topic Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Attachments when Editing the Inbox

ErickWiggs2 — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 18:55:36 GMT

When I go to edit a survey from my Inbox it seems that I can not add attachments?

I seem to remember reading something about this somewhere, but I'm having a hard time finding it.

I'm trying to bring in an already created survey to update with additional data and photos.

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

BrandonArmstrong — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 20:49:54 GMT

Hi Erick,

It is not currently possible to edit attached photos via the Inbox. We do hope to support this in the future, and I will add your request to our existing logged issue. Please refer to the links below which provide documentation related to this limitation.

Enable editing

Talk Like a Pirate Release (2.4)

"As of this release, the Inbox lacks support for downloading attachments. That is, you can use the Inbox against a survey that includes attachments, but the Inbox will not populate signatures, annotated images, audio or image questions. All these types of questions will appear empty, as if they had no data. As for the rest of questions, you will be able to download data for them and update them as well.

Also, to play on the safe side, when you edit surveys from your Inbox we will disable editing on these types of questions. This means that if you open a survey from your Inbox to make edits to it, all questions of type image (photos, signature, annotate, draw) as well as audio questions will appear not only empty, but also disabled. This is to avoid people from accidentally attempting to change data in them.

We are considering adding support in a future release for editing attachments."

Regards,

Brandon

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

ErickWiggs2 — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 21:37:50 GMT

ESRI disabled editing in the types of questions.

Does that mean if I open up my Survey in AppStudio I might be able to turn them back on? Maybe?

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

ErickWiggs2 — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 21:41:25 GMT

The current Beta version doesn't happen to support this does it?

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

BrandonArmstrong — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 23:49:52 GMT

If you are familiar with modifying the source code of Survey123 using AppStudio, it may be possible to enable uploading of existing images in the Inbox, and then ultimately adding new ones. There are no listed steps or documentation related to achieving this, and please keep in mind that the modification and risk of using the resulting app would not be supported by ESRI.

A more accessible workflow may be to utilize repeats in order to add images within related tables to the existing feature (via the Inbox). Although you would not be able to edit existing images, you would be able to add a record to an existing repeat question which would then allow for attaching an image to the new record. Let me know if you have any questions related to this workflow, and keep in mind that it does present other limitations if you are looking to reference the images in other ESRI applications as, again, they will be stored within their own related table.

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

BrandonArmstrong — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 23:55:23 GMT

The current Beta does not address this issue.

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

ErickWiggs2 — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 14:32:57 GMT

Brandon,

I am interested in the workflow for adding images. Ultimately I don't care to be able to edit existing attachments to the survey, just be able to take and attach photos when editing the Inbox.

I already have enabled attachments in my SDE. Is this as simple as creating a repeat for the photos taken? (like below) What would I use for the name to direct the attachments into the ATTACH table?

Or are you saying that I will need to create a new related table that then has attachments enabled to just hold the images?

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

BrandonArmstrong — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 17:16:50 GMT

If you are using repeats (related tables) in your survey and the image question is in the repeat, you will be able to add attachments as they are created as a new record in the related table, and the image question can therefore be repeated within the same survey. Your example above should work perfectly in order to achieve your goal. You should not need to change the name of your image question, just add a record to the repeat once the ability to do so is enabled in the Inbox.

Editing Repeats

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

ErickWiggs2 — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 17:34:50 GMT

Thanks.

I'm currently battling with making the Supports ApplyEdits With GlobalIDs to be True.

Can you clarify the statement "You should not need to change the name of your image question, just add a record to the repeat once the ability to do so is enabled in the Inbox."?

For those following along, these links have been helpful.
Use Survey123 with existing feature services—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS
ArcGIS REST API - Layer - search for supportsApplyEditsWithGlobalIds
ArcGIS REST API - Apply Edits - search for attachments

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

BrandonArmstrong — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 18:48:17 GMT

Hi Erick,

In short, you should be able to use the steps listed in the 'Editing Repeats' link provided in my previous response in order to enable editing using the Inbox. If your survey contains an image question that is within a repeat (as you depicted above) then you should be able to select the '+' icon in order to add another record. With this record, you should find the ability to add an image. Please let me know if you are not finding the same when using this workflow.

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

ErickWiggs2 — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 22:07:49 GMT

It looks like in order to turn on ApplyEditsWithGlobalId I have to publish the service with Sync operational? Is that right?

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

Tensio_TSAdmin — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 19:38:27 GMT

Hi Erick,

Did you find any solution on this issue?

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

CurtisMoore — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 22:05:34 GMT

Does esri know when support for this will be available? I have existing features that I'd like field personnel to verify using Survey123, and add a picture to the feature in the process.

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

BrandonArmstrong — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 01:01:30 GMT

Hi Curtis,

There is no current timeline for the ability to view photo attachments via the Survey123 Inbox. It is currently possible to add a new attachment, as long as it is placed within a repeat.

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

SMauri — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 13:17:36 GMT

hi Brandom,

any update for the ability to view photo attachments on new Survey123 3.0?

Cheers

Stefano

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

BrandonArmstrong — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 16:10:57 GMT

Hi Stefano,

While this feature is still being considered, it is not included in the 3.0 release.

Brandon

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

JoshHabel — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 15:02:03 GMT

I hope this is added soon. I believe this would be a superior work flow for my utilities inspections and data collection processes. Currently I am trying to maintain a GUID link between the inspection and my gis electric model to make updating the model easy with a simple import. My current workflow requires me to do lookups based upon the pole id to bring in the model GUID. The problem is this only works some of the time due to the many duplicate pole id numbers we have. If we had the ability to use the inbox I could simply load all the pole we have in the model into the inbox. This would also serve as a check to make sure the inspectors do not miss any poles and would help locate false poles that are not actually in the field. However this all hinges on being able to add pictures to the inspection.

Josh

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

JeffJackson4 — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 14:59:42 GMT

There are several of us, that I know of, and propbably many more that I don't, who are pushing for this inbox functionality.

Hopefully they are taking note and getting ready to roll it out.

We do site monitoring and have to track recurring issues and have a single form with repeats for each site. But without a picture able to be downloaded (it is there, just not able to be gotten) it makes things difficult.

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

LeahSperduto — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 21:51:57 GMT

Hi Brandon,

I am attempting to publish a survey from an existing feature service and using the inbox to view and edit existing records. When attempting this workflow, I would like to allow the user to add new photos to an existing record. But I receive the message "Table Images not found" when trying to publish; I do not have the table for attachments added to the service, does it need to be added for the workflow to allow me to have new photos added on an existing record in the inbox (therefore allowing repeats)? This only happens once I indicate that I want to use a 'begin repeat' scenario. I am also including allowAdds=true to the parameters field; Is this necessary and/or do I need to indicate anything else in the parameter field?

Thanks,

Leah

Re: Attachments when Editing the Inbox

EaganGIS — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 14:29:16 GMT

Brandon,

I have added the attachment table to the service in hopes this would offer me the Repeats option (see previous question-June 13, 2019). The map server service offers the table for reference, however the feature server service does not. That attachment table layer is not included in the layer from the feature service.

Any thoughts on why this might be? or any thoughts on why i am unable to add (new) images to any inbox items?

Thanks in advance,

Leah