Skip to main content

A VertiGIS Studio Web Roadmap (sort of)

Pinned Featured

Comments

36 comments

  • Official comment
    Cam Barnard

    Yousef Quran In general VertiGIS Studio will eventually replace Geocortex Essentials / Geocortex Viewer For HTML5. If you are building on VertiGIS Studio Workflow and VertiGIS Studio Web that is the most future proof path. No plans to deprecate Geocortex Essentials ... still release small maintenance releases for it.

  • Cam Barnard

    Sean Phayakapong ... This is one of several things that is configured directly in the webmap itself. Pre-configure your bookmarks in the webmap, and they will show up in your bookmarks component alongside any that the end-user defines. 

    2
  • Gareth Evans

    Hi Steve Schunzel that article now lives here: Is feature X that was in GVH available in VSW yet? – VertiGIS 

    Note this new URL is due to our transition to our new VertiGIS Community.

    Re: a comparison matrix of VertiGIS vs Esri solutions, I'm not aware of one though I can certainly see the need.

    2
  • Cam Barnard

    Steve Schunzel ... missed that one in the comment stream. Updated link is: 

    https://support.vertigis.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/11497803083154-Feature-Comparison-Matrix-Is-feature-X-that-was-in-GVH-available-in-VSW-yet-

    This one is also pinned at the top of the community posts since it is often referenced. 

    No comparison matrix comparing all four viewer frameworks exists that I'm aware of, you are right that would be a big endavor. I think one of the reasons you don't see something like this is that it would be inherently 'tool/feature' focused when the decision making criteria between those frameworks should be about more than just its current list of features.

    Examples that come to mind.

    GVH/Web AppBuilder are both based on Esri's JavaScript 3.x API, building a new app with those is fine if what it provides solves your problem today, but investing custom development in either would be an investment in a soon to be end of life technology from Esri.

    Framework considerations is another area. Both VSW and Experience Builder are based on Esri's JavaScript 4.x API, and both can be extended using VertiGIS Studio Workflow so for many cases you could use either and they look similar. VSW starts to shine when you begin to wrestle with larger framework considerations. What if you need to internationalize your application? What if your application is public facing and needs to be WCAG AA accessibility compliant? What if you want a SaaS application, but you also want to add some of your own custom modules to it. VSW handles those three scenarios well, while Experience Builder can't really handle any of the three (at least today).

    Finally, I encourage people to think about history and track record. Compare the 'mature' version of GE/GVH to the 'mature' version of Web AppBuilder. Part of our core business at VertiGIS is supplying a really great viewer framework with as many out of the box tools and capabilities as possible to help folks build great apps. We don't generally stop until we've achieved that. I'd argue that Web AppBuilder stopped far short of that. To be fair, it appears that Esri is continuing their investment in Experience Builder (more so than they did in Web AppBuilder) but I'm pretty confident that in 12-24 months when you put VertiGIS Studio Web and Experience Builder side-by-side you'd prefer to use VertiGIS Studio Web. For us, it is CORE to everything we do. For Esri, it is one of many, many things that they are working on.

    Cam

    2
  • ESRI Nederlands

    Hi Cam Barnard,

    Are there any plans around the "Add data from file" functionality? We notice it only support input as Lat/long (decimal degrees) where Geocortex Essentials supports local projections as well. Furthermore, setting symbology for these layers does not seem to be supported yet (You are attempting to edit a symbol that is not currently supported) nor is displaying additional attributes from this layer. 

    Looking forward to your input on this. 

    Kind regards,

    Duncan 

     

    1
  • Cam Barnard

    ESRI Nederlands (Duncan) ... yes. We plan to extend that UI and make it more like the guided wizard interface that is currently in GVH. We currently support setting symbology on lines/polygons ... points are coming. 

    1
  • Steve Schunzel

    Hi Cam Barnard - The link to the forum topic with the PDF Matrix looks like it's broken or it least it doesn't open for me (I get a 404 error).  Is there a new location?

    Also, do you know of any kind of comparison matrix that shows the difference between VertiGIS solutions (Essentials and VertiGIS Studio Web) and Esri solutions (Web AppBuilder/Experience Builder)?  I know that's kind of huge endeavor, but it would really help us with future app planning.

    Thanks - Steve

    1
  • Ted Cronin

    I would say just have them Jump right in and use the forums for questions.  There is a VSW class they can attend as well.

    1
  • Cam Barnard

    Glad it was helpful. I'll be back into this updating it from time to time as I have additional information.

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    Post updated to reflect the 5.8 release and the support for "Add file-based data to the map"

    0
  • Permanently deleted user

    Does Geocortex Web support displaying map tips when identifying a feature? I can't find any documentation on map tips at all.

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    @Peter Hanmore? - today we have the ability to show 'feature details' for individual features. This is similar to what GVH would have shown in the top left corner of the map, but you can put it anywhere in your layout.

    feature details

     

    Additionally we are currently working on adding 'on hover' style map tips to GXW that can show you a brief summary of a feature on the map in a 'callout' style right on the map. This isn't 100% complete but it looks like it will be complete in time for our 5.9 release on October 7, 2020.

