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ArcGIS Online FeatureWriter failing with Fatal Error on during dynamic writing

  • February 20, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 27 views

usmanpkz
Contributor
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Hi

I am encountering a critical issue when using the ArcGIS Online Feature Service Writer (within a FeatureWriter transformer) in a dynamic workspace.

When a specific column contains data that AGOL deems "invalid HTML" (e.g., strings containing <, >, or specific URL parameters), the translation fails with a Fatal Error. Instead of rejecting only the problematic feature or failing just that specific layer, the entire FME Engine stops, preventing the rest of the workspace from processing other layers. 

I have a custom Transformer that read, process and write individual layer. this custom transformer has a group by set to unique layer id.

Current Configuration:

Writer: ESRI Feature Service Writer (Dynamic).
Transformer: FeatureWriter
Error Message: ArcGIS Online Feature Service Writer: 'column_name' has invalid HTML content.

What I Need Help With:

Error Handling: How can I configure the FeatureWriter or the AGOL ESRI Feature Service writer to "ignore" or "skip" features with invalid HTML content (or any other problematic feature) without crashing the entire translation?

Process Continuity: Is there a way to ensure that if one layer fails validation, the FeatureWriter continues to process the remaining layers in the dynamic list?

Please let me know if there are specific writer parameters or Python startup/shutdown scripts that can mitigate this fatal crash.


Thanks in Advance!

3 replies

ebygomm
Influencer
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  • Influencer
  • February 20, 2026

Not the answer to your question, I’m not aware of any options Ignore Failed Features and carry on writing with AGOL but have you tried using a TextEncoder with Encoding Type set to URL on the offending field?


usmanpkz
Contributor
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  • Author
  • Contributor
  • February 20, 2026

Not the answer to your question, I’m not aware of any options Ignore Failed Features and carry on writing with AGOL but have you tried using a TextEncoder with Encoding Type set to URL on the offending field?

Thanks for your reply.

I have added a pythoncaller that encodes data for the columns that I know ca thrown an error.

The issue is that It is part of the dynamic workspace. there are over hundred layers that are being processed in this dynamic workspace. If I try to encode all the columns for each of these layers, it will slow down the workspace. Currently, even if one column in any of the 100+ layers have problematic data, the whole translation crashes and there is no way to handle the exception.

the other thing is that I can’t encode using TextEncoder because the data is in list of dynamic schema so currently I am encoding the columns that I have problematic data using pythoncaller.


birgit
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  • Influencer
  • February 23, 2026

This is more of a workaround rather then an actual solution but how about splitting up your workbench into two? That way you can use a workspacerunner to run the second workbench that actually updates the feature layers and you run this once for each layer you want to update. That way it will be able to continue even if 1 layer might fail. Of course you will increase your overhead this way but whether or not that is problematic really depends on the situation. 

Edit: You can even do it in such a way that you can sort of create groups of 10 layers do update at once if one by one is too slow.