topic Re: Populate multiple choice answer using pulldata()? in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Populate multiple choice answer using pulldata()?

RyanGatchell2 — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 23:18:41 GMT

Is it possible to populate a select_multiple type with the pulldata function?

Re: Populate multiple choice answer using pulldata()?

MitchellProctor — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:15:27 GMT

Hi Ryan,

There's two things you could be asking here and I'm not immediately sure which one you meant, so I'll answer both. Assuming you mean populating the actual choice list from a CSV, no, this isn't possible. That's the purpose of the search() function in the XLSForm specification, which hasn't been implemented yet.

If you instead meant the survey using pulldata() to select a default answer for a multiple choice question, there's no reason this wouldn't work.

Re: Populate multiple choice answer using pulldata()?

RyanGatchell2 — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 01:28:57 GMT

Well I like your enthusiasm Mitchell, but in my attempt I quickly recognized how commas are treated in a csv (okay, I'll confess... I already knew how commas are treated). I tried wrapping in the multiple values, separated by commas, in quotes (single and double), and it still errored out. Is there is an escape character? Did I give up my quest too soon.

I put it on the back burner and decided the customer didn't adequetly describe their requirements, but thought I would try one last time before letting them know Survey123 doesn't do that. My other thought was to not have the values from the external cab seperated by commas and serve up these values in a note above the question, but that seems kind of bush league.

edit: for the record, as the title of my post suggests, I was asking about pulldata() from an external csv.

Re: Populate multiple choice answer using pulldata()?

MitchellProctor — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 05:26:25 GMT

You're right here unfortunately, there's no way to do this yet. Depending on the workflow, an external select might work. Cascading and external selects—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS

What you're describing specifically is handled by search() in the XLSForm specification, which is still being worked on being included in Survey123.