topic Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

ErikHerbergMETC — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 17:47:40 GMT

I'm having issues with repeats when a form is resumed from Drafts. I've seen several posts about issues with Drafts and/or repeats, but didn't see a post with this specific example.

I've created a simple form that has one repeat, the repeat_count is set to 3, and the repeat has one required question. The form works fine when filling in a new form from Collect. However, the issue occurs when the form is saved as a Draft while still on the first repeat, and then resuming later. On resuming, the form will get stuck on the second repeat. Even though I click an answer for the select_one on the second repeat, Survey123 still gives me the Required message warning and I can't progress back to the first repeat or on to the third repeat.

My steps to trigger this: Start a new form from Collect, immediately save as Draft, open it from Draft, try to answer the question and advance to the next repeat. It works fine of the first repeat, but gets stuck for me on the second repeat.

Do I have something wrong? Is this a bug? Is there a workaround?

Thanks for any help! XLSForm is attached. I'm using Windows - Connect version 3.12.230 and Field App version 3.12.277.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

DougBrowning — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 19:07:09 GMT

Funny I just posted about this again today here

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-blog/what-s-coming-in-arcgis-survey123-september-2021/bc-p/1094044#M4616

and here

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/calculate-field-not-working-properly-after-saving/m-p/1093990#M36845

A bunch of calcs will not fire from drafts. It has been a major issue for us.

As you can see the posts go back 3 years with many more in the last year. I have not seen it on the radar and have not get a response.

Hopefully more can add to this post that it is an issue. Thanks!

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

Anonymous User — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 07:13:22 GMT

Hi @ErikHerbergMETC ,

I replied in your other post also, the issue you are encountering is with repeat_count and saving to Drafts, which is a known issue and is logged as BUG-000127011. Unfortunately the underlying problem has yet to be resolved and won't be fixed in upcoming release (3.13), but something we are working on and will hopefully be addressed along with some other repeat and nested repeat issues.

The only workaround in the meantime is not to use repeat_count if you need to save to Drafts, otherwise values in the repeats can not be edited or added once you open the survey from Drafts again.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

DougBrowning — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:02:13 GMT

@ErikHerbergMETC what I ended up doing to get around this is use a constraint on a counter instead. I used to use once(count()) but now you can use position({repeatname}). You can set a constraint on that count and it will work mostly the same. Further I added a warning to the user.

My example has 32 repeats. It uses pulldata to get 1=A, 2=B, etc. At repeat 32 I have it pulldata a message saying Opps went to far delete this repeat. (In another form I have a relevant message that pops up at > 33.) Then I have a constraint on a field with a calc of position({repeatname}) - it is just . = 32. So I give them a warning and I stop them from being able to submit.

In the end it works much better than repeat count. Repeat count causes all kinds of calculation issues for me since it preloads all the records. Used to cause memory issues also.

I hope that makes sense it is early. It is a solid workaround for now.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

DougBrowning — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 14:06:42 GMT

Is that bug # correct?

BUG-000127011 is When using the Survey123 for ArcGIS field app, an image attachment disappears when the survey is edited from Outbox having a 'repeat' set with image question.

That is not it I think. Thanks

Also I am not using repeat count anymore but my calculations still break when going to draft.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

ErikHerbergMETC — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 14:30:58 GMT

Thanks! I will keep my fingers crossed for a fix for that bug in a future release.

For anyone else who might stumble on this, here is the where I made the other related post Phil mentioned.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

Anonymous User — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 01:31:59 GMT

Hi @DougBrowning,

Yes that bug # is the same issue, while the description is very specific to image attachments and Outbox, the problem is the same. When you save to Drafts and re-open, or try to open the survey to edit from any other folder such as Sent or Outbox, if using repeat_count the values entered into a new repeat records that previously had no values will not be saved. Removing repeat_count resolves this issue.

The problem you are seeing without repeat_count would be different, likely cuased by nested repeats I assume?

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

DougBrowning — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 14:16:01 GMT

Yep the nested repeats. You have my list of the bugs for this already. Thanks!

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

Antonio_MarcosPires_Martins — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 15:52:31 GMT

Hey Doug, how are you? I would like to understand in more detail about this workaround that you posted. Could you please give an example of how I define this on my form? I appreciate the attention.

Antonio

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

DougBrowning — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 17:26:56 GMT

Depends where you want it but for me we have a summary page of info.

One of these is Points Competed. I have this field with a calc of count(${PointNbr}) - PointNbr is just a field in the repeat that is always there. Does not really matter what it is since you are just counting them up.

Then I put a constraint on this field like . = 50. That way there must be 50 repeats.

In the end you are just counting how many repeats there are by counting a field inside the repeat. Then you are checking to see if the number of repeats is what you want.

Does that make more sense?

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

Anonymous User — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 22:50:16 GMT

Hi @ErikHerbergMETC, @DougBrowning,

Keep an eye out on the Early Adopter Community for updates to the 3.14 beta builds coming soon (hopefully next week!). We have done significant work to the calculation and expression engine used in Survey123. Some new calculationModes are coming, and many issues reported with repeats and loading existing data have been resolved. It will be worth testing once available to see if these updates helps with the issues reported above.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

ErikHerbergMETC — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 19:22:28 GMT

Thanks @Anonymous User . Great news that there is progress on calculations and repeats! Unfortunately it looks like the specific issue in this thread about resuming from Draft with a repeat_count is one of the listed known limitations on beta 3.14. I'll leave a comment in the Early Adopters forum soon with some more details on tests with my forms.

@Antonio_MarcosPires_Martins , it looks like @DougBrowning already answered your question. I used his workaround in my own forms. Attached is a very simplified XLSForm showing how I implemented it.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

Anonymous User — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 05:07:20 GMT

Hi @ErikHerbergMETC. Yes i believe the issue you are having is one of the current known issues we are still working through with the beta builds. I believe @JamesTedrick already replied to you on EAC.

Phil.

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

ErikHerbergMETC — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 23:54:35 GMT

@Anonymous User Was the issue with repeat_count and resuming from a Draft recently resolved? I was finally sitting down to apply a work-around before our field monitoring season starts next month, and our form with a set repeat_count now works when resumed from Draft! The example XLSform survey I attached at the start of this thread works now too.

I see that the BUG-000127011 mentioned in this thread was marked as resolved in the Feb 2022 What's New in Survey123 although there it's described as a different issue, as I'm reading it -

BUG-000127011 When using the Survey123 for ArcGIS field app, an image attachment disappears when the survey is edited from Outbox having a 'repeat' set with image question

So I guess I'm asking - Is the issue I was seeing with Draft and repeat_count officially fixed? Or was this more of an unintentional side effect from other fixes, and I shouldn't count on it still working in upcoming releases?

Cautiously optimistic!

-Erik

Re: Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

Anonymous User — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 01:13:58 GMT

Hi @ErikHerbergMETC,

Yes, the issue you originally reported has been fixed in the 3.14 release (you can count on it). Whilst there were several official bugs fixed and resolved for 3.14, there were also many other fixes to repeats, nested repeats, saving to drafts, repeat counts and general expression and calculation improvements. All of these have resulted in a lot of issues users previously reported now being resolved.

There are one or two remaining issues which still require further work, but these are specific related to using repeat count and relevant expressions on nested repeats.

Regards,

Phil.