topic Re: Embed a PDF into Survey123 Connect for Referencing in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Embed a PDF into Survey123 Connect for Referencing

JulieCulligan — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 17:26:12 GMT

Is there a way to embed reference materials into survey123? The use case is we have questions about levels of damage, and there is a pdf document we need to attach so they always have a reference they can quick look at when assigning a level of damage. We have a pdf reference sheet I would like them to be able to click and it open up.

Re: Embed a PDF into Survey123 Connect for Referencing

DavidSolari — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 17:44:38 GMT

If you're able to extract the info you need from the PDF and convert it to an image or two, you can include them as notes per the documentation. Alternatively you can host the file on a web server your company controls and then add a hyperlink in a note. The user will have to switch between Survey123 and their PDF viewer but this will guarantee they have access to the instructions. I haven't found a good way to link directly to items in a Survey's media folder but if you get that working it'll be more robust than an external link.

Re: Embed a PDF into Survey123 Connect for Referencing

abureaux — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 18:00:23 GMT

As @DavidSolari alluded to, you cannot link to a document in the media folder yet. Honestly, I don't know if an Idea has been created for this yet. May be worth creating an idea (if you do, add a link to this thread for better visibility).

To add one more idea to the couple already suggested: In the past, I copied the text from the PDF, and added it to a note within a group (so it can be collapsed). With HTML formatting and inserting images (as required), you can generally get a very nicely formatted "embedded document".

Re: Embed a PDF into Survey123 Connect for Referencing

DougBrowning — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 19:05:30 GMT

Same we make screen shots of the relevant part of the PDF for that question and wrap it in a group so it can be collapsed or opened if needed. Works well.

Re: Embed a PDF into Survey123 Connect for Referencing

TylerGraham2 — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 18:37:01 GMT

If the levels of damage are choices in their survey they might look into splitting the PDF up into screenshots for each damage level and the media folder and media::image in the choice list to link screenshot to the appropriate choice. Here's an example that I use for Beaufort scale choices. The image is small next to the choice in the survey, but you can tap on it and it goes full screen.