In July 2024, Esri’s ArcGIS Web AppBuilder is heading off to the retirement home. But what does that actually mean for you and your apps? We’re here to break it down.
This all starts with the retirement of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript 3.x. It is also retiring on July 1, 2024. The 3.x API has a long and storied history as it is a direct descendant of the 1.x API which was first released back in 2008. Here in the future, in 2024, that API is (checks math) yup, about 16 years old! If it were a human, it would be getting its driver’s license, which is a scary thought! Unlike human teenagers, APIs get old, they use technology that eventually becomes less popular (I’m looking at you Dojo), and, especially in the case of JavaScript, sometimes you just need to start over. And that’s what Esri did with the 4.x version of the API. It is a completely new web API that provides a different developer experience from 3.x.
You can get an overview of what changed from 3.x to 4.x here.
My favorite change happened at 4.18 with the introduction of ES modules. That is probably my favorite thing about the 4.x API in general; it’s compatible with just about any web framework that I may choose to work with from Angular to Blazor (I might be biased about that last one).
If you still have an app in the 3.x API, it’s well past time to start migrating it. There are some docs that can help you get started, and although it looks intimidating, there is mostly a 1:1 mapping between the 3.x functionality and the 4.x functionality. So, if you don’t want to rewrite the entire app, you can do an in-place migration! Note: You can keep using 3.x, but there are no security patches, no bug fixes and no technical support from Esri (and, although, we would still help you, we would also encourage you to migrate!)
Of course, this has ramifications for Esri as well. The end of the JavaScript 3.x API means that ArcGIS Web AppBuilder is also coming to end. Web AppBuilder has a phased retirement plan in 2024-25. Web AppBuilder was (and in many ways still is) an amazing tool, and represented one of the best early pushes that Esri made into the configurable app environment. Clearly it worked well, because so much of the ArcGIS platform today is based on various configurable app tools and frameworks (Dashboards, Quick Apps, Experience Builder, etc.).
But, it’s time to migrate Web AppBuidler as well! Although very different, ArcGIS Experience Builder provides a good replacement built on the modern React web framework. It takes some getting used to, but I think it leads to cleaner code and a more maintainable application.
If you use:
ArcGIS Web AppBuilder Developer Edition
ArcGIS Web AppBuilder in ArcGIS Online
ArcGIS Web AppBuilder in ArcGIS Enterprise
If you’re asking “what do I do?!” about all this, first, don’t panic!
Your apps will not stop working upon the stroke of midnight on July 1, 2024 – but, you should probably migrate from Web AppBuilder to Experience Builder and also migrate anything built on ArcGIS API 3.x for JavaScript over to the 4.x API.
Not sure how to do that? Reach out to our team. We're here to chat, brainstorm, and ensure your mapping game stays strong.