Maps SDK transitioning to Components in Jimu Development

[tssau]

Regarding this post:  https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/js-api-arcgis/developers/javascript-maps-sdk-a-full-transi...

How will this affect custom ExB widget development? Is Esri updating the Jimu framework to accommodate these, or is it up to the user?

[Allen_Zhang]

The main change in Maps SDK is to separate the UI widgets from the core logic without UI.

The new widgets' underlying technology is https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_components

These changes do not affect the Jimu framework; instead, they require adaptive modifications by the ExB widgets that rely on Maps SDK widgets, such as Map, Measurement, Table, and Edit.

[tssau]

Let's take Sketch for example.

In a custom widget, how would you correctly swap to the web component?

 Widget

import Sketch from "@arcgis/core/widgets/Sketch";    

const sketchWidget = new Sketch({
          view: jimuMapView.view,
          layer: graphicsLayer, 
.... etc ...​ 

vs.

 Component

<arcgis-map basemap="topo-vector" center="139.5716,35.696" zoom="18"> 
   <arcgis-sketch position="top-right" creation-mode="update"> 
   </arcgis-sketch> 
</arcgis-map>

[Allen_Zhang]

The component is more modern and intuitive for developers, so I think it's the right choice.

And we must consider that the widgets will be depracated in 2026Q1 and removed in 2027Q1.