ArcGIS Workforce Blog - Page 2

Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts that will teach you how to automate key workflows for Workforce for ArcGIS.

The Workforce module within ArcGIS API for Python makes managing Workforce projects a simple and efficient task. We are constantly creating new scripts that simplify app-based workflows into just a few lines of code.

Whether you are setting up your first Workforce project, cleaning out a project with hundreds of old assignments, or trying to find new ways to improve your organization’s efficiency – the Python API will be a powerful addition to your geospatial arsenal.

This first blog is a step-by-step tutorial that will teach you how to configure a Workforce project and create assignments.

Overview

• Getting started
• Scenario
• Download Workforce Scripts
• Install ArcGIS API for Python
• Import workers from a CSV file
• Add assignment types
• Create assignments based on an existing feature layer
• Assign work based on location
• Additional resources 

Getting started

If you would like to complete each task alongside this exercise, first do the following: 

• Review the requirements for installing ArcGIS API for Python
• Download the attached Jupyter Notebook - tree_inspections.ipynb
• Download the attached CSV file - tree_inspectors.csv 
• Create a blank Workforce project 

Note: If you don't have an ArcGIS account, you can sign up for a free trial. 

Scenario

In this scenario, the city of Atlanta has identified 24 trees that are at risk of falling. These trees are in heavily developed areas, so it’s crucial that they be professionally inspected. The city has hired a tree risk assessment company to perform these inspections.  

You will use ArcGIS API for Python to configure a Workforce project for the company. You will import the company’s workers, create assignments based on a feature layer containing the trees, and assign inspections to workers based on the zone that each worker oversees.

Download Workforce scripts

First, clone or download the workforce-scripts GitHub repository This contains the Python scripts for Workforce as well as the version of the Python API needed to automate Workforce projects. Once it's downloaded, navigate to the “workforce-scripts” folder in either the terminal or the command prompt. A Windows operating system is used for this example. 

cd C:\Users\user\Desktop\workforce-scripts

Install ArcGIS API for Python

Run the following command in either a Python script or Python console to create the virtual environment with the correct dependencies and to install ArcGIS API for Python 1.8.3: 

conda env create --file environment.yml

Note: To automate Workforce projects, you must use ArcGIS API for Python 1.8.3 or later.

Next, activate the environment:

conda activate workforce-scripts

Once you've created and activated the environment, you are ready to use the Workforce scripts. 

Import workers from a CSV

The import_workers Python script allows you to import workers directly from a CSV file. This script is especially useful for importing a large number of workers into a project. Rather than input your workers one by one in the Workforce app, you can run this single line of code instead.

We will use the import_workers script to import a CSV file of tree inspectors into this scenario's Workforce project. This is the CSV file that you downloaded earlier:

There are 5 tree inspectors that will be imported into the project. Their name, working status, title, contact number, and user ID will all be passed through the script.

Open this file and edit the name and userID columns with the information of at least four workers within your organization. Save your changes.

Note: This script has many options allowing the user to specify the names of each column within the CSV. Check out the import_workers readme for more information.

In the terminal or command prompt, run the import workers script:

python import_workers.py -u <username> -p <password> -org https://<org>.maps.arcgis.com -name-field name -status-field status -user-id-field userId -log-file log.txt -csv-file ../sample_data/tree_inspectors.csv -project-id <project id> -title-field title -contact-number-field contactNumber

Make sure you update the following fields with your own information:

• Username and password
• Organization
• CSV file
• Project ID (from the blank project you created) 

Note: If you are working with a Classic project (a v1 project), the Project ID is the item ID of the project item. If you are working with projects enabled for offline use (a v2 project), the Project ID is the item ID of the Workforce feature service. Regardless of what version you are working with, the Project ID can be found in the URL of your project. 

• For example, if the project URL is:  https://workforce.arcgis.com/projects/a0f297f949f549f0ade07eer562d9934/configure/overview 
• The project-id is: a0f297f949f549f0ade07eer562d9934 

Once this script has been run, check that your tree inspectors have been successfully added to your project (shown below). 

Add assignment types 

Note: We will be using Jupyter notebooks to complete the remaining tasks within this workflow. Notebooks are useful for visualizing data and running code step by step. Either open a blank Jupyter Notebook or follow along with the notebook you downloaded earlier.

