I'm starting at last to dive into WAB 2.1 and JS 3.18/4.0!
From our users I've noticed it's all about the interface. Easy, discoverable and fast. The new widgets, and new Query are awesome. That in mind, things I have noticed thus far in WAB 2.1:
- Add Data widget - Sweet. However, it has KML, but no shapefile/gdb? Ironic. I imagine will be added soon. Meanwhile I'll just keep the two older custom widgets Add a Service and Add Shapefile.
- Filter widget WAB 2.1- I was confused for a sec... To turn on layers in the Filter widget you click the name of the layer. A checkbox would be consistent with LayerList and rest of the GUI. And the "Apply" button should change its text to say "Remove Filter" or something and do so, perhaps. Or in various widgets the 'gear' icon, while it kind of makes sense as a developer because are setting a query, I propose a Magnifying Glass as more discoverable. Because it 'starts' a 'search'... Though the more I use it, I suppose it will be fine it just may raise user questions at first. Overall the toggling and interface flow can probably be simplified and standardized more. Last, I ran into a bug after turn a filter on then off for a Zoning layer. Then, turning one on for another layer Proposed Zoning and all of a sudden the Existing Zoning wouldn't turn off. I panned, zoomed, tried turning it and other layers on and off in Layerlist to no avail. WAB 2.11. I will call support or create a separate thread if this persists.
- Query widget -
As noted in my separate idea, when using unique values it would be interesting if the widget could get a representative set of values or a certain amount from the top, so the menu doesn’t become unwieldy. https://community.esri.com/ideas/12622-filter-query-widget-need-to-populate-dropdown-menus-for-layer...
The Query widget should include the SQL condition of the Query in the Results layer name in the LayerList. Instead of just the blank Query_Results. To doublecheck what I just queried takes going back into the Query Widget then Tasks, several clicks. (i.e if it is ZONING greater than 1,000 acres" that should be in the title)
Query widget should turn a layer on, if it is not already turned on and visible in LayerList. For example if ‘proposed Zoning’ isn’t on, it should be turned on. Users will see 0 Results found and not understand. It is very good that it shows regardless of scale dependency though. That is a good behavior, for us at least.
- Layer list TOC... Checkbox to turn layers on/off with partial checkmark if only some layers in a group are on. One click on/off like AGS JS TOC. (These even apply to ArcMap.) It's actually just like this in Arc Earth and it's perfect.
- Select in WAB- add all draw tool shapes i.e. freehand lasso like Robert’s eSearch
- A placemark or graphic for geocoding results- Easy to set as an option in AGOL and WAB. A nice option for geocoding results would be a placemark at the x,y point. I used to put a .png image on the point, and upon clicking, the popup comes back up with the geocode score, lat/long and other geocoder info, for my homegrown sites. This is nice because I think it stands out a lot better visually than just a callout. Plus especially since for now you can't move Popups, it gets in the way more than a little placemark. This would let you close the callout, perhaps to pan or zoom the map a bit, then click it again, i.e. it 'saves' the result to be a clickable placemark on the map. (currently it goes away when closing the popup) I restrict it to the top result although I could see allowing it to be configurable with "x" number of address candidates where the programmer can set the amount displayed. Then it would show multiple placemark symbols for the results. That could be quite useful; with multiple results it could show dots on the map or polygons/lines depending on geocoder. This is also important because the popup is still not movable. (This is a very highly requested feature from users, be able to move the popup, it gets in the way of geocoder-located Polygon results, like property boundaries)
