Survey123 Connect XLS Form select_multiple/one field type error

Question

I am currently experiencing an issue with all my Survey123 Connect XLS forms. As I was working on my current project, I realized all the cells under Type that included select_one or select_multiple had errors. The specified restriction was as follows when I clicked Field Type Information: "Value must match one of the listed items." These errors did not occur until I was well into working on the form. I have triple checked all my list names so that is not the issue.

Expecting that it was only an error with that specific form, I decided to try transferring everything to a fresh survey. When I created a blank template survey & opened the XLS form, I was met with the same error for the pre-populated "select_one yes_no" field that is included in every blank survey template. After further investigation, I realized the same error was occurring in all XLS forms linked not only to the account I was working in, but the other account I have as well. I have attached photos below to show the issue I am seeing & some examples of list names I have that match exactly to where they are specified under the Type column in the Survey tab.

I have attempted uninstalling & redownloading Survey123 Connect however that did not resolve the issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ChristopherCounsell · Answer

The excel spreadsheet has formatting checks to help you design the Xlsform correctly.

Some of these are strict and would generally means that you can't publish the survey, or should expect major issues even if you publish the survey successfully. For example:

* Duplicate field names - red cell highlights and error on publish
* Reserved field names - warning, and you may be able to publish, but at some point a database won't be happy with you

There is a preset list of supported question types. There are some that aren't in the dropdown. Entering a question type that is not in the predetermined list generates the warning.

Select_one and Select_multiple question types can generate the green triangle and warning message. This is normal. It's because having a custom list name in the question type makes it difficult to validate. The green triangle is basically saying hey, we can't match this, so make sure the format is correct or you know what you're doing. You should consider Survey123 Connect to be a developer tool. Expectations that you format the text correctly are higher. It'll do it's best to help.

The correct format is 'select_one listname'. One space. No carriage returns. No spaces or other special characters in your list apart from '_'.

As @abureaux mentioned, copy pasting can override the cell formatting. NEVER paste with formatting. It strips all the checks, or brings across from other columns. Easiest way to see this is to paste duplicate field names; they'll no longer get highlighted red.

abureaux · Answer

This.

But also ensure there are no random carriage returns or other "invisible" special characters. Can't tell from screen shots if you applied cell alignment, or copy-pasted a carriage return into some areas

When copy-pasting (which I do encourage), always and without exception paste as "values" only. Formatting from other sources can introduce unwanted/unexpected content.

Neal_t_k · Answer

With a lot of copy and pasting it is pretty easy to mess up the the data validations.  Updating the XLSForm template should help get them back to how they are suppose to be.