Repeated site visit use case for Survey123

[EmilyResseger]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the following using Survey123:

We have a feature class published as a web service of river and stream monitoring locations we visit on a regular basis. Staff go out to these sites and collect metadata about the visit, field data (pH, temperature, conductivity), and water samples. I'd like to turn their current paper field sheet into a simple web form which is easy to do in Survey123. However I'd like staff to assign the form instance to an existing monitoring location, and we have hundreds of defined locations, so selecting from an alphabetized dropdown is unwieldy. Ideally there would be a dropdown of sites that could be sorted by distance from where the individual is based on gps coordinates. Alternately staff could select the site from a map first which then links to the form.  Other than identifying and assigning the form to the correct monitoring location, we have no need to collect spatial data.

We currently have a pilot of this app using Collector, but I find Survey123 easier for us to work with. Is there a way to handle the above workflow using only Survey123, or would I need to embed Survey123 forms into Collector (or other map based app) using the custom url scheme?  Trying to keep this entire workflow as simple as possible.

I plan to create a new web service for this survey, not build onto any existing feature service. I just want the survey to be able to reference the existing feature service that stores locations of our existing sites. We do not plan to collect any new sites with this app.

Thank you!

[IsmaelChivite]

Hi.  I wanted to share a couple of options I see:

1. You could configure the Inbox in your survey, so users can use the map included  in the Inbox to center the map at their location and select the appropriate  monitoring location.
2. You can use a map in Explorer for ArcGIS or Explorer for ArcGIS to help people trigger the form from a map. Using Survey123' custom URL scheme you can launch Survey123, load a form and pre-populate the form with the unique identifier of the station you are working on.

In option #1:

• You can use the Inbox query to limit the number of monitoring stations that the end user will see. This  will simplify data collection.
• You can decide if people in the field will be able to see previous readings or not.
• More details here: Prepare for editing existing survey data—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS 

In option #2:

• Ideally you will want to create a survey that is pointing to your related table with the monitoring location measurements. That is: your map will contain the monitoring locations layer, and the survey will only contain the measurements.
• More details here: https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2016/07/30/understanding-survey123s-custom-url-sche... 
• And here: Use Survey123 with existing feature services—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS 

In either case above, you will most likely want to build a feature service that includes a layer for your monitoring locations and a separate standalone table  (or layer) for your measurements. The layer and the table will be connected through a 1:M relationship.

[EmilyResseger]

Thank you for these suggestions which are helpful. I implemented a test of Option 2 pretty easily through ArcGIS online on my computer, but wasn't able to get it to work using Explorer on my Android, I think because Explorer really isn't supported on Android. Given that we are looking for a solution that is flexible and device independent, I'm not sure this will work unless you have a better idea for easily launching ArcGIS maps on a phone.

I will explore Option 1 some more, it looks like with related records and repeats that might be a good solution.

Thanks again!