The Need:
Those considering moving to ArcGIS Collector for mobile data collection who have been using handheld devices with Trimble TerraSync or a similar software are familiar with certain fields auto-populating with values (File names, date and time the feature was collected, Location coordinates, etc.). When moving to Collector, they lose this ability. Enabling editor tracking records the date and time, however, if they are offline, this date/ time may not be accurate. Tracking which user collected each feature is also difficult without the user typing in their user name. Editor tracking only provides "Esri_Anonymous". While individual operating systems provide some good date/time pickers, this still means the user has to provide input for something that the device should already be aware of.
The Idea:
In order to not have to take a step backward while taking a step forward in our data collection efforts, it would be good to be able to configure an app intended for use in Collector so that fields can be AUTOPOPULATED using a few different methods.
- From a list of system values: Date, Time, Date and Time, System/device name, etc.
- From AGOL user information: Username, Organization, etc.
- From location information: Lat, Lon, X, Y in various formats (dec deg., dms, etc)
