topic Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

CraigShephard2 — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 02:03:06 GMT

Having some difficulty adding values to the "choice" list of our survey123 form. Note originally published in July 2015, and has been running fine since 🙂

After editing the XLS Form (Survey123 Connect 1.10.43) and attempting to republish returns a URL_Submission issue/error >

Wondering if this could be the cause: (Ref here > Publish your survey—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS )

Please advise of suitable workflow that does not affect the existing feature service, ie we want the update to be seamless to users (apart from downloading new form) to their device. Note no schema changes just adding an additional choice/domain!

Cheers, Craig.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

JamesTedrick — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:23:01 GMT

Hi Craig,

A slight change was made in terms of how the table name is specified at 1.10. The 'form_id' entry in the settings worksheet must match the name of the layer that the form writes to.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

CraigShephard2 — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 05:57:48 GMT

Thanks James, that has sorted it. Was able to publish some more 'domains' for the choice / list that we wanted. Updated form (re-downloaded to device), open Survey and it looks great.

When reviewing the new data submitted (in Survey123 for ArcGIS > My Survey browser) I noticed that the attribute table isn't populated with the new choice (It's blank)??? The new value is there though when you identify the feature or present under the analyze option...

Have you any answers on that issue! 🙂

Any help much appreciated!

Cheers, Craig.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

JamesTedrick — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 17:24:43 GMT

Currently Survey123Connect doesn't update the domain listing - it becomes a bit complicated keeping track of which values are added/deleted. It may cause some issues with editing tools that expect domains to define the all values that can exist for a field (which is what a coded-value domain is supposed to do)

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

CraigShephard2 — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 23:14:58 GMT

Thanks James, have managed to work it out and I'm very happy with the result!!!

Editing the Layer Definition file has effectively added the values (domains) to my choice list in the feature layer, and all is well.

For the benefit of all, summarising my approach below, noting that this thread (pdf link in it) also helped me a lot 🙂 >>> https://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2014/10/19/updating-hosted-feature-services-in-arcgis-online/

Back up your existing data from AGOL!
Edit your Survey123 form through Survey123 Connect (xls spreadsheet), and add new value to choices tab.
Publish survey, noting that 'form_id' needs to match layer name, also I used 'submission_url' of my feature layer.
Survey form will work at this point (download to device) and the new choice is populated but the new value isn't shown in attribute table (See James post above). My workaround follows:
Update the feature layer definition file, from My Content > view details of the Feature layer and launch the Service URL
Add /admin/ to the URL then 'Update Definition' (bottom of page)
Fettle code for new domain/value, to match those of your choices tab in xls form spreadsheet. Note that "name" = code and "label" = name
Also you need to edit the code for "lastEditDate" to "" (remove the number and add double quotes)
Sorted!

Happy field data collecting 🙂

Cheers, Craig.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

MichaelWallace3 — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 23:48:10 GMT

I am finding that I can't update the length property and this disables my ability to make an effective changed to the coded values and names. Have you experienced this problem Craig?

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

CraigShephard2 — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 02:14:35 GMT

Sorry Michael, other than post above haven't had to make other changes to my survey. Good luck!

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

MichaelWallace3 — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 00:01:55 GMT

No problem Craig thank you for the response. I figured this issue out their is a column in the survey spreadsheet where you can specify a length for any survey question. still trying to reconcile other issues though.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

ChaimSchwartz4 — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 15:39:48 GMT

This is now supported directly through the AGOL data tab.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

CraigShephard2 — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 03:01:59 GMT

I needed to add another response to a survey question (added a domain value to an existing survey form question), so used the new functionality quoted above So easy, however the result is not as expected.

When I launch the survey in the Survey123 app (or in a browser) the new value isn't there, however when I launch survey through our own native app and also in Collector which uses the same feature service layer (hosted in AGOL) it is there!

Can you offer any advice?

I think I may have to also edit the form through Survey123 Classic???

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Cheers, Craig.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

ChaimSchwartz4 — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 04:21:20 GMT

Hi, yes that is correct, you also need to add the new response option in survey123 connect, and republish your survey. The survey123 "select one" options are not identical to domains at the schema level. True, when you first create them and publish the form for the first time they create the initial domain list, but from there on you need to manage those two lists if you want them show the same choices.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

MarioFederis1 — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 17:28:16 GMT

Is this a feature your team is considering adding? I have a workflow where I automatically update the domain in the service definition. A secondary step of republishing the survey would be quite cumbersome with my automation as there's no API for it. It'd be great if the latter step isn't needed and the form updates automatically with the domain.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

ChaimSchwartz4 — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 17:39:00 GMT

I'm sorry I don't know. jtedrick ?

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

JamesTedrick — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 20:08:19 GMT

Hi Mario,

We have heard this request from some customers (though oddly, I don't see an idea in https://ideas.arcgis.com). We are evaluating this based on the user requests and the risk to data (what, for example, happens if a choice is removed at one point and then re-added with a different label later that is intended to mean a different value?) but don't have a definite plan to support this yet.

Just to note - the Esri Globe denotes that a person works with Esri or one of our distributors throughout the world, not necessarily that they work directly on Survey123 development.

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

DougBrowning — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 22:19:19 GMT

My vote would be for the drop down list in 123 and the domains to always be perfectly in sync. That seems like the most logical to me. (I think this is why it is not a ArcGIS Idea since we all just assumed that is how it was working.) I would just wipe and reload all the domains that changed on each form publish.

If someone has a funky workflow then there is already an option to turn off the making of domains. If someone changes a domain later that is a data change issue not a domain issue.

To me if 123 is using domains then they should be consistent. If they will not stay in sync then do not use them at all. I have been taking a lot of support calls on this one. Users keep asking why some values have friendly names while others do not. I have 100s of fields on each of my hundreds of forms so keeping them up to date manually is impossible.

thanks for thinking on it!

Re: Survey123: Add 'choice' to pick list

MarioFederis1 — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 18:19:39 GMT

FYI, It's now on the ideas section . Please vote if needed.