Create a data-driven map tour

After selecting the data-driven workflow option, you should see a list of all the feature layers in your ArcGIS Online account, as well as any layers that you've added to your favorites, and any that are in your organization or groups and you have permission to view.

Once you've located the point layer or view you'd like to use for your tour, select its card to generate a new grid-layout explorer tour block, set to the maximum narrative panel width, that's "linked" to that data.

Note: Currently, the data-driven workflow only supports point-based feature layers. If you select a line- or poylgon-based layer, you'll see an error message.

The map tour builder will automatically determine each point's location, attempt to populate its name and description, and assign media to it. But sometimes the tour builder won't be able to correctly suss those things out, or you may want to override its initial decisions. You can do so in the Data options, accessed by clicking the layer name or the gear icon in the slide toolbar at the bottom of the map tour block.

The Data options pop-up contains four tabs: Data, Media, Filter & Sort, and Advanced. We'll cover all of these, just not in straight left-to-right order. We will, however, still start with that leftmost tab, Data.

Here, you can use the Place title and Place description dropdowns to change the attribute fields from the feature service that are used to generate those elements of your tour places. Note that only the text attribute fields will be displayed in the dropdowns here. The description field is also capable of  reading and converting basic HTML .

If you'd prefer to only show just the title or description (or neither), choose the None option in the dropdowns.

Now we'll skip over to the Filter & Sort tab of the Data options pop-up.

At the top of that tab is the Maximum places dropdown, which allows you to set a numerical limit on the number of tour stops that appear in your tour (without affecting the underlying dataset). Data-driven tours can accept up to 200 points.

Next, checking the box next to Only show features with media will hide any places that don't come with images or videos.

Finally, the Sort dropdown lets you choose between ordering your places as they appear in the original dataset, ordering them alphabetically, or ordering them by any other attribute field in the dataset. You can also click the icon to the right of the dropdown to invert the sort order (e.g., to switch from A-Z ordering to Z-A ordering).

Tip: If you want more control over sorting and filtering, you can create a  layer view , apply a definition query to that view, and then use that view for your map tour.

Now let's look at how media are integrated into data-driven tour points, and the options you have available for adjusting their look and behavior.

The far right-hand tab says Advanced, but it actually poses a fairly straightforward question: should the tour builder pull media for each point from attachments within the feature layer, or look to a designated attribute field containing a URL link to media elsewhere on the web?

By default, the tour will look for attachments, which is recommended; they're not susceptible to broken links and are less likely to have inordinately large file sizes. However, there are some cases where linking to media is more practical or even necessary. In those instances, simply select the bubble next to "Image URL field" and then choose the relevant attribute field from the dropdown menu that appears.

Tip: The "Image URL field" option makes it possible to instantly recreate Classic Map Tour or Shortlist templates in ArcGIS StoryMaps; for more on that workflow,  check out this Esri Community post  by Owen Evans.

The only tab left in the Data options that we haven't covered yet is the Media tab.

At the top of the tab is your choice of Image placement: Do you want the media to Fill the available media space (which will require some cropping of the media), or is it preferable to have all of the media Fit inside the space? (If you go with the latter, you can opt to set a custom background color for the extra space around the media.)

You can also set the maximum number of media that will be associated with each place (up to five pieces of media), as well as specify attribute fields from which image attribution and alt text can be pulled.

The map will initially be themed to match the rest of your story. However, you can further tailor it to your content by clicking the Map options button in the upper-right corner of the map panel. 

Try changing the color of your tour points; you can choose from a few colors associated with the current theme, or input a custom color.

You can also change the Basemap; click the basemap card to choose from a dozen or so curated basemaps, or click the Browse more maps button to open the map picker.

Here, you can choose almost any web map—including content provided by the  ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World —to use as a basemap. Note that all layers in the web map will appear in your map tour, but their pop-ups will be disabled.

Going back to the top of the list, you can also opt to made your tour unfold across a three-dimensional globe. While this can be a cool effect, it's not ideal for every tour, especially those that take place in smaller areas without much local terrain to show off.

Finally, you can choose to set a universal zoom level for each point. (Note that in a data-driven tour, you cannot override the zoom level for individual points.)