First, import the ArcGIS API for Python library. 

Next, connect to your GIS and fetch the project using its feature service item ID or project ID. 

Once this set-up is complete, you can start performing tasks specific to your project. You’ll first want to add assignment types to the project that are relevant to tree inspections.

After you run this code, you can check that the assignment types have been successfully added to the project (shown below).

Create assignments based on an existing feature layer

The city of Atlanta has provided a feature layer containing the trees that are at risk of falling. Using the Python API, you can create an inspection assignment for each feature within this layer.

First, import the datetime library. Datetime allows us to pass the current time into the assigned date field.

Then you can fetch the layer containing the trees, query it, and display it on a map.

Workforce stores assignments in the WGS84 Web Mercator projected coordinate system, so let’s ensure that the returned geometries are using this spatial reference.

Here is the item ID for the trees feature layer: 88495d3b613a41f4a70b9d61ef979b34

The Atlanta Trees layer is displayed. 

Now you will create 24 “Inspect tree” assignments: one for each tree. You will loop through the trees feature layer to batch add assignments using the “Inspect tree” type we created in the previous section.  

To ensure that a new assignment was created for each tree, display the assignments layer on a map.

Your project now has 24 tree inspection assignments.

Assign work based on location

You have your tree inspectors and your assignments. Now it’s time to assign work. You will assign the inspections to four workers. Each inspector oversees a specific work zone in Atlanta, so they will only inspect trees that fall within their respective zone. You will use the work zone feature layer to assign each of the 24 tree inspections to a set of four zones.

We’ll import some modules from within the arcgis library to make typing these classes easier.

Next, let’s get the Inspection Zones feature layer and display it on a map.

Here is the item ID for the Inspection Zones feature layer: ac044c7a2c94401eaeb1b215200feb57

Add your assignments layer to the map so you can visualize how the assignments are distributed within the zones.  

Next, you’ll create a spatially enabled data frame from the zones layer and grab all of the unassigned assignments.

Assign tree inspections to workers within each of their respective zones.

• Trees in Zone 1 should be assigned to Josh
• Trees in Zone 2 should be assigned to Jane
• Trees in Zone 3 should be assigned to Nirav
• Trees in Zone 4 should be assigned to Sharon

The following code will assign each worker to the trees that fall within the work zone they are responsible for.

Run this code and then create a map with the updated assignments layer to make sure everything was assigned properly. If you click on any of the features, the status should read “Assigned”.

Now, if you open your Workforce project, you can view all of your updated assignments. If you sort by assignee, you’ll see that inspectors were only assigned to work for their specific zone. You’ll see that only inspections in Zone 2 were assigned to Jane.

You have successfully set up a Workforce project and assigned work using ArcGIS API for Python!

Additional resources

This blog post taught you how to use ArcGIS API for Python to configure your Workforce projects and assign work. See the following blog posts to learn about other ways to automate tasks for Workforce:

• Automate Workforce with ArcGIS API for Python: Monitor
• Automate Workforce with ArcGIS API for Python: Clean and Maintain 

Feel free to test out all of the Workforce scripts in the Github repo. To learn more about the Workforce module within the Python API, see Managing Workforce for ArcGIS Projects.

Workforce for ArcGIS is evolving! We're adding offline support, refreshing the mobile apps, and enhancing the project schema. 

If you are currently using Workforce or have been waiting for new features like offline support to jump in, we'd like you to join our beta program now and help us in shaping the next releases. Click the link below to join our beta program.

Join the Workforce Beta Program

Today we released a minor, bug fix update to the Workforce web app inside of ArcGIS Online. We also took this opportunity to announce our upcoming beta for offline support. Workforce is evolving and there are a lot of exciting changes about to happen. 

Read this blog article for more details and to sign up for the beta:

Workforce for ArcGIS is evolving! 

FYI, here's a great video from the Esri 2018 User Conference of the Workforce for ArcGIS: An Introduction technical session presented by Jeff Shaner‌ and Craig Gillgrass‌. A nice starting point to learn about Workforce for ArcGIS.

