Joining surveys best practices

[PetronilaMandeno]

Hello, I'm having trouble joining surveys and making them available while still retaining all the features from the original surveys (i.e. multiple choice options).

I've tried joining them and creating a feature service *view* and creating a new survey based on that view, but that doesn't allow me to share the new survey with a group in my organization. (I just want them to be able to filter the data and create reports, not add new records or edit the database, but maybe that would be good too.)

Anyway, when I join without creating a feature service view (creating an entirely separate feature service layer), I lose all the back-end stuff like whether the question was a multiple choice question or drop-down. All the fields are just text. Which is fine, but when I create a report, I don't get the option to get those nifty check boxes. Plus, some of the text answers are obscure, like, 10_20_feet when it should show as 10 - 20 feet.

What work flow would you all suggest to maintain the data and functionality of the original surveys?

[JamesTedrick]

Hi Petronila,

Apologies for the delay.  The workflow of creating a view and then creating a form based on the view should work - can you describe what is failing?

[PetronilaMandeno]

Hello James,

Sorry I didn't respond until now. I've successfully been able to join the two databases and create an entirely new feature service, but some stuff gets left behind. Here's what I'm doing :

1. In an online map, I add both databases (one is the request for the evaluation, the other is the matching evaluation)
2. I click on Analysis, then Summarize Data, then Join Features.
3. The Target Layer is the evaluation because it has the geopoint and the picture. The layer to join to the target layer is the request - has the owner's name. I then click on the 'Choose the field to match' option and pick the street address in both. This is a one to one option, so that's all good. I get it a name and uncheck 'Use current map extent' and I leave the 'Create results as hosted feature layer view' unchecked. Then I click on RUN ANALYSIS.
4. After a little bit, my new feature layer is added to the map (yay!).
5. I can then create a new survey using this feature layer from within Survey123 Connect (desktop) - another yay!

Unfortunately, not everything comes across to the new feature service. Most importantly: the pictures from the evaluation and all the domain/list stuff for all the attributes (over 70 attributes!). Is there anyway for all that to be copied over to the new feature service (without me adding it one record or one attribute at a time)?

Thanks,

Esther