Feature layer owners can configure the layer to track who created and last updated features, and when the features were created and last updated. If a feature layer has this tracking enabled, you see the editing history when you click a feature on the map. The history appears as part of the attribute information in the pop-up.
You can also filter which edits you see on the map. This is useful in quality assurance workflows. For example, if you want to review edits made in the last 5 days, you can open the layer in Map Viewer Classic and define a filter on the date field that stores the date features were last updated. If you want to see only edits made by a particular user, you can also define a filter that looks for a specific editor's username. For hosted feature layers, you can use the Filter Edits menus to define a filter for a specific editor and time period.
Tracking who created and last updated features is set up by the layer author. Tracking is available on feature layers from ArcGIS Server 10.1 or later releases and hosted feature layers. You can only filter edits on layers that have tracking enabled and have fewer than 30,000 features.
Apply a filter
You can apply a filter on the date field used to track the date and time features were last edited, filtering for a specific date range. For example, if you review edits at the end of each week, you can filter for all the edits made since the previous week. This allows you to identify new edits, thereby eliminating duplication in your quality assurance workflow. You can apply a filter from the Contents panel or table in Map Viewer Classic.
You can also define a filter on the field used to store editor names so that only features edited by a particular user are displayed in the map. For example if you have a new employee and you want to pay particular attention to his or her edits for the first few months, you might apply a filter that shows edits made by that employee for a specific period of time.
The advantages of using filter method are as follows:
- When you define a filter on the layer, you can save the filter in the map.
- These types of filters can be applied to both ArcGIS Server feature layers and hosted feature layers.
- You can combine filters applied to multiple fields.
- You have finer grained control over the date filter than using the method described in the next section.
Use the Filter Edits option
For hosted feature layers, you can take advantage of the Filter Edits option in Map Viewer Classic to filter by editor or a period of time.
For example, if you have an editable hosted feature layer that is shared with the public and you want to see what changes were made by anonymous users (those who did not log in to your organization), you could filter for all features edited by ESRI_Anonymous and review those edits.
You can use this filter in combination with a filter set by edit date to see all edits made by a particular user for certain dates or date ranges.
The advantage of using this method versus applying a filter to the layer is you don't have to know and correctly type the editor username, as the Filter Edits option provides a list of usernames.
Follow these steps to choose a specific editor and time period to filter for on a hosted feature layer:
- Open the feature layer in Map Viewer Classic.
- Click the Details button.
- Click the Show Contents of Map button.
- In the Contents pane, choose the layer for which you want to filter edits by editor.
- Click the More Options button and click Filter Edits.
- Choose the editor and a time span from the Show edits made by drop-down menus.
Only those features edited by that user within that time period will draw on the map. You can review the placement of the feature or open the table and review attributes.
- Click Show All Edits to undo the filter and see all the features on the map.
Note:
Filters defined through Filter Edits do not get saved with the map. If you close the map and reopen it again, you need to reset the filter.