Is there a way to use the templates without using - linking to arcgis online? Our company is not allowing the link due to security issues....that set aside, has anyone built an API. I would like to hear from you. Thanks.
our ArcGIS Online web mapping application templates are written to generate map content by passing a webmap id. that being said, you can also download the templates and with a little effort, make some changes so that they might accept raw webmap json instead.
i would suggest taking a look at this sample javascript application that loads application content using raw webmap json instead of loading it using an id.
its also worth noting though that if you have ArcGIS Server onsite with services that are only available internally, and use those services in webmaps hosted in ArcGIS Online, this doesn't expose any of your data to the outside world. ArcGIS Online simply stores the link to a url which a client later uses to make their own request. if the url is accessible, the data will load, if not, it won't.
