Make web editor available to Mobile Workers

[RichardHowe]

I can't see the rationale behind making the web editor only available to Creators and higher. Anyone with a Creator licence already has access to ArcGIS Pro where they can edit their data with the full suite of desktop tools. The real beneficiaries of Web Editor will be Mobile Workers who have been out in the field and are potentially limited by Field Maps editing tools, and wish to tidy up their data when they are back in the office.

The Creator licence type is there for those who wish to create actual content i.e. hosted feature layers, webmaps, dashboards etc. not for those who simply wish to edit existing data.

Please reconsider the restrictive licencing of what, on the the face of it, seems like a really useful addition!

[MichaelTorbett]

For my agency's workflow, we really need split, merge, reshape, and auto complete editing functions available in the Edit widget within Experience Builder. Just like it's currently available with Web App Builder. However, if user licensing is going to require all users to be Creators for this level of editing, then we can't use it and will have to look elsewhere. 

[AbiDhakal]

@LarryYoung -

After such a long wait and so much anticipation, it's incredibly disappointing to see the direction Esri has taken.

To promote the new Web Editor application, Esri has chosen to restrict basic editing capabilities that were once available through the Edit widget in Web AppBuilder. This functionality that countless loyal users, including those supporting public-facing applications, have relied on for years. We were doing quite well with what existed.

Removing or withholding such a fundamental feature from Experience Builder feels not only unnecessary but like a calculated move to drive users toward a paid solution. This decision comes across as short-sighted, cutthroat, and deeply disheartening. The fact that the original Edit widget still functions in Web AppBuilder, yet remains absent in Experience Builder, only adds to the frustration felt by long-standing users.

Worse still, this is happening at the expense of usability and workflow efficiency. GIS professionals and end users once enjoyed a user-friendly, streamlined editing experience in Web AppBuilder. Now, for the sake of licensing, that tool has not only been downgraded in Experience Builder; it has been moved entirely to a separate Web Editor application, further complicating workflows and causing unnecessary disruption.

Despite repeated concerns voiced throughout the Esri Community, it seems those voices have not been heard. What was once a core, inclusive capability is now gated behind licensing, effectively betraying the trust of honest, loyal, lifelong users who simply need to perform basic edits in the modern web environment Esri is requiring us to transition into.

Esri and its users have long enjoyed a very symbiotic ecosystem, where Esri provides the capabilities, and users contribute honest, thoughtful feedback. In tandem, we have improved and learned from one another. Let us keep it that way and make this a selfless pursuit of capabilities that help the science of geography thrive.

Esri is, of course, free to innovate and promote the new Web Editor as a premium offering. But we strongly urge you to also restore the original Edit widget, with its full capabilities, within Experience Builder, and make it available across user types, especially for Creators and Mobile Workers.

This is not just a feature request. It is a plea from a dedicated community that has supported Esri for decades and now feels disregarded.

Please do the right thing. Restore this essential functionality where it belongs.

Thank you,
Abi

[Jianxia]

For those inquiring about the feature parity of Web AppBuilder editing tools in Experience Builder, the following tools are planned to be included in Experience Builder:

• Split (Cut) & Merge tools in ArcGIS Online Q4 2025, ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1
• Copy & Paste features in ArcGIS Online Q1 2026, ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1
• Reshape & AutoComplete tools in ArcGIS Online Q2 2026, ArcGIS Enterprise version after 12.1

The user type for utilizing these tools in Experience Builder is the same as Web AppBuilder. We will post an update on the road map to complete WAB planned parity features. 

[RichardHowe]

@Jianxia Thank you for confirmation. Can you also confirm they will be coming to the map viewer, as mentioned in this thread?

It is not a practical workflow for us to have to create an experience builder app equivalent of every one of the hundreds of surveys that we generate just to enable basic editing tools for mobile workers to use back in the office

[Jianxia]

@RichardHowe, I would defer to @LarryYoung 's comment on your Map Viewer inquiry. 

[LarryYoung]

@RichardHowe the plan is to support split, merge, auto-complete and reshape as part of the Editor component which makes up the editing capabilities in Map Viewer and is also exposed as a widget in Experience Builder.  

Copy/paste is a little different and therefore will be developed as a separate component within the JS SDK.  The Experience Builder teams will determine the best way to expose that component in their application, but no immediate plans to expose it within Map Viewer.