NEARC,

I'd like to thank the following people for their email and telephone responses, which included not only answers to my question, but also a variety of insightful recommendations:


*         Matt Sheehan

*         John Waterman

*         Michael Olkin

*         Sam Berg

*         Ray Corson

*         Stu Rich

Regarding hosting custom web apps on ArcGIS Online:


*         It is not possible to host a customized app on ArcGIS Online, where "customized" includes:

o   New web apps that you write from scratch

o   Copies of AGOL templates that you've downloaded and modified the code

Therefore, by extension:


*         It is not possible to create a new AGOL web app template, of the kind depicted in the screenshot from the original post

You can configure an existing AGOL template and, in turn, use it as a template. Note that "configure" denotes altering the template using the AGOL UI, without changing the template/app code directly.

For customized apps, you must run them on your own web server. In this context, I mean "your own" in a broad sense, which includes physical hardware that your organization owns, a virtual machine from an IaaS cloud vendor (e.g. AWS, Azure), or even a turnkey SaaS solution from one of our many fine web developers in the region. In any of these cases, you can register your custom app with AGOL so your users can find it, but the app, itself, will not run on the AGOL servers.

Finally, respondents endorsed AWS as a hosting platform, if you don't have the infrastructure to run a web server on your own hardware. The Configurable Map Viewer open source application also received an endorsement as a robust starting point for creating your own apps, if the AGOL templates don't meet your needs.

Thanks again to everyone for their help, and enjoy the beautiful late summer weather for the rest of the day.

-Michael


Michael Mannion | Database Consultant | Mannion Geosystems<http://www.manniongeo.com/> | +1 617.939.9958 | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

From: Northeast Arc Users Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Mannion
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2015 2:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Creating / customizing AGOL app templates

NEARC,

I'm working with a client who is in the early stages of planning their organization's ArcGIS Online deployment. As is always the case in these initial AGOL discussions, the question arises of how much content/functionality should be moved to ArcGIS Online, and which should remain hosted internally.

The answer depends, in part, on what is able to be hosted in ArcGIS Online, per the technology. I have a good handle on the data side of things, but not being a web app developer, I have a question that I'm unable to answer on my own. Assuming that I was a web developer and knew what I was doing:


*         Is it possible to write my own web app that I could:

o   Host a running copy of on ArcGIS Online?

o   Use as a "real" template on ArcGIS Online?

Allow me to clarify what I'm asking with a bit more context. Firstly, by "hosting" a copy on ArcGIS Online, my goal would be to write a custom web app - either from scratch, or by downloading and modifying an Esri template - and run the end product on an Esri server, without the need for my own web server.

Secondly, the ArcGIS Online documentation uses the term "template" more broadly than I am using it here. Specifically, I am referring to the type of native ArcGIS Online template that is available through the UI, as illustrated below:

[cid:[log in to unmask]]

I understand that I can host a web app on my own web server, register it with ArcGIS Online, and attach the code for that app for others to download and use. The doc refers to this as a "template" as well - but in my question I'm specifically not asking about this type of template.


For what it's worth, I've asked a few Esri staff this question over the past year or two, and most recently stopped by the ArcGIS Online product island at the UC to confirm. In every case, the answer has been "no" - it's not possible to host custom apps, or create custom templates, on ArcGIS Online. I'm sufficiently surprised by the answer, though, that  I wonder whether I've been asking my question correctly. I mean that literally; as a non-web-developer, this seems like something I should "just" be able to do, and I'm surprised that I can't.

In each of the projects where we've looked at / used ArcGIS Online so far, even the customers with the simplest requirements quickly find some limitation in the out-of-the-box web app templates that they want to change. In most cases, these are easy customizations that a semi-skilled user can make by perusing a configuration file. If I understand correctly, though, making that kind of change necessitates that you host the modified app on your own web server. That obviates some of the initial attraction of using ArcGIS Online - namely, to get workloads off of internal systems, and onto a professionally hosted cloud platform. It's nice to be able to register custom apps with ArcGIS Online for discovery, but that doesn't help minimize the administrative burden, firewall management, ISP traffic, or third-party cloud hosting costs associated with running your own web app server.

To conclude, I'm asking for your feedback on my perennial ArcGIS Online web app question, both to get another opinion on the matter, and to verify whether things have changed recently, given the pace of ArcGIS Online updates. Thank you, in advance, for your help.

-Michael


Michael Mannion | Database Consultant | Mannion Geosystems<http://www.manniongeo.com/> | +1 617.939.9958 | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>


------------------------------------------------------------------------- This list (NEARC-L) is an unmoderated discussion list for all NEARC Users.

If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from this list, you can remove yourself by going to http://s.uconn.edu/nearcsubscribe.