Community
Select to view content in your preferred language

Select Widget Improvements

67
0
a week ago
Status: Open
CameronLacelle
by
Frequent Contributor

I have several functionality issues with widgets for searching/filtering/selecting data records in Experience Builder. I've ran into many severe limitations of the Query, Filter, and Select widgets when trying to build from the ground up a new corporate GIS viewer for my organization. I favoured the query widget heavily as it was most similar in searching for data by attributes or spatial relationships to our current outdated GIS viewer which was built on open source legacy software.

Since the query widget does not select data records on the map (only selects the "created records", I cannot really use the results of a query widget for any other functionality such as a spatial filter aka select within). The only way to get the query widget to select data is to use the Framework action for "when record selection changes" but this then causes other issues with selection in the map.

So I've since switched my attention to the Select Widget as at least I can use an attribute search to actually select map data to use in a spatial select (select within). However I really don't like some of the functionality and design differences of the select by attribute widget compared to the query, it just is way less clean and not as user friendly for our non-GIS end users.

Here is my rambling nonsense for improvements to the Select Widget, especially as it pertains to the select by attribute that need to be implemented for significant improvement of usability for ExB:

  • Apply Button: The select widget needs to have the option for an Apply button instead of only a toggle. The query widget has the apply and reset buttons which I think are fantastic and practical. The filter widget has the option for a toggle or an apply button so why can't the select widget have the same?
  • Clear/Reset Search Parameters: There is no "Reset" option in the select widget like with the query widget or an option in the filter widget which clears all previous search parameters. This means users have to manually clear the text box or drop down searches they previously applied unless they refresh the page, which is extremely inefficient.
  • Re-Order Selectable Layers: As with the regular map select, layers are automatically sorted by their layer visibility order, meaning if my layer order in the map is "Building Footprints, Assessment Parcels, Civic Address" then the selectable layers will appear in this same order. In the select by attribute they are ordered by which layers you add to the selectable layers first, and that's the concrete order. There is no option to re-order layers like with the query widget which means if I want to order my select by attribute layers alphabetically to make it easier for users to find the layer they want to search by, I have to completely reconfigure my select widget which can take days for web maps where we have many layers. There either needs to be an options to re-order layers like the query widget, or an option for auto sorting layers by: alphabetical order, map order, or default order (order you added them to the widget configuration). This is a severely missed functionality that makes the widget a headache to use but because it's the best option out of select, query, and filter, it's the one I need to use.
  • Open Attribute Search: the select by attribute widget is a bit clunky with having you open the attribute search within the same window as all the other selectable layers list. You should have the option to click on the layer name which will then open the searchable attributes as with the query widget.

 

I am sure there are many other functional gaps I am missing to mention in here but there seriously needs to be an overhaul of the select widget and its configuration options. It is just a mess right now and there are severe gaps in Experience Builder's capabilities that I know myself and other users are frustrated by, especially when WebAppBuilder is getting the boot soon and we have no choice but to use ExB for our complex web apps. Basic functionality is missing from ExB and it needs to be addressed sooner than later.