topic Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

BrentKinal1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 16:45:02 GMT

I have created some help documentation for my survey 123 application and would like the user to be able to open the file via a hyperlink displayed as a note in my form. My goal is to save a HTML page in the Media folder and have it upload with the form, which it does, however I can't seem to figure out the proper syntax for opening a file stored in the media folder using a relative path. I have tried the following:

And while I am at it...is there a way to keep the "Help" hyperlink note at the top of the page and keep it from scrolling with the rest of the questions on the page?

Thanks,

Brent

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

JamesTedrick — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 19:17:20 GMT

Hi Brent,

There are a couple of issues with displaying an instructions page as you describe it- Survey123 isn't an application that internally uses hyperlinks like a web browser (it supports some HTML formatting but isn't HTML itself) and application sandboxing would make it a bit difficult to view the HTML document in a web browser or other application.

That being said, a couple of other ideas for providing access to instructions:

(Online only) – Create an instruction manual as .doc/.pdf and place it online. Have a hyperlink in a note that links to the document
Embed the instructions in the surveys as notes; use a select_multiple question as ‘Show Instructions’ (with a 1-value choice list) and have the instruction notes be relevant on whether the ‘Show Instructions’ question is checked.

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

BrentKinal1 — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:48:20 GMT

Hi James, Thanks for your response, It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for but I do understand from a security stand point the limitations of application sandbox. The second of the two solutions you proposed will most likely be the best option since my survey will be used outside of internet connectivity and often on non-networked devices. Perhaps down the road Esri can build a more robust option for users to build customized help menu within the application sandbox like link to a html or pdf file with a specific name stored in a specific location or something more internal with the Survey 123 code...

Do you know if there is a way to have the note and the select multiple question persist at the top or bottom of the form and not scroll with the rest of the questions so that the "help" menu can be easily accessible at any point in the survey? I am guessing probably not.

Thanks again for your help!

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

JamesTedrick — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:45:29 GMT

Hi Brent,

There isn't a way to have a question 'float' at the top or bottom of the survey.

I've logged the idea of a user-supplied help file as a possible enhancement- you might want to go to the ideas.arcgis.com website and log it in there, so other people can provide comments/upvote it (it helps gauge the audience for an enhancement).

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

DeonLengton — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 18:33:12 GMT

Hi Brent

Incidentally I had a similar requirement to display a PDF file after the user clicks on a link in the Survey

I have managed to solve this by putting an HTML link to the file in the survey:

concat('<a href="file:///storage/emulated/0/ArcGIS/My Surveys/549c05bae0f14e388000486ce4de950c/esriinfo/media/help.pdf" class="link external button button-raised button-fill color-blue">Demo</a>')

I am sure the class="link ....." can be simplified but it works the way it is at least 🙂

You will notice that 549c....950c refers to the item ID of the survey - so you will only be able to use that after you've at least published your survey once. Thereafter you can finalise your href links and it works pretty well - on Android at least... i suspect that if you venture to iOS devices the URL will be different but you can identify the OS by using "property('uri:deviceid')" function in a calculation column.

I will add this to my blog as well: https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2018/06/08/html-links-for-survey123-to-just-about-anything-work-in-progress

Regards

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

MikailaBell — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 17:42:21 GMT

Hi Deon,

I am trying to get this working on iPad.

Did you (or anyone else) ever get this working on an apple device? I would be very grateful to know how, and if it's possible.

Best regards,

Mikaila

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

DeonLengton — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 18:00:27 GMT

Unfortunately not yet

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

MikailaBell — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 15:21:38 GMT

Thanks for the update, and again for your wonderful write-up on hyperlinks. It's very helpful stuff.

Please update if you work it out.

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

Hussam_AlJabri — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 06:59:34 GMT

Hi Deno,

Thanks for your this comment.

I'm wondering if you can support me by having a hyperlink to be access from the Survey123 Website. We downloaded all the attachments in local shared folders and we want a supervisors to see the photos of the inspected assets in the shared folders instead of web map pop-ups because the attachments of the related table are not appears in the Preview windows as long we're using ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6.1.

best regards,

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

DeonLengton — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 07:37:03 GMT

The best way would be to use the concat function to build up a URL to the photo locations and then use note fields to show the hyperlinks to these URLs

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

Hussam_AlJabri — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 08:02:25 GMT

Many thanks for your quick respond.

