{"id":2661862,"date":"2025-01-28T12:38:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=2661862"},"modified":"2025-06-27T13:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T20:22:10","slug":"arcgis-workflow-manager-and-hosted-feature-layer-views-a-guide-to-implementation-and-use","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/workflow-manager\/administration\/arcgis-workflow-manager-and-hosted-feature-layer-views-a-guide-to-implementation-and-use","title":{"rendered":"ArcGIS Workflow Manager and Hosted Feature Layer Views \u2013 A Guide to Implementation and Use"},"author":229722,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[37501,23851],"tags":[573561,23591,765562,33221,23311],"industry":[],"product":[760392],"class_list":["post-2661862","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administration","category-data-management","tag-arcgis-dashboards","tag-arcgis-server","tag-arcgis-workflow-manager","tag-hosted-feature-layer-views","tag-portal-for-arcgis","product-workflow-manager"],"acf":{"authors":[{"ID":229722,"user_firstname":"Jonathan","user_lastname":"Farmer","nickname":"Jonathan Farmer","user_nicename":"jfarmer","display_name":"Jonathan Farmer","user_email":"jfarmer@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2021-05-12 13:59:11","user_description":"Jonathan is a Product Engineer on the ArcGIS Workflow Manager team. When he's not working on all things Workflow Manager, he enjoys being outdoors and anything automotive related.","user_avatar":""}],"short_description":"Hosted feature layer views are a valuable tool to extend the capabilities of reporting and visualization in ArcGIS Workflow Manager.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Background<\/h3>\n

As an advanced user of ArcGIS Workflow Manager, you\u2019re familiar with the web application and the capabilities within it that allow you to manage your organization\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

(As a side note, if you\u2019re not familiar with ArcGIS Workflow Manager, this blog may be on the complex side. I\u2019d highly recommend starting with our resources blog<\/a> to learn more about the product.)<\/p>\n

For many users, the web application is the only capability they need to manage their work. But if you\u2019ve ever thought\u2014 I could really use a way to display more information, like on a dashboard\u2014 or\u2014 I like the information shown but I also need to bring in outside information and link that to my jobs in Workflow Manager to provide a broader picture of the work in my organization\u2014 this blog is for you. The blog will focus on how to create and use joined layer views from the Workflow Manager feature layer with information on use cases, and highlight potential issues for certain types of configurations. Let\u2019s jump in!<\/p>\n

Some Basics on Hosted Feature Layer Views<\/h3>\n

Database views are stored queries that select data from the tables you specify in the view definition. Views in the ArcGIS ecosystem are divided into two main types: those that are created in enterprise geodatabases<\/a> that are customer managed and those that are created in ArcGIS Data Store, referred to as feature layer views or hosted feature layer views<\/a>, which are managed by ArcGIS. We\u2019ll be focusing on the latter in this blog.<\/p>\n

A feature layer view is a separate item that references the original source data. Edits made to the original layers are reflected in the custom view. The bonus to having the view set up as its own item is that there are additional settings that can be applied to control access to the data. Workflow Manager makes use of feature layer views in its own system data. Part of the workflow item feature services are created when a user creates a workflow item. The biggest difference between the feature layer views created by Workflow Manager and one that a user might create is that the settings for Workflow Manager feature layer views are managed by Workflow Manager and alterations to those settings are not supported. Altering settings on the Workflow Manager feature layer and feature layer views can lead to unexpected behavior.<\/p>\n

Using Workflow Manager Feature Layer Views<\/h3>\n

Workflow Manager makes use of two different feature layer views as part of its system data. While it may be tempting to use these when building out custom dashboards and applications, we advise you not to do this. Instead, create your own views based on the system layers and use those instead. This ensures there will not be any possibility of accidental data changes or corruption of the Workflow Manager system data.<\/p>\n

With each release of Workflow Manager, new functionality and bug fixes can result in schema changes to the Workflow Manager system data. This is expected and backwards compatibility is not guaranteed when working with your own views based on Workflow Manager system data. Therefore, it\u2019s possible that custom views may need to be rebuilt and\/or custom applications updated from release to release. The Workflow Manager team documents<\/a> changes for workflow item versions.<\/p>\n

Lastly, at the 11.3 release of Workflow Manager, a bug was introduced where the Create View Layer option was not available for Workflow Items that were upgraded from an earlier version. This bug also exists in the 11.4 release as well. Patches have been created to resolve this issue.<\/p>\n