Change symbology over time using arconline

[LindsayRaabe]

Can someone please help me out with what way I should be setting up a point layer so that it performs the following task?

The points are created once at the start and is time enabled so that over time as a feature changes status from Occupied to Vacant to Occupied, the symbology changes to reflect this. I am new to this and have tried using the Edit Date as the trigger to change colour but instead the point just doesn't show up until the slider reaches the latest edit and hides all previous views. 

I'm attempting to show the occupancy status of buildings in a CBD and how it changes over time. 

Thanks!

[KellyGerrow]

Hi Lindsay,

Modifying the value that your symbology is based off of will result in the symbology changing. If it isn't changing, please share your map so we can take a look as to why the symbology isn't updating.

How many features are in your layer?

If there are less than two thousand, then all of the data is requested in the initial request to the service to improve performance. The application doesn't make a new request for updated data unless the map is refreshed, so its possible if you have only a few features that your aren't seeing the updates due as there is no request for more information.

To confirm this, try making an edit and then refreshing your web map.  Does the symbology change? If it does, the above issue is probably what is causing the issue.

To work around this, you can set a refresh interval on the layer: Set refresh interval—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS 

this ensures that new data is retrieved from the server depending on the setting. This is really helpful if you are frequently updating the data. If you are updating the data every once in a while, you may be fine to leave the map as is as each time someone navigates to the map, the new data symbology should be shown.

If there are more than 2000 features, the application makes a new request to the server for data each time a user pans and zooms, showing a refresh in the data.

Let me know if this is the issue.

-Kelly

[LindsayRaabe]

Hi Kelly. Thanks for your reply but it's not the symbology. That works okay. if the value changes the symbol changes. I was more trying to figure out how to make it change based on changes to the values over time. However, I don't think what I am trying to do can be done, at least not with the knowledge I have from being self taught. I can get it appear and disappear based on a start and end date but not to change multiple times over time as it gets updated. I was hoping that versioning might make this possible but apparently not. I have come up with an alternative arrangement though using the start-visible/end-not visible setup instead. 

[KellyGerrow]

Thanks Lindsay,

My answer is definitely a little off topic. Let us know how you work it out.

-Kelly

[XanderBakker]

When working with time aware data you may have multiple records (features) that represent the same building (or floor, office or residence). Each will have two dates indicating the from and to date of that status. The time slider will show those features which date range intersects with the current date of the slider.

When using single dates and the date range of your data is large, the change that a feature is visualized will reduce a lot. 

In case you are visualizing on a "system field" like the last update of editor tracking, the date reflects the date of editing the value and not when the change of status occurred. 

Maybe ArcGIS Arcade | ArcGIS for Developers could be helpful in case you want to visualize a date in you data related to the current date in combination with a status. I have a blog (in Spanish) about this here: https://community.esri.com/groups/esricol-community/blog/2017/05/15/usar-arcade-para-graficar-el-tie... , but it is pretty visual so you may have no problems to understand it. If you want to know more about that, please share a portion of your data and explain a bit more in detail what you are after.

[LindsayRaabe]

Hi Xander. I think I am going to go down the path similar to what you have described with multiple records at the same location. One record will appear (start) and will disappear (finish) when the value is changed and is replaced by a new record with the updated status. Might be the easiest way for me to do what I am envisioning with my limited knowledge and time. Thanks for the help and the idea.