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Using third Party Custom widgets in Portal 11.5
Hi Am I missing something here. We are, for many reasons, sticking with Portal 11.5 until it is nearly out of support, that is a given. but lots of the wonderful custom widgets I see have a requiement for Experience Builder Developer Edition 1.19 or 1.20 - Portal 11.5 is at 1.17. Does this mean I can't use these? I have…
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Tips for Building Layouts in ArcGIS Experience Builder
Wanting to build your own mapping app or website using ArcGIS Experience Builder? Where should you begin? While there are numerous templates available to kickstart your project, it’s common to have specific requirements that must be addressed. Customization is often necessary to enhance functionality or tailor the user…
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The Dirty Secrets of Accessibility
If you are an employee at a government agency in the United States of America, you are probably already aware and worried about a ruling by the Department of Justice that all of your web content needs to hit certain accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) by a certain date (April 26, 2027 for entities larger than 50,000 with…
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Reset All Filters Button And Other Fun With Filters
Late last year, I did a presentation at a local conference where I did a live build of Zone Lookup in Experience Builder. And I made a public demo application to go along with it. And almost immediately after, somebody moved the referenced data and the application broke. I finally got around to fixing it and while I was at…
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First Thoughts On The June 2026 ArcGIS Online Update
Here in Arlington, TX, home of AT&T Stadium Dallas Stadium Arlington Stadium Dallas Stadium in Arlington Dallas Stadium, we are in full World Cup fever. I'm working from home today because the entire nation of Jordan is partying outside my office. Or maybe they are mourning, as they have already been eliminated from the…
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Custom Print With An Overview Map Widget, But More Importantly Widgets Can Be Pages
A few months ago, I wrote about a Public Notification Application I was working on and a weird, mostly functional workaround for making printing work the way my users wanted it. Well, I'm going to talk about that application again and another weird, mostly functional workaround for making printing work the way my users…
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Native Support For Thematic Layer Groups in Experience Builder, Seriously This Time
Don't think too much about the publish date. It's possible to make thematic layer groups in Experience Builder now without a Custom Widget. (Now meaning after the February 2026 ArcGIS Online update, Developer Edition 1.20, or Enterprise 12.1.) If your thinking I've written this post before, it's because I have, but…
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DevSummit 2026: The Second Time Around is Different
Ethical rules: Not everyone talking to me over the course of the week knew I am a journalist. (Am I a journalist? I might be a journalist now.) And people, including ESRI staff, tend to speak more freely at DevSummit than they would in official communication. I certainly do not want to misattribute quotes to anyone or…
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First Thoughts On The Februrary 2026 ArcGIS Online Update
Last time I did one of these things, I threw some confetti for reaching full feature parity with Web App Builder. I wonder what is coming next. Let me check this year's Roadmap... Maybe we can reuse the confetti in June? Here's what happens in this series: * I read the official What's New in Experience Builder Blog post. *…
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Load multiple UseDataSources into __esri.FeatureLayers and UseQueriableDataSources for a single widget feature
I have a widget which lets the admin configure a few layers in the settings. My widget will use the layers from the settings to serve up arcgis-feature-form components and query for potential associated data under certain conditions. The problem is my widget holds references to these layers as UseDataSources but needs an…
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You Can Vibe Code a Widget
Last year at DevSummit, I saw a talk by Christopher Moravec. He is the CTO of Dymaptic and an AI expert, specifically a GeoAI expert. Since then, I've been reading his weekly newsletter to stay up to date on AI, mostly GeoAI, advancements. It's an entertaining and worthwhile five minute read. 10/10 will read again...in…
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Rate My Setup: An Experience Builder Focused Coding Environment
For several years now, I have been limping along in this job on a computer that was really powerful enough to handle my workload. Well, they have finally heard my cries of desperation (and the lease on the old computer expired) and got me the finest computer a municipal budget can buy. Having just gone through the process…
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Just in time Help Instructions
Enhancing Tool Discoverability with Accordion-Based In-Context Guidance In ArcGIS Experience Builder, the "Widget Controller" is a popular way to manage multiple tools. However, for public-facing apps or new users, icon-only interfaces can lead to confusion. This article explores a design pattern that replaces standard…
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The Automatically Opening Attribute Table
Sometimes all the pieces of the puzzle are just sitting there, but you can't see how they go together. And then you do. And you can't image how you didn't see it earlier. Here's our problem. Clicking the Add To Table Button in the Map Layers and other Widgets won't automatically open that Table Widget we have in a Sidebar.…
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Should I Use Experience Builder or the Maps SDK for JavaScript?
