Lock map editing while updating attributes in Collector

724
2
06-29-2016 10:37 AM
Status: Open
SteveGensler
New Contributor III

When working in Collector (on tablets), many users accidentally brush the map portion of the screen while they are editing the attributes. This results in the point feature accidentally moving to a new location. To prevent this, you could make it possible to lock the map screen while you are editing the attributes. This is not a problem for smart phones because their small form prevents you from seeing the map and the attributes window simultaneously. There is a button that switches between the two views.

However, tablets show the map and the attribute window simultaneously. Rather than having both views "live" simultaneously, it is safer to switch deliberately between the two. It should be easy to add the map view/attribute view button, that is already on smart phones, to the tablet version. Alternatively, you could add a map lock/unlock button that the user would have to deliberately toggle to be able to move features to new locations.

This design flaw is one of the biggest things that scares our volunteers away from using the Collector app.

2 Comments
by Anonymous User

I agree that it is a problem that the user accidently touches the map and moves the feature. This is happening very often when they try to press "Update" and hit the small part of the map in the upper-right corner.

It could be a problem that the user want to edit some attributes, change the location of the feature and then continue to edit attributes. In that case the user would get frustrated when he is not able to edit in the map.

SteveGensler

I'm glad that I'm not alone! I spoke with a collecter for arcgis developer today at the ESRI UC and he agreed that this is a bug and should be an easy fix. We'll see how easy it is.