Workforce for ArcGIS: An Introduction - YouTube 

Enjoy,

Workforce is designed for an office of dispatchers and a team of mobile workers in the field. The dispatchers create and assign the work, while the mobile workers complete it. Yet you might have mobile workers who notice work that needs to be done while they are in the field, and you want those mobile workers to be able to create assignments about what they see. Creating and assigning work from the mobile app is something on our roadmap, but it isn’t possible yet. However, you can bring Collector for ArcGIS into your solution and enable mobile workers to create assignments in the field today.

To get started, identify a Workforce project that requires mobile workers to have the ability to create assignments from the field. The Workforce project, as part of its creation, made some maps. However, those maps aren’t available in Collector. This is expected: Workforce maps are excluded from Collector. It would make it too easy for a mobile worker to accidentally edit assignments outside Workforce.

To opt-in to this workflow, we’ll create a view of the assignments for the mobile workers, make a map for use in Collector, give mobile workers access, and then create assignments using Collector. Let’s see how to set this up:

1. Create a view of the assignments layer

We’ve decided we want to allow access to our assignments in Collector, but we don’t want the user to have access to all the data. To limit the fields and types of data the mobile worker sees, create a hosted feature layer view from the assignments layer (view the item page for the assignments layer and click Create View Layer). Make sure to give it a unique, descriptive name to help you remember the target audience of this view. (For details, see Create hosted feature layer views - ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise)

NOTE: If you don’t want to limit the data the worker has access to, you don’t need to create a view of the layer. Skip this step and when creating the map add the assignments layer directly into the new map. In the map, configure the pop-up for the assignments layer the same way it is configured for the layer view here.

In your view, Set View Definition (use More Options  in the Visualization tab) to limit the data available to mobile workers:

• Define Features to only include features with a status of “Unassigned”
  
  
• Define Fields to only include the following fields: OBJECTID, Description, Status, Priority, Assignment Type, WorkOrder ID, Due Date, GlobalID, Location, CreationDate, Creator, EditDate, and Editor. Some of these are the fields the mobile worker needs to fill out when creating assignments, and when setting up the pop-up for the map you’ll leave these editable in Collector. The others are set for you by the ArcGIS platform and you’ll hide these when setting up the pop-up.
  

  Note: Your mobile workers might not need all the fields. You can choose to exclude Description, Priority, WorkOrder ID, and Due Date.

Still in the Visualization tab, Configure Pop-up  (which defines the editing experience in Collector):

• Update the Pop-up Title to show information meaningful to workers creating assignments as this map is only for their use. For example, just use the assignment type: mobile workers might not always need to include a description so the default title wouldn’t have useful information.

• Include only the following fields, and display them in this order (so that required fields are first): Assignment Type, Location, Description, Priority, Due Date, and WorkOrder ID. Uncheck both Display and Edit in Configure Attributes for each of the other fields to exclude them.

Update the pop-up by clicking OK at the bottom of the panel, and save your changes by clicking Save Layer.

In the Settings tab for the view, enable editing and configure editing permissions in the Feature Layer (hosted, view) Settings section:

• In the Editing section, Enable editing.
  
• Enable sync if your mobile workers need to create assignments while offline.
  
• Under What kind of editing is allowed? accept the default of Add, update, and delete features.
  
• Under What features can editors see? accept the default of Editors can see all features, as that could reduce the creation of duplicate assignments.
  
• Under What features can editors edit? set Editors can only edit their own features.
  

Save your changes to the settings.

2. Create a map for Collector

On the Overview tab of your assignments layer view’s item page add the layer to a new map (use the drop-down menu for Open in Map Viewer and select Add to new map). Update your map as follows:

• Rename the layer view to “assignments” in the Content pane.
• Remove all the feature types and their templates other than the Unassigned feature type. The mobile workers won’t need to use them, and by removing them mobile workers won’t have to set a status and will always create unassigned assignments. To remove them, click Edit and click Manage at the bottom of the pane. Next to each feature type (other than Unassigned) click the arrow to open the menu and select Remove. Make sure to remove the feature type, and not just the templates under it, and to save your changes.
  
• Include any other data in the map that the mobile workers might need to see to help them create assignments.
• Make sure you aren’t using a vector basemap as those aren’t supported in Collector.
• If your mobile workers need to be able to take the map offline and work without a data connection, you’ll need to make sure your map follows the guidelines for making offline maps for Collector.

