Why does the languge in Survey123 Connect change to match the form?

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09-14-2020 09:02 AM
BenjaminSperry1
Occasional Contributor

Hi,

The tools and menu items in Survey123 connect change to match the language in the form. Why and can I change this.

I develop forms that are used in several countries and languages so I switch between the form languages to make sure everything appears the way it should, however my native language is English and I would like all of the other tools and menus to remain in English regardless of the language the form is showing. Also if I view a form in another language it changes Survey123 connect to that language which will remain even if I close the form or enter into a new form.

It would be better if the working language can be set for the environment as a whole and the language for the forms set within the form. Can this be done?

Thanks

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Shwu-jingJeng
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Benjamin,

No,this is not a bug. As you know, Survey123 is built upon the appstudio framework and both Connect and field app will need to follow the same mechanism with this change we made in 3.7. So what you obserbed is consistent in both Connect and field app. They should follow the same rule and mechanism. We need to keep the consistency to handle the locale change when working on the XLSForm. You should be able to use the langauge option to change the menu easily on the form preview page once you are done with the non-English form previweing and questions design work.

Hope this explanation helps.

Thanks, 

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Shwu-jingJeng
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Benjamin,

The behavior you are seeing is actually by design that we match the form locale and the application locale in Survey123, starting from version 3.7. When you switch the form language, the application will match the language locale, including the application menu, numbers, currency values, and calendar pickers. If you prefer to have English as the default or everytime when you open the survey, you could set the default language to English. That way when you open the survey, English will always display unless you change the form langauge.

Please see our online documentation regarding this issue here:

Manage multiple languages—ArcGIS Survey123 | Documentation 

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BenjaminSperry1
Occasional Contributor

Hi Shwu-jing,

Thank you for the information. Yes, I have many of our forms set to default to Portuguese as many of our users are in Brazil; this makes it so every time I open or refresh the form the whole environment switches to Portuguese and I have to switch it back to English.

What benefit is there to changing the environment with the form, i.e. why was it design this way?

 

Thanks,

Ben

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Shwu-jingJeng
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Benjamin,

As you can see, the form will contain some inputs such as locale related issues like numeric input(comma decimal) and calendar display. We matched the form locale with the application locale to provide users a more consistent application usage experience.

You would expect that most of users in Brazil would like to read the menu such as submitting the form and browsing app's setting in their own language while they use Survey123 field app to fill out the survey. Imagine you are a native speaker of Arabic and can't read English at all, but you would need to fill out the survey form sending from other country which set English as default language. You would expect to be able to use the survey field app in Arabic to set some of the configuration and also be able to read any pop up messages asking you to take the next action. If you can't read "Yes" or "No" button, you won't be able to complete the survey easily if you can't read English at all.

For survey designer, you might find out a bit inconvenient to switch back and forth by toggling the languages but your users will appreciate if they can stay in their own langauge from the begining to the end of the survey filling.

Hope this helps,

Thanks,

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BenjaminSperry1
Occasional Contributor

Hi Shwu-jing,

Yes I see what you are saying. I am not speaking about the field application, I am speaking of the Survey123 Connect application.

The field app honers the locale like it should but Survey123 Connect ignores my system locale and instead matches the form which can changes. Is this a bug?

For example. I am working with a form that in the form view shows Portuguese but I need to change the settings and I see this:

My users will never need to see this, only me, so it should match my locale rather than the form settings which is a separate element.

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Shwu-jingJeng
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Benjamin,

No,this is not a bug. As you know, Survey123 is built upon the appstudio framework and both Connect and field app will need to follow the same mechanism with this change we made in 3.7. So what you obserbed is consistent in both Connect and field app. They should follow the same rule and mechanism. We need to keep the consistency to handle the locale change when working on the XLSForm. You should be able to use the langauge option to change the menu easily on the form preview page once you are done with the non-English form previweing and questions design work.

Hope this explanation helps.

Thanks, 

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BenjaminSperry1
Occasional Contributor

Oh I see, that is regrettable.

Is there any plan to fix this issue so that Survey123 Connect always honors the system locale despite the form preview?

Thanks

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Shwu-jingJeng
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi Benjamin,

The behavior you are seeing now is actually a new design we impleneted in 3.7, so there is no plan to revert it back with any new changes. If you would like a separated setting for Connect only, you may want to consider to log an enhancement request for this based on your workflow's need.

Please contact Esri Support. Our Support team will assign an official enhancement number for your records. Similar requests from other customers can then be attached to the same enhancement request, which helps us assess demand for the enhancement and prioritize it accordingly.

Thanks,

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AnthonyJonesRSK
Occasional Contributor II

Hi Shwu-jing,

Just to follow up on what Benjamin said. If this could be made as an option (to keep system language) it would be much appreciated. I'm having to publish a survey with the default language as Arabic (a language I don't speak) and because all the buttons in Connect change language I'm not even sure what I'm pressing when trying to publish the survey. As Arabic orientates right to left it makes it even more confusing! 

Kind Regards

Anthony

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AnthonyJonesRSK
Occasional Contributor II

Hi Benjamin,

I am finding this behaviour slightly frustrating too. As an English speaker working on a form that needs to be in Arabic too, it makes using Connect a bit baffling when all the Connect menus convert to Arabic when I change the language. Similar to you, I'm not really sure what the benefit of this is as it surely makes sense to honour the system settings. Did you ever log an enhancement request on this?

Kind Regards

Anthony

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