I just learned from caltrans program manager the coolest idea I ever heard in GIS world.
omni search, have you heard it before?
What that means is search everything in 1 place, with one button, on 1 click.
Does this sounds like google search ?
You search everything on google with 1 button, 1 click.
Simple is beauty, simple is best.
google search has simplest form with 1 button, 1 click, also is best search on earth.
Caltrans program manager layout the future development direction to transform the current complex search form into an omni search ( search for everything with 1 click ).
That is a very unique idea in ESRI world. Because in current ESRI's world, ESRI's search widget allow you to configure to search from different layers, even from different sources. However, you have to choose which layer or which source as target.
In omni search, you don't need to choose which layer, it automatically search every layers eveythings for you.
That means you have to merge all layers into one single layers and prepare a list of all possible keywords as search hint.
When user type a keyword, search hint automatically popup to show all possible related keywords for you to auto fill the search field.
current caltrans CA California department of transportation
project map
https://odp.dot.ca.gov/sb1/
Current search form is complex, in future, should be 1 field, 1 click
My initial idea is I need merge all layers into 1 single layer.
Then I extract all possible keyword in this single 1 layer as search hint list.
When user type partial keyword, the search hint popup as possible hint allow user to auto fill the search field and automatically search related records just like the google search.