topic Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

RussellSturm — Thu, 30 May 2019 13:06:16 GMT

Is this by design or a bug? Here is an example that is causing some heartburn. In a survey I have a repeating group that is conditionally required. If the user doesn't need that section it is not shown. However I am still seeing a record being inserted into the table. If the repeating group is not relevant I wouldn't expect it to insert a record into the table.

To explain further here is our example. The questions in the repeating group are related to how many plants were counted in the sample and how many plants were found in the sample that are affected. i.e. They count 500 plants and found 2 with the condition we are looking for. We default the values of those questions to aid with user entry to 500 and 0 respectively. When the record is inserted for the repeating group that is not relevant it inserts the defaults of 500 and 0. Then, when I look at the data it makes it appear that they did the counts and found 0 affected plants.

From my testing I am seeing this behavior in 3.3 and beta versions of 3.4.

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

Anonymous User — Thu, 30 May 2019 22:49:34 GMT

Hi Russell,

This is a known issue with loading default values into a question that is not relevant on load, applies to parent layer or repeats. In this case the default value is stored in that question and sent to the feature service. In your case, because the default values are inside the repeat it is creating the first repeat record to be able to populate it.

There is a currently a open support bug BUG-000097105 in our backlog for this issue but unfortunately it did not get fixed for 3.5.

Have you tried setting the repeat appearance to minimal, which should avoid the first record being created automatically?

Phil.

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

RussellSturm — Fri, 31 May 2019 13:08:53 GMT

Thanks Phil. I think if I move my default values to a calculation I can get the survey to do what I want.

However, another related question. When I moved my values to the calculation it does not write a record to the repeating group table. But I have another repeating group that does not have any default values and it always writes a record to the repeating group table. The record has no values besides the global keys and created/updated info but I'm curious why one is creating a record and the other isn't. Are there other conditions that cause it to create a record? I have both of the repeating groups set up in the same way.

FYI - The all "null" record I can workaround pretty easy (unlike when the defaults were being inserted) but if I could avoid having the record at all I would rather have that.

Thanks!

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

Anonymous User — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:59:42 GMT

Hi Russell,

There must be an expression (could be required, constraint, relevant, pulldata etc) in that repeat that is running when the form loads based on other values changing or being loaded. This is what creates the first record.

Have you tried setting that repeat to minimal appearance?

Can you share your xlsx file so we can take a closer look?

Phil.

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

Anonymous User — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 10:36:36 GMT

Hi Russell,

The issue with default values populating when a question is not relevant has been fixed and you can test it out with latest 3.6 beta builds available on EAC. The latest version to test with is 3.6.100. Please let us know your feedback.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

IsmaelChivite — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 04:31:00 GMT

Russell Sturm‌ The fix is now available in 3.6. See https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2019/09/26/hobbit-day-release-36

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

NirmalOjha1 — Mon, 10 May 2021 16:32:37 GMT

@IsmaelChivite , @JamesTedrick

I am having the same issue, but with the latest version of the Survey123 Connect version 3.12.232 (latest available).

Did the "BUG-000124014" resurfaced? I am getting lots of empty records being submitted.

Nirmal

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

Anonymous User — Tue, 11 May 2021 01:45:01 GMT

Hi @NirmalOjha1,

Can you please share your xlsx file so we can take a look at how it is configured and confirm if it is the same issue as BUG-000124014? Can you also share details of which question and the workflow to reproduce it.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

NirmalOjha1 — Tue, 11 May 2021 18:08:57 GMT

Hi @Anonymous User

I will send you direct message with the XLSX file attached.

Thank you.

Nirmal

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

Anonymous User — Thu, 13 May 2021 06:41:15 GMT

Hi @NirmalOjha1,

I took at a look at your survey and narrowed down the issue. It is caused by the required fields inside the nested repeats. There is a known issue if required fields are used inside a nested repeat and the repeat is also not relevant, a blank record will be created/sent to the feature layer. If you remove the required "yes" values from those questions inside the nested repeats, blank rows will not be created when the repeats are not relevant.

We have two existing support issues BUG-000127740 and BUG-000127759 which are related to the same issue, they have the same sympton and cause related back to required fields or other expressions in nested repeats.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

NirmalOjha1 — Thu, 13 May 2021 14:36:19 GMT

Hi @Anonymous User

Thank you for looking at this.

I have several surveys with nested repeats. I am going to try another way if that works; use formula to calculate the required. But, it may not make any different.

Regards,

Nirmal

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

Anonymous User — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 23:40:19 GMT

Hi @RussellSturm @NirmalOjha1,

Just letting you know we have recently updated the 3.14 beta builds on the Early Adopter Community and the next release will include major improvements to the expression calculation engine, new calculation modes, improvements to loading relevant questions and repeats, and other fixes to repeats, nested repeats and repeat count. With these improvements we see faster loading surveys, increased stability, less crashes and ability to optimize calculation workflows.

The issue you reported above with non-relevant groups and blank records being submitted, should now also be resolved with latest 3.14 beta builds.

Please refer to this blog post for more details: https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-blog/arcgis-survey123-3-14-beta-is-now-available-for/ba-p/1124459

Direct link to EAC announcement: https://earlyadopter.esri.com/project/article/item.html?cap=e69ef91f45744b98882c651f7b518eb7&arttypeid={4d0c881a-e4c4-4530-846f-512df374efc3}&artid={AF66CE67-315D-4F56-8F6D-A77DDFA5F59B}

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Repeating Groups that are not relevant still write to the tables

NirmalOjha1 — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 23:41:53 GMT

Thanks @Anonymous User for the updates. I will check those.

Nirmal