Support for Contingent Values in ArcGIS Online

[KyleWikstrom]

Contingent Values in ArcGIS Pro helps data technicians in the office to efficiently manage the ensure the integrity of their data. Light data users could take advantage of this as well through ArcGIS Online whether in the office or using Collector in the field, making sure that data entry is simple and effective and that the data is of highest quality.

Use Case: Road Sign Technicians using Collector enter a sign code and then see the possible values available for other attributes. Stop signs have 3 sizes available, and In-Street Pedestrian Crossing signs have 2 sizes available, and so on.

Thanks team!

[Gesplan_SADeveloper]

This makes a lot more sense in the field work. It is essential at runtime.

[acarmody]

It works wonderfully in ArcGIS Pro. To have this functionality work across the entire ESRI platform would be the data validation/cleansing/quality dream.

[RobMillman1]

I'd further like to add that it's essential this is done in Enterprise at the same time as AGOL

[ChristopherBowering]

Coincidentally, I was just on the phone with an ESRI Account Manager discussing some of the Collector-related limitations I've come across, including this issue.  Apparently this is a "known issue" but he seemed very sincere about getting the issues in the hands of the right developers so they don't endlessly swirl around the world of enhancements and bugs.  Just wanted to pass along this update!

[JustinReynolds]

Despite the sincerity from the ESRI Account Manager, I doubt this will ever actually make it into ArcGIS Collector as it is slated to go away completely in the next year or so (so they say).  I imagine all focus is now on ArcGIS Field Maps (Basically Collector/ Explorer/Workforce/Tracker rolled into one).  Android & iOS just reached parity finally in Beta 3 while ArcGIS Collector for Android appears to still be a release behind iOS.  

On this front the forums and the response from the ArcGIS Field Maps Dev Team in general is actually encouraging.  I don't think contingent values will come with the first couple of releases of ArcGIS Field Maps, but they are at least talking about attribute rules and contingent values in the forums in relation to their "Smart Forms".

Last month we used some of our premium support to troubleshoot contingent values as the ESRI documentation implicitly suggests it is possible, but as the attribute rules and contingent values are operations on the geodatabase itself it just not going to work for hosted services in the current setup.  It would seem they have a game plan to make it work in Field Maps, but how well and when... I'll just hold my breath along with everyone else.

[ChristopherBowering]

Justin - You're right, sincerity doesn't always lead to action.  When I followed up with the account manager last week, he said he has been "stonewalled" in his approaches to get the issues prioritized.  He gave me the impression during our initial discussion that Collector was going to run parallel to Field Maps for the foreseeable future so who knows.  If Collector apps need to be rebuilt to some extent to work in Field Maps I could see ESRI waiting a while to pull the plug completely.  Field Maps is supposedly coming out of Beta on 10/26.  I guess it will not work out of Portal which is annoying since I recently finished moving everything from my AGO account over to Portal.  However, I have successfully used a couple auto-increment attribute rules in Collector when published thru Portal.  It's a small victory.

[LeviCecil]

They introduced smart forms into the Field Maps beta, with Arcade "conditional visibility." I'm going to start testing that functionality in the next couple of days to see if it is comparable to contingent values. We've had success so far with contingent values in Survey123, but we need this functionality in maps as well.  

[ChristopherBowering]

Levi - if you have the time, could you please post back with your thoughts after your testing?  Once Field Maps comes out of Beta next week, I'm planning on checking it out in greater detail.

[JustinReynolds]

Hey Levi - Conditional "Field" Visibility is not really comparable to Contingent Values.

Conditional Visibility works something like this:

Suppose you have fields X and Y, where field Y is not visible to the user in the form by default.  Field Y has an arcade expression with some logic like if Field X is not null (or insert logic here) then Field Y.visible = True.  In this case when the user enters a value for Field X then Field Y becomes visible.

This is nice to have and will help with data management at runtime, but is less critical.

Contingent Values works something like this:

Field X and Y both have domains. Changing the value of Field X changes (filters) the available options in the domain for Field Y to only those that apply to the value in field X.

This is a must have.

[LeviCecil]

OK. I guess we're stuck with Survey123 for the foreseeable future. Or custom 3rd party app$. 

For what it's worth, I've been using Field Maps beta on the same project I started with Collector. I couldn't see much of a difference between the two apps.