How to share hosted feature layer with multiple surveys

Question

I have created two surveys for submitting data related to coral reefs. One is for biologists submissions which is more detailed, and the other is a citizen science survey. Both of the surveys are connected to the same hosted feature layer. The biologists need to be able to edit the data and perform QAQC on the publicly submitted data, so I also created a public view layer to add data, and a fieldworker view layer for the biologists with editing permissions. My question is, in order for this to work, the main hosted layer must be shared publicly, but must also have editing enabled. Is this a good idea (since esri give me a warning that it is not), and if not, how do I get around it? In the documentation for Survey 123 it explicitly states "The surveys and hosted feature service must be shared publicly, which in turn, permits anonymous submissions".

I already created a group for the biologists, and they must login to be able to edit the data using the Survey form, so is that the correct (best) way to handle this?

Just want to know if I am going in the right direction, or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks!

FranklinAlexander · Answer

Thanks James,

I thought that might be possible, but wasn't sure how to do it. I already have a list field for the biologists to select their name from on the main form. On the public view table I set the same field to auto-populate with 'public' when a public survey is submitted. I am thinking I can use that same field in the xlsform calculation field to look for 'public', then set relevant QA fields to be visible when editing the public survey. If that works, I think it would solve some challenges trying to get the dashboard configured that way I want.

Franklin

JamesTedrick · Answer

Hi Franklin,

It might take some additional work, but you could probably make the biologist's form a QA form as well, by having the additional question/fields (which would need to be added to the feature service) appear when opening a survey that has been publicly submitted.  It may also help to have a 'origin' question hidden in both forms to note if this was submitted by the public survey or not; that could be used to determine if the QA fields need to be shown.

FranklinAlexander · Answer

James,

Yes, you are correct. I have the original hosted feature layer, a bioligists view for editing, and a public view. Ideally, I would like the biologists to be able to view and edit the surveys, both public and scientific through the dashboard. I have a dashboard set up with a web app that shows the surveys, a list that can be filtered by biologist, or by public submissions and an embedded content pane that holds the survey to be edited. Right now, I have two survey forms, one for public (much simpler) and one scientific, but both populate the same feature service.

I need to have a way for the scientists to QAQC the publicly submitted surveys, but this is a bit tricky since the form will need to have additional questions (fields) such as name of scientist who validated the data, and a checkbox of some sort that affirms the survey was validated. I am thinking that I will need to create a 3rd (QAQC) survey to handle this, but I don't want to add another embedded content pane in the Dashboard, that's too crowded! It would be nice if there was a way to have the applicable survey (biologists or QAQC) populate the same embedded pane, depending on the list selection. I know I can create two lists, one for public surveys, and another for the biologists, but for simplicity would rather of course be able to make it work with a single list for all surveys.

Sorry if this is not in the purview of this board, but I figured is sort of pertains the Survey123 and this is my first attempt and using Survey123 connect, and well as the dashboard! Thanks for any suggestions, and it's nice to know at least I am on the right track.