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Flagging inspected assets with ArcGIS Collector

ttamba

Hi,

I have several assets to inspect in a small area. How do I know if an asset has already been inspected so that I cannot inspect the same asset a second and third time. Is it possible to configure the Collector form app so that when the form is completed and submitted by the field worker, the point changes color according to the predefined color?

The only working alternative is the join between the feature layer and the inspection table by creating a style based on a single symbol using location.

However, this approach limits my operations since the inspections are recurrent and are done on a weekly basis. When the current round is completed, I have to truncate the inspection table for the next round.
This approach is time consuming and I have to backup and archive the inspection table. But also, it is inefficient to produce a dashboard from inspections made with ArcGIS Collector.

Thank you!

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Accepted answers

Kevin_McIntyre

What you specifically want from ESRI is to be able to use the FeatureSetByName() function in Arcade to create a symbology expression. AGOL and FieldMaps do not support this function for whatever reason when using it for symbology. So while you could create a popup expression in Arcade to pull from a related table and display the most recent inspection in the popup, you won't be able to symbolize your features based on that expression in the popup.

As far as not knowing how to code, ESRI did a pretty good write up on using web hooks in AGOL with no coding involved and if you spend some time reading up on editing features through the REST service, you could then update that Inspection flag field in your main feature class to show the last time the feature was inspected or is due for an inspection.

Unfortunately, ArcGIS Online is in my opinion a service that is to be developed upon for organizations to tailor their own needs to. While there are a lot of features packed in AGOL that make it user-friendly and useful in some organizations, it is fairly bare bones as far as asset management software goes and requires a fair amount of technical expertise to go beyond simple feature edits/creates or displaying of data. In my case, I had to develop an entire Python web application that could receive web hooks from AGOL and manipulate the data to do what I needed it to, including flagging assets for inspections and automated work order creation in WorkForce. A simpler version of this would be to create a scheduled Notebook to run every so often and update that InspectionFlag field in your feature class based on the most recent inspection.

All comments

Kevin_McIntyre

Using Arcade expressions can probably get you where you need to be.

Reference this link to find out how to grab information from related tables through Arcade.

ttamba

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for your response and the Arcade resource. Since my data is related to linked tables, I will like to color the inspected points according to the inspection date once the form is completed and submitted.

I am new to Arcade and I've tried the code below but the inspected points did not change color.

var StartDate = now()
var InspectionDate = Round(DateDiff($feature.DateInspection, StartDate, "days"))

if (Round(DateDiff($feature.DateInspection, StartDate, "days"))==0) {
var hour = Round(DateDiff($feature.DateInspection, StartDate, "hours"))
var currentdate = When(hour>5, 1, hour>3, 2, hour>1, 3,1)
return currentdate
}
else{
return 0
}

JonathanMcDougall

I wish there was more we could do with the inspection table, especially where it comes to ensuring the right data is being inspected in the field. If I remember correctly, Arcade expressions are only of use in AGOL and don't transfer to the Collector App (I could be completely wrong and if so I should find out how to learn Arcade).
We have a number of inspections in the field, one for over 20k objects, an other 100 object inspected every 14 days.
I realise AGOL is not an asset management system as such, so we will run into difficulties, however, would be really nice if ESRI progressed development somewhat in that direction.

Like you, I've had to create a join layer which is used to symbolise inspected/not inspected objects - I have to reset this join every cycle.

If anyone else can help, that would be great!

Kevin_McIntyre

Like you, I've had to create a join layer which is used to symbolise inspected/not inspected objects - I have to reset this join every cycle.

Could you not create the joined layer as a hosted feature layer and have it only join the most recent record in the inspection table? This would allow you to symbolize based on the most recent inspection date.

The downside to the joined layer is that you can't access the related tables from that layer specifically. What you can do though is have both your joined layer and main asset layer both active on the map. Then, symbolize the joined layer to show which assets need to be inspected. Then I'd disable popups for the joined layer, and make the transparency for the main asset layer 99%. This allows you to select on the symbolized joined layer, but get the popup for the main asset layer. It's a crude approach but has been mentioned other times in this forum and is a workaround for the issue you're describing.

I agree that ESRI should definitely start to implement more useful asset management features into their products. However, and this is only my opinion, but ArcGIS and AGOL to me has always been a platform that is to be developed upon by the end user to fit their needs instead of it being a total solution out of the box. They have been making things much easier however in terms of asset management with the introduction of Field Maps, which considerably simplifies many workflows and doesn't require you to have 4 different apps on your phone to complete a single workflow.

JonathanMcDougall

Yes, Field Maps certainly is a move towards a less cluttered app structure - will be interested to see how this develops. I also agree with the "to be developed upon", I'm using ExpBuilder more and more to pull together multiple elements whilst looking towards a more consistent look and feel for our services/end users.

Oh, I've used the join & visibility trick already - works, but could work better.

ttamba

Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your feed back to my post! I thought I was the only person who had this difficulty in inspecting assets, because so far you are the second person who seems to have the same problem as me.

I had submitted this question to ESRI Canada technical support and a specialized analysis in Arcade confirmed to me that Arcade is the language that could solve the problem. He accompanied me in the implementation of the code that I posted in my first post. However, the tests I performed allow generating a unique symbology regardless of the date and time ...

The inspection of municipal assets is a recurring operation in the public works departments of cities around the world. Such operations are carried out every day in a repetitive manner on thousands of assets. For example, in the case of fire hydrants, field workers inspect them several times. Without a visual method of representing the inspected asset, the risk of errors in inspecting the same asset on the same day or on subsequent days in the same round is very high.

