What's New in ArcGIS Survey123 June 2022 Webinar
Did you miss the What's new in ArcGIS Survey123 (June 2022) Webinar? No problem, in this post you will find the recording, slides and responses to many of the questions asked.
Q&A
What's new in Survey123 (web surveys and the web designer):
We reviewed the major enhancements and new features added to the Survey123 web designer in our last release/s, including:
- Better map question type:
- Use your own web maps and locators
- Define at what map scale users can set the location in the map
- Decide if the default location of the map should be left empty, or if the location of the user should be used, and when
- Calculations and hidden questions:
- Prepopulate questions using data from your form
- Hide questions to collect data but without showing these questions to respondents
- Dynamic text:
- Make your surveys more personal by inserting data from your form into question labels, hints, and the thank you screen
- Social media cards:
- Make your survey links look great in social media sites
Can we add any layers to the survey map? Yes, as long as you can add these layers to a web map. To configure the survey map all you need to do is to select a web map, so any layer you can add to that web map, will show in your survey.
Can I collect the location of the respondent and prevent this location from being altered? Yes. You can do this in a few ways. The simplest approach is to add a map question and make sure you configure it to load the location of the user when the form loads. This option is now available in the Survey123 web designer. To prevent the location from being altered, you can either flag the question as read-only, or simply hide it from the survey.
The challenge is that you often will want to collect two locations: the location where the form is completed, and also a separate location such as the location of an issue or observation. In ArcGIS, layers can only have one geometry field, but you can store the X and Y of your second location as separate attributes. To achieve this with the Survey123 web designer, you could do something like this:
- Add a map question to your form to collect the location of the observation. This is the map question that the respondent will use to set a location.
- Add a second map question to your form and check the options to hide the question from the survey and also the option to not submit data. Make sure this map question gets the location of the user when the form loads.
- Add two number questions and use calculations to populate them with the X and Y of the location loaded in the previous question. Hide the questions from the survey.
Is the map feature amenable to oceanic space (non-land), for example recording an offshore fishing location? Yes. When working in oceanic space you may want to consider using the Ocean basemap. There are many other ocean-related layers in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World that you can use in your surveys.
Can I use a calculation to get the closest intersection? Calculations against a map question rely on an ArcGIS locator to perform a reverse geocode. If you want to get the closest intersection, you will need a locator specifically designed to return intersections. Checking the ArcGIS World Geocoding service, the options available are Addresses, Postal Codes, Populated Places, Coordinates and Places of Interest. There is no option to just return the closest intersection, so you will need to create your own locator with ArcGIS Enterprise, and then configure your map question to use it.
To create a custom locator, you could start with a layer containing all street intersections in your city.
Alternatively, instead of using a locator, you could simply run a query to return the closest point (intersection) to a location. This could be achieved with a custom JS function in your survey, although this cannot be done in the Survey123 web designer. You need Survey123 Connect for that. It is an advanced workflow. If you want to pursue this route, here is a getNearest sample JS function to get you started.
Will I consume credits when I calculate an address from a location? No. Reverse geocoding never consumes ArcGIS Online credits.
Will I consume credits when I calculate a location from an address? The ArcGIS World Geocoding service consumes credits when you use it to store the location (X,Y coordinates) of a provided address. If you use your own locator, no credits are consumed.
How can I configure a rule to only accept locations within a specified polygon? This is not currently possible in the Survey123 web designer. If you want to do this, you will need to use Survey123 Connect for now.
Is it possible to publish a survey publicly and keep all the survey data secure? Yes. Follow the instructions in this blog.
Will social media cards work with surveys published from Survey123 Connect? Yes.
What's new in Survey123 (Field data collection with the mobile app):
We looked at three new features in the Survey123 mobile app:
- Markup tools: Photos are worth 1000 words, but what if you could annotate them to highlight what is really important in them? Well, now you can!
- Streaming tools: Collect a line or a polygon as you move.
- Set the file name of photos: Do you want to download Survey123 photos and have meaningful file names? You can now do that in the Survey123 field app.
