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Edge browser: Error: Initializing form TypeError: Object doesn't support property or method 'append'

WildlifeMaps

When trying to open a S123 form (https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/2eb28165b335452c9a44aedfb79799f1) in the Edge browser, I am getting an error message:

Error: Initializing form

TypeError: Object doesn't support property or method 'append'

I am using Connect 3.5.166 to publish and have not seen this message before (when first publishing this form in 2018).

I have made some recent changes to constrain the date and the geographic extent but I tried removing those and still received the same message after republishing, so maybe this a new issue with a recent Survey123 update?

This form works fine in Chrome and Firefox but has always loaded slowly in Edge and in IE11

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Accepted answers

JamesTedrick

Hi Jeff,

Are you able to test with a more recent version of Edge? There were several issues with previous versions of Edge that Microsoft has since corrected (in particular, the versions to check are the EdgeHTML property, 17 or higher).

All comments

Shwu-jingJeng

Hi Treg,

I tried to open the survey you mentioned above on Edge and had no problem to open it. Do you still receive the error when trying to republish the survey?

We do have certain issues which only occurs on Edge but not other web browsers. The recommendation would be trying other web browsers to narrow down the form loading issue.

Thanks,

Shwu-Jing

WildlifeMaps

Hi Shwu-Jing,

I am still seeing this error when viewed in Edge and we sees this on several machines at work as well as a few laptops from home (so not just a localized issue with the company's security restrictions). My preference would be for people to use browsers other than IE or Edge but since this is a public reporting form, I don't have control on the browser people are choosing to use.

I am able to narrow this down to two separate lines in the spreadsheet:

The first is just adding a logo/banner to the top of the form (doesn't seem to matter if .gif or .png). When I first released these forms last spring, they all were working fine in Edge:Report wildlife observations | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife

Banner image causing "append"error in Edge broswer

When I remove the logo (actually the entire record in the spreadsheet), I no longer get the error in Edge

The second issue is isolated to a more complicated survey form:https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/a384e90f69744f2e846135a9ce80027f

Because Edge and IE can't use autocomplete to select a species from a dropdown list of 200+ values, I provided an intermediate step where the users can select a species group, which then filters the number of species in the dropdown to a more manageable number that someone can scroll thru. When I pass thru the Append error message, the form loads but with a corrupted, non-functional version of the form. In this situation, it appears that the value in the "choice_filter" field is causing the error (species_group=${SppGrpSel_FormOnly}):

Choice filter causing "append"error in Edge broswer

Shwu-jingJeng

Hi Treg,

I am using IE11.678 and Edge 44.17763 with two links you mentioned but did not encounter the issue when opening the surveys. As the issue is specific to IE/Edge, I'd suggest you to contact our Tech Support and provide the form for the analyst to troubleshoot further. If there is a limitation of what Edge can do, we will have issue recorded and could move on to the issue fix.

WildlifeMaps

Thanks Shwu-Jing, I will send in a ticket and after a solution found, I will provide a response here.

JeffShaw

After seeing that our organization's surveys published recently (sometime after Aug 😎 do not work in Edge on our PCs (we get an Initializing form... TypeError: Function expected message), I tested a new, unmodified survey based on the Basic template and it does not work on my PC in Edge either. But we have Edge 38.14393.2068.0, which was released August 2, 2016. Surveys published long ago do still work in edge though. So the problem seems to be with Survey123 rather than something unique to a form's configuration.

Because Edge is our agency's standard browser, it's a problem. I'll see if i can get our desktop team to push an update, but that could take a LONG time.

JamesTedrick

Hi Jeff,

JeffShaw

Thanks for checking James,

I tested several of the forms with version 44.18362.329.0 / 18.18362 (the latest Edge release) at home, and they all worked. I have not been able to test them with a newer version on a PC at work. I will look into that.

I did some analysis to see how many of our agency's external users use a version of Edge released before version 17 (April of 2018), and it appears be less than 1%. So this seems to be much more of an issue for staff than it is for our public users. It sounds like our Desktop Team would like to upgrade Edge but there are dependencies with Windows that make that difficult. I will be making a case for them to get going on that.

I did notice though that IE now also throws the same Initializing error for some forms.

To resolve this, I will likely need to find an older version of Connect (probably 3.5.164 or earlier) and have form developers install and try to re-publish with that.

WildlifeMaps

Ahh, yes! Thank you James and Jeff for identifying the problem. Most of the agency computers are still on Edge 41.16299.1004.0/EdgeHTML 16.16299 while some test computers (my laptop included) have a major Win10 upgrade that has Edge version 44.17763/18.17763. My laptop loads those forms without issue, while my desktop (on the older version) generates the "append" error. I believe that the agency will be upgrading soon, so the problem should go away for all staff, once this happens.

PeterFerretti

I would like to add to this. Because Survey123 allows for public interaction this is a fairly significant issue. I'm surprised more users have not run into this yet. Or perhaps I am just missing something since there isn't more interest in resolving this? I guess I feel like telling the public to upgrade isn't the way to go. @Esri is there anything else we should try to resolve this? Thank Peter

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