Republishing Issues I Should be Aware of?

[icf_Eric_Link]

Hello, 

I'm often finding myself questioning what will to the field staff actively using a form if I make some changes to the form and republish while collecting data.  I understand that changing the name of questions and/or adjusting question types/size willl delete data.  What I'm not sure is if I add a new question that matches a field in the related feature service and publish will active users have issues syncing their records that don't reflect the updates made?

Any other issues folks may have come across that would affect users ability to sync when it comes to updating active forms and republishing?

Thanks 

[MobiusSnake]

I always create my form's schema in ArcGIS Pro as a File GDB, publish it as a service, create a view, then attach my survey to that view.  As far as I know, republishing never deletes anything if you do it this way.

[icf_Eric_Link]

Thanks for this tip and workflow.  Never thought of doing it this way.  I'll give a try.  Much appreciated @MobiusSnake!

[TylerGraham2]

The biggest issue I've had is when people don't update their forms and they would keep entering data using an out of date form which would either live in the outbox or show as submitted in the Survey123 App, but not actually push the data to the hosted feature service.  In the form options in Survey123 Connect turning on "Require update to the latest version of this survey" has solved those issues.  

I don't make schema changes to a live feature service that is open for submission, sometimes changes can spiral out of control and result in significant down time. I add a version number at the end of the survey name so if I'm adding or deleting fields or other major changes it makes tracking the changes easier. So if Survey X v1 gets a couple new fields, it becomes Survey X v1_2, it gets tested, and then we switch people over to that. 

[icf_Eric_Link]

Hi Tyler,

This is interesting.  So when you say changing the version number of the form, does that end up creating a new feature service, you test it out and then the team starts collecting and saving to the new service?  Or by changing the version number are you creating a copy of the existing form, adding the updates and the republishing to a new service?  Trying to figure out how the existing data and new data collected with the new survey version tie together.  Thanks for responding with your process as it's very insightful and helpful.

[TylerGraham2]

When I make a new version of a form, I copy the existing .xlsx and make whatever changes I need to the new one, then I publish as a new service. I do this when I am making changes that will modify the feature service (adding/deleting fields) because you will end up with gaps in the data that you need to account for. 

If you're looking to stick with just one feature service, you could also create the initial survey and feature service using Survey123 connect. Then if you need to add new fields, do that in Pro or AGOL, create a new form in Connect using the feature service option, which will link the form to an existing service rather than creating a new service. Copy/paste from the old form xlsx to the new one, add the new fields to the xlsx, and then publish the new survey. Beware that if you delete a field there's no getting the data back if it is a hosted feature service. That is one reason that I prefer to work with new feature services if I'm making changes that are beyond form choices and formatting.  

An example of that workflow would be that the v1 form had a field "Weather" that you realized it needed to be 3 fields, "Cloud Cover", "Precipitation", and "Wind." You would leave "Weather" in the feature service, because deleting it will break the original form beause it can't find the field to send entries to, and add the 3 new fields. Create a new form (v2) using the feature service option, which will give you an xlsx with all the fields, but no survey formatting beyond the basics. Copy/Paste and change what you want, leaving out the "Weather" field, and publish it. It will use the same feature service as the original form. Then when the form is working, delete/unshare the original form, but not the feature service, in AGOL. 

[AnatoliHailemariam]

thanks Tyler, needed this advice!