topic Duplicate Domains in FGDB Export in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Duplicate Domains in FGDB Export

KYTCGIS — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 17:48:39 GMT

Creating choice lists within Survey123 Connect leads to duplicate domains within a file geodatabase export. If you have a choice list (the equivalent of a domain for databases) and apply that choice list to multiple questions, you will have a domain in your FGDB export for each question a choice list was applied to (there are photos below to demonstrate this). I've noticed this within Survey123 for several years - while employed by different organizations and through different Survey123 versions - and thought it was the way things were supposed to be. I asked the Survey123 gurus at the 2019 Esri UC a few weeks ago if this would ever be updated, however, and was told this is actually a bug that needs to be reported. I thought I'd ask here before going down that route. Does anyone know if there is a reason for this or has anyone noticed it before?

I'm including a bit more dialog below to show what I'm referencing. On the database side of things, having more domains than you need is a bit messy - especially if you have a survey with 50 + questions using the same choice list (i.e. yes_no). In your file geodatabase export, instead of having one yes_no domain, you have 50 + yes_no domains because every question gets their own domain (i.e. cvd_question_one, cvd_question_two...). Some steps with photos are included below to demonstrate this.

1. Make a choice list

2. Apply that choice list to as many questions as you need to

3. Publish the survey, complete surveys, and download the file geodatabase export

4. View the file geodatabase properties and notice the duplicated domains

This isn't limited to a single survey we've created or a specific version of Survey123. I actually created this short one right before making this post to see if it was still happening. Does anyone have any idea of why this is happening? Is it an actual bug? It's been like this for years and I have a hard time thinking I'm the only one to notice it so I'm thinking there is a reason out there I'm just not aware of. I'd appreciate any feedback, thanks!

Re: Duplicate Domains in FGDB Export

Jim-Moore — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 00:48:16 GMT

Hi KYTC GIS

Thanks for the description and screenshots. During the publishing process, a new domain is applied to each select question as it's created, sometimes resulting in duplicate domains. So what you're seeing is currently expected behaviour, however this issue has been logged as an enhancement request to consider in the future and I've added your notes to it. We'll endeavour to update this thread with any progress.

As you've indicated, this issue could also be raised as an enhancement request via Esri Tech Support so that it gets logged in the Support system with an ENH number that you can track, and other use cases can then be attached to it.

Best regards,

Jim

Re: Duplicate Domains in FGDB Export

DougBrowning — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 22:57:45 GMT

The real bummer is Domains are never updated after the first publish. So when we add say a user to our drop down list they never make it into the Domain.

Then if you use Pro to edit it will say the value is invalid (since no matching domain record).

I really hope that one gets fixed.