topic Re: Problem with public survey in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 00:49:15 GMT

Hi, I’m new to Survey123 and trying to set up a survey with five requirements:

It must be public, no AGOL credentials required
It must be able to collect data in the app while disconnected, submitting it later
Users should not be able to see other users’ submissions
It must contain a photo
It must contain location

I haven’t had any luck with the public aspect. Despite reading this blog post and other doc, changing feature layer settings, trying steps in different orders, whenever I attempt to submit data the app asks for AGOL credentials. Perhaps what I’m trying isn’t possible but I think it’s much more likely that I’m just overlooking something.

After authoring and publishing the survey, I go to the main feature layer’s settings and set them accordingly:

Editing: “Enable editing.” Is turned on, the other three settings are turned off.
What kind of editing is allowed?: Add features
What features can editors see?: Editors can’t see any features
What features can editors edit?: Disabled
What access do anonymous editors have? The same as signed in editors
Export Data: False

I then went to the field worker service and where applicable made those settings match, then from the Collaborate tab in Survey123 made the survey available to Everyone (Public). When I attempt to submit a survey from the app, it still asks me for AGOL credentials. (I also tried making the survey public first, then changing feature layer settings.)

If anyone has any ideas about what I’m overlooking I’d definitely appreciate it.

Re: Problem with public survey

PatrickRobb1 — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 15:02:38 GMT

Have you shared it in AGOL yet?

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 15:06:48 GMT

Yup, unauthenticated users can open the link and download the survey without issue, just can't post. The survey is public, the field worker view is public, and the core feature layer is private.

Re: Problem with public survey

PatrickRobb1 — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 15:29:58 GMT

Did you create the survey in Connect or using the Survey for ArcGIS Website.

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 15:31:27 GMT

I used the website.

Re: Problem with public survey

PatrickRobb1 — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 15:37:52 GMT

As a test try making the core feature layer public as well.

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 02:08:31 GMT

Still no luck with everything public, and I've tested adding a point through the REST API (just through a browser) and it worked without credentials.

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 02:23:49 GMT

Also, anonymous submission worked via the web link, seems to be an app-specific issue.

Re: Problem with public survey

AllisonHoff — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 19:13:21 GMT

Hello James

Here are some notes I made for myself on how to share a survey123 with the public but keep the responses hidden.

After making the survey I had to open my AGOO and find the folder that was automatically created. It contained the three files shown in image 2.

To make a public survey123 where data not visible to the public:

Go to your AGOO my content and find the folder with your survey. In the example below the folder is called Survey-RUSD
You need to change two checkboxes to change in the Feature Layer (hosted, view). This layer has the word fieldworker at the end of the layer name. Open the item details (click on ellipsis …) and open the settings tab. See the example below in image 1.
the Feature Layer (hosted, view) and Form are shared with the public (globe icon). See the example below in in image 2
the Feature Layer (hosted) is not shared with the public (padlock icon). See the example below in image 2

Image 1 What you will see when you open the settings tab in item details of the Feature Layer (hosted, view).

Image 2 The field worker layer item details (ellipses) is where to change the default settings. Two items are shared with the public and one is not.

Allison

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 23:54:36 GMT

Thanks for the help Allison, but I'm still seeing the same issue.

What makes it especially strange is that anonymous submission works via the web form but the app still asks for credentials. Like I said I'm new to Survey123 but something seems very odd about that... It's not isolated to one device either, tested on three different devices now with the same results.

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesTedrick — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 00:04:22 GMT

Hi James,

Can you run an AppStudio log and then attempt to submit - see Troubleshoot—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS and ignore the console loading symbol (this is easiest with Windows, Mac, or Android). The log will be in C:\Users\ArcGIS\AppStudio\logs (~\ArcGIS\AppStuio\logs in macOS/Android). If you can provide me that, I can possibly figure out why you are seeing a security challenge.

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 23:53:55 GMT

Hi James,

There are in fact two issues which may be related.

