idea Be able to hide/disable the recalculate button in ArcGIS Survey123 Ideas

Be able to hide/disable the recalculate button

ColinCampbell1 — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:34:21 GMT

Be able to hide (or disable) the recalculate button that appears next to calculated fields.

There are certain instances/workflows where the presence of the recalculate button is undesirable and risks data entry or usability issues (e.g. here).

Re: Be able to hide/disable the recalculate button - Status changed to: Needs Clarification

JamesTedrick — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 21:17:00 GMT

Hi @ColinCampbell1 ,

Ca you provide more details on the scenario where you are seeing the recalculate button with read only fields (as mentioned in the community discussion), potentially with an XLSX form example?

Additionally, have you used the once() function to prevent further calculation and are still seeing this issue?

Re: Be able to hide/disable the recalculate button

SimoneVinkel — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 08:36:22 GMT

Hi @JamesTedrick,

We have a scenario, where we would like to hide the recalculate button, and where the once() function would not be an optimal solution. Maybe you have a suggestion to a work-around for this specific case:

We are using ArcGIS Workflow with a survey123 step.
The survey has an autocomplete search to find older records, which is used to populate fields. We use pulldata() to retrieve values from the searched record. Then pulldata() calculations are used on all the specific fields we want to be populated.
If using once(), it is not possible to use search and populate again, e.g. if one has chosen a wrong record to populate from, as the calculation has already happened once.

When editing the survey, the recalculate button appear on all the questions/fields where it uses pulldata(). We only want the calculation to happen when using the autocomplete search input field, but we need to take into account that the user might choose a wrong record and wants to redo the population with another record.

Best regards
Simone

Re: Be able to hide/disable the recalculate button

PanGIS — Fri, 30 May 2025 14:48:13 GMT

HI @JamesTedrick,

since the idea still needs clarification here my scenario:

I have a survey that creates reports and it generates a ref number

I was asked to change the ref.No schema since the incremental number at the end is not reliable and it creates duplicates.

The report can be updated until is ready for review so, it is still available for editing in the Inbox until then.

below you see the old one and above the new schema

the code is fine when I open it

if I hit the refresh button.

the dateTime is the same as it is set as once() but the schema is different and it will update.

the calculation mode is calculationMode=whenEmpty, but still it updates

my options are:

1. I create a new survey where I allow the edits but I am going to receive complains for the number of survey that need to used (already 5)

2. I beg the inspectors not to touch that button until all the old reports are reviewed (they are more than 800, it will not happen overnight)

Always thanks for your help.

Re: Be able to hide/disable the recalculate button

IanMottmapper — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:11:35 GMT

Hi @PanGIS - I think this is a similar issue to one I just found a solution for with creating unique 'ticket' numbers for each of my records that don't get overwritten (or rather, recalculated) when the record is edited in a Survey123 embedded widget.

I also found that calculationMode='whenEmpty' was (pardon my tone) useless. It took some digging, but I found out that there's a 'mode' parameter saved by the survey's '@property' element that gives the state of the form's access ('new', 'edit', or 'view'). By setting the 'relevant' column of the attribute in my XLSForm to pulldata(@property,'mode')='new' (and setting the attribute's appearance to hidden), it only calculates my 'ticket number' when the survey record is first created and never recalculates when opened in edit mode in another Survey123 interface.

If you need your user to be able to see the 'ticket' number value when in the form, you can create a 'note'-type attribute and put something like this in the 'label':
<p style="text-align: center;margin: 0px;font-size: 15px;">Your Activity ID: ${ticket_number_calc}</p>