Indeed, I agree with you that ESRI must integrate in its roadmap a future implementation to flag an inspection carried out through a color or symbol change of the point in its Field Maps or Survey123 mobile applications.

Fortunately for us, the only sticky option is the join between the hosted feature layer and the inspection table so that we can create a unique location-based symbology every time the form is submitted.

But Unfortunately, this option has limitations, because after inspecting all the assets, it is necessary to empty the layer and recreate a new join for the next rounds. An eternal restart!

I also put the idea of implementing the change of color or symbol to the vote in the section of ideas suggested by users for Fied Maps, three weeks ago. At the moment, there doesn't seem to be a buy-in to this idea, but I'm glad to see that I'm not alone on this adventure.

Kind regards,

JonathanMcDougall

@ttamba

Hi, you're most definitely not alone.

A solution seems to tantalisingly close! I really want my organisation to rationalise its asset management systems; highway, land & assets, tree, and other pieces of infrastructure inspections. It's the big volume items and that visualisation of a completed inspection that's almost pivotal to a complete move towards ESRI.
Over the last year or so I've thought of "What ifs". For example; on selection for a new inspection the coordinates of an asset are passed to the inspection table thus allowing the table point to be drawn and symbolised. Likewise on the reverse, an "inspected" flag is pushed from the table to the asset which would then just mean the reset is a simple calculate field on the asset to reissue the inspections.

If I had the coding skills, I'm sure I could get closer but this has not been my background - was a field grunt for most of my days.

Perhaps, with the new map viewer and Field Maps Esri are looking towards something that would give us lesser mortals a solution.

ttamba

Hi Kevin,

The steps you described are exactelly what I did in my case. However, this approach is not a panacea. As I mentioned, when the assets are all inspected, we are forced to redo a new join, because we can no longer symbolize a new inspected asset for the new tour without creating a new join between the active layer and the join table.

Kind regards,

ttamba

Hi Jonathan,
Knowing that I am not alone comforts me, but also knowing that the issue raised is a concern for ESRI as there are looking for a solution.
I also appreciate the way you approach this issue and prove that you have a better understanding of the issue even if you are not a coder. Your approach is logical and clear... I would like to be a code guy to develop this solution, unfortunately that's not the case for me also...
Like you, I have not yet made the jump to the new version of the map viewer and the official version of Field Maps. But I hope that Field Maps has more advanced features than its predecessor Collector and some improvements that will make our life easier.

Regards,

Kevin_McIntyre

JonathanMcDougall

@Kevin_McIntyre

Thank you for taking the time to respond, and thank you for the link too.

For many years my background was using, then managing, Pitney Bowe's Confirm asset management system, so you can perhaps appreciate why I'm looking for that little bit more from AGOL, especially as I can see the real opportunities within the platform.

We have Notebooks in the cross-hairs to examine how we can do some programmed dataset housekeeping bringing in some background automation. I just need to free up some "after work" time and start my journey. We're also just moving to an Enterprise architecture, so hopefully will also be able to bring in some of the FME processes I run elsewhere.

Keep an eye out for more questions, it'll be obvious when I start looking a little deeper into things 🙂

Kevin_McIntyre

@JonathanMcDougall

Notebooks will definitely help you out with automating some of the more mundane data tasks at first, and would be a good introduction to using Python with your GIS.

However, notebooks will only get you so far, and if a full-fledged asset management experience is what you want, you'll want to switch on over to using Webhooks to automate your services but I'm also aware that ArcGIS Enterprise may have extra features that help with automation without having to learn to code.

If you are interested in learning to code, I've used a website called codecademy that was pretty good at teaching basic Python syntax, but probably any code education website will be more than adequate... especially considering Python is probably one of the most popular languages to learn right now.

Once you learn how to code, you can implement something similar to what I have setup. What I have going is a Flask application that receives the Webhooks, and then I used a factory design pattern to serialize the data and push it to the proper functions to manipulate the data in the feature service. Doing it this way allows the code to be very modular, adding in new features is wicked easy, and it can support multiple feature services.

It also wouldn't be a bad idea to ask your employer if they'll pay for your training or to let you learn on the clock. It's well worth it considering you'd be making your organization/business more efficient.

JonathanMcDougall

@Kevin_McIntyre

We're not a big local government authority here in Scotland, so our asset management data needs and aspirations are not huge. If we can get to a point in the near future where more of our services are taking a data driven approach, I'll be happy. Even happier that I'll be moving them towards improved data standards, interoperability, reuse, transparency etc..

Again, thanks for the advice - hearing experiences are infinitely useful. I'm putting together a Data, Research, and Innovation playbook within ExpBuilder and have just added a Code section to "bookmark" some of your info.

Point taken re training, however, I usually do a little bit of homework first to have an evidence based approach to proposals. If people can see some tangible benefits they are easier to "manipulate".

PatrickMcDonald2

Hi ttamba,

When I created a join between Catch Basin structures and Catch Basin Inspections, I created a symbology based on an Arcade expression rather than a Field. This way, you don't have to recreate the join for each cycle. It also allows the field crew to see where they have been, reducing the chance that the same CB gets inspected again, before the cycle resets.

IIf(DateDiff(now(), $feature.InspectionDate, 'years') < 1, "Inspected", "Requires Inspection")

I used 'years' in my case, but you could specify other timeframes (like days, etc.), or even calculations. I also added a specific symbology to highlight the inspections in the last 12 hours so I can see where the crews are each day.

A good ESRI tutorial can be found here:
Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0W6X6ovi_Q
Part 2  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqC-EEw3nxY
Part 3  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3iPkATo9R0
Part 4  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHJLyKica24

Regards,
Patrick

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