Issue with Draft, Required Field, Repeat, and Repeat_Count

ErikHerbergMETC · ‎08-31-2021

I'm having issues with repeats when a form is resumed from Drafts. I've seen several posts about issues with Drafts and/or repeats, but didn't see a post with this specific example.

I've created a simple form that has one repeat, the repeat_count is set to 3, and the repeat has one required question. The form works fine when filling in a new form from Collect. However, the issue occurs when the form is saved as a Draft while still on the first repeat, and then resuming later. On resuming, the form will get stuck on the second repeat. Even though I click an answer for the select_one on the second repeat, Survey123 still gives me the Required message warning and I can't progress back to the first repeat or on to the third repeat.

My steps to trigger this: Start a new form from Collect, immediately save as Draft, open it from Draft, try to answer the question and advance to the next repeat. It works fine of the first repeat, but gets stuck for me on the second repeat.

Do I have something wrong? Is this a bug? Is there a workaround?

Thanks for any help! XLSForm is attached. I'm using Windows - Connect version 3.12.230 and Field App version 3.12.277.

Anonymous User · ‎11-24-2021

Hi @ErikHerbergMETC, @DougBrowning,

Keep an eye out on the Early Adopter Community for updates to the 3.14 beta builds coming soon (hopefully next week!). We have done significant work to the calculation and expression engine used in Survey123. Some new calculationModes are coming, and many issues reported with repeats and loading existing data have been resolved. It will be worth testing once available to see if these updates helps with the issues reported above.

Regards,

Phil.

ErikHerbergMETC · ‎12-13-2021

Thanks @Anonymous User . Great news that there is progress on calculations and repeats! Unfortunately it looks like the specific issue in this thread about resuming from Draft with a repeat_count is one of the listed known limitations on beta 3.14. I'll leave a comment in the Early Adopters forum soon with some more details on tests with my forms.

@Antonio_MarcosPires_Martins , it looks like @DougBrowning already answered your question. I used his workaround in my own forms. Attached is a very simplified XLSForm showing how I implemented it.

Anonymous User · ‎12-13-2021

Hi @ErikHerbergMETC. Yes i believe the issue you are having is one of the current known issues we are still working through with the beta builds. I believe @JamesTedrick already replied to you on EAC.

Phil.

ErikHerbergMETC · ‎02-28-2022

@Anonymous User Was the issue with repeat_count and resuming from a Draft recently resolved? I was finally sitting down to apply a work-around before our field monitoring season starts next month, and our form with a set repeat_count now works when resumed from Draft! The example XLSform survey I attached at the start of this thread works now too.

I see that the BUG-000127011 mentioned in this thread was marked as resolved in the Feb 2022 What's New in Survey123 although there it's described as a different issue, as I'm reading it -

BUG-000127011 When using the Survey123 for ArcGIS field app, an image attachment disappears when the survey is edited from Outbox having a 'repeat' set with image question

So I guess I'm asking - Is the issue I was seeing with Draft and repeat_count officially fixed? Or was this more of an unintentional side effect from other fixes, and I shouldn't count on it still working in upcoming releases?

Cautiously optimistic!

-Erik

Anonymous User · ‎02-28-2022

Hi @ErikHerbergMETC,

Yes, the issue you originally reported has been fixed in the 3.14 release (you can count on it). Whilst there were several official bugs fixed and resolved for 3.14, there were also many other fixes to repeats, nested repeats, saving to drafts, repeat counts and general expression and calculation improvements. All of these have resulted in a lot of issues users previously reported now being resolved.

There are one or two remaining issues which still require further work, but these are specific related to using repeat count and relevant expressions on nested repeats.

Regards,

Phil.