Many organizations use dedicated GPS receivers such as Garmin and GlobalSat devices to provide higher accuracy positioning than standard browser or mobile device geolocation services.
Currently, ArcGIS Experience Builder's My Location widget relies exclusively on the browser's geolocation API, which limits the ability to use external GPS hardware or custom location providers. There is no supported method to programmatically pass coordinates into the My Location widget or a map's active location context.
We would like to request support for one or more of the following capabilities:
- Allow Experience Builder applications to consume coordinates from external GPS devices connected via USB, Bluetooth, serial interfaces, or middleware applications.
- Provide an API that allows developers to programmatically update the user's current location within Experience Builder.
- Enable widgets and map components to subscribe to custom location sources in addition to browser-provided geolocation.
- Support real-time location updates from external GNSS/GPS receivers with configurable update intervals.
- Allow organizations to integrate enterprise location services and custom field applications that provide location information.
Business Need
At Crown Castle, we support field users who perform infrastructure inspections and data collection activities. Many field workflows require higher positional accuracy than is typically available through browser-based geolocation alone.
Supporting external GPS devices would enable:
- Improved positional accuracy for field data collection.
- Better support for utility, telecommunications, engineering, and asset management workflows.
- Integration with existing GPS hardware investments.
- Enhanced support for enterprise field operations where browser geolocation is insufficient.
- Greater flexibility when building custom Experience Builder applications for mobile and field use.
Expected Outcome
Experience Builder would become a more viable platform for professional field operations by allowing organizations to leverage high-accuracy GPS hardware and custom location services while maintaining the flexibility of web-based applications.
