topic Re: Workforce for arcgis questions in ArcGIS Workforce Questions

Workforce for arcgis questions

AliBarakat — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 12:07:59 GMT

Hello everyone,

I have the following questions for the workforce:

is it possible to change the app design? change logo, icon, title, color, etc...
is it possible to change the fields in this screenshot? i tried changing the fields in the feature layer, i removed one and added other fields, but it didnt work.
is it possible to remove the navigator app from the available apps? and maybe add another app?
is it possible w add the assignments from another feature class instead of adding them one by one from the browser?

And if there is a tech support that i can contact please let me know.

Thank you in advance

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

CraigGillgrass — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 17:39:50 GMT

Hello Ali,

Hello Ali, thanks for your feedback on Workforce.

1. No, at this time it is not possible to change the app design.

2. No, it's not possible to change the fields that are displayed in the web or mobile app. Can you provide some information on why you'd like to change the fields and what you'd like to add or remove?

3. Yes, it will be possible to remove Navigator from the available apps; for the 1.0 release we have an App Integration experience that allows you to configure which ArcGIS app (Navigator, Collector or Survey123) to use with your project. Which other apps are you considering adding?

4. Yes, there's a few ways you can do this. You can use ArcGIS Pro to edit the Assignments feature service in the same way you'd edit any other feature service. You need to make sure that you follow the guidelines for how to create assignments; The Workforce Schema. You can use a script to import assignments into the feature service; we've created several that you can use as a starting point: workforce-scripts

Similar questions to were posted to the Workforce Beta forum but included a few additional questions; please let me know if you'd like to continue the discussion there.

thanks,

Craig

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

AliBarakat — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 18:03:37 GMT

Thank you very much Craig for your helpful reply.

for number 2, for example i want to remove the priority field or add any other field needed. it would be much better if these fields were flexible.

also i have 2 extra questions:

is it possible to do an integration with geoevent? if yes, what are the best benefits of this integration?
When is the next update and what are the new features?

Thanks again for your kind help!

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

CraigGillgrass — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 18:41:34 GMT

Ali,

Can you provide some more information on why removing the Priority field is a use case? If left empty; it will not appear to field workers. Can you provide some use cases or more information on what additional fields you would like to add?

My replies to your 2 other questions

We're working on the initial 1.0 release of Workforce within the next week or two. We have a number of updates planned for the first release, including the ability to edit Priority and Due Date/Time in bulk and an improved app integration experience, including the ability to specify a particular web map or survey to be opened when either Collector or Survey123 are launched.
Yes, but not out of the box. Workforce uses feature services, so integration with Geoevent Server would be done using the same steps for any other feature service.

Craig

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

AliBarakat — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 19:09:20 GMT

Dear Craig,

There is no particular reason for adding/removing fields, im just thinking about future projects where some people would like to have only specific fields to describe their assignments and not all of them.

Thank you very much for your useful answers.

Btw, I attended the dev summit in palm springs few months ago, and your presentation on workforce was my favorite, it was very interesting.

Since that moment i started working on workforce and started trying different cases.

I will try some additional stuff and i'll get back to you if needed.

Thanks again

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

CraigGillgrass — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 21:02:59 GMT

Ali,

Thanks for clarifying on the request to add/remove fields. What we're hearing from users is that; while they first want to add or remove fields from the Assignment feature service and have that reflected in the web and mobile apps; once they realize that they can launch Collector from Workforce; that handles the majority of scenarios where they want to customize or change the Assignments feature service.

There definitely are valid use cases for adding fields to the Assignments feature service and have them appear; that's in our backlog for a future release. If you have examples like this, please pass them along so I can add them to our backlog.

Thanks for the comments, glad you enjoyed the session on Workforce and looking forward to hearing your feedback after it's release.

Craig

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

AliBarakat — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 09:42:04 GMT

Hello again,

I have some additional questions if its okay:

The current workforce allows you to open collector\survey123 then choose which webmap\survey to use, so you will see the full list of webmaps\surveys linked to the user then you choose one of them. Will it be possible to go directly to the needed webmap\survey without seeing the remaining ones?
If yes, is it possible to link each assignment to a different webmap\survey?

