add a new entry from a survey question to dropdown list

[CharlottePeters95540]

Hi,

I have a dropdown list of observation locations populated with some common observation locations. I have an "other location" question available to enter new locations not in the dropdown and a geopoint question to map the new location. When a new location is entered, is it possible to have the new location and coordinates automatically added to the dropdown list so it's an option for future surveys? 

For example, "Beach parking lot" is a new observation location for this survey. A geopoint question (not shown) would also appear to map the new location.

Can "Beach parking lot" be added to the dropdown list automatically so it appears as an option for the next survey and the coordinates logged so the Beach parking lot location is mapped. 

I'm using Survey123 Connect ver. 3.18.123.

Thanks, Charlotte

[abureaux · Accepted solution]

This is likely what you are looking for: https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-survey123-blog/dynamic-choice-lists-using-search-appearance/bc-...

Two things to think about:

1. Will your surveys be taken in an offline environment?
2. Do you REALLY want people taking the surveys to be able to add anything to the list? Even with the best intentions from a professional group, this can go south quite quickly.

[CharlottePeters95540]

Thank you for the suggestion. I haven't been able to get a new value added to the dropdown list yet, but I'll work at it some more, so I know how it's done for future use. However, there are times the survey will be used offline, so looks like this won't work for my current situation.

I was hoping that allowing new list options would prevent future surveys from having different variations of the same location in the data. For example, "parking lot of beach", "beach parking", and "beach" when selecting "Beach parking lot" from the dropdown list would suffice. I also wanted to avoid having a cluster of points around a general observation location. In the example given, there would be three geopoints clustered together. If "Beach parking lot" was selected from the dropdown list, then it's associated coordinates would be used to mark the location which would be the exact same location as the other "Beach parking lot" observations. 

Hmmm...I may need to go back to my original idea of having a nest location with a geopoint, each nest could have multiple observation locations with a geopoint, and each observation location could have multiple observation details. I thought data entry and maintenace would be easier if the observation location was rolled into the observation detail section. 

[CharlottePeters95540]

FYI, looks like this can be implemented as an open list as described in this Survey123 Tricks of the Trade post.