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Updating survey123 package (xls form and all) to newest version while retaining original feature service

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02-22-2024 04:34 PM
EleanorDhuyvetter
Occasional Contributor

Around 4 years ago my team and I created a survey with connect, where the resulting feature service is in use operationally today. I needed to go in and make a simple edit to an alias of one of the choices recently. Survey123 connect has probably gone through many version updates in the past few years, and I had to download the most recent version to do this update. 

I downloaded my package in this new survey123 version, opened the xls (attached) to make the edit. Saved and it updated great in the connect app. When I went to publish I ran into many flags saying I would make duplicates of a certain type of question. So I back tracked and learned I could updated my package to be compatible with the newest version of connect. I clicked that and it did some magic behind the scenes. I could not find any differences in the xls form after doing the update. 

So now, I go to publish and I have many warnings that I want to resolve. The first is 21 alias names will change (even though the form is the same), and the second (which is worse) says that there are 136 choices not found in the feature service with a few stars highlighting random choices that warns this action will result in duplicate domain labels. 

So here is my question, I am guessing I will have to update this xls form with the newest version's syntax and even question types. However, is there a way I can guarantee that the associated feature service will not be corrupted? This survey and FS is used daily, and there are downstream applications which use the data. I would really enjoy honoring the existing FS as much as possible. 

I hope I am totally off with something, as maybe there is a better fix out there. Any help or suggestions are appreciated! Thank you! 

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ChristopherCounsell
MVP Regular Contributor

Newer versions of Survey123 Connect will tell you if they will modify the service. That's what it's doing now and you can definitely make some changes to prevent it from updating your survey.

In this case it's saying your choice list in the existing Hosted Feature Layer fields doesn't match the choice list name/label in the survey XLSForm. To avoid issues, it'll add the choices to the Hosted Feature Layer.

You can fix this by:

  • Letting the survey add the values on publish; OR
  • Updating the hosted feature layer field choice lists to match the XLSForm; OR
  • Updating the XLSForm to match the values that current exist in the Hosted Feature layer fields.

If you don't want to impact the existing layer, go with option 3.

You should also:

I wouldn't worry about the Field Alias (question labels). Just the choice names/labels.

Back up the .xlsx file (and data, just good to have a backup). 

If you're really worried you could also create a new survey targeting the existing service. You'll have to update the form but these services can't make changes to the original hosted feature layer. 

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ChristopherCounsell
MVP Regular Contributor

Newer versions of Survey123 Connect will tell you if they will modify the service. That's what it's doing now and you can definitely make some changes to prevent it from updating your survey.

In this case it's saying your choice list in the existing Hosted Feature Layer fields doesn't match the choice list name/label in the survey XLSForm. To avoid issues, it'll add the choices to the Hosted Feature Layer.

You can fix this by:

  • Letting the survey add the values on publish; OR
  • Updating the hosted feature layer field choice lists to match the XLSForm; OR
  • Updating the XLSForm to match the values that current exist in the Hosted Feature layer fields.

If you don't want to impact the existing layer, go with option 3.

You should also:

I wouldn't worry about the Field Alias (question labels). Just the choice names/labels.

Back up the .xlsx file (and data, just good to have a backup). 

If you're really worried you could also create a new survey targeting the existing service. You'll have to update the form but these services can't make changes to the original hosted feature layer.