Deploying a Custom Web Map App on Portal

[BrandynFriedly]

Hi All,

I'm new to ArcGIS Portal and the JS API, and am looking to start publishing in-house web apps for our organization.  One thing that I'm struggling to find in documentation is how to create and deploy a completely custom web map application on Portal.

It looks to me from the documents that you have to use the Web App Builder and pick widgets/themes, but what if I'd like to just write a map app from scratch?  Is there any reason why you can't just use Leaflet or OpenLayers.js to create a map that is served up by Portal and communicating with your ArcGIS Server?  I guess I don't understand why I'd need ESRI/Leaflet and have Dojo baked into all my apps.

So my two questions are:

1. Can I just write the code for an app and deploy that to Portal, without using a Web App Builder?
2. Do I have to use ArcGIS.js?

Any suggestions or reading related to this would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Brandyn

[MichaelLinden]

Hi, are you still wondering about this? 

[AdrianWelsh]

Michael,

Do you have a good reply for this? It looks like when this thread was created, I must have clicked "I have the same question" since I got a notice when you replied!

[MichaelLinden]

Hi Adrian,

If i'm interpreting the question correctly, then yes I do. Are you wanting to create your own themes and widgets instead of using the out of the box web app builder widgets/themes?

[AdrianWelsh]

Yes? I can't remember why I marked I had the same question but I must had needed this somewhere down the line. But yes, I want to [at some point] create my own widgets/themes.

[MichaelLinden]

Ok, so I started out just like you and knew absolutely nothing about Javascript or app development or anything and now my company uses an app that i coded from scratch with a custom theme and everything. I'm not tooting my own horn I'm just saying that I know exactly where you're coming from and I could be a good resource for you! Plus I'm an Aggie myself (class of '13). So here's where I started:

This is tutorial is a decent resource to getting started with making your own theme: 

Create a theme—Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS (Developer Edition) | ArcGIS for Developers 

There's a decent ESRI training video that shows you how to create your own controller widget that i'm trying to find for you, but having trouble locating it. I'll keep looking.

I also followed this tutorial to create my first widget and from there began experimenting with it and customizing it. 

Create a ListView widget—Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS (Developer Edition) | ArcGIS for Developers 

Do you have experience with Javascript and HTML? I bought a couple textbooks and read through them to start learning how to code using those two languages. I bought these books:

https://www.amazon.com/Web-Design-HTML-JavaScript-jQuery/dp/1118907442/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=152632... 

Let me know what you're next questions are! I'm looking forward to helping you out!

[AdrianWelsh]

Thanks Michael. If I was in the right place for this at the moment, I would be working through this. For now, I just create WAB maps (developer style), with custom widgets, and host them on a web server, not through ArcGIS Enterprise or Portal. When I get those platforms more set up, I will be revisiting this thread. I appreciate your help.

[MichaelLinden]

Ah ok I may have gotten too excited to help someone out, haha. Good luck!