Import Experiences created in ExB Dev to built-in ExB in ArcGIS Enterprise

Question

Hello all,

We are currently using ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9.1 with no specific plans yet (it's not that simple) for migration to a newer version. To support our end-users*, we have set up Experience Builder Developer Edition. The Dev Edition comes with some limitations (in terms of user experience**) and with additional maintenance for us admins but it also currently allows us to catch the recent functionality*** of Experience Builder.

For now, we plan to create Experiences with the Dev Edition, and without custom widgets****. Because of that, if we later upgrade to a new version of ArcGIS Enterprise (let's say 11.3), we might just want to use the built-in version from that moment on. Will it be possible for us to import the ExB Dev created Experiences to the Portal to have them available as built-in?

I don't think this is possible yet but maybe in the roadmap? Should I maybe create an ArcGIS Idea?

A similar functionality is already present: Import built-in Experiences to Dev Edition (doc).

Thank you for your assistance/insights on this,

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*Also as a mitigation alternative if WAB starts to behave in a bad way (context).

**For example, some Portal Creators that could create/edit web applications directly themselves, now they will not be able.

***The built-in version in Enterprise 10.9.1. is too limited for what we need.

****We only have the ExB Dev server service installed and running.

TimWestern · Answer

As it happens I was considering this today and saw I had posted earlier.   It's not even just experiences, if you want to create a custom template for your users to use as a starting point for the experiences they created, it does appear the apps can be downloads from the local dev edition also

The green 'generate template' seems to take an app and create a template in the instance, and doesn't appear to be exportable

The blue 'Download' seems to be just like hitting the three dots on an app on the experience selecftion screen, it gets a zip, with what appears to be a production like version of the app for stand alone deployment.

What I've yet to figure out is a way to take either to create the template in a portal on Enterprise or AGOL though. (I'll reply back if I find something)

RClavero · Answer

Hi @jcarlson, I'm not sure if I follow what you mean. We actually have ExB Dev installed in our Portal machine and the idea is to work with it as part of our ArcGIS Enterprise deployment. We are considering granting some Creator users access to the Experience Builder System (the UI where to built the apps) over our organization.domain.com:3001. But even if this would allow them to create/edit apps, still those apps will have to be downloaded and deployed on a web server for end-user consumption*. It's then a different workflow (also longer and more complex) than just using the built-in version, where end-users have full hands-on the app creation and publication process. (And here is where I go back to my initial question; we might just want to go back to ExB built-in when having that possibility again —understanding that the ExB built-in version in 11.3 it's more mature and complete than the one in 10.9.1— and so being able to bring/import ExB Dev apps to built-in would allow us to make that move quite straightforward).

Related to your suggestion, I updated my initial post to mention that we haven't installed the ExB Dev client because we understood it was not necessary for us at this point since we don't plan to use custom widgets and themes. I found this comment a good explanation of the client service.

*We are also looking for other configurations without exposing the port number.

**Unless there is an alternative to this. Would it be possible (and recommended?) to have ExB Dev published apps running over Node.JS without using a web server like IIS? (That's another question we have and I will probably create a new post to ask about it).

TimWestern · Answer

I'm not sure how it works in Enterprise, i know in AGOL, experiences can be deployed there, and I want to use them locally in dev edition, if its version is newer (I think) than what I have I get a warning about it when i create it.