topic Re: Building a mobile data collection app like Survey123 in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Building a mobile data collection app like Survey123

MurliPatle — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 14:13:40 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm interested in creating a mobile data collection app similar to ArcGIS Survey123 for Android and iOS. I didn’t find any specific code or doc.

While searching the Esri website, I couldn't find detailed information about the technology behind Survey123. Could anyone provide insights into:

The potential development approaches (native development vs. cross-platform frameworks) used for Survey123?
Any recommended resources or tutorials for building similar data collection apps?
Are there Esri tools or libraries that might be helpful for this project?

Any guidance or advice from the community would be greatly appreciated!

Re: Building a mobile data collection app like Survey123

DougBrowning — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 14:51:26 GMT

123 was built on the Qt Framework in the past but it is currently being rebuilt in .Net as Qt is end of life.

If you are going to build an app you would probably want to use the SDKs from Esri. See here https://www.esri.com/content/dam/esrisites/sitecore-archive/Files/Pdfs/library/fliers/pdfs/arcgis-runtime-sdks.pdf This can get you going much faster and can use AGOL as the backend so you can cloud sync data.

It will be a ton of work though. 123 has a 9 year or so head start on you and a team of developers. The last two companies I have been at we developed our own apps using the Esri stack specifically to have better offline support (this was starting back in 2013). Both of those apps have now been sunsetted and we moved to Field Maps. Partly because now the offline support is better but mostly that it was just so hard to keep up with advancements at the pace that Esri can do them. Again its one dev vs many. Also it was really hard to keep devs around before they got a new job. Not trying to discourage you, just be realistic. I would find something 123 or others do not do well and focus on that. Data entry speed, esp in repeats is one idea. Or industry specific like MobileMap by MBG.

I would also research what is out there now as there are a lot. I did my masters thesis on all the mobile data collection options out there but that was back in 2011 so its way out of date now.

Good luck

Re: Building a mobile data collection app like Survey123

MurliPatle — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 14:29:38 GMT

Thank you for your answer it helps,
ArcGIS Runtime SDKs fine but I am searching for a Survey123 forms list and form loading.
cloud please share any doc or development link.

Re: Building a mobile data collection app like Survey123

DougBrowning — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 15:01:21 GMT

Direction to use 123 code base is here. https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-blog/introduction-to-arcgis-survey123-for-developers/ba-p/1103808

But again that is for the old Qt which is end of life I believe.

Re: Building a mobile data collection app like Survey123

MarkBockenhauer — Thu, 09 May 2024 15:57:35 GMT

In the latest release of the Native Maps SDK there is new Feature Forms attribute editing API that may be of interest to you. Not the same as Survey123, but a similar Forms workflow. https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/developers/announcements/whats-new-in-arcgis-maps-sdks-for-native-apps-200-4/#:~:text=Version%20200.4%20of%20the%20ArcGIS,clustering%20to%20include%20graphics%20overlays.