oceans basemap available in vector format, but hopefully one of the others works, or you could create your own style as described in the blog post below.

• Standard vector basemaps
• Sample vector basemaps
• How to Customize Esri Vector Basemaps | ArcGIS Blog 

Owen