topic Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater in ArcGIS Survey123 Questions

Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JakeMatthys — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:27:34 GMT

I have a survey which has some required fields, the survey also has a number of repeaters and these repeaters also have required fields. The form has a multi select and each repeating option is relevant to the multi select. So if the user selects 3 items, lets say pipes, valves and hydrants, the user will get 3 repeating sections to populate. We are experiencing an issue where the required fields are enforced in the first repeater, but is not enforced in subsequent repeaters. In the first repeater, if all required fields are populated, the form can be submitted, if not, the form identifies the required field that needs populated. This holds true for all repeat occurrences within that first repeater. In the subsequent repeaters the required fields are not validated by the UI. What we are finding is that as long as the user has populated all the required fields in the main form and in the first repeating section, required fields that have not been populated in subsequent repeater sections are submitted by the form. I would expect the form to not submit and to warn the user that required fields have not been populated.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? I have uploaded the excel form document if anyone would like to take a look.

Thanks,

- Jake

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

MitchellProctor — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 01:25:32 GMT

Hi Jake,

There are long-standing known issues using required fields in repeats. We hope to fix them in a release in the near future.

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JakeMatthys — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 14:14:14 GMT

Thanks for the info Mitchell. Please keep us posted when you believe the issues with required fields in repeaters is resolved.

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

Nicole_Ueberschär — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 11:18:10 GMT

Here Required Fields ignored in repeats · Issue #226 · Esri/Survey123Community · GitHub it sounds like the problem was solved but obviously it wasn't... (Having similar problems with required fields in repeats. It's working in Connect but not in the app...)

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JakeMatthys — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 22:14:34 GMT

Just wanted to give a bump to this issue. We have approximately 25 surveys in use and our only gripe is that required fields inside of repeaters are not being enforced. Thanks for hearing out our concern and hopefully a fix is coming in the near future.

- Jake

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

IsmaelChivite — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 22:13:59 GMT

Hi Jake. Thanks for sharing your survey. It really helps a lot having it to understand the problem. We need to look more closely into this and figure we can logically make this work. At this point, I am not clear that we can fix this behavior, without breaking other workflows. This scenario is a it tricky because the relevant statement is applied to the repeat... we need to think about this one.

Can I suggest that you set a default value for your PASS_FAIL select_ones? If you can do that, the survey behaves as you would expect:

If no inspection type is selected, then no data is submitted in the repeat.
If you check an inspection type, then at least one inspection is submitted using the provided values (by default or user-input).

On a different topic, it looks strange that one could submit a form without selecting at least one inspection type. May be you want to add a constraint to UG_INSPECTION_TYPE to ensure at least one option is checked? Something like count-selected(${UG_INSPECTION_TYPE})>0

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JakeMatthys — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 21:10:32 GMT

Thank you for the recommendations Ismael. We will test the default values and let you know if that solution will work for us. Also, thanks for the recommendation on the inspection_type constraint using the 'count-selected' function.

- Jake

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JakeMatthys — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 23:17:27 GMT

I would like to follow up on this issue as it relates to repeaters with required fields and the repeaters are exposed to the user based on the relevant answers to previous questions.

Unfortunately we did not find that using default values in all of the repeaters that meet the above criteria as a valid solution for our use case because we would have overhead in terms of managing the default values and checking for the default value presence to exclude them from downstream reporting.

The two main issues that we have encountered with repeaters that have required fields and the repeaters are exposed to the user based on relevant answers to previous questions. (version 1.9.24):

A survey that has a repeater with required fields, but that has not been exposed to the user because the repeater has a relevant that was not satisfied, will prevent a survey from being submitted
In a situation where a survey has multiple repeaters, each with required fields and each repeater is relevant on a previous question. In the case where more that 1 repeater is relevant (based on users previous answers) as long as 1 of the repeaters has all of the required fields satisfied, than the required fields in the other repeaters are ignored. Meaning that the required fields in the other repeater do not behave, you can leave some of the questions null and the survey will still submit.

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

IsmaelChivite — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 18:43:52 GMT

Hi Jake. Just wanted to drop you a note here to highlight that we are actively looking at this issue.

