Create Hidden Field in Public Survey?

[deleted-user-LNABNwA5CZcD]

I am trying to figure out a way to do two things that I know are possible but seem not to be.

I work for a nonprofit, and we are using a Survey123 form for pollution reporting from the public.

However, to manage reports, we would also like to be able to have a "Status" associated with individual reports. This is a field that would be hidden and defaulted to "Unreviewed."

I know you can do hidden fields in Survey123 Connect by editing the XLS Form, but those surveys can't be opened up to the general public and used in the web browser form, right?

Long story short: how do I have a "Status" field I can manage on the back end (probably in Citizen Problem Manager) while also keeping the public/published Survey123 form (we need the web browser format)?

[Anonymous User]

Hi April,

Are you creating the survey via Web Designer or Survey123 Connect?

Currently, you can not create hidden questions via Web Designer, only via Connect.

Phil.

[KyleSchwizer]

I am looking to do something similar. Currently using Survey123 Connect to edit our survey. I have successfully hidden two fields but now I am trying to get a "choices list"/domain for these two new fields. We are looking to have a review process so admins can review and update these hidden fields, then create a filtered view based off certain values in these fields. Is there way to associate a list from the choices spreadsheet with a hidden field? 

[TylerBragg2]

Kyle,

The way I've gotten it to do what you need (domained selections) is to first publish the fields as "select_one" fields, then once published, change the fields to "hidden" in Connect and publish again. The domains are preserved in the data, since nothing changed them, only the fact they are hidden from the Survey123 form.

The riskier way is to add the domains through ArcGIS Pro or AGOL, but I admit I have broken the JSON doing that before. I don't know if any recent update may have corrected that issue.

Marvin

[KyleSchwizer]

Marvin,

I have tried this but when I go to publish the form and have updated the fields to "select_one Name_of_list" and view the feature layer in a map viewer on AGOL, the two new fields still dont have the option for drop-downs. I am able to see the drop-downs in the survey but cant seem them in the map viewer when i go to edit on of the points in the feature layer.  Not really sure what I am doing wrong. Once i get that to work i will continue to test your theory of switching it back to "hidden". Thanks!

[TylerBragg2]

Kyle,

You may have to do something along the lines of downloading the survey back to Connect (that way the feature service address is populated into the smart form). I've been able to create the select_one, go to AGOL and see the domain in the field, republish as hidden and see the domains preserved but the field removed from the form. Are you at least getting the choices in the form when published? It seems like it's not publishing the data schema correctly.

Marvin

[KyleSchwizer]

Marvin,

So what i was experiencing is very odd. Seems to be a little buggy to me. Everything i was doing matched what you were describing except for being able to see the dropdowns in AGOL map viewer. So what i ended up doing was creating a test survey form through the web survey 123. Then I added in a dropdown list question and added some test dropdown values. From there i went into Survey Connect, downloaded and opened the test survey xls, copied that particular row (to be sure I was copying all the setting for a "dropdown" question)  then finally paste that into my main survey. From there I just adjusted the list value to the current list I had create for those fields, published, and then i was able to see dropdowns in AGOL map viewer. Once that test was complete I switched the type field to hidden and boom! It works just like you said! Very odd work around for me but it now works. Thanks for your help!