Hide labels on survey from public viewing

[JenniferJ]

Hi, I'm new here and trying to learn about Survey123's capabilities through the online format. Is it possible to hide a label from the public who are taking the survey, but for it to remain attached to the question so when results are exported to Excel, the label is visible? This is something we've been able to do in FormBuilder123, but wanted to make the switch to Survey123 if possible.

[DavidPike]

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/browser/create-surveys/webdesigneressentials.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_2...

[abureaux]

What is the "label"? Is it a calculated question? Is it just a note?

[JenniferJ]

We work with agricultural data. In the survey, we want to ask our clients a question, like "What tillage implement was used on the field in 2024?". However, when we export the responses to Excel, we need the column to be labeled "tillage_application" so the data is compatible with a data platform we use. In FormBuilder123, you can attach a hidden label to the question so the person taking the survey wouldn't see the label "tillage_application", but it would appear in our Excel sheet when we download it. I'm wondering if the same thing is easily achievable in the online version of Survey123.

[abureaux · Accepted solution]

Gottcha.

Web Builder is feature lite. Using Connect may be the way to go as you can specify a "hidden name" for every question. In Connect, you need to specify a "name" for each question. That "name" is a hidden value (no spaces, no repeats, no special characters, no capitals*) which is the "true column reference". You also specify a "label" which is what the end user sees. The "label" can be anything.

Another approach to consider is how you are extracting data from AGO/Portal. If you use an automation software, you could specify anything for the column titles. This may be a little beyond scope though.

And as @DavidPike already referenced, you can hide questions in the Web Builder. This should work if you add a calculated question with the name "tillage_application", and make its value equal to the user input field with the pretty label. In this case, you would just ignore the column with the pretty label.

* Technically, this only applies if you are publishing to Enterprise from Connect. If you use AGO, this limitation doesn't exist. Also, if you publish to Enterprise from ArcPro first, and then connect to that layer with Connect, that limitation is ignored. It's a little silly with the capitals.