topic Re: Add Multiple Related Records in ArcGIS Web AppBuilder Questions

Add Multiple Related Records

SteveLane — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 12:15:55 GMT

Hey All-

I work for a company that does a lot of field inspections, and one of the Achilles heels of AGOL/WebApp Builder "out of the box" has been that inspection records in a related table must be added individually. Or they can be added en masse to a related table by a relatively cumbersome process of exporting a table of inspections to be completed, editing that table, and then appending that table to the live feature service (not much of a time saver).

What I would LOVE to see is a widget in WAB that, similar to the batch attribute editor, allowed you to ADD a related record to multiple features in one fell swoop. In other words, if a hydrant flushing crew flushed 100 hydrants this week, it would be fantastic to be able to highlight those 100 hydrants, and then add a related maintenance record (with identical field values) to each with a few clicks that denotes they were flushed, without having to visit each point and add the same related data to each. I'd be happy to hear someone say this functionality already exists and I've just missed it somewhere in the last update cycle (PLEASE!), but I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

I'm not a programmer (enough python and SQL to be dangerous to myself and others), and we don't run server (I'm sure this is fairly common in the community). I'm sure there's a way to program your way out of this issue with database triggers and custom widgets, but it's probably out of my and many others league(s) for right now. I think this would be a VERY popular widget in the field-data collection and management community, so any info on plans for such a thing would be appreciated.

Cheers

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

MichaelMelendez — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 18:20:33 GMT

I also have this request.

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

KellyArmstrong — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 17:31:58 GMT

Same here

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

AlixVezina — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 19:21:28 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

This enhancement is currently under consideration and may be included in a future update of the Smart Editor widget before the end of this year. We will keep you posted.

Regards,

Alix

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

Marc_Graham — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 08:32:33 GMT

Please do. Or add it to the batch attribute editor widget. Or add the functionality of the batch attribute editor widget and the regular widget into the smart editor widget so there is one excellent editing widget that does it all. And make all the options customisable so people can choose to have a complex or basic editing workflow.

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

AlixVezina — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 20:19:41 GMT

Hi, I just wanted to follow up on the status of this request. After consideration, this enhancement is not planned to be included in a current Web AppBuilder widget, but will rather be considered for Experience Builder.

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

DaveOrlando — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 16:49:29 GMT

Please please please tell me you haven't abandoned Web AppBuilder for Experience Builder.

If I see more comments like this I will be very concerned and back to the drawing board. I was about 90% of the way to replacing the functionality of our old application (Silverlight) and now Experience Builder (great in concept) is back to about 10% functionality.

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

AlixVezina — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 16:14:53 GMT

Hi Dave Orlando‌,

Experience Builder will not replace Web AppBuilder nor make it obsolete. Both builders will be running and maintained in parallel. Web AppBuilder will continue to be available. It's great to hear about users expanding onto our platform. Experience Builder is built on ArcGIS API 4.x for JavaScript, whereas Web AppBuilder is built on version 3.x. ArcGIS Experience Builder takes advantage of modern web development technologies, including React and TypeScript, which are part of the new widget development platform. This allows us to implement new ideas and innovate with new exciting capabilities!

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

Marc_Graham — Sun, 11 Oct 2020 20:33:38 GMT

Hi, so if the Web AppBuilder is not going to be made redundant by Experience Builder then surely you are going to keep developing functionality for it so that the two have feature parity? Otherwise we are going to come to the awkward position where both apps can do a little bit of what the users need, but neither can do all of it. Unfortunately this is already a common occurrence with the templated apps.

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

AlixVezina — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 16:36:44 GMT

Marc Graham‌, it is important for us to provide the tools you need. Please make sure you keep providing your feedback and ideas on GeoNet, we really appreciate hearing from you and everyone using the software!

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

AlixVezina — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 16:44:25 GMT

Also, here's an occasion to provide feedback! Please feel free to fill out the survey shared in this blog post: https://community.esri.com/community/geonet-lounge/blog/2020/09/24/painting-the-forest

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

KellyArmstrong — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 18:42:36 GMT

Any updates to this? I was given different info from ESRI Chat help about an enhancement coming to AGOL, that would have a batch related records widget? ENH-000131175

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

KevinMacLeodCAI — Wed, 26 May 2021 18:26:10 GMT

There are a vast number of very large Esri clients heavily leveraging in WebApp Builder. It is a brilliant product and reached a great level of power last few years. Experience Builder may take a few years to reach feature parity with WAB I think and more importantly, I think its end user interface is harder to understand. It is similar to Pro. In Pro, many things take more clicks than ArcMap and then there is the Ribbon. However, I am fine with it. No problem. As power users and GIS professionals, we can still get things done. But for the end user, it is a higher bar. User Interfaces must be 1) discoverable and easy 2) fast 3) reliable. These are things I've just noticed through teaching hundreds of users. WebApp Builder has achieved all these. With one exception of the layer list not having grouping and intuitive on/off. However the Exp Builder layer list is a step back. It should use the Group Layers custom WAB widget which has red/green On/Off switches and supports groups. And have partial checkbox. White text on dark background is lower readability and all-white all-flat icons like in Win 10 look neat but are harder to see and understand. I always added color to my WAB toolbar icons and a CSS on-hover when they are moused over to highlight them. WAB is easy to customize, and fix things like adding moving popups. All this to say... I'd consider adding this to WAB. The amount of large customers using WAB for very important production sites supports it. While Exp Builder is still new I would encourage user focus group testing on the interface and/or making it more like WebApp Builder which by now is so popular everyday folks have probably seen it and are familiar with it. This batch editing Idea would be great to see in WebApp Builder.

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

AlexandraRutherford — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 22:19:18 GMT

Any update to this? I too need this functionality or another way to batch add inspection records to a related table.

Re: Add Multiple Related Records

AllisonKampbell — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 21:00:17 GMT

I would so love this functionality. Many uses in utility maintenance for sanitary, storm, and water. My field staff find it so cumbersome to have to select individual pipes to apply a cleaning record.