First, when I attempt to download and unpack a survey, it consistently hangs during unpacking. The spinner hangs indefinitely. I've reproduced this with over 15 new surveys created in both the Survey123 website as well as Survey123 Connect, and on four different devices (Android, iOS and Windows). Closing the app while it's spinning indefinitely and re-opening allows use of the survey, however.

The second issue relates to anonymous submission from the app. I can submit through the web form and the REST API without authentication so I don't believe it's an AGOL privileges issue.

Here are two log files, the first generated when trying to download and unpack and the second generated when trying to submit a record:

Survey123forArcGIS-20180416-174130.log - Google Drive

Survey123forArcGIS-20180416-174307.log - Google Drive

Also, here's the link to the most recent test survey (it's basically empty, just trying to get these issues sorted before investing any time in constructing a proper form):

https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/5cfb768198f64799ba73e45804b22363?open=native

Thanks,

James

Re: Problem with public survey

AnthonyRyanEQL — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 00:12:09 GMT

James,

With your submission as an anon user, do you have a photo attachment in your survey? Only asking because I found with my public survey with anon user is with a photo attached it doesn't send the data but will send data when no photo is taken or attached.

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 01:21:09 GMT

Ultimately getting a photo attached is one of my requirements but for now I'm testing without a photo, only field is a single-line textbox.

Re: Problem with public survey

AnthonyRyanEQL — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 01:29:04 GMT

Interesting you are having these issues with such a simple survey. Interested to see what James Tedrick comes back with. Good Luck

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesTedrick — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 22:23:50 GMT

Hi James,

I've done some testing on the form. I was successful in downloading the form via link and submitting when I was already logged in. Resetting to a logged out state, I experienced the same hanging issue you experienced on downloading the form. There is a fairly subtle error - essentially, the web site is not providing a piece of information about the form (the organization from which it was published); the application then attempts to find it via the person signed in.

Re-publishing this survey from Survey123 Connect should solve the issue. I think this is also producing the prompt to login on submittal as well; there is a further step in the app configuration that may not be reached because of the error.

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 02:22:37 GMT

Hi James, I was able to reproduce what you found - I tested downloading/unpacking while logged in (which went smoothly), logging out, filling out the survey then submitting anonymously and it worked, so it does seem the failure to submit anonymously is directly linked to the unpacking issue.

Unfortunately I tried republishing from Survey123 Connect (I only made a label change) and still experienced the indefinite unpacking problem. I also tried publishing a new survey from Survey123 Connect - using one of the templates without any changes - with the same results.

Also, I don't know if logging in to download the form will be an acceptable workaround, the end goal is to allow users without AGOL accounts to enter data - unless there's an alternative way to download forms? For example, is copy/pasting forms directly into the "My Surveys" directory a supported workflow?

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesTedrick — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 21:01:45 GMT

Hi James,

We've identified a fix, which will be incorporated into 2.8 (mid-May release). We plan on making available beta version via the Esri Early Adopter Community soon

Re: Problem with public survey

JamesMacKay3 — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 15:43:51 GMT

Great, thanks!

Re: Problem with public survey

JohnMarino — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 20:13:08 GMT

Thanks, James. We just discovered that it appears we are experiencing the same problem and wonder if you or anyone know of any workarounds in the interim.

EDIT 5/8/2018: In case anyone else is reading this prior to the next update of the Survey123 app being released, the current workaround I have at the moment is to:

Sign-in to Survey123 using any ArcGIS Organizational Account
Open the URL of the public survey (be sure to include the ?open=native parameter to the end of the URL) and select "Open in the Survey123 field app"
The survey should download into Survey123 successfully
At this point you can sign-out of the ArcGIS Online account from within Survey123 and the survey should work and have the ability to upload data anonymously

Hope this helps. I realize that it still requires an ArcGIS Online account initially, but this has been the only way I have found that this works for the issue that I am encountering.