Will the URL be clickable?

I will do the following steps and please correct me:

1- adding new question note type.

2- Concatenate the link in the calculation such

concat('<a href="M:\Substation\',${substation_name}," class="link external button button-raised button-fill color-blue">Check the photos of the Substation</a>')

3- once the records sent the link will be appear in the Hyperlink column and clickable

is this correct?

thanks

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

DeonLengton — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 08:14:43 GMT

Yes it will be a clickable hyperlink - looks good so far

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

StefanHaglund1 — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 15:17:25 GMT

I am having trouble with this. I have the same goal as the original poster, to include help documentation to be viewed in an offline situation.

I have tried several different options as what you see in the table below. Rows 2 and 3 has links to the local files on my Android device which is essentially what I need. Neither works though, there is no response from the app when clicking the links.

Rows 5 and 6 reference local files on my PC and work on the PC but not in the field-app for obvious reasons. Same as for the links for to the pdf stored on the device, nothing happens when clicking the in the field-app.

Rows 8 and 9 both work.

I have verified the location on my device (with the correct item-id) and that the .pdf is present on the device after downloading the survey.

Seems there is something wrong with how I reference the local file on the device, in this statement:

<a href="file:///storage/emulated/0/ArcGIS/My Surveys/000MYITEMID0000/esriinfo/media/mydoc.pdf">Android label</a>

What am I missing, can anyone give some input?

@DeonLengton

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

CarlBeyerhelm — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 00:11:00 GMT

I am having the same question as StefanHaglund1. My calculation expression (shown below) does not open the referenced PDF file on an Android device. The path to the PDF file is correct, as it matches the path displayed for the PDF file by my Android file manager (see the attached image).

And, like Stefan, if I substitute a Windows PC path, it does work as expected when using the survey on a Windows PC.

Am I referencing the Android file system incorrectly?

concat('<a href="file:///Internal storage/Android/data/com.esri.survey123/files/ArcGIS/My Surveys/eb5b134a5e784a7ea908e03de3b57501/esriinfo/media/WruGuide.pdf" class="link external button button-raised button-fill color-blue">Guidance Doc</a>')

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

covaelite — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 20:00:26 GMT

This is becoming a frequent request from several different organizations within my own. Are there any updates with this being implemented successfully for mobile?

I don't even mind having to create links individually for different platforms because the file paths are different, I just need a working link for each.

For some reason, I can't open these links up in android despite the file path matching.

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

Strahanjen — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 21:51:03 GMT

I'm close to a solution for clicking a link to open a PDF in the media folder on an iPad, using a URL that looks like this:

shareddocuments:///On%20My%20iPad/Survey123/ArcGIS/My%20Surveys/<surveyformitemID>/esriinfo/media/test.pdf

This opens the media folder where the PDF is located but then I have to click on the file to view it. I wonder if anyone can figure out what changes I need to make to actually open the pdf?

I came across the information about the shareddocuments approach for linking to a file here:

https://www.macstories.net/ios/fs-bookmarks-a-shortcut-to-reopen-files-and-folders-directly-in-the-files-app/

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

AmandaSapp — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 21:10:36 GMT

Hello, Do you by chance have code that allows a website to be added to the XLS so once the survey is published to the Web form, the user can click the hyper link and another browser opens with the defined website link?

Which column should this HTML code be added to?

Thanks so much!.

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

CaseyJost — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 22:47:43 GMT

@Strahanjen , were you ever able to solve how to open the PDF instead of just the media folder? I am trying to do the same work around. Yours was a helpful note - thanks!

Re: Survey 123 hyperlink to local file

DougBrowning — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 16:15:00 GMT

The issue is the storage dir varies by device in Andriod - it has a seemingly random number in it. You may figure out out for your device but each user is different. I played with this a lot and never found a way to figure it out. Also Android tends to block you from doing stuff like this for security.