Setting Default Language for Survey

[MichaelGilbrook2]

How do I set the default language? My survey has 3 languages (English, Spanish and Creole) and it defaults to Creole rather than English. I changed the order of the languages in the XLSForm but that didn't work. This isn't a huge problem in the Survey123 app, the language can be switched easily, but it is also storing the results in ArcGIS Online in Creole which makes things confusing for the English-speaking team reviewing the data.

[MichaelGilbrook2]

Never mind, did some additional searching and found that you can set default_language on the Settings tab in the XLSForm. Trying that now...

[MichaelGilbrook2]

OK, this is still a problem. The default_language setting will make English the default language on the Survey123 app, but I am still getting Creole language field aliases and response data in the feature service table in ArcGIS Online. Anybody have a solution?

[IsmaelChivite]

Hi Michael,

I do not quite understand how the text in your label columns could in any way get stored as responses in your feature service. May be I did not understand your question correctly. In any event, I will try to explain how things are supposed to work:

- You use the label columns to define the text as it will appear in the form to the end-user. The labels apply to the questions, as well as the choices in pick lists. Labels do not define what will get stored (the responses), but rather how questions and choices will be presented to the user.

- The responses, which will get persisted in your feature service come strictly from user input. For example, if the user types a response in Spanish, that exact text will be stored in your feature service. In the case of choices (select one), you will ultimately define what gets stored through the name column in the choices worksheet.  It really does not matter what language is used to display the choices... the value in the name column is what will ultimately get stored.

And now that I write this and think about it... I think I know where you are going...

If what you mean is that the domains in your feature service are persisting the descriptions in Creole, then we can find an explanation:

- Geodatabase domains only support one language, which means that Connect will need to pick a default language in your Form and use it to set the description of your coded value domains. Just to be clear, the coded values should always come from the name column in your worksheet, not from the label.   In your particular survey, all of your label columns are qualified with a language descriptor. For example, you have label::Spanish, label::creole, label::English. If you would like to force a default language in the geodatabase domain for English, then remove the qualifier in label::English and leave it as simply label.  In this manner you will ensure Survey123 Connect picks your English strings for the domain.  This will have a negative effect in the end-user experience in that the language drop-down in the app will now say 'default' as opposed to 'English'. 

And after a second paragraph... it seems like we are closer to the root problem...

This begs the question: why the default language in my settings worksheet is not used to set the descriptions in my domains? And that is a great question... on which we need to do some research.

It took me a while. Sorry about the long read but I hope it can help find some logic to all of this.

[MichaelGilbrook2]

Isamael, thanks for responding back on a holiday!

My problem is as you described it in your 4th paragraph, "the domains in your feature service are persisting the descriptions in Creole."  I tried the fix you suggested (i.e., removing the "English" label from the column header for the English text so that those values will be used as the default in creating feature service domains and field name aliases). But it didn't work, it still shows the Creole field name aliases and the Creole domains in ArcGIS Online (see attached screenshot).

I thought the problem might be that some of the json files in the \debug folder were not being updated or replaced when I revised the XLSForm, so I renamed the original \debug to \debug_old. The Survey123 app created a new \debug folder and files when I published to ArcGIS Online, but the Creole language problem persisted. I will attach my entire JMH_Parking folder so that you can see the current version of the XLSForm and the other supporting files. I have also shared my JMH_Parking survey to my Esri Tech Support group so that you can see it.

Fortunately, this issue does not affect the actual geodatabase field names and data values specified under the "name" columns. Even though the data shows as Creole in ArcGIS Online, the actual survey data fields and values are all in English when exported to CSV for use in Excel. But this language problem really destroys our ability to allow users to explore the survey results in ArcGIS Online, so I would still like to find a solution.

Michael

[HannahFerrier]

Michael,

We have raised this issue with our development team. Unfortunately, there is no reliable way to set the language used for field aliases or coded value domain names when there are multiple languages used in your survey.

I forced the default language in the form xml, but even that did not seem to impact the language used when creating the feature service.

I have been able to change the language used by editing the names in the label field columns and republishing the survey - but I can't control which language is used.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful,

- Hannah

[MichaelGilbrook2]

Thanks, Hannah. The multi-language option is a neat feature of Survey123,  but it isn't very useful if we cannot control which of the languages is used in the feature service. I suggest that Esri change the XLSForm documentation to indicate that multiple languages are not supported until such time as a fix is found for controlling which language populates the feature service in ArcGIS Online. I think most users would rather have a survey in a single language that works reliably, than a multi-language survey whose content they cannot control.

Happy holidays!

Michael

[AurelieShapiro]

wait what? Is this still the case? I just spent days making an english survey in Khmer, and the Aliases and coded entries are all in foreign Khmer...characters not recognized by all. The column names in my schema are all english. Are you saying there is still NO way to have a default alias and coded entries in English, with the survey labels in another language? What's the point of multiple language support and providing the survey123 example if it doesn't work...

[Nicole_Ueberschär]

Sorry for the worries Aurelie, this issue is long outdated.