topic Re: Add Text to URL in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Add Text to URL

MelissaSalich — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 13:52:31 GMT

I have a public survey built with S123 Web Designer.
Is it possible to add text to the generated link?

Example, I want to add "Parking Survey" to the existing URL https://arcg.is/uGOOj

Re: Add Text to URL

abureaux — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 14:34:19 GMT

What is the purpose of "Parking Survey"?

Is it just a random thing you want on the URL so when people look at the URL they know it's for a parking survey? In that case, not technically.

Is it meant to be the answer to a question in your survey? If so, then you can add URL parameters like so: arcgis-survey123://?itemID=009990009009099900090995000999000&field:s123_name=Parking Survey

Green = What ever you want
Red = A field name in your s123 survey. E.g., if you have a field called "survey_type" where "Parking Survey" is meant to go, then you would use that.
Blue = Your survey ID. You can grab this from the URL bar on the surveys site.
Orange = Method used to open the survey. Displayed above opens into the Field App. Other options include: https://survey123.arcgis.app?itemID= (new format for opening in field app) and https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/ (Opens in web browser by default. Or you can add &open=menu to the very end of the URL and a menu to open in browser or field app will appear)

Note that because this is a URL, spaces don't technically exist. "Parking Survey" will become "Parking%20Survey" by default. You will need to do something like "Parking_Survey" for it to look pretty in the URL. The %20 wont impact your survey.

Re: Add Text to URL

IsmaelChivite — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:50:50 GMT

@MelissaSalich It is not possible to customize the short link provided by the Survey123 web designer.

If you want to make your survey link more human-friendly, I suggest you use a third party URL shortener. Check this article to get started: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/best-free-url-shorteners/

Some of these URL shorteners above allow you to control the text displayed in your links. For example, lets pretend you have a survey link such as:

https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/72d5c0a746374b60baaee5930f05a066

Using tinyurl, I created a shortened link with my own custom text as shown below

When using url shorteners, you will want to shorten the full URL of the survey, as opposed to the already shortened URL provided by the Survey123 website. Check out the different url shorteners available and make sure you read their own terms and conditions for the service, pricing, features, etc.

Re: Add Text to URL

MelissaSalich — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 11:02:23 GMT

Thanks Ismael, I had a feeling this would be the workaround.

Re: Add Text to URL

abureaux — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 14:15:05 GMT

If we're going down the path of URL shortening, what is your environment? Why not just a take a URL and stick it inside some HTML:

<a href="a.really.long.link.it.doesn't.matter.what.it.says.fdhsjakf3489fh43">Parking Survey</a>

Results in

Parking Survey

This is a simple thing in a vast majority of programs. You could do this on a web page, in an E-mail, or even a Teams message. The only place you couldn't do this is Print Media, but that has it's own workaround (aka, QR codes). Honestly, I never got the appeal of "URL Shorteners".