First Thoughts On The June 2024 ArcGIS Online Update

[JeffreyThompson2]

All of the following does sort of assume that there's not a major bug introduced by the update. There seems to be a big problem.

The issue has reportedly been fixed.

It's everyone's favorite holiday that means more work instead of less work, ArcGIS Online Update Day!!!!!!!!!!! I've been looking over the What's New page and trying a few things out to see what you can do in Experience Builder today that you couldn't do yesterday and it's a lot. This is a big update. I don't see any huge new features, at least for my applications, but many of the small updates to existing widgets are absolute gamechangers. I'm going to go over what I think are the most important new options and some first thoughts of what you might be able to do with them.

New Actions:

• Open Sidebar
• Open Widget
• Plan Route
• Related Data
• Set As Analysis Input

All of these actions look super useful. I'll circle back to a few of them later.

New Data Sources:

• Building Scene Layers
• Imagery Layers
• Oriented Imagery Layers

I don't really use these types of layers, but if you do, this is lifechanging.

Privacy Settings: You're a businessy business person and you care about businessy business stuff like SEO and analytics. Now, you can use Google Analytics to track your performance. It also comes with the option for the user to turn it off so you don't get arrested in the EU or the ever growing list of jurisdictions where a turn off cookies button is legally required.

Icons: This was honestly the first thing on this update list that made me excited and it is such a tiny change. There are way more default choices in the icon picker. That's all, but wow is it a big quality of life improvement.

Related Data: I don't know how to use this yet, but it sounds very intriguing.

Additionally, you can use the layer's relationship to configure a message action where a trigger involving one data source can trigger an action with the related data.

New Widgets:

• Building Explorer: Doesn't really apply for me, but if your working on an indoor space, this looks like the widget for you. 
• Feature Report: Turn Survey123 stuff into PDFs. Looks super useful if you have Survey123 stuff.
• Measurement: (Did I do this? I might have done this. My first week in Experience Builder I put in a call to ESRI support asking for the Basemap Gallery, Select and Measure Map Tools to all be built out as separate widgets and now it's all been done. Tell ESRI what you want. They really do listen.) The gamechanger here is the ability to control where the Measure Widget actually goes. You can also set your default units to something other than your organization's defaults. A make-your-own-units and appearance options would be good next steps, ESRI.
• My Location: Do you want to stalk people? Now you can get their exact location, speed and altitude. There's some sort of neat walking survey application that could be made based on this widget. A field worker opens your app on their phone. It starts tracking their movements. As they go, they make notes with the Survey123 Widget. In the end, you have the Survey123 responses and the walking path that triggered them.

Widget Updates:

• Add Data: When I mentioned earlier that some small updates are gamechangers, this is the kind of stuff I was talking about... You can now sort your search results in the Add Data Widget.
• Analysis: For the first time, in one limited capacity, it is now possible to write custom code and run it in ArcGIS Online Experience Builder as the Analysis Widget supports custom geoprocessing tools. The ability to select stuff with one widget and make the Analysis Widget do stuff with the Set As Analysis Input Action has limitless potential.
• Basemap Gallery: 3D support. If you have 3D stuff, you probably want a 3D basemap. Now, it's an option.
• Bookmark: Your user has turned off the the visibility on three map layers, then they click on a bookmark to zoom to their area of interest. They are confused and angered as all the layers they turned off suddenly come back on plus two more that are normally off by default. Don't let this happen to your users. Turn on the Ignore Layer Visibility option so that map layers don't change with bookmarks. This should never be turned off unless you are deliberately making some sort of extremely guided Storymap-type experience. But, ESRI, could we please have the opposite as well? A bookmark that changes layers but not location would also be very useful.
• Directions: Your user has searched with Near Me to find their closest park, now they probably want to know how to get there. The Plan Route Action is here to save the day! 
• Edit: Add data with the Add Data Widget and edit it.
• Feature Info: Popups are great and all, but they also block your view of the map. That's why @RobertScheitlin__GISP made his Feature Panel and I made Identify. If you're not on Developer Edition your best popup replacement is Feature Info, but it can only handle one layer...until now. Sometime in the next few weeks, expect this sentence to turn into a link about combining the Open Sidebar Action and the Feature Info Widget into a full popup replacement, like Robert's auto-opening Feature Panel Sidebar trick. Edit: Tried and tested. It doesn't really work. Only one layer of features registers as selected at any given time, so it's not a popup replacement yet.
• Legend: The legend can be configured to only show stuff that currently on the map. Another small improvement that makes a big difference in user experience.
• Map:
  • Overview Map: It was technically possible to make an overview map from the very first version of Experience Builder, but now it's easy enough, as in one click, to actually be worth doing.
  • Dock Your Popups: Put your popups in a more convenient spot than covering up your data.
  • Zoom To Selection URL Parameter: Go to a specific feature on the map as soon as the page loads. Build links from other applications.
  • One Map = Select By Default: What a nice little quality of life addition.
• Near Me: More export options.
• Print: Report templates.
• Sidebar: A few updates ago, we got the Toggle Sidebar Action which was pretty good, but what if the Sidebar was already open and you don't want to close it. Enter the Open Sidebar Action. But ESRI, if you're going to give us an Open Sidebar Action, we should also get a Close Sidebar Action.
• Table: 
  • Control column widths: Yes, please.
  • Throw your whole map in and get tables for everything: That's faster than doing it one by one.
  • Delete Stuff: You can edit from a table, of course, you should be able to delete from a table, too.
• Views Navigation: Supports the Views Change and Button Click Action Triggers. This along with the Open Sidebar and Open Widget Actions makes all sorts of crazy user clicks one thing and everything changes stuff possible.

Those are my Experience Builder Update highlights, and no, I did not actually mention everything in this update. Is there something I missed on the update list you are excited about? Should I do this for every update?