The reason I started with Explorer is we were looking for an app that would work well to get our field personnel maps in the field. Prior to this they only had a paper map with them of the area they would be working in. That obviously had a lot of limitations.
To start with the explorer app made the best sense for us, we didn't want to give the field personnel editing capabilities and I would say we are still at the point for most of them, but we want to start rolling out editing capabilities for specific job functions for specific personnel. But also want to keep tight controls over who has editing capabilities, and what they can edit.
The first place I want to take start with editing in the field is for our leak survey personnel. For them I can see using the collector app, they want to stream points as they walk to create an audit trail of where they have surveyed and when they were there. When they find a leak they need to be able to add it to the map with all the necessary attributes. But we also get leak calls that are investigated by different personnel, and they would need to be able to
create these leak points as well and for them their main job function is not editing map features it is putting pipe in the ground, and we need to keep it as simple and easy as possible. The leak point doesn’t have to be GPS’sed it may just be placed on the map via a user pointing to the location of the leak. So for this I would think should be possible in either app. I wouldn’t say the explorer app should be restricted to only non GPS editing, but maybe leave the finer GPS controls to the collector app. If you are looking for control of the accuracy I think that is a good place to look towards the collector app. I think the Explore app should at a minimum have the ability to edit/update
features that don’t require GPS locations.
So giving a user the ability to add it to the map with a finger touch or select a feature and add a related record or update its features in the Explorer app I think would go a long way. This would really help with the ability to perform inspections in the field. And we do a lot of inspections!
Unfortunately for me, you don’t just have to please me with this, but the entire ESRI community. I wish you luck
with that, we are a tough bunch to please. But I look forward to hearing where ESRI is going to take the Explorer App.
