Unable to install Experience Builder Developer

[Aayesha]

Hello, I keep running into an error when trying to install Experience Builder Developer. I am new to this so apologies if its an obvious easy fix. 

I am following this installation guide and cannot seem to get past point 8:

 ArcGIS Experience Builder install | ArcGIS Experience Builder | Esri Developer

When running the cmd npm ci for the client i recieve the following error:

The cmd for the server seems to take an age to install as well and doesnt seem to complete. 

Any help would be really appreciated 🙂

Thanks 

[JeffreyThompson2 · Accepted solution]

The most likely issue is that the downloads are being blocked by ssl security. It's not the most secure way to do it, but turning off the ssl check should resolve your issue. This will make you vulnerable to man in the middle attacks when downloading future npm packages.

Run npm set strict-ssl false before running npm ci.

After finishing the Experience Builder installation process, you can run npm set strict-ssl true to turn ssl security back on and restore your security.

[Aayesha]

That worked, thank you! 

When trying to access the localhost:3001 URL a privacy error appears. Im assuming its because I am trying to download on my works laptop and firewall isnt allowing. Is there an easy way round this?

Thanks! 

[JeffreyThompson2]

This is also an issue related to ssl security. If you look at a url and you see https, the s tells you that this site has a ssl certificate. A ssl certificate verifies that the site you are visiting is what it says it is and is supposed to be signed by a third party. Experience Builder uses a self-signed ssl certificate for development purposes because no third party could, should or would sign an ssl certificate for localhost. Having a self-signed certificate would ordinarily be a big red flag that the site is malicious, but you are connecting to localhost so it is safe. The kind of attack that an ssl certificate is supposed to protect you from is called a man-in-the-middle attack, where a bad actor intercepts your call to a site and pretends to be that site. But localhost is your own computer, you can't be victim to a man-in-the-middle attack because there is no middle. All of that is to say that the error you are seeing is itself in error. Your connection is in fact private and secure. 

You should see some option in your browser to ignore this warning and proceed unsafely to the site. If you can, just press that and proceed onward. You could also try accessing http://localhost:3000. This should be a version of the site that does not expect a ssl certificate.

If it's not there, it's likely that your corporate IT has disabled it. You will need to talk to them about allowing you to ignore this warning, whitelist localhost, trusting the ssl certificate packed with Experience Builder, or making your own ssl certificate. There is some information about these last two options under step 10 of the install guide.

https://developers.arcgis.com/experience-builder/guide/install-guide/

[Aayesha]

Thank you so much for the explanation and your help! 😊 

It seems I need to contact my IT department to allow access which I will do now. Thanks again!