The easiest way to create GIS web app

Looking back at the developments in geospatial sciences, it’s easy to notice that web mapping applications have become an essential part of GIS. Currently, hardly anyone can imagine his workflows without leveraging their benefits. Yet still, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all services. As everyone knows, the best solutions take into account the individual user’s needs and leave some room for customisation.

So naturally, at some point, I’ve started to wonder: “How to suit existing solutions to my needs? Or even better, would it be possible to build my own GIS app?”

For me, a person without a computer science background and zero coding experience, creating a web app from scratch seemed unattainable. And for a long time, I thought it will stay this way.

I couldn’t be more wrong.

It’s a shame that only recently I found out about a simple tool to build GIS web apps. Those who use Esri’s products might have heard of it already- Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS. Luckily, I finally had a chance to try it out.

In this text, I decided to share what I’ve learned about Web AppBuilder and hopefully, encourage you to give it a try.

Introduction to Web AppBuilder

If you’ve never heard about it before, Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS is a tool for building 2D and 3D web apps. Although it sounds complex, don’t let it discourage you. Because the best quality of this solution is that no coding is required! It turns out that making a web app is much easier than I’ve thought.

In a nutshell: Web AppBuilder allows you to create apps using various elements. It can be base maps, layers hosted in ArcGIS online, interactive pop-ups and widgets. With pop-ups, you access the layer’s data attributes. Widgets are like superpowers for your app. They give it special functionalities- more about it later.

The app’s look is customised with configurable themes. And finished apps are hosted online.

If your organisation uses ArcGIS online or ArcGIS Enterprise portal, you have Web AppBuilder already included.

So no excuses, now you can at least consider building an app customised for your workflows and your brand.

Developers Edition offers more extended capabilities than standard Web AppBuilder. For example, you will be able to host the apps on your own web server and build custom themes.

Many users prefer this version also because it allows them to build or download custom widgets. And this is where it gets really interesting.

Custom widgets are truly useful in adapting the app to your needs.

How to customise your app with widgets- example

Working with both laser scanning and GIS data, I’ve noticed that point clouds cause many problems in GIS workflows. Very often the available tools don’t integrate these two data types well enough. Typically, I had to use different software to view and analyse these data.

So if the existing solutions for combining GIS with 3D data don’t work as expected, building a custom web app might solve this issue.

Let’s take a look at the following situation. We want to give end users a way to share information about a site. The app should work like this:

• First, the user selects sites
• Then he views the attribute information, all related map layers and 3D models

With Web AppBuilder it’s easy to create an app that does just that. But, adding 3D information to a 2D web map is not a basic feature. We’ll need a custom widget to enable this option.

PointsceneArcGIS widget is one of the tools that help you include 3D data in a GIS application. It displays a 3D model of a site in the web application so that you can view it together with 2D data.

All you need it Pointscene account. Just upload point clouds and you can use them right away in your GIS workflows.

Our ready imaginary app will provide viewing options for both point cloud and GIS data. Of course, it’s possible to add even more capabilities.

The app will work on any device. So there’s nothing simpler than sharing the app with selected employees in your organisation or end clients

They will be able to display and analyse data for specific sites. But, most importantly, make more informed decisions based on the available data. And you will gain a flexible, customised solution tailored to your needs and your brand.

What to read next

• Check this tutorial on georeferencing PDF files in QGIS and Global Mapper
• Find out what are the advantages of web-based point cloud viewers from this text
• Learn how to a create a 3D map with open source GIS software, QGIS (part 1, part 2)
• Read some useful tips on choosing the best software for drone mapping

Test Pointscene today

Want to know how to include point clouds in your projects? Visit www.pointscene.com to explore many examples in the gallery or start a free trial and upload your own data within minutes.