"Minimal" appearance for repeats not being respected in web forms when dynamic grid widths are set

[Vinzafy]

Hey all,

Posting this as I'm wondering if I'm either formatting my survey wrong, or if this is a known bug/limitation for WebForms.

Issue

I have surveys that were designed to work both on the S123 app and on WebForms. A do realize that dynamic-grid styles and corresponding widths don't transfer over to WebForms, however it seems that having a width set for a repeat breaks the minimal appearance.

As seen below (screenshot and XLSForm excerpts), I have two repeats. The top repeat, "Sponsor Details" behaves as expected when minimal appearance is used (i.e., a blank record is not added by default).

The bottom repeat however also has a minimal appearance, but is set to "w4 minimal" for dynamic-grid formatting. As seen in the WebForm, the minimal appearance isn't respected and a blank record is created.

Note that the minimal appearance works in the Survey123 app in both scenarios. It's the WebForm version that does not respect minimal appearance when prepended with width tags.

Repeat section for Sponsor Details - minimal appearance works in both the Survey123 app and the WebForm

type	name	label	appearance
begin repeat	RTA_AGO_v2_sponsors	Sponsor Details	minimal
text	rta_sponsor	Sponsor Name	predictivetext
select_multiple sponsor_type	rta_sponsor_type	Sponsor Type	horizontal
text	rta_sponsor_type_other	Sponsor Type (Other)	predictivetext
text	rta_sponsor_notes	Notes	multiline predictivetext
image	rta_sponsor_photos	Photos	multiline
select_one status	rta_sponsor_status	Sponsor Data Status	hidden
end repeat

Repeat section for Observer Details - minimal appearance works in Survey123 app but NOT in the WebForm

type	name	label	appearance
begin repeat	RTA_AGO_v2_observers	Observer Details	w4 minimal
text	rta_obs_name	Observer Name	w4 predictivetext
text	rta_obs_company	Observer Company	w4 predictivetext
select_multiple attendance	rta_obs_days_attended	Days Attended?	w4 horizontal
text	rta_obs_notes	Notes	w4 multiline predictivetext
image	rta_obs_photos	Photos	multiline
select_one status	rta_obs_status	Observer Data Status	hidden
end repeat

Question

Is it expected that "minimal" functionality for repeats doesn't work in WebForms when prepended with dynamic-grid width tags?

Note that I did see this thread with a similar issue. Draft mode is not enabled for this survey.

Thankfully in my case, I can go without the width tags for those repeats as it doesn't ruin the formatting, but it'd be great to know if this is a current limitation with web forms.

Thanks in advance!

[ChristopherCounsell · Accepted solution]

Dynamic grid isn't supported in the web app, so it's not surprising you see issues with other appearance parameters are combined with it. If the appears is 'w4 minimal' and the web app doesn't know how to handle w4, I can see it having a hard time handling the full cell string.

If you plan on using this in the survey123 web app I would recommend not using unsupported functionality where possible. Design it so you know it'll work robustly in both.

[Vinzafy]

That makes sense and I had a feeling that would be the case. I guess the hope would be that the unsupported width tags would be ignored in the WebForms while the remainder of the appearance cell would be respected, however "w4 minimal" and "minimal" and completely unique values so it makes sense.

Thankfully in my case, surveys are to be completed in the app the majority of the time and discrepancies between the app and WebForms like the above are mainly aesthetic. Great things to know for the future though.

Thanks again for your response and hope you had a great weekend!