Viewing images on the inbox offline on survey123 field App (v 3.17.66)

[JoseBarrios1]

Hello everyone,

Quick question on survey123 attachment!. Does anyone know if is possible to download previously capture images to the inbox and view the photos offline?. I'm using the 'multiline' appearance method. I can see the images on the inbox if I am online but it won't show up offline. I know attachment on inbox was not supported before (using repeat). Do we have the same limitation for 'multiline' appearance?

Thanks for any suggestions!

JB

[ZacharySutherby · Accepted solution]

Hello @JoseBarrios1, 

Unfortunately, at this time viewing attachments in the Inbox is an online only workflow. We have an issue in our backlog to support image attachments in the Inbox while offline in the future. 

[JoseBarrios1]

Thank you Zach!. I knew that it was not supported (from the same question 2 years ago) but I though it was on the priority list.  Looking forward to see that fix on a future release!

Thanks

JB

[ChristopherCounsell]

@ZacharySutherby  can you please provide the enh/bug number for this?

[ZacharySutherby]

Hello @ChristopherCounsell, 

There does not look to be a Tech Support ENH logged for this functionality please feel free to reach out to Tech Support to have an ENH logged and track progress. 

[ChristopherCounsell]

Thanks @ZacharySutherby  have a support ticket open but feel like I should get paid with how much of the Survey123 platform I have to teach them just to lodge a known defect.

Can we prevent photos from being downloaded via a query, similar to repeats and the query parameter?

[ZacharySutherby]

Hello @ChristopherCounsell, 

It is not possible to query specific attachments to return in the Inbox, all attachments with the keyword that matches the image question will be returned. This is an interesting request, may we ask what type of query would you be interested in performing? Something like "Only return the most recent image submitted (or attached)" or "Only return images attached after X date"? 

[ChristopherCounsell]

Thanks @ZacharySutherby for confirming.

To see images against the point, you need to attach them to the point. Attaching to a repeat record = difficult to see the images in a web map pop-up.

So a user may be going to the same site and taking the same category of photos again, and again. The thoughts for stopping seeing them in Survey123 Inbox is:

• They are capturing the same type (keyword) of photo against the existing asset. But we don't want them to see the previous photos as it's not relevant to their workflow.
• It is difficult (idk if even possible) to make requiring an additional photo compulsory as the required question is populated by the existing photos
• Downloading photos = mb of data. If you do have the capability to take photos offline, it'll nuke the device if there are gb's of photos being downloaded.
• They are 'offline' in inbox, but will see photos if device has internet access, making it confusing for them if half the time they see photos and other half they don't > hard to provide a consistent workflow experience
• it may be useful to only show recent photos, i.e. show the last previous photo of the 100, to make sure they are at the same asset, but not all 100 photos as that's overkill

These are the things making my life extremely difficult with Esri at the moment:

• Survey123 can't view photos offline
• Survey123 can't filter photos in the Inbox
• Field Maps lets users DELETE photos if you give the ability to Add them (update capability)
• The above problems are solved using a related table, but then it's not possible for users to see the photos in a web map against the geometry-based asset. Attachments have to be directly related to the asset, not in a nested table.
• Plus the general:
  • Can't download photos in bulk from the UI in ArcGIS Online
  • Bad performance working with exporting/syncing feature services with a number of attachments

These are all critical issues to data collection and the solutions to workaround them are hacks or leave the data exposed in an undesirable way. 

The best method I have come up with is to take all photos out of ArcGIS Online as they are captured and store them externally, but then it's not easily viable to link them back as the photo urls need to be shared publicly and I understand it's a 1-photo to 1-field arrangement, so it's still not possible to store them against the parent geometry in a pop-up.

[MichaelBruening]

This could have the potential to help you show "related" objects within a pop-up while using AGO and the Map Viewer.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-online-blog/show-related-data-or-tables-in-pop-ups-with-arcade/...

[ChristopherCounsell]

Thanks Michael. I know Gee well and am familiar with his work. I don't believe FeatureSets cover this scenario - where photos at attached to the related table.

We've come up with a kind of working solution consisting of geometry, related table with/without geometry, and attachments enabled on the related table. Field Maps offline maps resolves the issue with Survey123 not supporting viewing images offline, but it is more work for the field users. Experience builder gives a not-great but workable view of the related table image galleries tied to each related record. And we resolve issues where enabling update on the parent table would allow users to delete from it. 

Still, it's a bit convoluted to get here, and it's difficult to explain to users all the different limitations working with photos across the platform. Like having to set up a field map and then users having two software apps to download before heading out, just to mitigate a gap in functionality of Survey123.