topic Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

BamJam — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 22:01:46 GMT

I survey that is using a submission url with an existing feature service and I am trying to limit a repeat count to 1, but avoid the _count field being included in the schema. I've read that this is possible by referencing another field in the repeat_count column. I have attempted this, but it seems to add the {repeat}_count field to the schema regardless of what I enter in the repeat_count column of the repeat question. Does anyone have an example form that limits the repeat count of a repeat question, but does not require the _count field to be added to the schema?

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

JamesTedrick — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 22:03:45 GMT

Hi Brandon,

I believe that I addressed this at this comment - unfortunately, the workaround no longer works.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

roemhildtg — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 22:19:50 GMT

Are there any plans to fix this?

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

JamesTedrick — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 18:53:58 GMT

Hi Gregg,

While noted, it's not in the immediate roadmap to fix - another workaround is to have a field in the feature service with _count, whether necessary or not for data purposes. It would be helpful if you could file an enhancement request via Esri support, which would allow us to track the impact of this.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

BamJam — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 20:05:19 GMT

James,

Our issue with adding this field to the feature service is that our back end DBMS is Oracle, and all field names are created with all uppercase characters. Unfortunately, Survey123 Connect creates the _count field in all lowercase, which is preventing the publishing from completing due to the case mismatch. I have tried to run the alter field gp tool to change the case of the field in the feature class, but it does not change. I've also attempted this workaround to accomplish changing the case of the field, but it did not work either. So, it seems I don't have control to change the case of the field name in our Oracle db, or in Survey123 Connect. Even though the field exists in our feature service, Survey123 Connect will not recognize it. Any suggestions on how to get around this?

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

GlenGardner1 — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 19:00:57 GMT

Did this Enhancement Request ever get created? Is there or should there be an Idea with voting created in ArcGIS Ideas?

I too would like to have this working. My use case is that I only want to create one new record in a repeat from selecting a feature in an Inbox per submission.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

DougBrowning — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 22:17:31 GMT

I have had many issues with repeat_count, esp when nested.

So instead I use a count(fieldinrepeat) and set a constraint on it. Only bummer is they have to go one past for it to trigger, then delete that last one. It works fine though.

Works much better, esp for large repeats with lots of fields. Hope that helps.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

roemhildtg — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 15:38:29 GMT

Hi Doug - can you proved a more detailed example? I'm not 100% clear on what you mean. It sounds super useful.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

DougBrowning2 — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:27:39 GMT

Couple of ways depending on what you are trying to do but the key is the same.

Inside my repeat I have a field that counts up some other field in my repeat.
I have a field the inherits the key from the Parent so I just count that.. Or just make a dummy field.

Field Calc

RecKey ${LineKey}

Then do a running total inside the repeat. Using once so that it grows as you add, and it does not recalc on me.

Then you can add a constraint right here to make sure they do not go to far. Note it does let them create 51 but they cannot save it. In one form I even set text to tell them right away they went too far.

Field Calc Constraint

PointNum once(count(${RecKey})) .<=50

If you want to make sure they went far enough then you need to move it outside the repeat. In my case I want them to do exactly 50.

Field Calc Constraint

PointsCompleted count(${RecKey}) .=50

I actually just do the last option since it will catch both. But technically they could then make like 100 and have to delete. But in our case that is not really an issue, they usually just miss one.

I hope that makes more sense, harder to type then I thought. But in the end you are just counting and then using a constraint.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

roemhildtg — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 20:25:08 GMT

Ah interesting. Could you, in theory, use this to force users to submit at least one repeat record?

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

DougBrowning — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 20:33:57 GMT

I think so. But a required in the repeat should do the same thing.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

DishaGori2 — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 14:24:28 GMT

Hi Brandon,

Were you ever able to resolve this issue with Oracle field names for '_count.'. Am running into the same issue and practically cannot use reapeat_count in the survey at the moment.

Disha

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

BamJam — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:54:13 GMT

Hello Disha,

I was not able to resolve the issue with the _count field in Oracle. The

workaround I came up with was to use a hosted feature service with

Survey123, then sync the data collected in the hosted data store to my

enterprise Oracle geodatabase using FME on a nightly basis. This allows

the Survey123 app to honor repeat count and have the necessary _count field

in the hosted feature service. I ignore the _count field in the hosted

feature service when syncing the data to my enterprise Oracle database.

Hope that helps, good luck!

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

BamJam — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:23:38 GMT

Doug,

That is a creative workaround. I think in my case I'd prefer to avoid the potential for confusion with the users having to delete repeats. The whole repeat portion of the form seems to be the most difficult for our users to grasp. Adding nested repeats is even more confusing to them. I ended up using a hosted feature service that has the schema Survey123 is expecting with the _count fields where necessary. Then, I use FME to sync the data from the hosted data store to my Oracle database nightly, ignoring the _count field in the hosted service.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

CarlosKrefft — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 19:06:03 GMT

Brandon Jameson‌: Don't be difficult.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

DishaGori2 — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 19:11:32 GMT

Thanks Brandon for the quick reply! I was thinking something similar too.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

BamJam — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 20:54:24 GMT

Carlos Krefft: Typical user...

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

CarlosKrefft — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 20:58:52 GMT

Sorry, I have an ex-coworker with the same name as you and I thought you where him. I thought it would be funny to troll him. My apologies.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

DougBrowning — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 14:01:50 GMT

Well there is ideal and then there is making it work for now right . I have actually started taking almost all of my repeat_count fields back out and going this way. Esp with nested repeats I am finding a number of issues. Mostly having to hit Add records all the time. Also seeing the repeat disappear at times. In the nested repeat it is also staying on the repeat it was on when the level above it changes, which is messing users up. (If inner repeat is on 50 of 50 and you advance the outer repeat the inner stays on 50 requiring the user to scroll all the way back - note you can long press but not many know that. This causes issues for other tricks I try to do.) I have also seen memory errors with repeat_count since it loads all the repeats at once.

Hope that helps.

Re: Limit repeat count in Survey123 without the _count field in schema

Norah_Gallucci — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 17:44:35 GMT

Hello @JamesTedrick

I have the same difficulty in a workflow in Survey123 Connect, with a HANA db feature service.

Do you have an alternative solution (Workaround) to be able to overcome this difficulty?