ArcGIS QuickCapture Blog

Sharing QuickCapture Projects Publically

There may be situations where you want to share a QuickCapture project publicly, meaning users won’t need to enter a username and password to download the project and submit data. This is useful for applications such as crowdsourcing, where you want members of the public to submit data. In these cases, you won’t know who your users are and won’t be able to assign individual licenses to them.

Sharing QuickCapture projects publicly can be done using the QuickCapture Web Designer, but the implementation differs depending on whether you are using ArcGIS Online (AGOL) or ArcGIS Enterprise.

ArcGIS Online (AGOL)

If you are using AGOL, you can share QuickCapture projects publicly, as long as your organization has a Hub Premium license. Once this is applied, the designer will allow you to share the project with Everyone (Public).

How to Share: Click the 'Share' button, then select the option to Share with everyone. This will make the project public, along with any associated project layers and web maps, if necessary.

Once shared, you can distribute the QR code (created by the designer) to users via email or embed it in a document.

Users can scan the QR code using their mobile phone camera. If QuickCapture is not already installed, they will be directed to the appropriate app store to download it. After installation, scanning the QR code will automatically download the project to the app’s public workspace, ready for use.

Note: The designer also allows you to create project links as an alternative to QR codes. These links can be embedded in emails or documents as another way to distribute your public projects.

ArcGIS Enterprise

If you are using ArcGIS Enterprise, no additional license is required to share QuickCapture projects publicly. The option to share your project is always available, and the QuickCapture Designer will allow you to create project QR codes and links, just like you can do in ArcGIS Online.

However, there are some important considerations:

1. External Access: If you want your project to be accessible outside of your internal network, ensure that your portal is accessible externally. In some cases, a VPN can be used if only certain members of your organization need access. In other cases, you may need to adjust your firewall settings to allow external access to the portal, the project, and associated items.

2. Web Maps: A bug in QuickCapture prevented web maps from loading in public projects (BUG-000166936). The fix is available in version 1.21 of the Web Designer and will be available in the Enterprise-hosted version of the designer in ArcGIS Enterprise version 11.5. Additionally, it will require the map to be updated in existing projects and the project resaved. If you are using an older version of ArcGIS Enterprise, you will need to use the online version of the Web Designer with your Enterprise. See the following steps to fix your existing projects.

Use the online Web Designer with your Enterprise:

1. Go to the online version of the designer: ArcGIS QuickCapture Designer.
2. Select Sign in with ArcGIS Enterprise.
3. Enter your portal URL and sign in with your ArcGIS Enterprise credentials.
4. Open the project you want to share publically and go to Configure Project Map.
5. Select Change and choose the map you want to use. Even if the correct map is already selected, reselect it to ensure the correct property is set.
6. Save the project and share it publicly, if needed.

The supportsApplyEditsWithGlobalIDs warning

The QuickCapture designer shows a warning if your project contains feature layers that have the supportsApplyEditsWithGlobalIDs property is set to false. Many feature layers (including those created from the ArcGIS Online templates) by default will have this property set to false, so if you create a QuickCapture project from them, you will see the following warning in the QuickCapture Designer analyser UI:

(The following layers are configured in a way that may cause photo loss)

Currently, this is just a warning, meaning that you can still save the project without applying the fix. However it is strongly recommended that you don’t ignore it. In the future we will make this an error, which will prevent you from saving the project, until the issue is resolved. See this deprecation notice.

The reason that supportsApplyEditsWithGlobalIDs is important is that the setting that supports reliable transactions when uploading attachments (particularly when working in low bandwidth conditions) and helps the QuickCapture mobile app to prevent the upload of duplicate features.

I'm seeing the warning in the QuickCapture Designer, what do I do?

If you are using a hosted feature service in ArcGIS Online, setting supportsApplyEditsWithGlobalIDs is really simple. You just need to enable the Sync capability on your layer. It does not matter if there are existing features and attachments in the layer, the steps will still work. You can follow the steps outlined in this blog.

If you are using non hosted feature layers or ArcGIS enterprise then the steps shared in this Survey123 blog, also apply to QuickCapture.

Encountering duplicate feature submissions in QuickCapture could be experienced when working in areas areas with poor network connectivity. This article explains the underlying cause of duplicate submissions and shares information on how the issue is addressed in the 1.21 release.

QuickCapture offers two types of templates to help you get started quickly with your data collection projects: Solution-based templates and Project-based templates. In this blog, we’ll explore both types and how they can help streamline your project creation process.

QuickCapture 1.20 release update for Mobile (Android, iOS and Windows) and web designer.

The QuickCapture designer now offers 2 options for enabling oriented imagery in the designer: Oriented imagery and Oriented imagery (Classic). The first option utilizes the new oriented imagery feature layer item type, that is well integrated into the ArcGIS platform. For example, the layer can be directly opened in the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer or in ArcGIS Pro. The the second option (classic) untilzes the old catalog item type, which can be consumed by stand alone web apps and an community supported ArcGIS Pro addin. 

For any layers in your project, you can enable both options! This is because for the time being the oriented imager feature layer implementation, does not yet match the capabilities of the classic verion (yet).

Learn how to streamline field data collection using the integrated Arcade editor in the QuickCapture web designer. You can configure Arcade expressions from the Data tab for each capture field in the project.

Try out the integrated Arcade editor in the QuickCapture web designer to write Arcade expressions that populate fields for collected data. This workflow is applicable to data collected online and offline.

In the event that records to fail to send from your mobile device, we need a method for recovering and exporting them, so that they can be appended to the feature layer.

These are the steps for an iOS device

• Install iTunes on your laptop
• Connect the device to your laptop
• Open iTunes, click on your device, and navigate to: File Sharing > Apps: QuickCapture > select the “ArcGIS” folder > 'Save' it to a local directory

• Within that folder, locate a file with a ".qcr" (QuickCapture Recovery) extension.
• Rename this file with a ".zip" extension, and then extract the data locally.
• Within the unzipped folder, find the sqlite database containing the orphaned records.

For an Android device, the process is the same.  However we can use File Explorer instead of iTunes.

It is important to share your QuickCapture project properly so your mobile workers can access and use it successfully. Here are all of the ways to share that you need to know.