Save Instance Widget
Hello everyone, my name is Sven. I’m a university student based in Vancouver, BC, currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science with a minor in Geographic Information Science (GIS).
Inspired by the Save Session Widget for WebAppBuilder I have created the Save Instance Widget for Experience Builder.
Visit my website JensenGIS to download the compiled widget, view the demo video and Github repository. I would really appreciate anyones feedback on the Save Instance Widget. Thanks!
Here is more information about the widget:
The Save Instance Widget lets you save and share the current state of your web map in Experience Builder — including extent, visible layers, basemap, graphics, and more. It's inspired by the classic Save Session Widget from Web AppBuilder, but built specifically for ArcGIS Experience Builder.
You can download the latest compiled version of the Save Instance Widget from JensenGIS.
Setup
Once downloaded, follow Esri’s guide on how to add custom widgets to your Experience Builder installation.
- Place the widget inside your /widgets directory.
- In Experience Builder, go to the Insert Widget tab and scroll down to the Custom Widgets section.
- Drag the Save Instance Widget onto your toolbar.
- Configure the widget by selecting a map for it to interact with.
That’s it — you’re ready to go.
Enter a name for the instance and click the Save Instance button.
Load an Instance
Click the Load Instance button to apply a previously saved map state.
Click the Edit Instance Name button and enter a new name when prompted.
Click Download Instance to export a .txt file containing that instance.
You can also download all saved instances using the Download Instances button at the bottom right of the widget.
Click Clear Instance Graphics to remove any graphics associated with the instance from the map.
I'd love to get instance-loaded graphics working with the Esri Draw Widget at some point. It’ll take a bit of setup, but if it’s something people are asking for, I’m happy to start looking into it — just let me know!
Click Delete Instance to permanently remove it from your saved list.
Sharing Instances
To share a saved instance, simply send the .txt file to another user. They can import it using the Upload Instances button in the bottom-left corner of the widget.
In the future, I’d love to add support for cloud storage of instances — let me know if that’s something you’d use!
Have a bug to report or a feature idea?
Please open an issue on this GitHub repo or leave a comment on this post.
I’m also happy to hear requests for:
- Migrating existing Web AppBuilder widgets to Experience Builder
- Building new custom widgets for open-source release or for private use.
Stay tuned — more tools are coming soon!
Hi Sven,
This widget is very helpful! In testing with our own ExB apps we notice that it does not hold the last state value for for sub groups within the map layer list. For example, it will remember the external group is checked in this case Utilities, but when reloading the instance to the map it will not remember cell tower, gas pipelines, or easements are check and will revert to the apps default state for sub layers. Could the widget be modified to accommodate subgroups?
@SvenJensen this is super cool. We are at ArcGIS Enterprise 11.1 and I was able to get the custom widget added to EXB, but when I pointed it to the map I get this below.
