Latest Contributions by JeffShaner

Tracker is a premium app meaning that there is a cost per user. The premium app licensing can be applied to any user type (including a Viewer). There are no additional costs for the organization. Tracker uses a new data store and we do NOT charge for feature storage credits either.  ... View more

In addition to Matt's reply, we are adding a couple of new features into the next release of Collector (iOS) that I think will help in satisfying your need: 1. Recent Values - we will remember values you enter into text and numeric fields and when you tap to enter a value you can then choose from recent values you entered previously.  2. Updating attribute values for multiple features - you will be able to tap on several features and then update a common attribute for all of them at once. We should be releasing this update early in January and we can get you beta testing if you like. Thanks Jeff ... View more

Hi James, Yes this request has been addressed with the new Collector app that is currently release on the iOS platform and is in beta for Android. Within ArcGIS Online, map authors can create map areas. You can then download one or more map areas to your device. For more information about map areas, please read this documentation: Take web maps offline—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS  For more information about using offline areas within Collector: Prepare for offline data collection—Collector for ArcGIS | ArcGIS  Jeff ... View more

Hey John, We are sorting out the details of this now so what I am about to say is subject to change before we release... At present, we do not have any plan to charge credits for storage of location tracks. With the ArcGIS Enterprise store, there is a concept of a retention period for track data. You can set it to keep tracks indefinitely or you can set a date and then we will truncate tracks accordingly (say 30 or 60 days). This same concept will apply within ArcGIS Online except right now we are thinking that it would be a fixed time and not indefinite as there are transactional/query and storage costs to maintaining tracks. If you want, you would be able to export the tracks from the data store to archive them yourself.  With the beta program we are looking for feedback on the business model as well as the technical aspects of the capability.  Thanks! Jeff ... View more

Thank you Paul. I really look forward to your feedback and use cases. Please feel free to reach out directly to our Collector4ArcGIS@esri.com alias as well. I would love to understand where you see breadcrumbs inside of Collector in comparison to say GPS streaming of lines and potentially in the context of nested or partial feature collection as well. These are all on our roadmap for Collector and we want to make sure we have the workflows referenced properly. Right now our focus with Collector is to get Android done and out the door!! ... View more

All, This is a great discussion and thank you very much for all of the thoughtful comments you have added into this thread. I'd like to provide context on where we are and what we have built to date. Please though, if you ever have questions about why we are building what we are building don't hesitate to ask us. Thanks for @mentioning Craig and I John. Our mission is to build effective, intuitive apps that meet your needs and we can't do that without your feedback.  Ok with that said, why did we build Tracker? Well, there were several reasons. The primary reason was to support organizations that need to know where their staff are and record where they have been (to enhance situational awareness and ultimately for accountability reasons). That extends well beyond the field worker and that is why it is licensed with a Viewer user type and higher. In fact, the target user for our initial launch was not someone using a field data collection app like Collector or Survey123. We are seeing customers that want to track anywhere from 500 to 2000 to 150,000 users and more! We also needed to build a tracking solution that worked offline, worked in the background, and was easy on battery life so that it could support a full 10 - 12 hour day without a charge. As part of this effort, we quickly realized that a traditional hosted feature service was not the right solution. It would struggle to manage the throughput of tracks and would consume too many credits. Tracks will have a much higher storage volume than other GIS features. We are building the proper infrastructure within ArcGIS Online now and felt it was too soon to release. It was a very difficult decision to make but one that we thought was best to do. With ArcGIS Enterprise we already had a robust data store for this that we could use. This new location tracking capability is setting a foundation for not only the Tracker app to write to but for others as well. It is the first phase in a series of releases. In fact, the Indoors app is already writing to the same service and other apps can as well. At the same time, Collector is going through an evolution. We are phasing in capabilities/platforms as we go. This is a huge effort and it is taking time to complete. The first phase of location tracking work will be to add support where Tracker is installed. Collector will be able to draw tracks directly within the app, it will honor the settings in the Tracker app and will be able to remotely control the Tracker app. Here we are targeting workflows where it is important to know where a field worker is located at all times and where they have been. Where they use the Collector app to capture data (collect and inspect) but they need to have their location shared even when the app is not running (worker safety being perhaps the primary need but also for accountability purposes as well).  This is our current development plan and where we have seen the needs around location tracking (both with field workers and without). If there are other workflows where you see a gap, PLEASE let us know. We want to make sure that we address your needs. Thanks! Jeff ... View more