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

IsmaelChivite — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 02:20:26 GMT

Hi Jake Matthys‌, this issue should now be addressed with version 1.10. Check announcement at https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2016/12/20/international-human-solidarity-day-release-110

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JakeMatthys — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 17:56:14 GMT

Thanks Ismael Chivite. We will begin testing this new release for our customers during our next sprint cycle which will begin after the new year.

- Jake

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

Nicole_Ueberschär — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 09:52:53 GMT

I just downloaded the new versions from the 1.10 release and tested again my form with required fields within repeats. Unfortunately I still get the (almost) same results: If I don't "touch" the second repeat, the fields are not considered as required and I can submit the form without filling the data for the required second repeat. Only when I switch to the second repeat and try to submit or try to go back to the first I have to fill the required fields. So I would say we are a step further but not at the level I need it to be.

(Tested on Windows Desktop, iOS 10.2 on iPhone 6s and Android 4.4.2 on Samsung Tablet)

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JakeMatthys — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 15:05:01 GMT

Hi nicueber‌, I tried to test the scenario that I think you are describing but in my test, the required fields behaved. In my scenario, I filled out a repeater, added a 2nd page to my repeater, and did not "touch"/add any data to the 2nd repeater and tried to submit my form. The form would not submit and I was prompted to populate the first required field in the 2nd repeater. My test was on Survey123 IOS version 1.10.23 on an iPad tablet.

Let me know if I did not replicate your scenario.

- Jake

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

Nicole_Ueberschär — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 06:53:59 GMT

Thank you Jake for testing. I create a number of repeats depending on the answer of question 3.1 in the attached file (you have to chose Agriculture as landuse in 2.1). And as long I don't open the second repeat I can submit my form without filling it. I would be happy if you could have a look at my form.

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JakeMatthys — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 18:29:13 GMT

Hi nicueber,

I took a look at your form and confirm that required fields did not behave in repeaters that were not yet exposed. Your form is different than my example, your form sets the number of repeaters based on a previous question. As a user, if I just satisfied the 1st page of the repeater, even though the repeater had more pages, the form was able to submit. Looks to me like you should continue to forward your issue to the ESRI Survey123 team so that they can investigate. Good Luck...

- Jake

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JamesTedrick — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 16:52:22 GMT

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for sharing this survey. The key point appears to be that when you set the number of repeats using repeat_count, the expectation is that *exact* number of repeats must be submitted.

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

Anonymous User — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 20:31:14 GMT

Hey James, We are having the same issue in the solution product Homeless Point- in-Time Count with repeats in a form. We identify how many repeats to create based on the response to a previous question. In a mobile app form of the survey, if the user does not click over to the repeats, they are able to submit the form without filling them out. I have attached the survey schema here.

Thank you!

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

JamesTedrick — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 23:50:43 GMT

Hi Rebecca,

I can see the behavior you are describing. One technique to work around might be to use a question with a count() function and compare to the repeat_count calculation; if not equal, have a constraint alert the user.

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

Nicole_Ueberschär — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 06:34:43 GMT

Thanks, I think this is a work around that could work.

(I just remembered my question about calculations among repeats from some time ago and found that it was implemented! Very nice! Thanks a lot.)

Now, if I would use the count() function within the repeat, how would I get the result of the last repeat to compare it with my desired repeat_count? Is there a way to pick the answer from a certain (in this case the last) repeat?

EDIT: I figured it out. (I thought I would need a counter within the repeat but count(answer) does the job.) An open question would still be if there is a way to get the answer of a certain repeat, e.g. if I want the sequence of used means of transport and the last repeat must always be "by foot". Something like ${means_of_transport}[count(${means_of_transport}-1]?

Re: Issue with Required Fields Inside a Repeater

Anonymous User — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 22:11:31 GMT

Hey James and Nicole,

Thanks for your response, here is what I tried.

New hidden field with calculation count(${survey_date_repeat}) = ${total_household} and a constraint of 0 (I also tried TRUE) and constraint message “You must enter information for additional household members”.

If I keep this field visible, I can see it turn from false to true when I go to the second repeat section, but I am still able to submit the form. I also tried to split this up into two separate survey question. In all the iterations I have tried, I can either get the constraint message to always show up or never show up.

Let me know if you have any ideas!