How to stop Survey123 to attempt to get user location? And how to use predetermined XY on a survey?

[Gustavo_Souza]

For almost two years, we managed to create a map where the user clicks on a point, which opens a Survey123 form. The geopoint was set to read-only, and the URL had the center on XY coordinates (&center={Point_Y},{Point_X}). It worked flawlessly.

Until recently this system became unreliable. Not only new surveys do not work, but older ones are having the issues. They often try to get to the user's location. Or just center somewhere near Los Angeles. Or in Null Island. In different computers and web browsers. 

I figured out that the "&center=" URL thing is not reliable anymore to add points on that location (despite always working that way). So I read a bit about the calculations for geopoints, but it still does not work. 

Even by typing a coordinate on the default collum, for the geopoint field on the .xlsx form, (such as "48.858328 2.294513") , I get the message on the survey with no point selected:

- Can not find your location. Please check your browser to ensure that your location is shared

On top of that, there point And if I allow the location, then it points to my house.

I have then two questions:

1. How can I ensure that the survey 123 will never attempt to overwrite the pre-defined values with the user location? Disabling the web browser permission is not a good option because many people use it, and its unrealistic to expect that everyone does it (and again, even when disabling, sometimes we get the error message).
2. Even when writing a coordinate on the default value for the geopoint, the survey still does not ready it, sends me to LA. (and if I try to submit, it will go to 0,0). I tried using calculation too, but even if the simplest test does not work, I wonder what I am doing wrong.

Thanks for your help!

[AW_Grove]

Thank you for this solution @IsmaelChivite . Is there any way that ESRI can give us a heads up of significant changes like this through a blog post before or right after updates? Luckily we were able to resolve this thanks to your help on a non-critical workflow but it could have been a big deal otherwise. 

[ZhifangWang]

Hi @ahargreaves_FW ,

If the user has not clicked the locate button (below the home icon) manually, the warning message in your screenshot shows up because the geopoint question is designed to get the device location on loading the survey and it failed to get the device location (can be caused by various reasons).

You can disable this behavior by setting the default value of the geopoint question to null, just like the screenshot in Ismael's reply and still use the "&center=<lat>,<long>" to set the location dynamically. Please find more information in this document https://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/desktop/create-surveys/geopoints.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_6B32C981BC5E4... .

[ahargreaves_FW]

@ZhifangWang  thank you so much!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

[JessicaJThompson]

Hello All,

I have been troubleshooting for a few days why a custom URL that works perfectly with surveys created in August with the Geopoint question using &center={POINT_Y},{POINT_X} is currently not working on a new survey (Created in Survey123 Connect 3.14.274). Same &center={POINT_Y},{POINT_X} is still working in the other surveys. Will the functionality stop if an edit is made to these surveys and I have to republish in this new version of connect? Note, the other fields specified in the same URL are being brought into the survey successfully. 

I worked with an ESRI technician not more than a few months ago to ensure my URLs would work across all of the types of devices people have. This is the 5th time I have had to rework URLs (Currently managing  25+ surveys and web apps). 

I am also getting the Location Inaccessible notification. This never came up previously. Previous surveys do not have a default value at null. I now have set the default to null as explained above. I am still getting the notification. They are also set to required and read only as specified in documentation. And on top of the notification, I am still not having the geopoint question work.

Help solving this will make my week so much better!

Thank you @Gustavo_Souza for asking the question, and  @IsmaelChivite  & @DougBrowning for working through these issues. 

Cheers,

Jessica Thompson

[DarcyGray1]

I'm having the same issue as @ahargreaves_FW

I would really like my survey participants to be able to select a point from the map that has nothing to do with their current location. 

[DougBrowning]

Setting the default to 0,0 has worked ok for me.

[JoshEllis]

I believe the key is setting the default value of the geopoint to null.

[BrianRigwald]

Neither null nor 0,0 stop the survey from trying to get the person's location. 😔

When loading the survey, an overlay appears on the map saying "Tip: This question will try to use your location.  Press to continue."

[ZhifangWang]

Hi @BrianRigwald ,

There is an additional "press-to-locate" value set in the appearance column for the geopoint question, this means "ask the device location when user answers this question". Leave the appearance column empty and set the default column as "null" will work: the device location is only asked when user clicks the locate button.

[BrianRigwald]

@ZhifanWang

Thanks!  That did the trick!  Now my 8th Graders will be able to put the places they have visited on a classroom map, without having to submit the survey multiple times.  🙂