topic Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey? in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 16:34:46 GMT

I've created a feature report for surveying the status of items in a factory. The items are surveyed once a month. The Survey123 survey looks great. The feature report template puts out a pdf that looks great. One of the fields on the survey is "Inspection Date" for the date of the survey. There is also a field "Previous Inspection Date." When the survey is first carried out, "Previous Inspection Date" will be blank. After a month, on the date of the second survey, I'd like the "Previous Inspection Date" field to be populated with the date of the first survey. Every month when the surveyor surveys a particular item, the date of the previous survey of that item is automatically populated.

I've tried "pullData" syntax in a variety of forms, but none seem to work. Am I just missing something? This must be a common process. I'm in a fairly strict corporate environment. Any suggestions, links, etc., would be great.

Thanks!

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

Neal_t_k — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 17:42:29 GMT

How is the survey form setup? Are surveyors collecting a new record each time they perform an inspection or are you using a repeat function and they are opening an existing form and adding the new information in a repeat?

If it is a new survey form each visit, you will probably need to using the pulldata function to pull the previous date from your data into your form first before you try putting in the report.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-blog/survey123-tricks-of-the-trade-pulldata-quot-layer/ba-p/1224415

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/survey-connect-123-to-pull-data-function-and-get/td-p/1486153

If you are collecting dates within a repeat, there is specific format for calling data from within a repeat.

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/browser/analyze-results/featurereport-repeats.htm

Some more information would be helpful on how your form is setup.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 23:28:52 GMT

Hi,

Thank you very much for the response.

The surveyors are collecting a new record each time. I've attached my XLS Form. I thought that my syntax is correct. I've collected a couple of surveys of the same container (NB-1) and am under the impression that when I select container "NB-1" that the "Prior Monthly Inspection Date" text field on a new survey on my phone, that data should be pulled into that field. But that's not happening.

I know just enough to be dangerous, so thank you again for the help!

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

ElishaStephens-Graham — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 23:59:14 GMT

I have a similar query. The asset is created in a new survey form and then condition assessment activities are created within repeats - each condition assessment activity for the asset is a new repeat in the original survey form.

I'd like the main survey form to show the condition assessment value selected in the previous repeat (a select_one). The purpose is to allow symbology on the feature layer/web map by "current" condition rating.

CoPilot suggested this but I ran into issues as the repeat q is a select_one not a text field.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

Neal_t_k — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 14:08:09 GMT

Try something like this:

You may need to adjust the where clause to ensure you are get the most recent date.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/is-it-possible-within-a-survey123-smart-form-to/m-p/1288371

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

DougBrowning — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 14:39:42 GMT

I am not sure if max() will work on dates but you could try it quick.

On your code position only works inside the repeat. Instead you can do count(somerepeatfield) to get the number of repeat records. Then use that in indexed-repeat.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:49:49 GMT

Thank you for that. I've deleted all previous records in the feature class. I've republished the survey. I've created one new inspection of NB-1 so "most recent date" should make no difference.

And... nada. I start a new survey of NB-1 and the "Prior Inspection Date" field remains blank.

Any thoughts? I'm stuck.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

DougBrowning — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:15:00 GMT

pulldata tends to fire first before co_fa has a value. Try adding a relevant so it does not fire until co_fa is filled out. You can also try calculationmode=always

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:44:59 GMT

Can I talk you into putting that into the XLS so I can see it that way? I'm a visual learner and need to actually see it in place to make it connect.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

DougBrowning — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:50:09 GMT

Just add this to the relevant for pulldata line string-length(${co_fa}) > 0

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

Neal_t_k — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 21:25:48 GMT

I am not sure, I couldn't test with your feature. I did try replacing the url with one of my features and I was able to pull a date. You may check your feature and ensure it is able to be queried.

Open the details page for that feature in AGOL. Scroll down to the URL, and click view, scroll to the bottom and you should see something like this:

If that "Query" is there, I would follow Doug's suggestion above.

Also to get the most recent date, you can add this to the end of your url: "?orderByFields=in_da_da DESC&resultRecordCount=1" (order by your date field in descending order, and return one result).

look at request parameters here: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/desktop/create-surveys/xlsformformulas.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_BB97985CAFB740EE8AEF99EFD6E238E3

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 23:06:33 GMT

Hmm. That just made the entire prior inspection field disappear from the survey. That's one way of dealing with it, but unlikely to make my boss happy. 😑

I'm not sure what to try next, everything seems in order.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 23:11:28 GMT

So, you got it to work?? Ugh. I triple checked the url and it is set to allow querying. This is the ONLY time I've wanted one of those obscure ESRI error codes... at least I could google that.

I'm baffled. It's gotta be something right in front of my face...

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Thu, 01 May 2025 00:24:56 GMT

Sorry to bug you—but did you keep the spreadsheet that worked with your url? Would you mind posting it here (minus your url of course). I've gotten so far off track and have made so many changes, I want to see what worked. _sigh_

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

Neal_t_k — Thu, 01 May 2025 17:01:36 GMT

I changed everything back to your variables, but the attached does pull the most recent date when I hook it up to one of my feature layers??? If not it may have something to do with your feature layer settings, have you checked the share setting in Survey123 site.

I am not sure if these setting would effect it but worth a shot

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Fri, 02 May 2025 16:33:22 GMT

That helped... Thank you so much.

I can consistently pull in the date from the first tank... but not others. I'm going to try some of the suggestions above again, but if you have any other ideas, I'm all ears.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

Neal_t_k — Fri, 02 May 2025 15:45:15 GMT

Ah yes, all dates are stored as UTC in that format, so if you pull it in a text field you do have to format it.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-blog/dates-and-time-in-survey123/ba-p/895528

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Fri, 02 May 2025 16:34:38 GMT

I switched it back to a date field and it's formatting correctly. But I edited my post above. It's not working for anything other than the first tank. I need to delete all the records from AGOL and try again.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

JW_TT — Fri, 02 May 2025 17:09:18 GMT

Problem statement:
For any given feature, when it has been surveyed previously, and then is surveyed again, the pulldata syntax should pull in the last surveyed date into the "Prior Inspection" field.

Re: Feature Reports: Update Field From Previous Instance of Survey?

Neal_t_k — Fri, 02 May 2025 17:39:25 GMT

I hooked it back up to my feature layer, the pulldata calculation is pulling the most recent date for multiple different entries??? Are you pulling from the correct feature layer? If you have republished lately, you might check that the url is referencing the correct feature layer. Seems there is either an issue/feature where upon republishing with an overwrite adds a new file with the same name but different service urls.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-questions/duplicate-feature-layer-after-re-publishing-form/m-p/1609355#M62255