Block QC Data Collection unless the QC tool is launched from Collector

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09-22-2020 03:08 PM
MeganEngel
Occasional Contributor II

Is there a way to block QC data collection unless the QC tool is launched from Collector?

Use Case:

We want a parcel ID to be the user input in the target feature class.  This parcel ID field would would be populated from a state wide parcel dataset, present in a WebMap (Collector) and the pop-up containing the link that would launch QC with the project user input defined already, As described here.  I have this functionality working in another QC application and it works great.  However, with a state wide dataset with ten of thousands of features, we want to eliminate user error as much as possible for the project user input field (in this case, Parcel ID), simply for data mining and association later.  Thus, we are looking to limit/block the end-user from just opening the QC tool directly in the QC application, and would like for them to only be able to enter data in, if the tool was launched from Collector.

Additional info:

We do not was to use a spatial join of the features, in case the features end up outside of the parcel of interest due to GPS accuracy.

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JohnathanHasthorpe
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Megan

QuickCapture will not know whether it was launched from Collector, nor is there a way to prevent a user from capturing data/opening a project. However, if you are populating the project user input through a custom URL, the user would need to enter the parcel ID themselves if they went direct to QuickCapture. If you made the user input optional and free text, is it likely that the user would enter a value? If so you could filter out all submissions that don't have a parcel ID. You could also add a hint informing the user that the input should only be populated if the project was launched from QuickCapture.

Please let me know if the above works for you. If not we will be keen to see if any enhancements good be made to support such workflows. One option for this could be to have an option to make the project user input hidden (if optional) so that it could only be populated via a custom URL.

Thanks

John

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3 Replies
JohnathanHasthorpe
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Megan

QuickCapture will not know whether it was launched from Collector, nor is there a way to prevent a user from capturing data/opening a project. However, if you are populating the project user input through a custom URL, the user would need to enter the parcel ID themselves if they went direct to QuickCapture. If you made the user input optional and free text, is it likely that the user would enter a value? If so you could filter out all submissions that don't have a parcel ID. You could also add a hint informing the user that the input should only be populated if the project was launched from QuickCapture.

Please let me know if the above works for you. If not we will be keen to see if any enhancements good be made to support such workflows. One option for this could be to have an option to make the project user input hidden (if optional) so that it could only be populated via a custom URL.

Thanks

John

MeganEngel
Occasional Contributor II

Johnathan,

That was the response I was expecting, but just wanted to be sure.  

Ultimately, we will want the project user input to be a required field. With our end-users, if a field is optional they will not use it.  By making it required we getting cleaner data on the backend to be used later for future assessments and data mining.

If we choose to make the input optional and hidden, we could include a button that would launch collector from QC to then launch QC from collector (to populate that project user input field).  I suspect our folks wont like that workflow as much because it would be a bit cumbersome. However, we would still be faced with the possibility that the parcel ID not being populated since it would be optional.

I think including a hint to remind them them they need to launch from Collector will be key and including a link that launches the collector map in the QC tool information. 

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it!

JohnathanHasthorpe
Esri Regular Contributor

From 1.7 (out this month) you will be able to add button links to projects. This will allow users to launch apps such as Collector.

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