Some FAQs I had about the Citizen Problem Reporter Solution

[KateKeeley]

I have spent some time this month trying to understand how the Citizen Problem Reporter solution works There are a lot of basic questions I had that I couldn't find answers to on the Get Started page or elsewhere on the world wide web. 

I thought I'd share some of the answers I've figured out with the automated deployment of the Citizen Problem Reporter Solution and see if anyone else has other questions/solutions!

Question	Answer
Why do I only see "Configured group is invalid or no items have been shared with this group yet." on my Reporter application?	This has to do with the fact that the configured group does not contain at least one map with at least one editable layer that is accessible to the current user. If the group does contain an editable map with an editable layer, then check the sharing. It may be that you haven't updated the sharing of the group or if you have, perhaps you are not Signing In with the proper account -- Sign in with ArcGIS if it isn't shared publicly. I kept trying to sign-in as Guest longer than I care to admit.
Why can't I see the image tab on a selected report in the Citizen Problem Manager?	This tab is only visible when the selected report contains at least one image attachment, or images and charts defined as part of the popup configuration.‎
Why can't the user attach photos to reports?	Attachments aren't enabled. When you do this process automatically, the layers are automatically uploaded to AGO. The attachment section of the form where photos and other supporting files can be added to the report is only available when attachments are enabled on the layer.‎ This can be easily done by going to the feature layer in AGO and clicking "Enable Attachments".
How do I add fields in the form of the Reporter?	Open ArcGIS Pro. Go to the Share tab and click on the ArcGIS Solutions button. The Task Pane will open. Click Configure an ArcGIS Solution. The first step is Adding Fields (note: you can skip this step). For Input Table, navigate to My Content and click the published feature layer that you want to add the field to. You have the option to select the Report Layer or the Comment Table for the this. Which form are you editing? What the person reporting sees (Report Layer) or what the person commenting on the report sees (Comment Table)? Give it a Field Name, define the Field Type, and Field Alias. Check if you want it to be required. The Field Domains field is for if you already have domains created. If you want to create domains, that is in the next step. Click Run. Once the Run finishes, you may continue adding fields, or move on to the Next Step. Here you can Modify Domains. If you want a field to be a drop down menu, configure some Field Domains! If you don't want it to be drop down (and, instead, just a field) Skip this part. Now navigate to the map on AGO the feature layer is on (for example the Snow/Ice feature layer will be on the Snow/Ice Problems Web Map) Click on the three dots next to the layer of the form you want to edit and click on Configure Pop-up (for example, if you  want to edit the form that commenters see, do this for the Snow/Ice Complaint Comments Table Then ensure that the Display and Edit check boxes are checked for the fields you want to display and edit. Here you can also change its alias, change the order of it, and format it.
How do I delete fields in the form of the Reporter?	Open ArcGIS Pro. Add the Report Layer or Comment Table that the field is located in to the map and open its attribute table. Right click the field you want to remove. Click delete.
How do I turn off fields in the form of the Reporter?	If you don't want to display a field, but you aren't ready to delete it, go to the AGO web map that the layer is on. Go to Configure Pop-Up and then click Configure Attributes and just uncheck the Display.
Why can't the user edit the fields in the form?	First, when you are creating the field in the Configuration Task via ArcGIS Solutions, it's vital that you give the field a Field Length. The other issue may be that editing isn't enabled on the layer or in the pop-up. When you are in the AGO web map, Configure Pop-Up and then click Configure Attributes  and ensure that the Editing box is checked in addition to the Display check box.
How can manipulate how every report/comment looks?	As far as I can't tell, you can't change the look of the form itself. However, once the report/comment is posted, you can change how this looks. This again happens in the AGO Web Map layer pop-up. When you go to Configure Pop-Up you have a few options. Under Pop-up Contents --> Display dropdown, change it to A custom attribute display --> then CONFIGURE. Here, you can add your own text and pull information from the report/comment fields (by clicking the + box; see image below).  Scroll to the bottom where it says Pop-up Media. Here you can add a standard image/chart to all of the posted reports/comments.
How do I change colors and text in the Reporter? IMPORTANT NOTE: it is highly recommended that when these changes are made to Reporter maps/layers/applications, they are also made to the respective maps/layers/applications in the Manager for consistency and clarity purposes.	# In Pic Above Description Website to go to Thing to change 1 Application Logo Configure the Reporter Web App Theme tab --> Application logo --> Paste link here 2 Application Title Configure the Reporter Web App General tab --> Application title Theme tab --> Header text color 3 Header Color Configure the Reporter Web App Theme tab --> Header background color 4 Basemap Configure the specific AGO Web Map for the issue category (in this case you are configuring the Animal Control Problems map; it's the first map that pops on the Reporter). You can also add any layers you want and they'll show up. 5 Symbology Configure the AGO Web Map for the issue category --> You can have one symbol for all the reports in the issue category, or have a different one for each type of problem (change this in the Style window Choose an attribute to show; either show location only or choose an attribute such as Type of Problem) --> Click options to define the symbol you want to use. Note: it doesn't appear that the heatmap option works. 6 Issue Category Image Configure the Item Details of the issue category Web Map Edit the Thumbnail of the map 7 Issue Category Name Configure the Item Details of the issue category Web Map Edit the title of the map 8 Issue Category Description Configure the Item Details of the issue category Web Map Edit the Summary and Description of the map 9 Issue Category Pane Color Configure the Reporter Web App Theme tab --> Body Background Color # In Pic Above Description Website to go to Thing to change 1 Issue Category title Configure the specific AGO Web Map for the issue category Rename the feature layer in it 2 Report Title Configure the specific AGO Web Map for the issue category Configure the pop-up title for the layer. You can make the title be based on static text or dynamic text based on the report # In Pic Above Description Website to go to Thing to change 1 Response after a citizen reports a report Configure the Reporter Web App Form tab --> Submission Message --> write your message in the box 2 Form fields Configure the specific feature layers & AGO web maps See FAQ questions and answers: How do I add fields in the form of the Reporter? How do I delete fields in the form of the Reporter? How do I turn off fields in the form of the Reporter? 3 Report It Button Configure the Reporter Web App Theme tab --> Button text color and button background color

