Repeat of Geopoints - Point overlays in Survey123 Web

Question

Hi,

I want to use the point overlay style described here - Point overlays on maps - to make repeats of geopoints more user friendly.

This works great in the Survey123 Connect app - as I add more points to my repeat, I can see the previously entered points. However it does not work in the Survey123 Web version of the form. Can someone confirm that this is a limitation of the web form?

The help doc says that "Geopoint symbology." is not supported by the web app but I am using the default symbology. Point overlays is not in the list of unsupported functionality.

If this functionality is not supported, has anyone figured out how to make a geopoint question in a repeat more user friendly? In particular, I'd like the extent of each geopoint map in the repeat to be consistent.

When the survey opens, the map defaults to the entire of Illinois. Users will be entering a cluster of points. When the user zooms to their area of interest in the first repeat, I'd like subsequent repeats to default to that first extent. Has anyone figured out how to accomplish something like this?

Thank you!

JillianStanford · Answer

Thanks for your reply.

The screenshot above is from the standard template. When published, the functionality does not work in the web version of the form. So, I think I am out of luck on that front.

To your second point, 100% of users will zoom in to county or town level to submit their points. So, I can set a default zoom level but not extent because I don't know what county or what town they will be zooming in to. It will be somewhere in the state of Illinois.

There appears to be no way to control the extent of a geopoint question at runtime. Even if the user uses the search bar to zoom to their AOI, when they add an additional geopoint to the repeat, it will be zoomed to the extent set at design time.

It all technically works, it's just frustrating user experience.

Thanks again.

TylerGraham2 · Answer

It is likely the point overlay functionality is a Survey123 issue rather than a data source one, I would still try the standard template.  This is how I would test it to answer the question if it works or not on web forms.

Create a new form using the standard template, then copy your existing xlsform values (excluding the settings form_id and submission_url columns which will point it towards your existing feature layer). I use paste values (right-clicking after copying and choosing paste values) in Excel or so I don't get a bunch of pop-up prompts asking if I want to copy some of the underlying functionality esri built into to the xlsform. Then publish it as a new survey and let Survey123 create the feature service. Test that to see if the point overlay will function on the web version of that new form.  If it does, then I would add your form_id and submission_url values and update the form to point it towards the feature layer that is in use and test the functionality again. If it works, you will use that instead of the original form.

If it doesn't work, you should look at your data and see how clustered the point data is from each submission and use it to consider the user experience.  If the default zoom is statewide, but only 1 person out of 100 places data all over the state and 99 do it at the town level, I would really consider tightening up the default zoom.

JillianStanford · Answer

Thanks for your reply.

This is a form for the general public and we are limited to using the browser based version of Survey123. It is not based on a template but designed to update an existing hosted feature layer, this is all working as expected.

We have one question that captures a geopoint in a repeat. This all works correctly for capturing the points in a related layer but the repeat is cumbersome because each time the user adds a record to the repeat the map zooms back out to the default extent (the entire state of Illinois). I can't configure a more specific extent ahead of time because the user may add the cluster of points anywhere in the state.

The point overlay style seemed promising. In Survey123 Connect, I can see all the points entered in each repeat record. However when published, this style is not applied to the web version of the form.

Thanks,

Jill