Using Survey123 with an existing feature service: compatibility with new survey points

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01-21-2019 09:29 AM
CiaraFleming
New Contributor

I have created a survey form using an existing feature service in ArcGIS  online as outlined in this following blog post (https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2017/09/25/working-with-existing-feature-services-i... )

My data is a point file of all possible survey locations - some have been surveyed already (i.e. pre-Survey 123), and more are remaining to be surveyed with the help of Survey123! I was reading another post which suggested keeping geopoints from pre-existing data sets as read-only. Ideally I would like to enable this feature of the XLS form and keep the locations non-editable for these pre-existing points. Moreover, each point has a unique ID code which I would also like to keep as a read-only field. When read-only is enabled on the XLS form, this works perfectly in the survey form for both fields. However, there are times where a new (unknown) point may be surveyed in the field, and therefore its location needs to be editable by the field surveyor. In my initial testing for collecting new points in the field I found the 'pulldata' expressions useful for collecting good point locations in the field (Geopoints—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS ), and I would like to use this feature for the collection of new (& accurate) data points. 

Most of my survey locations are already known, so it would be very appropriate for my survey to leave the geopoint field as read-only. The only exception is the case of adding new points to the hosted feature service. Does anyone have any suggestions of a workflow which I could implement to get around this?

Thanks in advance!

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2 Replies
BrandonArmstrong
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Ciara,

This would be best accomplished using the read-only expressions introduced with version 3.0.127 of Survey123 Connect.  You can insert a formula into the readonly column which can reference the value from a previous question.  So, for instance, if there was a preceding select one Y/N question that asked " Do you need to collect a new location?" you could then insert the following formula into the readonly column 

selected(${example},'no')

and give it a default value of no.  This would then keep the geopoint question as read only UNLESS 'yes' was selected.

I have attached an example to this thread.

Best,

Brandon

CiaraFleming
New Contributor

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for your help! I did not realise formulas could be inserted into the readonly column. It's a very simple solution that will work perfectly for my survey.

Cheers,

Ciara