topic Re: Survey123: Parsing “Creator” field value to get clean user name in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

JoeFlannery — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 11:12:32 GMT

Our users log into ArcGIS Online (AGOL) and Esri’s mobile apps with enterprise credentials. Our AGOL username is automatically created from our email address and a tag at the end. Like this:

Firstname.Lastname@xyz.com_xyz

In Survey123, the AGOL username of the person who logs into the app and submits a completed form can be calculated using the "property('username')" formula. I would like to have the AGOL username populated in my Survey123 form as input to a question, line like - “Inspected By”.

In Survey123 Connect, how do I parse the AGOL username calculated by "property('username')" into a readable name?

Firstname.Lastname@xyz.com_xyz --> Firstname Lastname

Thank you.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “Creator” field value to get clean user name

IsmaelChivite — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 13:05:08 GMT

I think the pulldata() function may do the trick for you.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “Creator” field value to get clean user name

JoeFlannery — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 19:45:20 GMT

Ismael:

Thank you for your response. I see that I have made a mistake in my original question, which crossed between Survey123 Connect and Report Template building in MS-Word.

I am working in Survey123 Connect and attempting to use the “property('username')” in the calculation field to populate the Inspected By: slot of my survey form. The property('username') comes into my form line as expected from our enterprise login username.

I would like to format this calculation to be “Joe Flannery” (Firstname-space-Lastname).

I am trying to understand MS-Excel formulas for this task just to get my head wrapped about the concept and have gotten as far as using this to parse out the name:

=PROPER(LEFT(E5,FIND("@",E5)-1))

At this point, I’m not even sure that I can use an Excel formula like the one above in the Survey123 XLSform.

Thank you for your patience as I define my need.

Joe

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

JoeFlannery — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 19:41:08 GMT

This gets me pretty darn close!

Since all of our Survey123 users have an enterprise login with their corporate email address, they all have the same 12 characters after their name. Here, all I do is keep the text that precedes the last 12 characters to their AGOL user name, albeit, with a dot between first and last name.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

Anonymous User — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 21:06:59 GMT

Hi Joe, I know this is an old post and most likely you've resolved how to do this for your needs.

But I thought I'd post how I'm doing this using the answer Ismael provided above.

Create a csv file containing 2 columns (name - username) and save this to the media folder of your survey.

In this example the csv is saved as ServicePerson.csv in the media folder of a survey called Water Unit Job Details.

In your survey in Survey123 Connect add a row with a calculation like this.

pulldata('ServicePerson','name','username',property('username')

What this does is...(I find it easiest to read the calculation from right to left)

get the username of the person signed into Survey123 (property('username')
use this to find the row in ServicePerson.csv where the value in the 'username' column is the same as (property('username') - the username of the person signed into Survey123.
Then finally from this matching row in ServicePerson.csv get the value in the name field and use this to populate your field in Survey123.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

JoeFlannery — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 14:54:50 GMT

Well done, Michael!

Thank you for the follow-up response. I'll give this a try.

Joe

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

TI — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 23:24:17 GMT

Does property('username') work when the person taking the survey is not signed in to Survey123?

It will allow collection of data while not signed in and I've found that the 'username' field type will not record the username when not signed in (makes sense, I guess). It does not add the username when the user signs in to submit the survey.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

Anonymous User — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 23:39:45 GMT

Please see my reply to your other post here: https://community.esri.com/thread/226878-survey123-username-field-is-null

Phil.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

Anonymous User — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 02:00:08 GMT

property('username') returns the signed in username, if the user is not signed in then no value will be returned.

In surveys where I want to ensure submitted info is from signed in users I'll add all survey question into a group then use a relevant expression on the begin group line to only show if the user is signed in.

If the user isn't signed in they'll see the note asking them to sign in, at this point the user can still submit the survey but it will be empty.

If I want to ensure empty surveys cannot be submitted then I move the SERVICE_PERSON row (in my example) to the top, and make it a required field (normally make it hidden too).

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

TI — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 02:08:59 GMT

This is a reasonable solution in some cases, and I have considered doing something similar to this.

However, a lot of our users will be out of network access while collecting data. Therefore signing in after commencing survey collection may not be possible (or at least not until after they've returned to the office, which would require them to double-handle the data).

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

Anonymous User — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 02:20:42 GMT

When I sign into Survey123 and download the survey I'm working with then go out of network coverage, property('username') still works even though I have no network connection.

A network connection is needed to sign in, download and send surveys, but the rest of the time Survey123 is effectively working offline.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

TI — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 02:24:01 GMT

Yes, that's correct. The problem in our case is that users get signed out from time to time without their knowing it, and if they are out in the field without any network and signed out, then it is too late to do anything about it.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

Anonymous User — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 04:38:53 GMT

The reason users are being signed out after a period of time when offline is that, in the current released version of the app (3.1), when the AGO/Portal user login token expires an attempt is made to refresh the token from AGO/Portal to keep the user signed in while the app is active. If the device is offline this token refresh fails and the user is signed out. In the 3.2 release of the app we have addressed this issue and when the device is offline the call to refresh the token will not be made until the device is online again. This will mean the user is no longer signed out and the username field should be populated with a value provided the app is showing the user as still being signed in.

Currently a beta version of 3.2 is available on the Survey123 Early Adopter Community (EAC) website and this beta version contains the fix if you would like to test it out.

Regards,

Phil.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

TI — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 04:52:08 GMT

Thanks Phil. This is good to know. I need to convince my workplace to upgrade our fleet of iPads before we can upgrade from Survey123 version 2.8.2. 😞 I think I might have convinced them, but time will tell.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

MaazaMekuria — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 21:45:15 GMT

I am encountering a problem with the username variable being available in the field app but not in the webform. Is that normal. I am using the username variable value to check display fields and ability to post data. I don't know why the two implementations appear to act differently.

A piece of the form is posted here,

I can't access the variable 'uname' in the web app. Users must be logged in to view the form as it is shared to only certain groups. Any ideas?

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

JamesTedrick — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:28:32 GMT

Hi Maaza,

Instead of using property('username'), I would recommend using a question of type username, which accomplishes the same thing. The property() function has been deprecated from the XLSForm specification and should not be used.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

MaazaMekuria — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 19:55:20 GMT

Thank you, James. The use of the username type resolved the implementation difference between the web form and the field app and loss of username.

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

wcozzens — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 18:13:30 GMT

Since this is now deprecated, how could I return the results of property('online') to test if a user has connectivity?

Never mind - found the answer here: Prepopulate answers—Survey123 for ArcGIS | Documentation

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

IsmaelChivite — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 01:31:56 GMT

Update. A bunch of options have been added since this question was posted to make life easier.

Check the Device and user properties help topic here: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/desktop/create-surveys/prepopulateanswers.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_D52683929B1C4543B236BAC00E7F1876

Re: Survey123: Parsing “property('username')” calculation value to get clean user name

CatherineHall678 — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 17:12:13 GMT

Thank you @IsmaelChivite for posting this...way easier!