Web App Builder hosted on AGO vs. WAB Developer Edition

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11-18-2015 12:04 PM
RichardLittlefield
Occasional Contributor II

Hi,

We have used a few of Robert's Robert Scheitlin, GISP custom widgets in our web maps using ArcGIS Viewer for Flex. With that program being retired we are switching all of our web maps over to Web App Builder hosted on ArcGIS Online.

One of the nice things I like about WAB is that it is hosted on AGO. Before with flex, our maps were internal only and couldn't be accessed outside the network. With WAB since it is hosted on AGO all of our applications can be accessed outside of our network, which is great for our field crews and managers when they are in meetings or outside in the field.

I've seen that there are a lot of custom widgets for WAB which is great. I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. Since we are using WAB on AGO, I believe that means we can not use custom widgets, correct? If we wanted to use custom widgets, then we'd have to download the WAB Developer edition, then host it on our servers, like we did with flex, which would mean no outside access. Is that correct? I just want to make sure that there is no way to add custom widgets to WAB application that are hosted on AGO? Or there is not a way to download the existing code on WAB and edit it (add custom widgets), then upload it back to AGO for them to host it?

Thanks for any clarification.

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RobertScheitlin__GISP
MVP Emeritus

Richard,

   You are correct that you can not use custom widget when using the WAB hosted by AGOL. To use custom widgets you would have to download WAB Dev and host on your own web server. You can have your IT Dept make a web server publicly accessible that will host the app (this will work for Flex or WAB).

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RobertScheitlin__GISP
MVP Emeritus

Richard,

   You are correct that you can not use custom widget when using the WAB hosted by AGOL. To use custom widgets you would have to download WAB Dev and host on your own web server. You can have your IT Dept make a web server publicly accessible that will host the app (this will work for Flex or WAB).

RichardLittlefield
Occasional Contributor II

Thank you Robert, that clears it up. We might have to eventually go that route and have our own web server outside our firewall. More and more things are pointing to that solution. If we did that, I'm assuming that machine would have to have IIS on it. Then for a web certificate, do you just have to purchase one certificate for the beginning of your URL (for example http://yourcity.org/...) Then I could have as many applications certified under that one certificate? So I could have WAB apps, and maybe Esri's Local Government solution apps under that as well?

Thanks

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RobertScheitlin__GISP
MVP Emeritus

Richard,

   I took one of my oldest servers and placed it inside my firewalls DMZ and install Apache web server on it and setup a reverse proxy. The reverse proxy communicates to a web server inside my firewall though a undisclosed port number (other than port 80) and the firewall allows communication back and forth from those servers only thought that undisclosed port. The whole web certificate side I leave to my IT Dept so I can not help much there, but yes I believe once you have a public facing URL and have it registered with your ISP provider then you can have as many sites as you want using it as long as they have unique urls.

MegPeterson
New Contributor III

Hi Robert -

We have an internal site up and working behind our firewall using WAB Dev Edition and Portal for ArcGIS. We only use Portal to publish web maps. The Portal, per our IT department, will not be made available to the public.

I need to move this site to our Amazon public server. When I deploy it in the wwwroot directory and set up a proxy etc, the application loads but can not find the web map since it was published internally and is not publically available. The web map is consuming services in the cloud it's just that the web map itself is stuck behind our firewall.

Can you suggest a best practices option for developing behind the firewall but then deploying to a public server? Do I need to install Portal on the public machine to publish the web maps and if so, is it possible to have my local WAB Dev Edition connect to two Portals - one for public and one for internal production?

As always, thanks for the input.

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RobertScheitlin__GISP
MVP Emeritus

Meg,

   I do not have much experience with amazon server and local portal, but yes the portal that has your webmap will need to be public in order for this to work. If your services are public that are used in the webmap then why do you not just use your orgs AGOL to host the webmap?

MegPeterson
New Contributor III

My organization isn't interested in AGOL for hosting. So in the end we will have Portal and WAB DE installed both on Amazon and on our internal web server.

Thanks for the input on the web map needing to be public though. I was making too many assumptions deployment was similar to Flex.

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AaronKreag2
New Contributor II

Robert Scheitlin, GISP​ I have to flip this question and look silly but I cant find any answers.  A year ago I was at a company that had all public data, everything was public facing, we ran Flex and AGO as needed.  All good.

Now I am at a company that does not want any data exposed to the public, nor is there much of an appetite for AGO outside of basemap consumption.  There is also minimal support for using web based security / authentication on a public front end.  Anyone else in this boat?  Can you or others comment on options.  I was thinking that I would use the WAB - Dev Edition, which I have downloaded.  I have the data, application server and web server running internally.

How are we able to leverage the locally hosted WAB and these custom widgets without the full on public access like I see in TAPAS DAS WAB pdf document?  Anyone else struggling with access / security and all the moving parts associated with the awkward integrated AGO requirements?  Thanks!

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RobertScheitlin__GISP
MVP Emeritus

Aaron,

   You may want to look at this thread then:

Internal ONLY Web Map Sharing Issues

DanielStoelb
Occasional Contributor III

I'd also suggest looking at a recent post on ESRI's blog:

Setting up a proxy with Web AppBuilder Developer Edition | Support Services Blog