Increase refresh rate of linked CSV items in Survey123 Field Application

mattkramer

Currently, linked CSV files published on Portal that are linked to Survey123 forms are only ever updated once per day in the mobile application. This is typically not an issue when the CSV data is relatively static, but in situations where CSV files are updated on an hourly basis, this means mobile Survey123 forms will only receive one update per day, even if more are made.

In my use case, this would be a valuable enhancement since I use linked CSV files to pass information to Survey123 forms from hosted feature layers to reference in an offline environment. By converting the attributes of a hosted feature layer to a CSV, I have been able to give my teams the ability to reference the most up to date maintenance information on an asset they could be doing work on, and without more frequent updates, a team in the afternoon may not realize that a problem was addressed by a different team in the morning. Below is an example of what this information looks like when passed to a lookup form used by teams on site:

RobertAnderson3 · ‎05-23-2024

I believe that the Linked Content should update more than once per day, it updates any time I look at it as far as I can tell.

Though it's really frustrating that it only checks for updates on the form overview/survey details page. (Side note: is there a documented name for that page that we should be using?)

I've also found that it only checks when you open the overview page from the list of surveys, if a user had the survey open already on the overview page, or is filling out the survey and returns to the overview page that way, it does not trigger a refresh on the linked content.

I have also noticed previously that when I have the CSV in the media folder when the survey is published, but it is also linked content, sometimes it does not update and it only uses the one in the media folder. Though it has been a few versions since I really noticed this issue so I'm not sure if it's still a problem.

In theory fixing this would also relieve the issue you're seeing, so another idea to upvote when it comes to the improvement of linked content checks would be here: Survey checks for updates when loaded from web lin... - Esri Community

abureaux · ‎05-23-2024

I have a couple for this same issue:

~~Ya, definitely more than once per day.~~

EDIT: "...this means mobile Survey123 forms will only receive one update per day, even if more are made." This isn't how it works. You already will get every single CSV update so long as you go through the proper steps. Try going back to the main page and then back into the survey. You will see the "sync" box appear.

What needs happen is the survey checks for 1) Survey updates and 2) External content every single time that survey in the Field App is called. Meaning, if you manually launch from the app, or launch from a URL, whenever that particular survey either lands on or moves past the "Collection page" (the page with the blue "Collect" button), the check happens.