Introducing Experience Builder Express mode

[BernSzukalski]

With last night's ArcGIS Online update, ArcGIS Experience Builder introduces Express mode, designed to make app building easy, enabling you to quickly and efficiently make engaging apps. Choose from a variety of templates to begin creating a new app, then follow the streamlined workflow to complete your experience.

Use the mode toggle in the upper right to go from Express mode to Full mode and vice versa.

The app templates are similar to the Web AppBuilder classic templates.

For more information, see ArcGIS Experience Builder: Introducing Express mode.

[DanCopKac]

Thanks for the information, Bern.

But how about the Batch Editor widget? Or Drawing text so I can label my drawings? Are those adequate excuses?

[MichaelMorisette]

It is not a suitable replacement as it currently stands.  There are several widgets we rely on that are still missing in Experience Builder.  Additionally, it doesn't appear possible to switch templates after app creation which completely defeats the purpose.  All the "express mode" appears to be is a stripped-down version of full mode, and not at all how AppBuilder functioned.

If you choose to reinvent the wheel, then it's on you to provide a stable and functional equivalent before retiring the old app; this is the bare minimum in the software world and doesn't seem like it should be asking much.

[BernSzukalski]

Responding to @MichaelMorisette and @DanCopKac - your comments are appreciated and have been forwarded to the dev team. Will Express Mode evolve? Surely, and feedback like yours helps direct that evolution. But clearly, Experience Builder Express Mode is very different than WAB, but it also offers lots of capabilities that WAB did not.

WAB is not scheduled for retirement until 2026, so lots of time to incorporate improvements, capabilities, and suggestions, so keep the feedback coming.

[MichaelMorisette]

Thank you for reaching out @BernSzukalski.  For whatever reason this post came into my web search when trying to figure out how to switch templates and I felt the need to vent some frustration online.  I will follow up via Email as suggested about the specific concern.

If nothing else, this personal level of customer care is what always makes it great in the grand scheme of things.

[Jianxia]

@DanCopKac , Draw text tool is now in the Draw widget in Experience Builder for ArcGIS Online and developer edition 1.16. It will be available in the version of ArcGIS Enterprise planned for the first half of 2025. As for editing batch attributes, it is planned for Q2 2025. 

[Jianxia]

@MichaelMorisette thank you for letting us know. We have been working on the feature parity from Web AppBuilder to Experience Builder and will continue striving to narrow the gap. Could you please share functionalities you are waiting for that are not yet available? Are you using Experience Builder in ArcGIS Online, Enterprise, or developer edition? If Enterprise or developer edition, which version you are using? This will help us understand functionalities available to a specific version. Thank you!