topic Re: Survey123 Google Sheets in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Survey123 Google Sheets

temprobertcottreau131313 — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 14:58:40 GMT

I've been using Excel to edit/create surveys in Survey123 but our office no longer has Microsoft Office.

Does Portal 11.3 allow for surveys to be edited/created using Google Sheets in the same way it did with Excel?

Thanks to all.

Robert..

Re: Survey123 Google Sheets

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:23:08 GMT

From the Esri Support Services AI Chatbot - "ArcGIS Survey123 does not directly support the creation of surveys from Google Sheets. However, you can use Microsoft Power Automate to load Survey123 data into Excel spreadsheets and automate tasks when a survey is submitted. This allows for some level of integration with spreadsheet data, but direct creation from Google Sheets is not a supported feature."

It did get me thinking if OpenOffice was supported in ArcGIS Survey123 and sadly the answer was no, it is not directly supported either.

Re: Survey123 Google Sheets

DavidSolari — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:54:39 GMT

XLSForms don't use any workbook features beyond "sheets" and "cells with static values" so you should be able to upload the form file to Google Sheets, edit it there, then export to xlsx to refresh Survey123 Connect. Clunky, but not impossible. For faster iterations, Libreoffice is also a bit clunky but it should work as a local editor. No guarantee the cell validation stuff will work outside of Excel though. Please share how this went, I'm genuinely curious how other spreadsheet tools handle the XLSForms!

Re: Survey123 Google Sheets

DuncanC — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 19:41:17 GMT

Why post AI slop? That answer is worse than no answer. Like most AI reply's it would send an unsuspecting user off on a wild goose chase.

The second answer is correct. Google sheets or Libreoffice, export as XLSX, will work fine.

Re: Survey123 Google Sheets

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 20:01:20 GMT

I'm sorry you do not appreciate the Esri Support Services AI chatbot. Unlike other AI applications, this one is soley trained on Esri technical content vs. the wide open internet. Yes, it can make mistakes as I've seen this in my specific eGDB questions. Consider it another resource to solving questions but like anything else, verify, and find additional resources to assist answering the question. You may learn more about it here - Frequently Asked Questions | Esri Support AI Chatbot | Technical Support

With regard to the second answer, yes Google Sheets or LibreOffice does export to *.xlsx. But the original poster specifically said they no longer have Microsoft Office. So exporting to *.xlsx, in this case, does not answer the question.

Re: Survey123 Google Sheets

DuncanC — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 20:08:41 GMT

Nobody would appreciate a completely wrong answer that came from somebody with a ESRI badge so they took it and started googling and trying to make it work. That's a complete waste of time. You did that to the OP. I don't understand why. If you can't see it's 100% hype and wanted to test the AI, whatever, but when it gives you AI slop don't post that, your ESRI badge gives you extra credibility that in this case was poorly placed.

The whole idea of a LLM support bot is fundamentally flawed. LLMs have proven time and time again they are not capable of this task. It turns out the sounding correct isn't good enough, when it's all just completely made up hallucinations and 100% wrong it just wastes time.

Re: Survey123 Google Sheets

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 20:34:01 GMT

I appreciate your comments and will take it to heart. As a human being, I'm fallible and make mistakes.

With regard to the question and digging deeper into the documentation, in the XLSForm essentials help documentation, it does say Google Sheets is an option for authoring XLSForm-compliant worksheets.

Re: Survey123 Google Sheets

JPrüssmann — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 22:48:08 GMT

I'm in the same situation of OP, we have no Office License, but I usually get by with Google Sheets and LibreOffice for the day-to-day stuff. However, today was my first time trying to edit the XLS form in LibreCalc, and I'm sad to say that maybe it won't work, because it's not allowing me to change the list_name for select one o multiple questions (see screenshot). Has maybe anyone tried with OpenOffice?

Re: Survey123 Google Sheets

DuncanC — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:22:31 GMT

Should still work. You just need to turn off data validation for the cells in question, or switch it to just a warning.