topic Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

Kanin — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 07:11:52 GMT

Based on this document about integrating Survey123 with other apps, there is currently a bug in Survey123 where the labels and name fields of choices in choice lists need to be identical in order to pass filled values into another app, such as Collector e.g. arcgis-survey123://?itemID=36ff9e8c13e042a58cfce4ad87f55d19&field:surname={name}.

Therefore, I tried to design a form where the name and label are identical with spaces between words for readability and a user-friendly experience for end users. However, I received a warning where the form is converted with warning that choice names should not contain spaces. Since this is a "should not" warning and not a "must not" error. I would like to know will there be performance issues if I publish a Survey123 form whose choices have spaces?

Alternatively, I could make the choices and labels both do not have spaces e.g TypeA-18 as opposed to Type A-18 to avoid this warning. However, it is not very user friendly to do so, especially in cases when there will be lots of choices to choose from.

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

JamesTedrick — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 16:36:28 GMT

Hi Kanin,

According to the XLSForm specification, spaces are not allowed in a choice; this is due to the use of a space as a delimiter within XLSForm. As you note, you will generate a warning on publishing of the form. This issue will be more fully addressed by the next version of Collector, which will support Arcade for pop-ups.

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

Kanin — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 06:47:44 GMT

Hi JTedrick-esristaff,

Thank you very much for your response. It is greatly appreciated. As you have mentioned that the aforementioned issue will be addressed by the next version of Collector, could you please kindly provide an estimate timeline? Since the blog regarding the Aurora Project for Collector does not explicitly mention this functionality.

Thank you once again!

Kanin

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

JamesTedrick — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 16:05:13 GMT

I don't have a timeline for support in the new version of Collector; in the blog post, this functionality is under the general heading of 'Arcade Expressions'.

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

Kanin — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 16:43:11 GMT

Thank you very much for the clarification. Appreciate it!

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

RobBlash — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 18:12:50 GMT

James,

Can you go into a bit more detail on this, and how it's a Collector issue? Is it a problem with Collector passing the domain description instead of the coded value? Or is the issue with Survey123 interpret the value from the URL as the choice label instead of the choice name?

I'm in the process of designing a valve form that will be launched from collector which will pass a subtype to S123 for verification. Ultimately I need to see the valve type on the S123 form for the user to verify, so I'm wondering if there's a workable (albeit less than perfect) solution for the time being?

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

JamesTedrick — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 18:24:55 GMT

Hi Rob,

The issue is that the URLs generated in pop-ups normally display the domain description (i.e., what a human reads), not the domain value (what is submitted and stored in the database). In a single language context, it might be possible for Survey123 to reverse match the description to the value (assuming the form choice labels are the same as the domain descriptions, which they do not have to be), but it would be more authoritative to receive the domain value.

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

RobBlash — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 18:33:50 GMT

I agree that passing & receiving the domain value would be best, and I had assumed that was the case before I stumbled on this thread, so I am glad to find this out now!

So how does Survey123 interpret the domain description value it receives via the URL? As the choice label or the choice name?

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

JamesTedrick — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 19:31:00 GMT

Hi Rob,

Survey123 would attempt to interpret this as the choice name; as I mentioned above, an attempt to interpret the choice label breaks down quickly as complexity in the form design is introduced.

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

RobBlash — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 19:37:59 GMT

Ok I understand now. My plan was to have my form choice lists exactly the same as the domains that collector would see. Now I just need to figure out if we can live with no spaces across the board.

I appreciate the help!

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

DougBrowning — Tue, 28 May 2019 20:46:35 GMT

I have a coworker helping me and he was putting spaces in the Name field... and it was letting him. No warning or anything. Has this changed now?

Cannot seem to find anything about it.

thanks

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

JamesTedrick — Tue, 28 May 2019 21:45:53 GMT

Hi Doug,

When the Excel file opened, were there any warnings? The in-form warnings are all based on Excel data validation; we've seen that if a form has gone through a lot of copy/paste operations, that can break (it can also be manually turned off as well).

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

DougBrowning — Tue, 28 May 2019 22:37:44 GMT

Why is it just warning now? Looking at the Feature Service it seems to take the spaces just fine now. Is this a new thing? We can use spaces now?

thanks

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

JamesTedrick — Wed, 29 May 2019 16:50:04 GMT

Hi Doug,

By warnings, I meant warning dialogs Excel presented (normally about links being missing/broken) - that normally indicates the validation has been broken on the form.

As per FAQ: What characters should not be used in ArcGIS for field names and table names? field names cannot contain spaces. What you tend to see in things like table displays or other UX are aliases (the label column in Survey123), which can be arbitrary text.

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

DougBrowning2 — Wed, 29 May 2019 16:54:09 GMT

Its not just the label - we got it to work with spaces in Name. That is why I asked. We checked and it is not the domain but the actual name is stored with spaces.

Re: Question about spaces in Survey123 Connect "name" fields of choices

JamesTedrick — Wed, 29 May 2019 18:57:12 GMT

Hi Doug,

That sounds like a validation error in ArcGIS Online, then - there are a couple of other instances where disallowed characters (most recently I've seen with hyphens) are allowed in the creation of the field but end up creating a situation where the data cannot be submitted.