You are someone with some level of programming/web development experience (For this article, I will assume you are at a pretty basic level, but I think this will be useful for experienced devs as well.) and you are about to start on building a new project. You have a good outline for what you need to build. The main…
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Printing A Map You Can't See - Or Why Would Anyone Hide A Map Widget?
Is this the strangest thing I've done? Maybe, I don't know. I've done some wacky stuff. Challenge * Once upon a time, another developer here made a very good Public Notification Tool in using the ArcGIS Pro SDK.* Better than anything I could hope to make in Experience Builder, even with unlimited time. * ESRI is adjusting…
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Accessibility Requirements Are Coming. Can You Find The New Accessibility Features In Experience Builder?
Do you work for a city or state government in the United States of America? Or some quasi-governmental entity like a school district? Did you know that the Department of Justice has ruled that your public facing websites must meet certain accessibility standards or you will be found in violation of the Americans with…
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First Thoughts On The October 2025 ArcGIS Online Update
Experience Builder Tips And Tricks is officially turning two years old tomorrow and to celebrate ESRI has given me something to write about, something that has become increasingly difficult since I ran out of ideas a full year ago. Yes, expect these twos to be totally and truly terrible. Birthdays remind us of traditions…
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I Asked AI To Install Developer Edition For Me. Here's How That Went...
Way back when, I indirectly, sort of promised a How To Install Developer Edition post and then never actually wrote it. And like everyone, I've been thinking a lot about AI for the past few years. Questions like "How can I do my job better with AI?" and more worryingly "Can AI do my job without me?" So what if we mix these…
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The Ultimate Guide to Invisible Widgets
Here at Tips & Tricks Enterprises LLC. we love hiding Widgets. But, we've never done a dedicated post on the topic. So let's make a list of all the fun ways we've found to use invisible Widgets and all the different ways they can be hidden. Long time readers may be shocked that there is more than one way to hide a Widget…
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First Thoughts On The June 2025 ArcGIS Online Update
It will be is was* ArcGIS Online Update Day again, so it's time for the fourth addition of our First Thoughts series. Before we talk about what the official development team has been up to, I'd like to shout out the work of the unofficial development team: us. We have been super busy coming out with a lot of new high…
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The DIY Widget Controller - Part II: The Secret Controller
Three Buttons for the Pages under the URL, Seven for the Views in their Section homes, Nine for Widgets doomed to close, One for the link on an external site In a Sidebar where a hidden Widget Controller lies. One set of Buttons to rule them all, One set of Buttons to find them, One set of Buttons to bring them all, And in…
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Making a Basemap Toggle Widget Using Components
Before we get into the meat of today's post, let's clarify some terms. Both Experience Builder and the Maps SDK for JavaScript (or JavaScript API, if like me, you refuse to accept the name change) have things called Widgets. In both platforms, Widgets are blocks of reusable code designed to do some task that can be easily…
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How to connect multiple data sources via a common identifier and obtain dynamic rendering
Hello everyone, This post will follow on from the previous one I wrote. (https://community.esri.com/t5/experience-builder-tips-and-tricks/how-to-easily-connect-your-data-and-make-their/ba-p/1580477) The aim is to be able to filter a first data source (transactions, for example) so that, thanks to a common identifier…
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Dynamic Text to show the count of specific attribute
I was working on a application that allowed the user to update a status of work they are doing on a particular feature, in this case road signs. The user has the ability to update a feature and set it's "Work Completed?" to Yes. The map will automatically filter to signs that still need work, Work Completed set to No. I…