Survey123 repeat count gets stuck

Question

Hi guys, some of the users of a field app have had an issue with a repeat count in Q35 (Page 6/14 in the attached xlsx sheet). When entering a number of water tanks in Q34, the repeat count will ensure that the number of repeats is equal to the number of tanks in Q34 which is fine, however some users have found that while surveying, they are not able to scroll back or forward to other repeats e.g. they will enter 5 tanks, fill in Q35-36 for Tank 1, hit next for Tank 2 but be unable to go back to Tank 1 or progress to Tank 3. I saw a similar issue here https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/issue-with-draft-required-field-repeat-and-repeat/m-p/1094077#M36847 which relates to BUG-000127011.

In the link above, my users have had mixed behaviour when using this repeat count and saving to drafts, so the issue isn't consistent (i.e. will happen when saving to drafts and without saving to drafts). Also, one user with an iPad model A1567 (Survey123 Field app 3.13.246) was initially fine using the app without this issue but then came to me with the issue. I can't replicate the issue on my device (iPhone SE 2020, version 3.13.246). I was wondering if my issue is related to the same bug or another problem.

Survey123 Connect version: 3.13.251

Looking forward to hearing back from anyone :) . Happy to also receive feedback on the structure of my form too!

JeetzPatel · Answer

Hiya Doug, thanks for your reply. I've published the survey using the 3.14 bet and removed the repeat_count in the nested repeat (it was more a quality of life thing for the users not submitting too many repeats by accident). I didn't try the position() and constraint but also added in "allowUpdates=true query" to the bind::esri:parameters column for each repeat which has also helped for editing, something that I hadn't included before. The surveyors ended up wrapping up the surveys by the time I implemented the changes so hopefully this helps someone else 🙂

dougbrowning · Answer

First have you tried the new 3.14 beta yet?  It has a ton of fixes for this.  Fixed prob 75% of my issues with repeats.

Second drafts and repeat count have several issues - some that are not fixed in 3.14.  This is esp true in nested repeats and when using relevant.  Using the new hidden column can work better.

Third in many cases I have had much better luck removing repeat count and instead using position() and a constraint to make sure they get the right number.  This way the repeat grows until they hit a limit.  Repeat count loads all the repeats at once and that can cause issues.  I have got some repeat counts to work but tend to fall back to this method if the form is really complicated.

Good luck it is a hard one.