topic Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device? in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

RobBlash — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 20:23:05 GMT

If I need to modify a survey and re-publish is there a way to force delete the old survey from mobile devices? It seems like they survey doesn't check do a self-check to see if it's still valid before you enter data (on Android v2.5.44 at least). So the user can plug in all the info and, if they are paying attention they'll see the submit fails. It doesn't even generate an error popup, it just leaves the survey as a draft.

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

JamesTedrick — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 22:22:10 GMT

Hi Robert,

Currently, there isn't an author-driven survey management capability. We are looking to bring this into the application in the future.

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

GavinGoeldner — Thu, 09 May 2019 04:25:38 GMT

James, Any news on this *essential* feature?

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

JamesTedrick — Tue, 14 May 2019 21:06:27 GMT

Hi Gavin,

At this time, there is not have any change in the status of this enhancement.

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

GavinGoeldner — Wed, 22 May 2019 03:06:52 GMT

This suggestion has been around since November 2016 and "under consideration" for over a year. Lots of people have explained why it is absolutely necessary.

https://community.esri.com/ideas/14180-survey123-auto-refresh-survey

https://community.esri.com/ideas/12832-survey123-app-auto-updates-form
https://community.esri.com/ideas/13677-notify-users-a-survey123-form-has-been-updated
/message/802600-updated-surveys-available-for-download Notify users a Survey123 form has been updated

James Tedrick or Scott Prindle Is there any chance of this EVER getting done?

Gavin

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

JamesTedrick — Thu, 23 May 2019 19:50:06 GMT

Hi Gavin,

Yes, we are considering this as a feature for Survey123. That being said, there are additional considerations - for example, the ideas you cite involve different workflows for how an update process should work; in addition to that, there are concerns about the data on the device at the time an update is occurs.

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

GavinGoeldner — Fri, 24 May 2019 07:20:22 GMT

Hi James,

Thanks for considering this, as we have found it very difficult to get people to reliably update forms, and the more users, the more overhead it creates.

If the concern is about un-sent forms, then the app should be able to detect this situation and warn the user to sync before and update, but in the event that all data has been sent, then there shouldn't be an issue with updating the form automatically?

Another (although somewhat less functional) approach would be: in the "Download Surveys" page, the app knows the difference between a form that has been downloaded or not, and displays a different icon accordingly. It's not too hard to imagine it could also detect an out of date form and display a big red cross or something to indicate it should be updated. An "update all" option would also be helpful.

Regards,
G

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

wcozzens — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 16:33:52 GMT

Thanks for that information James. When you have over 50 people using a survey, and you need to push out a minor but critical change (like a domain value) it can be a real problem getting all these users to download the new version. If you have a major change to the schema where the form update on the user's device is going to be required, then it can be an absolute nightmare, if not impossible to get them all to update, and everything goes sideways.

Users that don't update their forms are filling out surveys that they cannot submit, they get frustrated and despise using the application, and everyone looks bad... especially the GIS people pushing this application on them. It's hard to argue with them, they are not necessarily tech-savvy people and if a form needs to be updated, then the application should walk them through that process.

Many of the people using apps like this are "old school" and view this as an intrusion on their way of doing things (with a pencil and clipboard) so it better work - seamlessly - otherwise they will reject the entire concept of using Survey123 out of hand. In addition, many users may be contractors outside of our organization, so just contacting them via email or phone is to update their survey can be a real challenge.

I wanted to push this discussion back to the top since we're dealing with this issue right now. I don't know if anyone at ESRI can appreciate the scope and magnitude of this problem unless you're managing multiple surveys with 50+ people in the real world. I understand there's multiple problems to consider when trying to come up with a solution here, but this is a serious issue that really needs to be addressed asap. It's already been a long time and I don't think this problem is being taken seriously enough, otherwise it would have been fixed by now.

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

Anonymous User — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 01:22:37 GMT

Hi Rob,

Just letting you know we have been working on the survey update notifications feature in the latest Survey123 beta builds available on the Early Adopter Community (EAC). The new workflow will now alert the user in the field app when an updated survey is available, and be displayed on the gallery page, download surveys page and when trying to open a survey that has an update. This enables the user to do an update of the survey before proceeding to collect a new survey record.

Please test out the latest 3.9 beta builds and provide any feedback via the EAC user forums for this new feature. You can find the 3.9 beta announcement with details on EAC.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

Anonymous User — Mon, 04 May 2020 01:41:19 GMT

Hi Rob,

We have done some more work on survey update notifications feature in the latest Survey123 3.10 beta builds available on the Early Adopter Community (EAC). There is now an option to require users to update the survey, without an option to continue to the survey without update. This can be done in one of two ways, via enabling a setting on a per survey level via the Connect survey settings tab, or this can be set as an organization property which will apply to all surveys in the organization and will over-ride the settings at the survey level if it is disabled.

Please test out the latest 3.10 beta builds and provide any feedback via the EAC user forums for this new feature.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

wcozzens — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 11:07:02 GMT

Hi Philip,

I cannot seem to find any information on the EAC platform about the option to require users to update the survey.

Can you please post a link to the specific documentation on how this is implemented?

Thanks,

-David

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

wcozzens — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 11:28:07 GMT

...disregard my post above, I downloaded the 3.10 Connect and now see the option in the settings.

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

OlivierDemars1 — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 14:28:29 GMT

Hi Phil,

When does Survey123 actually check for updates? From what I can see it happens at the start and when clicking on Download Surveys. Does it happen regularly once the application is open?

Best regards,

Olivier

Re: Can you force the delete or update of a survey on a mobile device?

Anonymous User — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 23:23:50 GMT

Hi @OlivierDemars1,

The check for updates to survey forms occurs when the app if first opened, or if you refresh the gallery (by pull down action on gallery). It does not occur on a regular interval automatically once app is open.

You can also see updates by going to Download surveys menu and using the filter icon to only show updated surveys.

Regards,

Phil.