3. Share the map with mobile workers

You need to share your new map and your layer view with the mobile workers who need to use them.

If you want all mobile workers in your Workforce project to be able to create assignments in Collector, share them with the group created with your Workforce project. Dispatchers in the project would also have access to the map in Collector: this may or may not be useful depending on your project.

If instead you want to provide only a subset of mobile workers with access to create assignments in Collector, create a new group (see how using either the ArcGIS Online or the ArcGIS Enterprise web site). Only add into the group mobile workers that you want using Collector to create assignments. After joining the group through the ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise website (or after an admin adds them without their need for approval), these mobile workers can access any content shared with the group. To give them access to the content they need to create assignments, share with the group the map you created for Collector, the layer view, and any other services used by the map.

4. Create assignments in Collector

The mobile worker can open the new map in Collector and create assignments. While they won’t be able to use all the validation and user integration included in the Workforce web app, they can create assignments. Some things to keep in mind:

• The mobile worker will need to provide an Assignment Type and Location.
• With the view and pop-up customization, they can’t set a dispatcher ID. That’s ok, as the mobile worker might not be a dispatcher. It will be set by Workforce when the assignment is assigned through the web app.
• Need to include an attachment? Use the camera and attach as an image.
• Be careful if deleting assignments: it is permanent and not the same as closing them.
• You can use a feature and Collect here to create an assignment at that feature; however, the assignment’s location field won’t be prepopulated with the feature’s pop-up title as it is in the Workforce web app.

Now you’ve got your mobile workers contributing their field findings into Workforce: work they notice in the field is recorded and ready for assignment. The back office knows what needs to be done, and work is completed according to your staff’s workflow.

We are adding new features to the Workforce for ArcGIS website and wanted to let you know that we will be releasing an update in the next couple of weeks updated today (Feb 20th, 2018).!

If you are using ArcGIS Online, this will be a seamless update to the workforce.arcgis.com website and your existing projects will continue to work as expected.  If you are using ArcGIS Enterprise, this will be the official release supporting ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6 and when you sign in to the MyEsri website, you will find a new setup for Windows and Linux called "Workforce for ArcGIS 18.0.1" under Apps in the Downloads section. Later this week we will update MyEsri with the ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6 setup.

New in this update...

1. Instead of adding mobile workers one-by-one, you can Add Workers from a File. A template CSV file is provided for you to populate with new workers and you can pre-populate it with existing workers if you like. 

2. Explorer for ArcGIS is available within the App Integration screen on the Advanced tab so your field workers can open Explorer at the location of a work assignment and redline on top of it. You can add Explorer integration either at the Project level or at the assignment type level.

3. In our last update, we added the ability for you to pass the ID and Location Description fields from the Assignment to the feature you create in Collector or Survey123. With this update, you can now pass the GlobalID field as well. Passing the GlobalID to a string or GUID field, you can establish a relationship between the feature collected/inspected and the assignment itself. 

4. If you have enabled the use of Esri Vector basemaps in the Map settings of your Organization, we will use the Navigation basemap when creating a new project.

In addition to these 4 updates, there are a number of stability enhancements. These updates will be coming soon are now live!

Workforce for ArcGIS is rolling out a new update, both to the Workforce web app that is used to create projects and dispatch work, as well as the mobile client apps on the iOS and Android platforms.

We updated the web app, today, Tuesday October 31st, at 9:00AM PST, with a few highly requested new features:

1. Project Owners can now deepen the integration between Workforce and Collector/Survey123 by passing the Workforce ID field and Workforce Location field to attributes they map on either their web map or Survey form. This provides a loose coupling between work assignments and the work accomplished.

2. Dispatchers have additional information about work assignments that improve their decision making process. For each assignment, the name of the dispatcher is displayed and the Date/Time of when assignments were created and when an assignment changed state is displayed. 

3. Location is important when creating and assigning work and we don't want the panel to get in your way. Now you can hide/show the panel when you want to.

In addition to these top 3 enhancements we have fixed several bugs in the Workforce web app.

November 31st Update - The ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5.1 setup that includes the web app enhancements is now available on https://my.esri.com in the Apps section.