Do you have other solutions or questions? I'd love to hear them!

[BrianHiller]

How do you change the problem types on the Citizen problem reporter. When deployed using the solution deployment tool, the primary feature layer does not have a domain on the problem type field however the hosted views that are created each have what appears to be a domain or list of problem types.

[ChrisFox]

Hi Brian, 

It is possible to change the domains of hosted feature layer views, but it is not exposed in the ArcGIS Online UI yet. We provide a Modify Domains tool with the ArcGIS Solution Deployment add-in in ArcGIS Pro that can be used to do this. This process is described in the Modify problem types and responsible agencies below:

https://www.esri.com/content/dam/esrisites/en-us/media/pdf/learn-arcgis/configuring-citizen-problem-...

[ChrisFox]

I wanted to highlight that we recently released a learning pathway that provides more assistant on how to use and configure the Solution based on the common customizations we see:

https://learn.arcgis.com/en/paths/getting-started-with-citizen-problem-reporter/

[EllenGottschling]

I've created my app and am trying to make it so submitters cannot see submissions by others.  These are the settings of my feature layer. I've played around with all the settings to now avail!

[ChrisFox]

Ellen, this setting would require that users log into the Reporter application using an ArcGIS login. The ArcGIS login would be stored in the editor tracking field and would be used to control access to the features, restricting them to only be able to see the features they created. This functionality won't work for users who enter the application anonymously or using their social media credentials.

[EllenGottschling]

Ah ok, thanks. That's disappointing. I'm sharing my app with the public but don't want them to see other submitted data. Is there another app that would do this?

[BrianHiller]

Ellen, when someone logs data into the Citizen Reporter they are ultimately using feature editing templates that you configure. There is a field in the base configuration called something like "visible to the public". If you setup your editing templates to have the visible to public field default to no, the records will not display.

[EllenGottschling]

Thanks, Brian. Is that an option in the settings screenshot that I saved above, or elsewhere?

[BrianHiller]

It’s a setting on the feature service editing template, so not in the screenshot. You can change that in your webmap.

Brian Hiller

GIS Consulting Section Manager

Burns & McDonnell

[ChrisFox]

The setting that Brian describes will hide the report from everyone including the person who submitted the report which I believe is a little different then you are looking for. The only way I am aware of to support the feature based access to reports you describe is leveraging the editing setting you highlighted above and using ArcGIS named users to control access.

One of the primary reasons we developed the Citizen Problem Reporter application was to allow users to see other user's submissions. The reason was in part to help reduce the number of duplicate problem reports submitted, if I see someone has already reported the pothole that I wanted to report, I can just up vote or comment on their report rather than logging a duplicate report. The workflow described by Brian above can be used to optionally hide certain reports if they contain sensitive information that you don't want shared. You can also control what information is visible to the public in the reports by hiding personal information about the submitter through the report pop-up configuration.

If you would prefer just to collect information and not allow anyone to see issues already reported we would typically use Survey123 for this scenario. Survey123 can be used to submit the report, but there is no experience available to the public to see reports already submitted.