Dear all,
I am working with GIS open source technologies for last many years and to some how with ArcGIS as well. But this is my first time that I came across Web AppBuilder. My clients wants me to develop their new application through Web AppBuilder.
The web application is a custom ERP solution. In this application there will be different users roles having different level of access to different modules and also to limited datasets. e.g. data entry user can only enter the data and once he submits the data, it will be lock to that user for editing and his sent to his supervisor for review. If supervisor finds it OK, he will forward to next tier with some more attachments and filling data in some more fields, if there are problems, supervisor can return the form back to data entry operator with comments and data entry operator will be sent an alert through email or on his own dashboard, he will review the form again and send it again. So this is one scenario, there are other scenarios as well. Also this application will involve development of work-planing module which is also having customized requirements and some other modules related to CRM. Further more there will be Power BI embedding, there will be different level of dashboards for management. These dashboards will have tabular, graphical and geographical reporting. This whole application will be responsive. Only thing which involve the spatial attributes are companies data. Other than that there is no GIS involved for example in workplaning, CRM. And also for companies we just need there coordinates while entering the data, so that we can use these coordinates later in reports.
I myself proposed the solution to develop this whole application in any other technology like PhP framework /MySQL with Bootstrap etc. or any other web technology. As we need geo-coding of companies for example, we can do it by getting the location of device or even we can ask them to select from the map, or we can geo-code the company address as well. Once data is complied, we push compiled data it to ArcGIS through its javascript API for reporting purpose. and maps be created in ArcGIS and from same API we show these maps in web application dashboards etc. furthermore we integrate Power BI as well in web application built in PhP etc.
But client view is to develop this application through Arc Web AppBuilder, there are built in widgets and suggests that we can customize those widgets etc. So my question from experts is that is it easy to develop such custom application which involve modules related to ERP, CRM, project management (which need lot of customization as well) using web AppBuilder. I dont know I am right or not but to me its seems that developer is having less control in it. Moreover will it be easier to develop non-spatial modules as we are having only one module which is to somehow involves some spatial data, other than that no module involve any spatial information. Can we implement design with less effort as we can implement design like bootstrap for normal ERP systems. Also they are of the view that through Arc Web AppDeveloper, user roles are defined easily. But in case we want to give user custom previlages, like user sub-ordinates data access, only access specific geographic area, or only to specific business process etc. Can we easily play with Dojo custom widgets and also business login in NodeJS? Does it use NodeJS express as well? How will it work.
Thanks in advance, I tried to explain in detail. I will very thankful for your help.
Khan
