topic Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect? in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

BrentKinal1 — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 16:21:01 GMT

Has any one had the need or has come up with a solution for editing Survey 123 from multiple computers/locations using Connect.

I have two scenarios where this would be handy:

1. I telecommute 1 day a week and would love to be able to edit my survey normally stored on my work PC without the need to make a copy and edit on my laptop.

2. I am collaborating on some form designs with a coworker that works remotely.

Any insights on best practices here would be appreciated.

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

CarmelConnolly3 — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 11:07:47 GMT

Hi Brent,

I work on surveys from different computers.

When I'm finished on one machine, and I'm happy for the changes to go to ArcGIS Online, I published them. When I'm on a different machine, I sign into my account through Survey123 Connect and download the updated survey from there.

If I'm not happy for the changes to go to Online, I take a copy of the survey folder from C:\Users\<username>\ArcGIS\My Survey Designs, email it to myself, and then place the folder in the same location on my other machine.

I haven't collaborated on a survey with anyone, but I have been able to transfer a survey to someone else by creating a folder in their My Content with the same name as mine, and changing the ownership of the survey to them.

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

BrentKinal1 — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 13:26:11 GMT

Thanks Carmel, It's good to know that I am not the only one to have had to deal with this. Thanks for sharing your approach. I will give it a shot. As for collaboration I think we'll probably just email it back and forth or use Dropbox. One quick question, how do you change ownership of a survey?

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

CarmelConnolly3 — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 13:47:54 GMT

Hi Brent,

In My Content, browse to the folder that contains the survey you want to move.
Select the Form and the Feature Layer.
Choose 'Change Owner'.
Select the person's name from the list.
Click 'New Folder' and give it the same name as the folder that contains the Form and Feature Layer in your My Content
Select the new folder and click 'Change Owner'

Now the other user will see this survey when they log into http://survey123.esri.com/#/

Carmel

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

CandiceOoi — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 21:03:00 GMT

Hi,

I have a quick follow-up question regarding this issue. When you are changing the owner, are you duplicating the hosted feature layer and the form? It's funny how even though you have shared the feature layers within your organization, your colleagues will not be able to edit the Survey123 forms or any hosted feature layers created.

Say my colleagues need to edit the surveys when I am away, what is the best way for them to get access and edit the surveys and feature layers I created? The best way I can think of is to let them duplicate the form and upload it in their AGOL account to replace the older version that I created.

I would like to give my colleagues access to the Survey123 forms without switching the owner or duplicating it. Please let me know if there is a better way to solve this. Thank you very much! I truly appreciate everyone's input.

Candice

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

JamesTedrick — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 22:45:37 GMT

Hi Candice,

Apologies for the late reply. Unfortunately ArcGIS Online currently does not allow the sharing of Survey123 form items for the purpose of being authored/edited by multiple people. Transferring ownership is the primary way to enable changing editors at this time.

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

CandiceOoi — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 12:22:30 GMT

Hi James,

Thank you very much for confirming this!

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

deleted-user-Yl1wYLjfqwqw — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 20:01:08 GMT

Hi James

I am trying to make some minor updates to an existing Survey 123 form--i.e., adding values to a picklist. The form's creator is no longer on the team, so I have taken ownership of the form and the feature layer and moved them into an identically named directory. But after this, the form still doesn't show up in the "My Survey Designs" area of Survey 123 for ArcGIS. I've tried logging in/out of our portal.

We are using version 10.3.1 of Portal and 2.6.4 of Connect. Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance.

Drew

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

JamesTedrick — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 20:43:36 GMT

Hi Drew,

In order for the form(s) to appear, you need to update a few settings in the form's .iteminfo files:

- the owner's username

- the id of the folder the form is in your account

Additionally, I'll note that the next release of Survey123 field app (3.0) will no longer support 10.3.1 portals; to accommodate that, we are releasing a 'Survey123 Classic' version of the application for legacy support.

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

deleted-user-Yl1wYLjfqwqw — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 21:26:25 GMT

Thanks for the response, James. And that's good info on 3.0--we hope to upgrade portal very soon.

But I'm not sure where to update the .iteminfo file. For forms that I've created myself, I see that file in my local directory ({User}\ArcGIS\My Survey Designs\{FormName}) but for the forms in question, there is no corresponding directory on my laptop.

I don't have access to the original source and so have taken ownership of the form and feature layer in the portal UI. If I download the form object, it unzips into several files, but none of these are .iteminfo. I feel like I'm missing a step?

Drew

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

JamesTedrick — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 21:47:12 GMT

Hi Drew,

This does work best if you have access to the original forms on the computer. Once you log in to Survey123 Connect, you should the see the forms as being available to download. If you download them, they probably won't appear unless you sign out as then they'll have the information that they were authored by the original author; you should then sign out to find and edit them before republishing.

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

deleted-user-Yl1wYLjfqwqw — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 17:30:14 GMT

Thanks James. One final question. As I mentioned we're still on 10.3.1.

I'm working with a form which has been in use for some time and has thousands of responses. It appears that there is no way to make an update to the form without creating a new feature layer, meaning that subsequent submissions will be stored separately from previous ones. Is that correct? If not, how do I publish an updated form *without* creating a new feature service?

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

Anonymous User — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:42:03 GMT

Hi James,

I was wondering if a latest update of Survey 123 now allowed for design/editing of surveys my multiple people? Would there be a way to set this up through Group sharing within the Organisation?

Thank you for your help

Alix

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

BenjaminSperry1 — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 15:35:08 GMT

Is it anticipated that this will change in the future?

Would it work to have others edit just the excel document? My forms have to be in several languages, can I send the Excel workbook to the translators and then just save the translated document into the survey123 folder and publish the updates to AGOL?

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

JamesTedrick — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 23:16:37 GMT

Hi Benjamin,

In the situation you describe, you would need to copy the translated columns in the form's 'master' XLS file and then save & publish to AGOL.

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

CSR_GarinHirata — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:49:47 GMT

James,

Is it still necessary to change the .iteminfo files when transferring the Survey123 to another user?

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

IzzyMcLees — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 08:44:25 GMT

I am aware this post has been marked as solved, but I would like to request an update as to whether any additonal functionality been added to Survey123 since this post that would allow for multiple people to edit a form at the same time or from separate machines - that does not involve changing the owner of the form?

Re: Best practices for multiple editors of the same form using Survey123 Connect?

DennisNaumann1 — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 16:28:21 GMT

@JamesTedrick - is there an update on this?

can we add owners/editors? (rather than change the owners)