Editing ArcGIS Feature Services¶

GeoLibre can save feature additions, attribute and geometry updates, and deletions back to an editable ArcGIS Feature Service in the web and desktop apps.

1. Choose Add Data > ArcGIS Layer, select Feature layer, and enter the service layer URL (or portal item). Supply an access token for a protected service.
2. Edit attributes in the attribute table or use Layer actions > Edit geometry. Finish the geometry editing session before saving.
3. Choose Layer actions > Save edits to ArcGIS service. The status reports inserted, updated, and deleted records, followed by any individual failures.

The save action appears when the service advertises supported editing operations and supplies its field schema and object ID field. GeoLibre checks the latest service metadata again before each save. The server remains responsible for user permissions, ownership restrictions, attribute rules, and subtype constraints. Write requests require HTTPS. Browser deployments also require the service to permit cross-origin requests; desktop uses the native ArcGIS HTTP transport.

Pending edits and refresh¶

GeoLibre retains a baseline of the features actually downloaded. Deletions are limited to that baseline, including when the service was loaded with a feature limit. Panning outside the downloaded extent never deletes server records. Viewport loading and refresh pause while there are pending edits or an active geometry editing session. They can resume once the edits are saved.

Only changed attributes are sent on updates. Successful inserts immediately receive their server-assigned object IDs, and successful operations are removed from the pending changes even if other operations fail. GeoLibre then queries saved records for server defaults and calculated fields. Changes made locally during a save remain pending.

A lost or incomplete response leaves the outcome uncertain. GeoLibre blocks another save from that layer, including after reopening the project, to prevent repeating an insert that may already have succeeded. Check the service state and add the service as a new layer before continuing. Export pending local work first if it needs to be retained. A confirmed service rejection can be corrected and retried.

Access tokens stay in the live connection and are not saved in the project. Re-add protected services with a current token after reopening a project or when an existing token expires.

Current scope¶

Supported geometry families are points, multipoints, lines, multilines, polygons, and multipolygons. For Z-enabled services, 2D edits use the service's finite default Z only when that default is explicitly enabled. Otherwise every vertex must supply a finite Z. Object IDs must remain unchanged. New fields and changes to server-managed fields cannot be written through feature editing. GeoLibre validates basic field types, nullability, string lengths, and field-level coded-value and range domains.

Versioned services, M coordinates, dates in an unknown timezone, attachments, related-record editing, and offline synchronization are outside this implementation. There is no remote conflict-resolution protocol: if another client changes the same attribute or geometry, the service decides which submitted edit is accepted. Saving a project or exporting a layer does not itself write edits to the service.

The implementation uses Esri's layer applyEdits API.