geoWidgets UI Activity Pack Update: 2019-02-21

geoWidgets UI Activity Pack adds a Progress Bar activity to support Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS® on both On-Premise and SaaS versions of Geocortex Workflow.

geoWidgets UI Activity Pack Update

Digital Data Services, Inc. (DDS) is pleased to announce an update to our free geoWidgets UI Activity Pack for Geocortex Workflow 5. In this update, we released a Progress Bar activity to support Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS® on both On-Premise and SaaS versions of Geocortex Workflow.

Progress Bar for Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS

Our initial release of the Progress Bar Modal only worked for Geocortex Viewer for HTML5. With some alterations, we are happy to release a Progress Bar Activity to work with Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS.

People want progress bars

In a perfect world, running tasks in web GIS is instantaneous. The reality is certain tasks take time to complete. “The importance of percent-done progress indicators for computer-human interfaces” by Dr. Brad Meyers of the University of Toronto and “The Power of the Progress Bar” by Neil Patell cover the importance of providing feedback to users. The biggest benefits of a progress bar are:

  • Satisfies our need to complete
  • Provides the user with a feeling of progress
  • Inform the user how long a task will take to complete
  • Prevent the browser from being overloaded with unnecessary actions.

Getting Started with the Progress Bar Modal Activity

The Progress Bar Modal activity displays a configurable dialog to display the status of extended processing tasks within web GIS. To get started, you will need subscriptions to the following on ArcGIS Marketplace:

Copying a Progress Bar Modal Sample Workflow

To help you get started with the Progress Bar Modal activity, we created a sample Workflow. To copy the sample workflow to your Workflow Designer:

  1. In Workflow Designer, click File in the sidebar
  2. Click Open by URL and paste in the following url: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=190ef34ce1c9427da2421e9788bba9b7
  3. To save, click File in the Geocortex Workflow Designer sidebar, and click Save.

The sample Workflow executes a loop (Progress Bar Loop) to 50 iterations. The internal loop (Example Logic) should be replaced with the actual code you want to execute. It only exists to slow down the loop for the demo. While the example uses a Loop, you can also use a For Each by copying the contents of the Progress Bar Loop to your new control flow function.

The following items are configurable in the Progress Bar:

  • Main Message – The main message displayed to the user.
  • Message – The secondary message provided to the user.
  • Progress Bar Color
  • Full Screen Override – Prevents the user with interacting with the web GIS application until it completes.
  • Modal Size – The size of the modal dialog as a percentage of the screen.
  • Time Remaining – Whether to display the time remaining.

For more information, please visit the full documentation…

We hope this Progress Bar Modal Workflow Activity is helpful and look forward to see how you use it in your web GIS applications.

About Geocortex Workflow and geoWidgets Activity Packs

Geocortex Workflow extend Geocortex and Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS® by turning sophisticated business processes into a set of simple, guided end-user workflows without custom development. Geocortex Workflow is an intuitive, web-based design experience with over 170+ pre-built activities and form elements.

As a Geocortex Implementation Consultant, DDS has been developing custom Workflow solutions and activities for our clients since 2010. With the release of Geocortex Workflow 5, DDS is able to easily share our custom Workflow Activities with everyone through the ArcGIS Marketplace. Our Workflow Activity Packs are designed to run client-side so that they are usable in both the SaaS and On-Premise versions of Geocortex Workflow.

Digital Data Services, Inc., is a GIS consulting firm that utilizes the power of the Esri product suite to provide state-of-the-art desktop and web GIS solutions since 1998. Our staff provides implementation and customization solutions for Esri web GIS and Geocortex products. If you need assistance, we are here to help solve your web GIS challenges. 

Picture of Tom Neer

Tom Neer

Tom is a Cartographer and Principal at Digital Data Services. He empowers business decisions through understanding and communicating spatial relationships, whether with a pen or code.