Remove an entry or item from the dropdown list after it has been picked once..

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15
03-09-2017 09:00 AM
HamidYunus
New Contributor III

I am dealing with a situation that requires me to come up with some way to remove the entries/items from a dropdown list after it has been selected or picked once previously. The reason to do this is so that the person doing the survey does not have that entry available to pick it again (either by mistake or on purpose). For example:

Survey has a drop down list with 3 options: A, B, C

- I arrive at Location 1 and Pick A. 

- I arrive at Location 2; my options now should be B and C only.

- I arrive at Location 3; my option now should be C only.

Has anyone done this before?

In my case, the people using the surveys are not tech savvy at all; I cannot ask them to refresh new copies of surveys every day or every so often. They also will have a propensity of making mistakes when it comes to picking from dropdown list, especially in case where the dropdown list contains items that look very similar.

Looking forward to some guidance in this regard. 

15 Replies
CarmelConnolly3
Occasional Contributor II

Hi Hamid,

Would you be looking for values to be removed across multiple surveys, or just within 1 survey?

I'm not sure that this would be possible across multiple surveys.

Carmel

HamidYunus
New Contributor III

Hi Carmel,

No, I would just want to remove that entry from that user's survey only. 

Thanks,

Hamid

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CarmelConnolly3
Occasional Contributor II

Hi Hamid,

You might be able to do something using Cascading Selects: http://doc.arcgis.com/en/survey123/desktop/create-surveys/xlsformcascadingselects.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_...

...but this might involve having more than one field for Location 2, Location 3 etc.

Carmel

IsmaelChivite
Esri Notable Contributor

Hi Hamid.

 I am attaching an XLSForm with another approach. In the example, an expression is used in the relevant column to warn the field user when a choice has been made twice. An opposite expression could be used in the constraint column to prevent the field user from submitting surveys where a choice has been selected twice.  In terms of actually displaying lists were choices are dropped as they are selected in previous questions, I cannot think of a simple solution that would be easy to maintain.

Ismael

CamilleBeasley
New Contributor III

Can you think of a way to do this in a repeat field? I don't know how to refer back to previous instances of a repeat. I'd like to use a repeat to create a plant species list, and I want to make sure users don't enter the same species twice. Is there a way to set a constraint or warning message to check all previous instances of the repeat? Just to clarify, I can't just use a select_multiple for the plant list because there are additional details for each plant species being collected. A repeat would work best because I don't want to limit the number of plant species that can be recorded.

CraigValentine1
New Contributor II

Camille,

Did you ever find an acceptable solution to this? I also have a situation where I am using a repeat with a select one where I want to remove any options when they have been selected in a previous repeat.

Bekki_HilaryWaskovich_Swain
New Contributor

Just wondering if this was ever addressed by Esri? Is there a place we can vote on it to be developed as a future feature?

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JamesTedrick
Esri Esteemed Contributor

Hi,

You can add this as an idea to https://ideas.arcgis.com - currently I don't believe there's a request for this specific feature.

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IslamSaeed1
New Contributor

Hello James, 

Is this feature has been yet implemented and if not is there a recommended workaround 

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