Are the markup tools for photos available out of the box or do they need to be enabled?
Survey123 ships with default annotation tools. You can enable them by simply setting the appearance of a image question to annotate. Check this blog for details. If you want to create custom tools review this Esri Community Blog for more information.
Do I need Survey123 Connect to enable markup tools? Yes.
Can I use the markup tools in the Survey123 web app? No. The markup tools are only available in the mobile and desktop apps. If you feel strongly about the need to support them in the web app, submit an ArcGIS Idea and see if it gets traction! 🙂
How do the streaming tools work while disconnected from the network? Streaming tools work while disconnected if you have previously configured your survey with an offline map. Check out this blog to learn the basics.
How accurate are the lines and polygons created with the streaming tools? Multiple factors affect the accuracy of data collected with the streaming tools.
- When working outside, if your built-in GPS is not good enough, you can improve the accuracy of your GPS by using a high accuracy external GNSS receiver.
- You will want to use the distanceThreshold parameter to set the density of vertices along your streamed geometry.
- Obviously, how accurately you move over the feature you are digitizing is also important. When digitizing a polygon, for example, it can be challenging to add a vertex at the corners if the distanceThreshold is large. You can fix this manually adding a vertex with the GPS tool.
What happens if a calculated photo file name is not unique? If a file name is not unique, the Survey123 app will automatically set a unique name to the file, ignoring your expression.
Is the image file naming only applicable to photos that are taken through the form, or for photos that are inserted from the device library as well?
The image file naming works for photos uploaded from the device’s gallery as well.
What's new in Survey123 (XLSForm and Connect):
Our discussion revolved around three main topics:
- New user and device variables: Calculate the operating system, device model and other properties of the device used to collect data, as well as the username, full name, email and other information from your respondents
- Photo file names and streaming tools
Is it possible to work offline with an external service? No. It is not possible to access an external service while offline, the recommended workflow to pull external content while offline is to export the content to a CSV file and use a pulldata() function or search() appearance.
Does Survey123 crowdsource XLSForm designs from the user community to make these more formal products provided in Survey123 Connect as templates? If you have a survey design that you would like to share with the Esri community through the Survey123 Community gallery, contact us at survey123@esri.com We are working on a streamlined workflow for this and some guidelines, but we will be happy to work with you via email for now.
Can I use the new calculation modes in the Survey123 web app? Yes.
What's coming next:
We also looked at and demonstrated some of the features in the works, including:
- CAPTCHA and spatial calculations in web designer
- Support for Laser Tech laser rangefinders in the mobile app
- pulldata("@layer")
- Reports in Microsoft Power Automate
Can you please provide some more information on spatial calculations, targeted for the September release, and currently supported through custom JS functions?
Please see our pulldata(“@layer”) documentation in our Early Adopter Community for more information on getting started with the functionality and how you can test it to provide feedback before it is released.
How can I measure the height of an object like a tree, building, antenna etc. using Survey123?
Survey123 integrates very well with a laser range finder called Spike by ikeGPS. Using the Spike laser range finder, you can measure things such as distance, height, and area pulling that information back into your survey. Please see this Esri Community post for more information.
We are also working with Esri Partner Laser Tech to integrate with their TruPulse laser rangefinders.
When will I be able to configure a webhook to generate Reports in Microsoft Power Automate?
This is in our road map for 2022. Please stay tuned through this ArcGIS Idea.
How can I export my survey data including attachments?
We would need ArcGIS Online/ArcGIS Enterprise to provide the ability to export data including attachments in a format outside of File Geodatabase. Currently the best workflow is to use a Python script which utilizes the ArcGIS API for Python to export the survey results and attachments. Please see this documentation link for a notebook that can be used to achieve this.
Popular wishes:
- Implement pulldata("@layer") and make it work offline
- Allow me to turn layers and off in the map (field and web apps)
- Survey123 reports in Microsoft Power Automate!
- Survey123 t-shirts!
Other questions:
Where do I sign up for the Survey123 newsletter? Here.