    0
  • Permanently deleted user

    That's excellent news (and timing) as we are preparing to do a full (if functionality permits) proof of concept? of one of our public facing apps that currently uses callout/maptips frequently.

    0
  • Marc Rempel

    Curious if the ability to use Essentials site configurations in the Web Viewer are planned to be supported, or will it always be connected to just ArcGIS WebMaps?

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    @Marc Rempel? 

    Great question Marc. What we've been working on is enhancing the "Save to ArcGIS" feature in GE/GVH that saves to a webmap. There is a tremendous amount of information in our Site/Viewer config that can be represented in webmap configuration. We are 'growing' this as quickly as we can and the end result is the majority of your site configuration (layers, attribute configuration, feature descriptions, layer hyperlinks, etc.) will be codified into the webmap. When we get this far enough along the flow will be:

    1. Ensure your GE/GVH app is using modern Geocortex capabilities for printing, reporting, workflow, and access control
    2. Update your GE/GVH environemnt to the latest version (to give you the 'best' Save to ArcGIS featureset)
    3. Use Save to ArcGIS to save your app config to a webmap (or the majority of it)
    4. Start a new Geocortex Web app ... say with the Web GIS - Default template
    5. Point it at your webmap
    6. Add in your print templates, workflows, report templates
    7. Use Designer to adjust UI look and feel and branding to your liking

     

    As we dug into this early on, the truly time-consuming parts of setting up a Geocortex app were in the map services, layer config, attribute config area ... and if you can export that well most of the rest of it is pretty easy.

     

    You can try this today, but the Save to ArcGIS isn't yet as good as it will be. There are also things we are waiting on in the webmap spec that Esri has promised 'soon' such as the ability to represent group layers that will allow us to bring more of your configuration over into the webmap.

     

    Hope that helps paint a picture of what the future might look like.

    I recently recorded a tech tip video demonstrating this so keep your eyes open on our YouTube channel (I think it is due to be published on October 16th, 2020.

     

    Cam

    0
  • Marc Rempel

    @Cam Barnard?  Thanks for the response. Is the Save To ArcGIS already an option in Essentials? I haven't noticed it yet if it is. I will be sure to check out the tech tip video when it comes out.

     

    Marc

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    @Marc Rempel?  Indeed it is there today ... you can find it in the Toolbar section of Geocortex Essentials Manager. There are some pre-requisites such as needing to authenticate into your app using an ArcGIS Identity so it may be that you haven't seen it for that reason.

    0
  • Marc Rempel

    @Cam Barnard? Ah, that makes sense. Interesting, I wasn't looking for that in a viewer toolbar. Would have thought it would be at the site level as a configuration option to export site to ArcGIS.

     

    I will give that try.

     

    Thanks!

     

    Marc

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    Reviewed and updated for Geocortex Web 5.9 release.

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    Reviewed and updated for Geocortex Web 5.10 release (December 2020)

    0
  • Ted Cronin

    Is there a doc that compares Web to Esssentials and what is needed to reach feature parity between the two?

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    @Ted Cronin? 

    Yes there is.

     

    There is a forum topic I'd suggest you add a comment to.

     

    On this topic I link to a PDF matrix which I update for you with every release to make it easier to keep track of what is done and what is still to do.

     

    https://community.vertigis.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4416559991058-Is-feature-X-that-was-in-GVH-available-in-VSW-yet-

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    Updated this list to better reflect current state at 5.12.

    We are working hard on the geometry add/edit tools for 2D which will open up our ability to provide you with much requested features around editing markup and measurement, more user-facing options for styling markup, and out of the box tools for add/edit features.

    0
  • Ahmed Elsalloul

    Hey @Cam Barnard? I could not find the 'edit feature workflow creation' template as referenced in theme 4. We are on 5.2, please advise

     

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    @Elsalloul, Ahmed? Hi Ahmed. This was added in version 5.4 - 4 December 2019

     Time to upgrade!

    0
  • Ahmed Elsalloul

    @Cam Barnard?  sorry Cam, that was a typo. We are on the latest version 5.21 and I could not find the template.

    0
  • Gareth Evans

    @Elsalloul, Ahmed? Hi Ahmed! I believe what you're looking for is in your Feature Layer > Layer Actions > Workflows >  Create New Workflow > select the Feature – Edit Feature Attributes template.

     

    If you're not able to see this, please submit a support case to us (support@geocortex.com) and we'll help you find that template.

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    Updated this post for 5.13 to show support for re-symbolization of user uploaded layers, and re-symbolization of markup.

    0
  • Cam Barnard

    Updated. If there are themes you are looking for not represented here, let me know and I'll add them.

    0
  • Yousef Quran

    Hi Cam, 

    What great work! 

    Recently, I had a project using GeoCortex Workflow 4 & GeoCortex Workflow 5. And I am trying to build custom reusable workflows for future projects.

    My general question is what is the roadmap for GeoCortex Workflow 5 and Wondering if the VertiGIS Studio Web is a replacement for GeoCortex Workflow 5 or GeoCortex Essentials? What is the support timeline for these products in the future?

    My concern here is that I am trying to build a reusable module while trying to avoid building on top of components that will be deprecated, at least, in the near future. 

    Many Thanks, 
    Yousef Quran
    Schneider Electric

    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.