What happens to solutions that rely on WAB when it is retired?

[ZachBodenner]

Hello,

I've been thinking about implementing the Citizen Problem Reporter at my organization as free alternative to other expensive 311 software. One reason I've been up in the air about it is that the solution relies on apps built on the Web AppBuilder JS3.x. platform. What happens when this gets retired? I know the app wont die immediately, but does ESRI plan to update solutions to the Experience Builder JS4.x platform? Is it worth it to wait to deploy something like this until that happens?

[AndyShoemaker · Accepted solution]

Hi @ZachBodenner ,

The current plan for solutions using the Classic Map Viewer and any JS 3.x app is to migrate the components over to the new 4.x versions. 

Which apps will be used for the migration are still to be determined as we want to make sure the updates we make will offer the functionality and experience solution's users are accustomed to with ArcGIS Solutions. We also want to make sure any upgrade that occurs is as painless as possible for you. At this time, we're still in the process of assessing what this migration will look like for each solution -- so unfortunately we can't provide a timeline. 

That being said, with regards to Citizen Problem Reporter, we're not currently anticipating any breaking changes to the underlying feature service (this is --of course -- subject to change as we flush out the migration plans). 

IMHO, you should be fine to deploy and begin using the Citizen problem reporter solution. If changes are made to the underlying layers the existing schema during the migration from 3.x to 4.x  the changes will be very minor and updating data from one service to the other will be easy.

[ZachBodenner]

Thanks for the info Andy. It sounds like it's going to be an enormous lift given the short remainder of WAB's life as part of the ESRI suite. 

[LeviCecil]

Is the district lookup WAB being retired? I'm using the v1 school locator solution, and I'm not sure I'll be able to use the v2 version because the apps all seem to be using the nearby tool. That won't work for my school locator. 

[Joshua-Young]

@LeviCecilthe WAB district lookup will be retired when WAB is retired. Here is a link to Esri's functionality matrix comparing WAB to EB: https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-experience-builder-documents/functionality-matrix-for-web-appbu... .

Esri recommends using the ArcGIS Instant Apps Zone Lookup template to replace the WAB district lookup widget (https://doc.arcgis.com/en/web-appbuilder/latest/create-apps/wab-exb-widget-functionality-matrix.htm#...)