Excalibur projects can be edited to add and remove capabilities at any time. The type of capabilities you add to a project determines which tools are available in the Tools Panel. Initially, saving a project provides a quick and convenient way to organize the resources and instructions for basic and common workflows.
The following resources are required to create an Excalibur project:
Optionally, you can also include a web map with geospatial reference layers to help provide context while you work on the Excalibur project.
Add observation layers
Adding observation layers to a project provides a workflow for collecting observations from imagery or video, including resources for accomplishing observations, editing, and creating derived information products from these activities. These layers provide observation tools in the Tools Panel when you open an Excalibur project.
Layers that do not have the ArcGIS Excalibur system-managed fields can be added and used in an Excalibur project. Observations collected with these layers are added to the project, but they will not contain any previous observations in the layer if they are not time-enabled.
Create an observation collection layer
Creating a project containing observations requires at least one observation collection layer. In ArcGIS Excalibur, the observation collection layer can be created during the guided workflow, which includes the following:
- Required fields
- Editor tracking set as enabled
- Time settings set as enabled
- Editing set as enabled
- Required tag
Once all requirements are met and the layer is published to your portal, ArcGIS Excalibur identifies it as an observation collection layer that can be used in an observation project. The sections below describe the workflow to create an observation collection layer.
Create an observation collection layer in a guided workflow
You can create an observation layer during a guided workflow when creating an Excalibur project, which will include the minimum set of required fields. With this method, you can add more fields and style a layer based on your observation collection task. See Add an observation layer to your Excalibur project for more information.
Create an observation collection layer in ArcGIS Pro
In addition to using the guided workflow to create an observation collection layer, you can also use ArcGIS Pro to create a point, line, or polygon feature class in a file geodatabase. This feature class can contain domain values, which allows you to record manual information about each observation, but it must contain the required fields.
The required fields of an observation collection layer are used to automatically populate information from the image from which the observation was collected. The feature class must contain the following required fields:
| Field name | Data type | Length |
|---|---|---|
comments | Text | 500 |
imageId_excalibur | Text | 250 |
projectId_excalibur | Text | 250 |
Image_DTG_UTC_excalibur | Date | |
Image_DTG_Local_excalibur | Text | 250 |
Observation_DTG_Local_excalibur | Text | 250 |
Observation_LatLon_excalibur | Text | 250 |
ICS_XY_excalibur | Text | 250 |
MapScale_excalibur | Double | |
Image_Classification_excalibur | Text | 250 |
Predicted_NIIRS_excalibur | Double | |
Raster_Id_excalibur | Long Integer | |
Service_Url_excalibur | Text | 250 |
Any additional fields beyond the required fields that are added to the feature class will be manually populated during observation collection.
Enable editor tracking
After creating an observation collection layer feature class with the required fields, editor tracking capabilities must be enabled. Before publishing, you can enable editor tracking on the feature class by right-clicking the layer and choosing Manage > Enable Editor Tracking. The following fields are then added to the layer:
- created_user
- created_date
- last_edited_user
- last_edited_date
Enabling tracking ensures traceability of any edits to a new or existing observation made in ArcGIS Excalibur.
Note:
If this is not completed before publishing, use the Settings tab in the item details for the corresponding layer. In the Feature Layer (hosted) section, ensure that Keep track of who created and last updated features is checked. Click Save after any changes are made to the layer's settings.Enable time settings
Observations identified from imagery contain a time element based on when that observation was collected. To take advantage of this time element, the observation layer must be time-enabled on a specific field.
In ArcGIS Desktop, you can set the time property on a layer by ensuring the option is set to Each feature has a single time field and setting the field to be used as the last_edited_date field. In addition, ensure that the Time Extent > Data is a live feed option is enabled and set to an appropriate rate based on the type of observations you are collecting. If you plan to copy or replicate data across time zones, in the Time Zone option, select (UTC) Coordinated Universal Time.
Note:
If time is not enabled before publishing, use the Overview tab in the item details for the corresponding layer. Click the Time Settings option and ensure that Enable time is checked. Set the time data is recorded as to specific events in time with Time field set to last_edited_date.
Enable editing before publishing
To ensure other users can add, edit, and delete data in your observation collection layer, editing must be configured on the layer. During the publishing process of sharing your web feature layer, you must configure the observation feature class to enable editing. To enable editing, click the Configuration tab in the Share as Web Layer window, and confirm that the Enable editing and allow editors to option is checked when configuring the web layer properties.
Note:
If this is not completed before publishing, use the Settings tab in the item details for the corresponding layer. In the Feature Layer (hosted) section, ensure that Enable Editing is checked. Click Save after making any changes to the layer's settings.
Visualize an observation collection layer
An Excalibur project allows you to use one or more observation layers for collecting and recording observations. When you're working on an Excalibur project, symbolize and style the observation layer to quickly identify observations based on a specified type or value of interest. You can also select the palette icons that are displayed when you use the observation tools in an Excalibur project.
You can set the style of the observation feature layer during the create new observation layer guided workflow or on the Visualization tab in the item details of the corresponding layer. Save the layer after making any changes to its style. The style is reflected in Excalibur projects containing the observation layer.
Manage system fields and settings
If your observation layer was not created in ArcGIS Excalibur and does not have the system managed fields, you can go through a guided workflow to add them. This allows the layer to automatically populate information from the image when an observation is collected. Additionally, the layer will be time-enabled if it is not already. The following fields will be added:
- ics_xy_excalibur
- image_classification_excalibur
- image_dtg_local_excalibur
- image_dtg_utc_excalibur
- imageid_excalibur
- mapscale_excalibur
- observation_dtg_local_excalibur
- observation_latlon_excalibur
- predicted_niirs_excalibur
- projectid_excalibur
- raster_id_excalibur
- service_url_excalibur
Add GeoEnrichment definitions to an Excalibur project
Adding a GeoEnrichment definition to a project can enhance your observations with information from a related layer during observation collection. You can choose which fields are automatically populated in a point observation layer by matching them to fields in one or more related polygon context layers.
To create a GeoEnrichment definition in an Excalibur project, the following criteria must be met:
- You must be the project owner or a portal administrator.
- You must have a point observation layer in your Excalibur project.
- You must have a polygon context layer in a web map that has been added to your project.
Follow the guided workflow to add, view, or remove GeoEnrichment definitions to an Excalibur project.