Survey123 and Collector Integration for offline field application

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10-23-2018 08:26 PM
Yuhash
by
Occasional Contributor

***UPDATE January 24, 2019 ***

v3.3 BETA version just released has support for Polylines and Polygons so there is no need to integrate the two to capture these geometry types!

  •   List of discussion threads, blog posts, idea suggestions regarding Survey123-Collector integration:

Launch Collector from Survey123 and pass attributes

Integrate with other apps

Open Survey123 from Collector

Survey 123 and Collector for Arc GIS

Open Survey123 from a field in Collector

Integrate with other apps

 

I, like many others documented in the list above, would like to leverage the smart form functionality of Survey123 with the map-centric user interface of Collector. The xlsform question types geotrace (lines) and geoshape (polygons) have not yet been implemented in Survey123 (although presumably planned and a very popular idea) and continues to be limited to geopoint (point features), so until then...

From what I gather, one recommended approach to enable the desired functionality is to work with existing feature services.

QUESTION: But before I go too far down a rabbit hole can folks comment or provide guidance on my planned approach and answer some questions?

Field app project description:

My survey is for an Infrastructure Inventory of Protected Areas to capture point features such as signage and more complex infrastructure features such as pathways, bridges (lines) and parking lots (polygons). I currently have a Survey123 template and feature layer for points and would like to extend the complex form-centric functionality (nested repeats) to the collection of lines and polygons.

Current workflow:

  1. In Survey123, start the survey by capturing the survey attributes e.g. “protected_area_id”, “observerID”, etc. (Parent table to child-feature layers)
  2. Ask user to identify the feature they want to collect by geometry type: “point”, “line” or “polygon” (‘feature collection’ repeat under ‘Survey”)
  3. If “point”, the user collects attributes and attachments (through a series of cascading selects), before being finally presented with a geopoint field to record the point location.

Not yet implemented (but desired):

  1.    If “line” (or “polygon”) is selected, the user captures tabular attributes just as they do with a point feature, but upon  being asked to record the spatial information:
  2. Launch Collector to open and digitize the line (or polygon) feature layer passing a survey GlobalID so that the feature collection can be associated with the survey by a join
  3. After digitizing the feature, return to the Survey123 form to collect more features.

QUESTIONS

  1. Is my planned approach reasonable? The usual approach is to launch Survey123 from Collector but I need to capture survey attributes that would be common to each feature and not require the user to enter the same data repeatedly.
  2. Is the desired functionality as outlined in #2 possible?
  3. If yes, can someone provide references or guidance as to next steps?
  4. Will the functionality of #2 work offline?

 

Any comments and guidance will be hugely appreciated! Thank you in advance.

Yuriko

***UPDATE*** I've implemented the collection of multiple vertices for lines and polygons, and will be submitting an ESRI support request regarding the Collector integration with Survey123. If you're interested in the follow up and would like me to report back what I've learned, please let me know.

6 Replies
DavinLaine1
New Contributor

Hello Yuriko, I would like to know your method for integration of offline survey123 and collector, lines and polylines.

Dixie_MDavis
Occasional Contributor

Hi, Yuriko.  We are currently implementing a similar workflow using Survey123 and Collector.  Would love to know how successful you have been so far and if you learned any helpful hints with ESRI.  Thanks in advance, Dixie.

Yuhash
by
Occasional Contributor

My initial planned workflow was to collect all of the attribute information in a Survey123 form and then launch Collector to collect line and polygon geometry as this followed a logical workflow (first capturing general survey area and observer details, then attribute details, and finally the geometry bouncing from Survey123, to Collector, and then back again), however, because each Survey123 form has only one submission URL it isn't possible to automatically link the one survey form to multiple feature layers (lines and polygons). Rather, ESRI support recommended the workflow start in a Collector map with the line and polygon features and then use the custom URL to launch the Survey123 form and pass a primary key to then collect the attribute features.

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Dixie_MDavis
Occasional Contributor

Thanks so much for sharing, Yuriko.

We have just begun our testing and are starting from a Survey123 form and then launching Collector to collect polygons which are related to the form features created via a relationship class.  Attributes for the polygons are collected via Collector as they are fairly simple.  Most of the data we need to collect can be associated with a point.  If we do have any issues with our current workflow direction, we may need to change our workflow order.   Thanks, again.  

DerekLaw
Esri Esteemed Contributor

FYI, this blog by GeoMarvel shows you how to integrate Collector with Survey123,

Collector Integration with Survey123 | GeoMarvel 

Hope this helps,

ArnaudBrival
New Contributor II

Hello Yuriko, 

Very inetersting post ! This is exactly the workflow I'm trying to implement:  Use the Collector live stream functionality to Capture a polyline and populate a georeference question in a survey123form.. 

Could you please share more details on how you have done this?  
Thank you so much in advance

Arno

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