For the past few years I've hesitated to post this question - at the risk of having dozens of examples sent to me, or being considered unwilling to do the work to find the help for my questions. I guess I've reached my limit of frustration. Maybe I am missing something, if so, I hope people will point it out.
My apologies, but this is long as I am trying to fully explain what I am looking for, which is well beyond a single tutorial.
First, however, I would like to make clear that the help from ESRI staff, other GIS individuals, and forum members is _greatly_ appreciated, there is immeasurable knowledge on this forum, as well as at ESRI Learning, you-tube, and outside of ESRI. In no way am I suggesting that people are not helpful.
My request is for some sort of comprehensive document, book, set of tutorials, etc. that actually lists or outlines a complete set of coherent topics for Survey123. Information does exist, but the issue is finding it in some reasonable amount of time. Searching for something that you don't know the name or keyword for is not ideal.
I fondly remember "Mastering ArcGIS" by Maribeth Price, an incredibly useful book with step by step instructions, that also helped the student learn how to think or learn what was possible and how to pull separate tools together into complete workflows.
I cannot articulate why Price's book was so much better than other textbooks or lab books that never seemed to quite "get it" as far as teaching. (I do not know if it is critical thinking or active learning? Maybe others can help clarify?) Sort of like how some teachers/professors present facts clearly, but do not link up or connect the topics into a full understanding. Whereas other teachers somehow are able to open up a world of possibilities on the same topic.
I understand that as S123 has evolved, ESRI has created more tools and increased the app's potential. (The same for ArcGIS Desktop - hence different editions of Price's book). On dozens of occasions I did not even know the potential to do something with S123 even existed until I accidentally stumbled on something, usually while looking for the answer to some other question or just scrolling through the forum. I will try to explain using examples.
Recently I stumbled on more "appearance" and body::esri:style options for S123 Connect than I realized even existed. E.g. multiline, new-rear/front for an image qt; distress for int qt; combining w parameters with other appearance options; body::esri:style method=camera,map,browse.
It's not that the information doesn't exist - it is that the information is scattered far and wide and extremely difficult to find in a complete form. If I do not know the potential of, for ex, being able to annotate on a map of your location (that you zoomed to in the field app) then I cannot search for it. If I do not know - that is, I cannot scan a table of contents or index or similar, then I cannot know that the potential to fix my survey is possible. Again, I understand S123 has evolved, maybe if some of the completely outdated information was removed, instead of just saying "This has been updated in version xyz", it would help.
Or is it that we should focus on the ODK website for 'what is possible'?
Again, maybe I have just missed the obvious, and although I will feel a bit of a fool, I honestly wouldn't care if someone could say, "Oh - you have to go to these two websites/documents/etc. and you can see a (mostly) full table of contents or organized list of tools/topics and subtopics etc."
This is not the first time I have voiced my frustrations and confusion. I have asked ESRI tech support multiple times, sent detailed emails, screenshots of examples and talked online. Support has tried to be helpful, to address my questions - I do not mean to criticize them - and really their job is to answer specific questions. I'm sure my communication of my issues could use clarity. I'm hoping someone here can provide that, or perhaps suggestion someone in particular to ask?
My only other thought is that it seems this way for me since I did not get into Connect in the beginning. I've only used it for a few years - so it is a bit like missing the first half of a semester of a class. If that is the case, and I am the only one with these opinions, then it is on me to "make up for lost time", which I have been doing, albeit not completely successfully.
Apologies if this is not an appropriate place for my convoluted questions; I am happy to discuss off - forum. Respectfully-
Peg Gronemeyer