Thank you very much.

Regards,

Ali

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

CraigGillgrass — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 12:34:18 GMT

Ali,

Yes, this is possible in the 1.0 release of Workforce; here's two docs that go into more detail on this:
1. Migrating Workforce Projects from Beta
2. Configuring App Integrations
Workforce allows you to link a web map/survey per project. Can you provide some more information on linking to a specific assignment?

thanks, Craig

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

AliBarakat — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 13:35:17 GMT

sure!

for example, lets say i have 4 assignments

Assignment 1: uses webmap1 in collector

Assignment 2: uses webmap2 in collector

Assignment 3: uses survey1 in survey123

Assignment 4: uses survey2 in survey123

i give a worker assignment1, i want this mobile to directly open webmap1 in collector without giving him the option to go to another webmap.

if i give him assignment4, he should directly go to survey2 in survey123.

it might be risky that the worker open another webmap or survey by mistake.

This will help us avoid any misunderstanding or confusion between dispatcher and worker.

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

CraigGillgrass — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 14:29:10 GMT

Thanks Ali, thanks for following up. A couple follow-on questions:

Can you go into some detail on your scenario where workers would be using both Collector and Survey123 in the same project?
Can you talk about the scenario where you have different web maps or surveys for different assignments?

I agree that you want to the Worker to be using the right web map or survey for their work; but it's not a use case we've come across where a single Workforce Project uses Collector and Survey123.

Examples of your project and the scenarios you're trying to solve would really help to dig into this.

thanks, Craig

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

AliBarakat — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 14:35:24 GMT

Dear Craig,

here's a small scenario where we might need both collector and survey123 in one project.

let's say we want to use the collector for arcgis to add some buildings/houses/camps etc...

so the worker will go to a certain location and draw the boundaries of this building or add a point if it is a point feature, then he will fill the required data inside.

then, in another assignment, we want another worker to go to this building and collect data regarding the families inside and each family member should do his own survey.

this is a very quick and small scenario that came to my mind.

Regards,

Ali

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

StarlaElkins — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:46:37 GMT

I would like to have someone fill out a geoform (public) for a new meter install request. Which will use the same assignment feature class as a workforce project. For example, adding 3 fields in the details section for workforce to include Permit #, Tap Size requested, Rate Class(commercial, irrigation, industrial, etc). The worker would then be able to see the assignment with appropriate information from the requester and open Collector to update the Meter data during install.

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

GlenColgate1 — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 18:52:22 GMT

Craig,

You've heard of at least one use case where a single Workforce Project uses both Collector and Survey123. At least we are trying to...

Our use case is probably very common (at least we think it is). Our Inspection group is recording asbuilt facility attributes along with various information related to construction progress. Initially we are focused on the more common field observations that will be form based data entry in Survey123, but after that we are going to expand our capabilities to enter facility attributes along with spatial edits in Collector.

We also think that these links should based on the assignment type (NOT THE PROJECT). Seriously, there has got to be more than 2 of us that brought up this kind of scenario. I sent you a PM to expand upon our use case, but here's a short version for those reading this post... If a worker gets a Concrete Inspection Assignment in Workforce, we would like the worker to open a Concrete Inspection survey in Survey123. If they get a Certificate of Occupancy Approval assignment in Workforce, they should open the Certificate of Occupancy survey in Survey123. Yada, yada, yada...

Thanks,

Glen

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

Christopher_L_Rogers — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 19:14:09 GMT

Glen,

The workflow example you and ALi have both provided makes a lot of sense and I am just about to embark on a similar task where our Officers play various roles but will utilize the same Workforce Project for tracking though may have different types of assignments that need specific forms based on the assignment type.

For example, an Officer receives a call for service (assignment) to remove debris out of the Interstate and upon arrival has a specific Survey123 form that collects data about the road debris type (semi-truck tire), location (geopoint), possibly where it came from (say the tractor tailor and driver are still at the scene company name, drivers license, etc...), and possibly damage or injuries arising from this road debris, pictures of the debris and/or damage, and final Officer notes perhaps.

