Survey123 _form hosted feature layer view

DavidPike — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 00:27:47 GMT

Hi all,

I've recently had a bit of a headache trying to figure out why recently Published Surveys (from S123 Connect) were created a _form view.
After a lot of head-scratching I realised from searching online ( General FAQ—ArcGIS Survey123 | Documentation ) that my S123Connect had updated itself or I had somehow inadvertently updated it to >v3.22 !:

Where are my surveys stored?

A survey is composed of multiple ArcGIS items. For each survey,Survey123creates a folder in your ArcGIS account namedSurvey-SurveyNamethat contains the following:

Form item—Contains the survey that can be opened in the Survey123 field app and web app.

Feature layers—Store the responses to the survey. When you initially publish the survey, Survey123 also creates a hosted feature layer view named SurveyName_form (previously named SurveyName_fieldworker) for submissions. When you share the survey results using the Survey123 website, it creates a hosted feature layer view named SurveyName_results (previously named SurveyName_stakeholder). For more information, see FAQ: What are the form and results hosted feature layer views used for in ArcGIS Survey123? When surveys are created from an existing feature layer, publishing does not create new feature layers, so Survey123 references the existing feature layer from its source folder location.

Note:

Survey123 Connect version 3.21 and earlier did not create the _form layer view, so existing surveys that were initially published prior to version 3.22 use the hosted feature layer for submissions instead.

I'm assuming that this _form layer endpoint is now written to (via REST api) rather than the parent/original hosted feature layer (HFL)? And that any webhooks (HFL webhooks not S123) etc. should then be set against the _form view instead?

The FAQ linked in the above link also then seems out-of-date as it mentions:

FAQ: What Are the Form and Results Hosted Feature Layer Views Used for in ArcGIS Survey123

When you create and publish a survey in Survey123 Connect, permissions for editing access are managed on the survey’s feature layer, and a form view is not created. For surveys published in Survey123 Connect, the results view is created when the Share survey settings are modified on the Collaborate tab of the Survey123 website.

Re: Survey123 _form hosted feature layer view

MattEdrich — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 18:53:34 GMT

I recall noticing this change sometime in 2025 for my surveys as well and could not figure out why it was happening, but it didn't seem to be causing any real problems for me so I disregarded it at the time. Fast forward to today when I am trying to optimize a few things about how our AGOL organization operates and this `_form` stuff has been a real PITA to get to the bottom of.

To any Esri folks who might read this, I guess that I understand your reasons for making this kind of change... However, it is quite a fundamental change to how survey data can be accessed after it's collected, and without knowing exactly what the trigger for some surveys having a `_form` layer by default when publishing and other ("older") ones not having it is problematic. It's also problematic that the `surveyInfo` object in any Survey123 payload automatically references a `_form` layer when present by default now - this effectively means that y'all changed what that metadata contains without being clear or transparent about it. Add to that the out-of-date, scattered, and not-easy-to-find documentation that exists about this...well, usually you all do better than this!

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Survey123 _form hosted feature layer view

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Re: Survey123 _form hosted feature layer view