Admins and Account owners can connect their OpenForms account with Esri ArcGIS, so that Authors can configure location fields to display Esri maps. Using Esri as the location field map provider allows you to:
- Display Esri maps to find and pin locations
- Include the search box, predictive results, and the current location option to find locations
- Validate respondent locations within a geometric boundary or location list specified in Esri
- Restrict answers to locations within the boundary or list
- Display visual layers to help respondents understand which areas are within the boundary or list
You can have multiple connections to Esri, so you can use different validation layers on different location fields. Before you can connect to Esri ArcGIS, you will need:
- An ArcGIS Online account
- An ArcGIS Online API Key
- A point layer (location list) or sketch layer (geographic boundary) in ArcGIS Online containing data you want to validate against in OpenForms
Connect to Esri
- Go to Integrations > Connectors > Form add-ons and select Esri ArcGIS.
- Select Add to begin a new connection. If you need to edit or delete an existing connection, select it from the Active connections list.
- Fill these fields:
- Name: Provide a descriptive name that will be used when Authors select a connection for their location field.
- API Key: Enter the API key for Esri ArcGIS, found in your Esri developer portal > API.
- Validation layer: Use this drop-down to select whether to validate respondent answers against data in a Point (location allowlist) layer or a Sketch (geographic boundary) layer. Select No layer (map only) to display a map with no validation.
- Validation layer URL: Copy and paste the URL for the point or sketch layer into this field. Layer URLs are available in your Esri developer portal > Layers.
- Validation attribute (only available for Point layers): Enter the Attribute of your Point (location allowlist) layer that you want to validate respondent answers against. This can be any attribute, such as street address or post code, but will also populate the predictive search results in location fields using this connector.
- Overlays (optional): Add additional visual layers, such as boundaries or points of interest, to display on the map for respondents. Add one Layer URL per line in the available text field.
Please note that these are not validation restrictions and can only be drawn from your organization’s Esri account. Additionally, providing too many overlays can be overwhelming to respondents, and cause the map to render slowly.
- Select Add or Save changes if you’re editing an existing connection.
- Add as many connections to Esri as you need.
To test the connection, select it as the Map provider in a location field and preview the form to ensure the map is displaying correctly.