The the same Officer is dispatched to a motorist assist who has a mechanical malfunction or run out of fuel using a Survey123 form to collect important details including amount of gas that was provided for financial accountability, driver info, vehicle info, etc...

As Ali described this would tie an Assignment type to the method of data collection in these two examples it would be one of potentially many available Survey123 forms HOWEVER; as I think through this process I realized that the Officer is free to choose the correct Survey123 from those available to him/her and that could work equally as well unless I want to specifically prescribe which Suvery123 form will open based on the Assignment type then we're back to begin to define a specific workflow to ensure there's no chance of an Officer using the wrong Survey to collect the data in the field.

Often times this seems like a simple thing, why wouldn't the Officer know which Survey to use but to be honest they usually have a lot more on their mind than selecting the proper Survey123 form each and every assignment and when new assignment types are added and can be tied to a specific Suvery123 form, there's no training required to make sure they use the correct form for the correct assingment and if the Survey123 (Collect, GeoForms, etc..) are developed in an intuitive manner there may be little training required there as well.

I understand the necessity to try and keep things simple and expand/enhance by also passing some of the responsibility to the users but when we can take stesp and decisions out of a process we find that adoption and usage increase dramatically.

We'd also like to be able to use our own Status lists too rather then Online, Break Offline, Offline (Android) or Working, On Break, Not Working (iOS) to provide our Dispatchers better filtering and quick visibility into what each Officer on screen is currently doing... three Status Options are not sufficient enough for us... workable but we're looking into expanded options.

Sincere Regards,

Chris Rogers

Traffic Enforcement Planner

OKDPS

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

CraigGillgrass — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 13:16:45 GMT

Ali, thank you for providing your use case for using Collector and Survey123 in the same project; I've added it to our issue tracking this enhancement for Workforce

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

CraigGillgrass — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 13:20:42 GMT

Glen, we always really appreciate the feedback from your group, thank you for taking the time to outline it here and in the email. I've added it to the issue that we're using to track the enhancement. You are correct, you're not the only group who is asking for this capability and it's one we'd like to add in an upcoming release. Supporting the multiple inspection workflow, specifically for building inspections, is one of the main use cases. As we define what release we'll target this work for, we'll keep you updated on it.

thanks,

Craig

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

CraigGillgrass — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 13:26:12 GMT

Chris, thanks for providing the use case; it's similar to what we discussed during our meeting at the UC and I've made sure to capture it in our issue to track this enhancement.

Craig

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

GlenColgate1 — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 15:01:15 GMT

Craig,

Likewise, we really appreciate the care and concern you have shown when receiving our suggestions. For our own experience I know its hard, but try not to misread our constructive criticism as a negative. We are really quite happy with how the product is progressing.

For those that haven't seen Ishmael's blog post on using the custom url-scheme, we have been somewhat successful in building our own link in the description field of the workforce assignment. This allows us to navigate directly from the assignment to its related inspection form. Its not exactly "pretty" but can be a helpful band-aid until the action button is improved.

Thanks,

Glen

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

RossFindlay — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 18:55:35 GMT

Hi Glenn: I would be interested to learn how you achieved this. I am interested triggering Explorer for ArcGIS from the description field, but haven't been able to replicate your results. Hope you can provide some guidance.

Re: Workforce for arcgis questions

GlenColgate1 — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 21:58:15 GMT

Ross Findlay‌ because the description field recognizes rich text on the mobile app any properly formatted URL string should be automatically recognized as a popup link. For instance an Explorer for ArcGIS link should look like the followng:

arcgis-explorer://?itemID=2adf08a4a1a84834a773805a6e86f69e&center=43.656789,-70.278083

The itemID is the ID for the map you wish to open and center is the location within the map to view. There is more documentation on this here: GitHub - Esri/explorer-integration: Multi Language repository that contains documentation and sample code for creating c…

If you still have issues maybe post your URL string and we can take a look at why its not playing nicely.

Glad to help if you need more.

Glen