bind::esri:fieldType is empty but survey analysis shows errors

[AnnaScholl]

When I analyze my survey, I receive 100 warnnings: 

however, my column bind::esri:fieldType looks like this. 

Empty. What's going on here? 

[Vinzafy · Accepted solution]

Hey there,

If you're able to send a copy of your XLSForm, that would be ideal to help support you in this.

My guess is that a blank value (e.g., a space) got pasted throughout the bind::esri:fieldType column so even though there's no data there, there's something other than Null which is causing the issues.

One thing you could try is copying the value from a guaranteed blank cell (e.g., cell AZ2 - something outside of the main table), then paste that in the first affected cell in the bind::esri:fieldType column (I'm guessing T2?). Then paste that cell down to all affected ones and analyze again.

[AnnaScholl]

Thank you! worked like a charm. Just one clarification-- if I did change it to 'null,' wouldn't that mean that then the data would not be recorded?

[Vinzafy]

That's correct! Though the field would be usable in the survey, any data for that field wouldn't be stored in your hosted feature layer.

Example of a use case for me was to utilize emojis as instant visual indicators for equipment inspection surveys. I don't actually want to store the emoji as a field in my hosted feature layer, but I want it to be utilized within S123.

For each item in the inspection checklist, I added an associated calculate question to it. I set the calculation to an expression that checks if the required amounts of equipment was present. If it is, return a green check emoji, if it isn't, return a red warning emoji.

E.g.,

if(${<field_name>}>=2, "&#9989;", "&#9940;")

HTML emoji reference can be found here.

However, because I don't want to store the emoji in my hosted feature layer, I set the bind::esri:fieldType to null. This means the calculate field is ignored in the hosted feature layer schema, but can still be used in the survey!

If you have a use case where you want the calculate field to be a number instead of a text, make sure you set the bind::type value for that question to int or decimal so those values behave the way you want them to in the survey, while still being ignored in the schema.

Credit to @DougBrowning for the fantastic emoji workflow which can be found in his post here:

How to simulate instant data checking using emojis 

[AnnaScholl]

I see, this is really cool! Thank's for clarifying and for pointing to the cool workflow. 

[Nicole_Ueberschär]

Normally you should have a dropdown option in that column that shows you what are expected (and acceptable) values:

The list is also available and you could re-reference it from the Field Types sheet in your xlsx file.

[ZacharySutherby]

Hello @AnnaScholl, 

I believe @Vinzafy is correct it's likely that there is a blank value in the cells that is being reported as an empty string as opposed to truly not having a value in the cell. This will be fixed in the 3.18 release of Survey123 Connect. 

In the meantime you should be able to use the XLSForm Upgrade tool to refresh the XLSForm using the 3.17 template and rerun the analyze survey tool.  

[AnnaScholl]

Thanks! @Vinzafy was correct. I do have to say the Upgrade tool kind of scares me...