Web App Builder (Beta 3)

BrianO_keefe · ‎10-14-2014

I'm toasted.

I've spent 2 days now trying to develop an app with Web App Builder.

1) Local

Downloaded Web App Builder (Beta 3). Set it up on my server. Double-clicked startup.bat and get nothing but errors. Don't know if it's due to having a WebAdaptor or what, but I can't get it to work. My co-worker is suddenly decisively moving forward trying to unlock the errors but I'm done.

2) ArcGIS Online

Built the entire web app with Web App Builder (Beta 3) online. Laid it out, setup the pop-ups, configured the widgets, and then realized there wasn't a 'download' button. Almost lost my mind.

3) Web App Viewer

Downloaded this cockamammy nonsense and am proceeding to pull my hair out.

http://maps.cityoftulsa.org/iot/

There's the URL. I keep getting 'Forbidden Access' and I have no idea why. I'm editing the config.json file, but I'm quickly losing hope. Long week... and it's only Tuesday.

I figured this whole process would be INFINITELY easier if we just installed Portal but I don't have the time to even research it thoroughly enough to figure out if it will cause issues with our current configurations?! Ugh.

glennhazelton · ‎10-17-2014

thanks for the info Lee,

can you explain a bit more about 'special measures' to configure portal for SSL please.

for example do you have to have a valid https certificate for the server it is on? we generally don't buy these for servers behind the firewall and just set the SSL setting in IIS to 'ignore' so warning aren't thrown.

or maybe you are saying that with SSL only set you cannot add mapservices with just http: headings... which doesn't sound very good. how have you gotten around this?

I'd also like to understand a bit more about configuring the proxy. is this required? does it have an advantage?

I find it interesting and a bit overwhelming that all this is so complex and so poorly supported or documented. if you find someone at esri tech support who truly understands all this let me know. I am sure I will be calling and it would be nice to have someone specific to talk to.

meanwhile we can support each other on the is forum.

StanMcShinsky · ‎10-23-2014

you can create an iframe and load the convoluted URL from the AGO builder and run it from your own site. That way you have control over the URL and where people go to get to the page. something like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<head>

<title>Your Organization</title>

<style>

html, body, iframe{

width: 100%;

height: 100%;

margin: 0px;

padding: 0;

}

</style>

</head>

</body>

</html>

BrianO_keefe · ‎10-23-2014

I don't think I could bring myself to do that. The ADA compliancy stuff I've had to deal with in my past makes iFrames give me hives... lol.Luckily, WAB_B3 takes care of this issue. My map is running nicely.

I've actually developed a couple maps using WAB now.

One is still in my dev folder... http://maps.cityoftulsa.org/jsdev/mywatershed/

And the other is in flux... http://maps.cityoftulsa.org/iot/

Either way, I REALLY like how simply they both are put together. This kind of JS dev application will give me MUCH more time to devote to learn the Javascript API more intimately so I can start doing some development on custom widgets and such.

glennhazelton · ‎10-17-2014

i'm about to go down the Portal path to get around the issue of having to use Token based authentication. are you using Active Directory to authenticate secure services?

BrianO_keefe · ‎10-17-2014

Glen,

That is the direction we are planning on. My biggest problem is time.

In order to implement the level of security that we want AND need, I have to get with the AD people and find out a group that basically IS all City Employees. I literally do not have the time to just find out who the AD people are much less contact them and ask about these groups.

I am being given "this important department needs this" or "this important person has to have one of these" types of projects on an almost hourly basis. I don't have time to do the simple and vitally important things like build a foundation. I should be cloistered in a room delving into Dojo so that I can start coding customer widgets, tightening up the few javascript maps we do have, developing replacements for the now outdated flex maps that are still staring at me daily.

Instead, I just spent a week getting WAB installed so I could dev a map for our Streets Projects under one of our Tax programs. And now I am a week late to a Story map for our Planning department. I want to be doing what Robert Scheitlin‌ is doing and learning the API intimately and custom coding components to make maps that are amazing... not just requested.

