Creating Field Maps Tasks with Referenced Feature Services

What Actually Works (and What We Learned After Three Days in the Belly of the Beast)

TL;DR: Let Esri build the schema for you on a hosted layer, then steal it with Export Features. That’s it. That’s the blog.
But if you must read the harrowing details, please, carry on.

One of the most compelling capabilities of Tasks in Field Maps is the ability to use your own services that reference data in your enterprise Geodatabase. This gives you way more control over what the user sees than Workforce ever did. It also makes it a bit easier for integrating with other systems to create the tasks. Enabling Tasks for Field Maps is dead simple when you are working with a hosted feature layer.

Referenced services, though? Buckle up

I ran into problem after issue after dead end trying to make this work. Mostly because there are some —shall we call them “nuances”— that Esri documentation kind of glosses over.

As I was going through the stepping-on-a-rake process of trying to figure out why my layer wasn’t accepting Tasks in Field Maps Designer, I kept thinking surely someone else has been through this exact nightmare and written it up.

Nope. Nothing. So here we are. I’m that person now. You’re welcome.

This write-up is based on a real troubleshooting session that I went through trying to get Field Maps Task to work with referenced services. Names and places have not been changed because I’m in way too deep now. I have tested this on ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 and 12.0. Spoiler alert: getting Tasks to work isn’t just about having a few extra fields. The schema details are more complicated than they look, and the stuff that trips you up is the stuff nobody tells you about.

Our Villain: Coded Value Domains

When Tasks won’t work, it’s usually because the layer is missing something subtle in the schema. In my case, the missing piece was coded value domains — plus some fields that the documentation cheerfully describes as “optional.”

Here’s the thing about those “option”l” fields: they may be optional for using Tasks, but Field Maps Designer won’t let you enable Tasks on a layer that doesn’t have them. That’s a fun distinction, right? “You don’t need these, but also, you absolutely need these.” Noted.

Cool, so we’re done, right? Ha. No.

I had a layer that looked right. I’d created all the fields that were mentioned in the Esri documentation on Field Maps Tasks. Everything seemed fine. But I’d totally missed the domains. Tasks rely on domains for type, status, priority, and if those domains aren’t there, Field Maps just … won’t let you create Tasks.  (Ask me how long that took to figure out. On second thought, don’t.)

The Fix: Let Esri Do the Hard Part

After banging my brain against this for longer than I’d like to admit, I landed on the most reliable approach: stop trying to build the schema yourself and let the system generate it.

The idea is simple. Create a hosted layer, let Field Maps Designer do its thing to it, then export that lovely layer so you can reuse that schema wherever you actually want the data to live.

The workflow that finally worked:

• Publish your data as a hosted feature layer in ArcGIS Online or Portal.
• Add it to a web map.
• Enable Tasks in Field Maps Designer.
• Bring that task-enabled layer into ArcGIS Pro.
• Run the Export Features Geoprocessing tool.
• Use the output file geodatabase as a “template”.
• Copy it into your enterprise geodatabase.
• Clean up the domain names (if needed) and add any extra fields.
• Publish.
• Celebrate. You just saved three days of your life.

Now, sit back and relax as I walk you through the whole process that I recommend for Field Maps Tasks.

Step 1 – Start with a hosted layer (even a temporary one)

Take your dataset and publish it as a hosted feature layer. This works in both ArcGIS Online and Portal. This layer is a decoy — a sacrificial lamb on the altar of Esri’s schema.

Step 2 – Toss it in a web map

That’s it. Just create a web map with the hosted layer you just published inside of it. Nothing fancy. It won’t get any use outside of what we’re about to do here.

Step 3 – Enable Tasks in Field Maps Designer

Open the web map in Field Maps Designer, click Tasks, and enable them. This is the part where Esri works behind the curtain, handling all that stuff that’s barely documented.

Step 4 – Verify the schema (fields and domains)

Bring the layer into ArcGIS Pro and inspect the Schema. It should look like the screenshot below. You should see all of the esri_task fields, and you should see the domains on four of the fields. The layer also requires a GlobalID field. If all that’s there, you’re golden.

Step 5 – Export Features to a local field geodatabase

You’ve confirmed your schema is correct. Now open the Geoprocessing pane and search for Export Features. This is the key to the whole thing.

Export Features writes the feature class to a new geodatabase while preserving the schema exactly as it was. Other methods — like, say, Copy Features — can silently drop the domains. And that was the issue that we were running into before.

We’re better now. Smarter. More prepared.

And just like that, you have a Task ready layer in a file geodatabase for use wherever you’d like it.

From Here, You’re Home Free

Copy the feature class into your enterprise geodatabase and publish as a referenced map service. A few things worth pointing out:

• You don’t need sync enabled. In my testing, Tasks worked without it.
• I didn’t need versioning either, which means you could even let another system write task updates directly with SQL.

What Esri Says vs. What You Actually Need

The official Esri documentation on the subject calls out a small set of required fields: esritask_type, esritask_status, and esritask_assignee. In my testing, that was not the full list. There are additional fields, and critically, domains that Field Maps Designer expects to see before it will play ball.

Don’t waste time trying to create the schema yourself. Follow the steps above and let Esri do the hard work for you.

The Moral of the Story

This ended up being way more of a headache than it had any right to be. The fix was simple once I finally saw it, but finding it required the kind of patience usually reserved for assembling IKEA furniture or sorting all the M&Ms by color because the green ones taste the best.

So, if it’s way past your bedtime and you’re still staring at a layer that looks perfectly fine, wondering how you personally offended Field Maps Designer, now you know. The answer is domains. It was always domains.

Tom Brenneman – CTO

Cultivate Geospatial Solutions, LLC