Confusion...

[GregRieck]

WAB Developer Editon 2.2 Jewelry Box Theme.

Hello all,

I'm so confused. I'm getting conflicting messages from ESRI on WAB development/deployment. I have always been told that my custom widget changes should be made in the server\apps directory. Then when you are ready to publish you open WAB and download the app and post to IIS? Now, I'm being told that you should be working in the downloaded app directory and then post those changes directly to IIS.

What is the "correct" way to make custom code changes on widgets created through WAB. Working within a downloaded copy doesn't allow you to work in localhost. You have to make changes then publish to IIS to test. I have been working in localhost where I can debug my changes and not impact a live site. PLEASE HELP, what is the corret way? How does everyone else do this. And, my live site is throwing a "credential is null" error so I'm afraid there is some kind of licensing issue that is preventing my custom changes from being seen. Has anyone seen this error?

Thank You,

Greg

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Greg,

I'm being told that you should be working in the downloaded app directory and then post those changes directly to IIS

Not sure who is telling you that. I always working in the WAB server/apps folders.

credential is null is not an error and is completely normal.

[GregRieck]

Robert,

Thank You for the response.

ESRI Technical Support is telling me that. I've made changes to my site just like you do, in the server\apps directory. However, when I go back to WAB and download the site to post to IIS my changes are not being seen. Specifically I removed a button from my widget and after posting to IIS the button is still present. I've never run into that type of problem. My changes have always come across after downloading and posting to IIS.

Greg

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Greg,

   Have you cleared your browsers cache after you upload the new version to IIS.

[GregRieck]

Yes

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Greg,

   Do you see the widget changes in your WAB Dev Edition when you look at the app there?

[GregRieck]

Yes, changes I make to the local host copy of my server\apps directory are seen instantly. Its only when I download my WAB site and post to IIS that I cannot see changes in the "live" site. To clear the cache I use developer tools and choose empty cache and hard reload from the context menu of the live site. Should I do it a different way?

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Greg,

   Here is my standard workflow:

I build my apps in WAB Developer Edition and once I have them configured to my liking I download them and deploy them to my production web server. If I need to make a major change then I go back to the app in WAB and make that change and if the change was to just one widget then I just get the widgets json file from the apps configs folder and copy that json to my production web server. If it was a code change to a widget then I copy the widget to the web server as well. In an extreme case where I made a change to the jimu.js core files then I would re-download the whole app again and move it to the web server again.

I clear my browsers cache in a similar way to why you are doing. I use Chrome as my main browser and I use  New Incognito Window if I have any question about getting the latest code.

[GregRieck]

Robert,

I think the difference here is you are copying changed files directly from server\apps and pasting them into your deployed site. I was taught that you make changes to your server\apps and then when you are finished you re-download the app and republish to the deployed site. My problem with your workflow is that you have to remember the files you have changed and only copy those to the deployed site. So in some respects you are following the directions ESRI Support gave.

When I do it your way it does work. I'm just very cautious when someone tells me to do things differently than I was taught. Considering the way I was taught by redownloading and republishing the site was taught to me by ESRI in the first place. I'm certain you can understand my concerns and frustration. I'll just use my source control software to keep track of changed files and work around it that way.

Thanks for chatting with me Robert have a great weekend. 

Greg

[RobertScheitlin__GISP]

Greg,

  If you have changed so many that you can not remember then re-downloading should be fine.