Sorry, mini-rant there.

Glen, yes. Our goal is to use AD authentication to power our security on WebAdaptor. I was HOPING that Portal would add another layer to this security. I still haven't had time to dig through all the documentation for Portal that I need to yet. But I hope to.

glennhazelton · ‎10-17-2014

thanks for the response. I feel your pain. it seems that most of us are chief-cook-and-bottle-washer types. by our nature we tend to be the hub of many tasks and projects. for my part I am not very pleased that I have to become a 'coder' as well. thus my desire to leverage the great works of Robert S and Larry S and others who are bravely developing code we can all use by configuring. I think esri should pay them for their efforts and develop more usability into their apps.

as far as Portal goes, from all I have read it does support AD and so groups that are setup in AD can be used to authenticate. so there will not be a need to rebuild groups in ArcServer manager. in our AD environment we have a group that contains all employees called 'domain users'. I have had the network people add a couple other groups populated with people who could publish maps or just view them. we have a policy where not everyone in the organization can see the location of our pipes etc. , so I can only use the domain user group for things like our service area.

perhaps we can help each other as we go through the Portal..

BrianO_keefe · ‎10-17-2014

I would like that.

I gotta throw in, I am more coder than GIS. My GIS experience comes from working in a department that talked GIS but acted CAD. I was thrown at GeoMedia for a few years and by learning my way around the interface I was able to suss out basic GIS concepts. Personal research brought me closer to the stronger knowledge I have now, that and some amazing Gurus who answered any question I had. I had some ESRI from back in the early 90's from the Marines, but it was for my Field Artillery Fire Controllman training and was mainly for locating things on a map and some survey classes. Currently I have access to someone who I consider to be a definitive answer for all things GIS. I'm trying to be the GIS Programmer guy as I manage our web maps and tech-type work.

So I am in-between both worlds kinda, lol. I love both GIS and programming. Especially web programming. But I have little, to no, official training. So I have a weak foundation but strong experiential knowledge of web dev. I can take apart code and re-write a lot... but writing from scratch in Javascript gives me hives. I have tried to dig into Dojo but keep hitting dead-ends in my learning. So I'm hanging on waiting for someone to put together a decent (free) online Dojo course that I can watch.

ANYWAY... Portal is my current dream. If I never have to sign on to my AGOO/AGO platform again it will be too soon. I would rather see that kind of functionality locally on our clustered servers. Being able to develop a web map in the AGOO/AGO styled system and deploy FROM that system is where I am dreaming towards. That and WAB Widget dev.

Well, before this becomes a novel. Peace.

glennhazelton · ‎10-17-2014

Larry Stout Larry.Stout@hamiltoncounty.in.gov

has been on a crusade to get WAB able to use rest end pts without going through portal or AGOL. I think we all should be supporting his efforts. I am not very interested in having to pay esri for 'named user' seats to Portal for people who are behind the firewall at desks wanting to see a map. I can understand the model for field people who will be logging in from the field on tablets....

BrianO_keefe · ‎10-17-2014

I also think that WAB should have more custom config points.

If I want the legend to sit in the top right of my map, in a floating pop-up, with an image as the background, and have a height of X and a width of Y, I should be able to manipulate all of that from the builder. Not in code that will get overwritten at the first update to my app.

That and favicon. I have had to re-code the stupid favicon (and custom CSS for customer legend sizing) for this map I developed in WAB 6 times. Ugh X 6.

BrianO_keefe · ‎10-17-2014

But don't get me wrong.

I've been harping at work for months now saying I needed time to develop a javascript library for building web maps because all of the ArcGIS Javascript API examples were one-shot wonders and no, I can't just add more buttons to one of those maps and have it be what you are requesting. The WAB fulfills a MUCH needed slot. I can dev a whole map there, then adjust the code as needed.

It's just those updates that are killing me.