Updates to the mobile apps for iOS and Android within their respective stores in December. 

Wall-mounted maps have "You are here" bubbles, and our phones use a dot on the map to show current location. But those are clearly not determined the same way: a wall-mounted map always has the same location, while your phone moves about with you. And how your location is determined varies between devices and even app to app on a single device. To best understand the location information presented for mobile workers in Workforce (both our own as a mobile worker, those of other mobile workers, and those of our mobile workers when a dispatcher) we need to understand how location is determined in Workforce.

First, let's understand what the dispatcher is seeing. The location presented for each mobile worker is simply the location the mobile worker's device is passing to Workforce. Once we understand how the mobile device is handling the mobile worker's location, we'll also know how the location the dispatcher is seeing is determined. The only catch is that the location isn't updated for dispatchers continuously; instead, the mobile worker's device updates the mobile worker's current location every minute. This is the location displayed in the web app.

When a mobile worker sees the location of another mobile worker in the same project, their view of that other mobile worker's location aligns with that the dispatcher sees. While they are receiving the same information from the project, it might not exactly match the dispatcher's view. In addition to the offset introduced by mobile workers updating their location with the Workforce project every minute, the mobile worker reading the location is also only checking for updated locations every minute, so the position seen can be up to 2 minutes old.

Now let's look at the mobile worker and their device, as that is the key to all the locations. Workforce uses the location provided by the device's location services. What exactly that means depends on the device and its setup, but what we need to know is that location services determine position information from various sources, such as GPS, cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth networks. Here is a bit more detail into location services:

• The location reported on the mobile device depends on the information available to the device. If your device doesn't have GPS, it uses a combination of cellular and wireless signals to determine your location. If your device also doesn't have GPS or cellular service, wireless signals are used. GPS generally provides the most accurate locations, after that Wi-Fi, then cellular.
• A more accurate location means that its margin of error is less. Your position might be identical, but if you know you have 10 meter accuracy, you know you are likely within 10 meters of the location shown. If you have 30 meter accuracy, you know you are likely within 30 meters of the position shown. In Workforce, the blue circle around your position indicates the accuracy. In the image below, Workforce believes you are between the tree and the other mobile worker (green pin). However, you might be closer to the green dot, or you might be with the other mobile worker. But it is pretty sure you are inside the bigger blue circle.
  
• On Android, you can choose a mode for your location (High accuracy, Battery saving, Device only). This changes what is used to calculate location. High accuracy (the default) uses GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular, and other available sensors through Google's Location service to get the highest-accuracy location. Battery saving doesn't use GPS, using only Wi-Fi and cellular through Google's Location service, saving battery. Device only uses only GPS, turning off Google's Location service. Changing this value affects the location you see in the app.

One last thing to understand about location services on iOS: they never provide an accuracy less than 5 meters. Even if you are using an external GPS with sub-meter accuracy, Workforce uses location services and while the position used could be more accurate, the accuracy reported will still be 5 meters, at best. You might notice this if you look at the historical tracks of where mobile workers have been.

A mobile worker will see their position updated continuously. However, as mentioned earlier, they don't update the Workforce project with the same frequency. The project is updated every minute. Additionally, if the mobile worker sets their status to On Break or Not Working, their location is not updated to the project at all until they return to Working. And if the mobile worker didn't set their status to On Break or Not Working before shutting down Workforce, the location the project has for them might be outdated and show them still working.

Got it, you might think. But then you open Collector, and see that your location has better accuracy than you are seeing in Workforce! What is going on here? Well, it actually isn't too complicated: Collector doesn't always use the device's location services, bypassing it for the information coming straight from the location sensor (such as an external GPS). Location services are limited in the accuracy that they'll report, even if the device is getting a better accuracy from the location sensor. Because accuracy is critical in data collection, Collector uses the most accurate information available. Workforce, on the other hand, doesn't have the same requirements, so uses the most easily accessed information.

Now you should understand how Workforce determines the location of mobile workers, what factors contribute to its accuracy, why it might vary between members of the same project, and why it might vary when using other apps. Now when you see worker location and it doesn't seem they are in the right place, yet the workers insist they are, you'll be able to figure out what it is you are actually seeing and how, if necessary to your project, to improve that information.