Dropbox and Google Drive Implementation to Quick Report App

[DustinBaumbach1]

Hi Esri AppStudio Team,

I have received some comments from users of my TURT and RASTR applications suggesting that it would help to add Dropbox or Google Drive extensions in the addPhotoPage so that if photos are taken with an actual camera, it would be easy to access these photos. Currently, users need to transfer the photos from their camera to their computer and then from their computer to their phone before uploading. However, users in the marine realm and those collecting data for scientists out in the field and may only have a camera with them at the time can easily upload photos to a dropbox or google drive account that they can then immediately have access to on their phones without having to do another transferring step. Reviewers of a manuscript I have just submitted describing the use of citizen-science data for biological information have also suggested that multiple transferring steps for photos may be too complicated for citizen-scientists and may turn them off to logging sightings. I think that the implementation of Dropbox and Google Drive will help to address these issues and may make users of all apps in all kinds of settings more inclined to log information. Of course the standard camera and photo roll options would still be available for those who are able to capture photos or videos directly from their phones. Please consider adding these options into the next update to AppStudio. Siddesh Pillai‌ Nakul Manocha‌ Liwei Gao‌ Sathya Prasad‌ 

Thank you,

Dustin

[ErwinSoekianto · Accepted solution]

Dustin, 

Thank you for the suggestion, it is a great idea. But we don't have a plan to add Dropbox or Google Drive extension specifically in Quick Report template. 

However, we just release a new (BETA) component in AppFramework in the AppStudio 3.2 release, called DocumentDialog, that MIGHT be a solution. This component provides access to documents external to the app, including the documents in the file-sharing platform apps that are installed in the devices.

This is the blog post that explained the rest of the new feature in the AppStudio release 3.2, What’s New in AppStudio for ArcGIS 3.2 (December 2018) 

Thank you,

Erwin Soekianto.

AppStudio for ArcGIS

[DustinBaumbach1]

Hi Erwin,

Thank you very much for providing me with this info. I had noticed that a new version of AppStudio was released however, I have not had a chance to fully explore the new features. I will take a look at the blog to see if this will be a possible solution for my user population. I definitely think it is essential to provide access to external file-sharing platforms in the event that the user does not have access to the photos from his/her phone (as described above). Anyways, thank you for the information and I look forward to finding out more information about the new release.

Thank you,

Dustin Baumbach

Loma Linda University

[DustinBaumbach1]

Hi Erwin Soekianto‌,

I was looking at the method and the blog but could not find any occurrences of DocumentDialog after I created a new quick report template. Can you please tell me the page this method is applied in or what setting needs to be checked in order to apply it? Once I receive this information I will conduct testing.

Thank you,

Dustin Baumbach

Loma Linda University

[DustinBaumbach1]

P.S. After upgrading my AppStudio and then creating a new quick report template, I do not see the Platform Module and the ArcGIS Runtime is still at 100.2 not 100.4. What is the proper implementation for upgrading 100.2 to 100.4. Is that done manually?