How do I get "note" type data to upload with the rest of the survey?

Question

I have a paper form that I have created a Survey123 form for and am exporting from ArcGIS Online to the word version of the paper form to use as a deliverable. So, one of the questions is Employee name with a follow-up question of Employee Classification. I created a list of employee names as a pick list then used a "note" type with a relevant  calculation to report the classification based on the selected employee name. This worked great, but I just noticed that when I upload the survey, the notes do not upload with the rest of the data. How do I get the note data (employee classification) to upload with the survey?

Jim Moore · Answer

Hi Bryan

Only a question's value is stored in the feature service, not its label. A named note question is essentially a read-only text question designed to display information to the user; it cannot take user input, so the only value it can store is a calculation or a default. You could put the classification in the default column so that its stored in the feature service; or calculate (and store) it in a hidden question using a nested IF statement then reference this field in the note's label.

Another option would be to use the pulldata() function with a CSV file of employee names and classifications. User selects the employee name, then the pulldata function looks up the corresponding classification from the CSV and stores it in a text or hidden question. Then optionally display this classification in a note. See more on pulldata here:

https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2016/10/27/the-pulldata-function-access-external-data

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/desktop/create-surveys/xlsformformulas.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_A3C2F3566F974734B55ECECD31C6CA91

Regarding repeats in a Word document, the feature reports functionality on the Survey123 website supports repeats. Heaps of great info on this here:

https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2019/07/23/understanding-survey123-feature-reports

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/browser/analyze-results/featurereporttemplates.htm

Cheers,

Jim

BRYANHERRON · Answer

Jim & Sun, thank you both for shedding a little light on this. I haven't read the link Jim sent yet, but will after adding a little detail to the situation.

Here's the details. I have a list of 17 Employee Names. Each employee has a classification (Corrosion Tech 1-4, a couple engineers, etc.) So I use the  select_one or_other allowing for the option to add a name that's not on the list. I am also exporting these reports to  a word document form, so I can't use repeats. So with the or_other I had to add the Collated field in line 133 to capture the answer to the question for the form. Then, for each Employee name,  I have a note with e relevant calculation and if the relevance is satisfied the note with the appropriate classifications appears in in the Survey123 app,  for each name including the or_other option which I default to Tech-1, but the Classification does not does not upload to with the survey. There's a column for each Classification, but no data entered.

I think I'll Collate the classification answer to see if that will upload.

Jim Moore · Answer

Hi Bryan & Sun

This documentation might be of use, in particular the Notes in the feature service section:

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/desktop/create-surveys/xlsformnotes.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_B2D6F75A3A5349D39DE269007686A0BC

Essentially, if a note has a name, a string field will be created to store the note in the feature service (unless it has a fieldType of null, as Sun points out). Note questions without names do not get stored in the feature service.

Best,

Jim