Choosing the Right Web App Builder Widget
Web AppBuilder allows you to easily create applications by accessing workflow tabs including Theme, Map, Widget, and Attribute.
Here are some considerations to keep in mind as you consider which widgets and theme to use:
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Purpose—The most important consideration is the purpose of your app. Embedded within this goal is your intended audience: Who is going to use your app and what are the key points that you want them to take away from the experience?
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Functionality—What is the critical functionality needed to support that goal?
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Aesthetic—How does the app’s layout and color scheme support your brand or message?
This document compares some of the widgets available through Web App Builder that have similar functionality.
Editing
The Edit widget allows you to do basic editing.
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It has the following toolbar options: Merge, Cut, Reshape, and Enable Undo/Redo
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It has the following tolerance options:
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Set the snapping tolerance in pixels—For geometry editing.
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Set the tolerance of attribute editing popup in pixels—Enables users to easily open the attribute editing pop-up by clicking on the feature.
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Set the sticky move tolerance in pixels—Prevents users from moving the features within a certain distance.
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Editing can be enabled on only certain layers in the map and geometry updates can be disabled if desired.
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Within the editable layers which fields are editable and which are displayed can be chosen.
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An optional filter for the templates is available so you can quickly find the edit template.
The Smart Editor widget extends the Edit widget with the following features:
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Attribute editing is performed in the panel and not in the pop-up.
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The ability to hide, require, or disable a field based on the values of other fields.
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New features and changes to existing features are not pushed to the service until you click Save.
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The ability to view pop-ups from other data on the map while editing.
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The ability to preset field values across many fields on many layers and apply them to every new feature.
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The ability to edit a series of features.
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The option to move or modify existing geometry.
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Only changed attributes are submitted to the service instead of the entire record.
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Configurable descriptions are available on both the widget and for each layer.
The Batch Attribute Editor widget is edits multiple features at once, while the Smart Editor and Edit widgets focus on editing one feature at a time.
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The following methods can be used to select features:
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Select by Area—Select a shape and sketch it on the map.
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Select by Feature—Select a polygon feature and update all within the area.
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Select by Feature & Related Features—Select a feature and update all related features.
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One or multiple layers can be updated, if multiple layers only common fields can be updated.
Filtering
The Filter widget allows you to limit the visibility of features in a layer. Only the features that meet the expression criteria will be visible in the map.
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Option to remove preset layer filters from the map.
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Ability to add one or multiple filters. Each filter points to one layer.
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Within a filter can add one or multiple filter expressions.
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Can give user a dropdown list to choose from when using the widget by creating an expression based unique values and clicking the box next to Ask for values.
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The Group Filter widget allows you to apply a filter to multiple layers at once.
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Option to append filter to existing web map filter using or or and.
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Ability to add one or multiple filter groups. Each filter group points to one or multiple layers.
- Can enter a preset value so the filter automatically runs, have a blank box for the user to enter a value or have a dropdown of values for the user to choose from.
The Query widget does not filter the source layer but instead creates a new layer based on the filter criteria.
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Can use spatial filters in addition to attribute filters like the Filter widget has.
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Displays features that meet filter criteria in a list in the widget.