idea Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive in ArcGIS Survey123 Ideas

Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

GeorgePlumley — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 19:28:34 GMT

It would be nice to have the ability when creating a survey with connect to set a different default location to save the surveys, ie: a network folder. This way admin or other staff that are collaborating on a project can edit the survey and republish if needed.

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

ScottPrindle — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 18:15:10 GMT

Hello George,

Thank you for submitting this idea. To clarify your request, are you saying you'd like to change the location where your XLS Forms and associated files are saved when creating a survey? What is your current workflow when you find that an admin needs to modify an existing survey to republish?

Thanks,

Scott

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

GeorgePlumley — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 20:38:12 GMT

Scott,

Now when a user creates the survey all of the information is stored in the default location on their individual computer’s. So if the if individual is on leave we have no way of doing any edits to the survey data. Another factor with our agency is that the individual computers data isn’t backed up in any form, just the data that’s stored on our servers. As of now all of our surveys are created using Survey123 Connect.

I’m thinking that if we had the ability to create a folder on our server (ie: Survey123 Surveys) and have the ability to set the location of where the surveys are stored during the software install, or can change it within the settings area.

Hope this helps,

George

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

JillHalchin — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:36:54 GMT

We are just starting to experiment with Survey123, but the issue that George brings up is likely to be a deal-breaker for us. I work for a government agency and my work belongs to the government, not me. It is supposed to stay on a server where it is backed up. I have to be able to share and to archive files. The only option is to manually copy the 123 folders to a server every time there is a new survey or a change. I have enough to do without adding that.

Also, I need to keep working files organized so that I can find them quickly. Everything pertaining to field forms and related services needs to stay in one place where it's easy to find. If it's scattered, some on a server, some buried in my profile... again, I don't have time for that.

And to expand on George's point, this means that no one else can take over a survey if the person who created it leaves, perhaps suddenly with no warning. Nor can you start a project, then hand it over to an assistant.

What about organizations that use roaming profiles? The more files in your profile, the longer it takes to log on.

I do hope that Esri will add the ability to store Survey123 folders in multiple locations, including servers, soon.

Thank you,

Jill

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

CJC — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 21:13:29 GMT

I agree with Jill and Scott. I have designed a survey using Survey123 connect that I would like to hand off to the end user of the survey. They would like the ability to add and remove fields or choices to dropdowns as needed. Storing it in my user profile on my computer's hard drive doesn't seem real practical since our hard drives aren't backed up. If my hard drive crashed, I'd be out of luck.

Thanks!

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

erica_poisson — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 14:03:13 GMT

The ability to specify a network location to save the XLS Forms & associated data would offer a few advantages, the first being a huge security bonus. One of my fears is that if our IT department decides to update ArcGIS on my users machines, that all of their Survey123 data would be overwritten and lost with that update. Also, I agree with Cody, only network drives receive back-ups and a loss to the local drive would be detrimental.

On the flip side, for users with multiple workstations, the ability to save on the network would allow you to work on surveys regardless of your physical location.

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

MirandaMuller1 — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 12:50:52 GMT

If I understand the way that Survey123 Connect works correctly, the survey is stored on the chosen platform (AGOL or ArcGIS Enterprise). When you download that form from the Server, it automatically generates an XLSFORM in a folder on your machine. You can use that to edit and modify the survey - so you don't necessarily need your survey shared to a network drive ONCE it has been published. Obviously if you are working on a work that hasn't yet been published, then you might still stand the risk of losing it..

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

JillHalchin — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:38:35 GMT

Still waiting. I'm getting a new Win10 computer soon and there is apparently no way to migrate user profiles. This will kill my existing surveys if I can't copy-paste the folder to the new computer.

Also - there are several related threads now, so if you can, go vote for those, too.

https://community.esri.com/ideas/15544-save-survey123-designs-and-surveys-in-a-conventional-folder

https://community.esri.com/ideas/14814-publish-survey123-in-specific-folders

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

Anonymous User — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 06:30:36 GMT

This would also be nice if you were working on an unpublished survey and you have an office computer and home computer and want to work on the survey from both locations.

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

K_Wa — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 15:54:23 GMT

There hasn't been any activity on this for a while - So I'm hoping this has been fixed and I just haven't found it yet.

If not - This is a huge problem for my organization. We are required to store any project information on a network drive, as others have said, to ensure that data is backed up and not left isolated on local hard drives. Not being able to control the default file locations is extremely problematic.

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

Felicitychun — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 06:30:42 GMT

I believe it can be done by setting the 'Home' environment variable used in Survey123 connect for each user on their computer. Then this can be changed to different folders where the surveys are saved

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

K_Wa — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 15:21:29 GMT

That would be great - Can you point me to where I can modify that variable?

Thanks!

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

Felicitychun — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 01:03:04 GMT

Hi, on the computers I use for work is windows, so in the windows bar you can type in 'environment variables' to find where you can edit environment variables.

That folder would be the folder replicated of the install i believe, so the folder with the surveys in it would be this:

P:\GIS\R_and_D\Field_Data\Survey123\ArcGIS\My Survey Designs

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

NicholasMoore — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 23:58:24 GMT

As per Felicity chun‌ post. changing the user environment variable Home you can redirect all surveys to anywhere you want

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

K_Wa — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 21:10:40 GMT

In case someone else runs into this thread - The environment variable did solve this problem for me - but - I had to create the variable named "HOME" and then set the path. (I also had to reboot to get Connect to recognize the new location.)

Further, I've found that in my case adding this variable broke functionality in other programs (git) that picked up that variable and tried to use the path I specified as it's root.

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

mroberts_troy — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 13:58:56 GMT

How is it 2022 and this isn't possible?

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

BrianHall7 — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 18:47:55 GMT

How is it 2022 and this isn't possible?

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

ahargreaves_FW — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 18:38:54 GMT

I need this! I regularly work on different PC's, but leverage OneDrive to ensure i can always get at what I need. The exception to this is Survey123Connect whereby i instead must ensure I've published a survey so I can pull it down locally onto whichever PC I'm working on. It's not too big of a hardship but being able to simply referencing the actual files by pointing Survey123Connect to the OneDrive location would be much preferred.

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

AnthonyCorcoran1 — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 12:30:38 GMT

Any update on this? currentley if the survey creator is away from work, other team members/survey users are unable to make changes.

This creates a single point of failure.

Re: Survey123 ability to have survey stored on a network drive

RobertAnderson3 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 13:23:15 GMT

This still needs to be added (or at least explained if it is actually possible!)