ArcGIS javascript API setDefinitionExpression returns wrong result set

Question

New to GIS and ArcGIS.

I am trying to use the javascript API setDefinitionExpression to limit the output of a FeatureLayer on the map; however, the result set returned by the function is incorrect. The function returns only one result set but when I try to run the same query on the either the ArcGIS server or the database server, there are 6 results.

Anyone know why this is the case?

I am using SQL Server 2012 and following is the code I am using:

var layer1 = new FeatureLayer(path + "/arcgis/rest/services/MammalDistributionMapOIMap/MapServer/0", {
 outFields: ["*"],
 opacity: 0.5
});
var speciesID = document.getElementById("speciesID").value;
stringquery = "species_id = " + speciesID;
layer1.setDefinitionExpression(stringquery);

• Aamir Suleman: Can you post the code snippet in the question?
• Aamir Suleman: looks ok to me. It is possible that the features are not in the current map extent. The default mode that FeatureLayer runs in is the FeatureLayer.MODE_ONDEMAND. Set it explicitly to FeatureLayer.MODE_SNAPSHOT.
• Stephen Lead: you could test it with queryCount, which gets a count of the number of features that satisfy the input query
• Ikki Cheng: @Aamir, does not seem to be the mode's problem as I am getting the same result.
• Ikki Cheng: @Stephen, the query does return 6 matches but the map shows only one. Another strange thing is when I am not setting the expression, half of the layer is missing.

Answer 1

Finally found out what may cause the problem as now my query returns correctly and the layer is shown.

var layer1 = new FeatureLayer(path + "/arcgis/rest/services/MammalDistributionMapOIMap/MapServer/0", {
 opacity: 0.5
});

By removing the outFields["*"] from the code, the whole layer is shown when no definition expression is set and correct data is shown when a definition expression is set.

Not sure why it is the case, may be some one with more experience can answer it.

• Aamir Suleman: sounds like some character(s) in the data that may be causing a JavaScript error? Did you see any errors in browser console?
• Ikki Cheng: @AamirSuleman, no, I don't see any error in the console related to the data except id==mainWindow already registered error. And I do have other maps return even more data that works without problem.