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!
Some feedback I would suggest is changing the dialogue boxes like this:
To be something within the widget. This widget offers a function like this when the user clicks delete.
Some feedback I had with working @JeffreyThompson2 on the widget above was adding a user acknowledgment of local storage which the widget above has as well before automatically using local storage. Also a reminder for users that local storage is not a good solution for long term storage.
Other feedback request:
In the settings in developer edition, enable the option to have the clear instance graphics button be hidden or shown within the widget. If the application doesn't have the out of the box Draw tool, the button doesn't have anything to correlate with.
