Latest Contributions by DougBrowning

My guess is you only built it down a few levels.  What did you set the cache level to? ... View more

I thought I had asked this already but can not find it.  Will there be support for unzipped TPKs also?  We unzip our imagery to make our app faster but then Survey123 can not find it. thanks ... View more

Most tablets\phones let you lower the picture resolution in settings.  That way it is small to begin with. ... View more

Yes it would be helpful to get a copy.  Forms are still thought up as paper in most companies.  For us the big one was after a contractor signs it they need a nice paper form looking copy for their records.  But after setting up this Data Driven Pages solution I realized your biggest hurdle with Survey123 will be designing the reports.  You really do not control the look now - its just a list of fields.  When using something like layout in ArcMap it allowed me to add a logo/address at the top, split fields into columns or even a spreadsheet look, add a map, place the captured signatures anywhere, hide some of the fields, use colors and fonts, etc.  So then it becomes a problem of having to build a form designer...which is always a big undertaking.  If it is just going to spit out a list of fields with no real formatting I do not think it will help anyone much.  The "designer" you have now has no free flow formatting. ... View more

Drawbacks For us having to download the work area each time was a pain.  Esri designed this for small areas that would be downloaded and synced each day.  We wanted all the area all the time since, like you, devices might not hit wifi for a week or more.  You can only side load a basemap not any other layers.  Also can not use the sd card so it limits space.  In the end we used a 3rd party app that lets us carry all our layers and basemaps for over 3 million acres all offline.  It could also carry 30gb of offline data on a sd card. Battery   In our 3rd party app with a new tablet we are getting 10-12 hours or more of near constant use.  The screen being the biggest issue since sun requires the brightness to be cranked all the way up.  Turning the tablet on and off all the time can burn battery also.  30 days is asking a lot for any full color screen device these days.  That said our lighter users are down to charging every other week now. Devices We picked up some last model down Samsung tablets for $130 from Costco.  The newest ones with rebate are still $150 or so.  Has a good built in GPS, great screen, good battery, and a external SD card (which was critical).  Hard to beat that price.  Compared to the old trimbles they are pretty much disposable.  We are at 2.5 years now on the originals and they are still going.  Battery life is not as good as it was of course.  Had maybe 3-4 out of over 100 that died.  Also note these are WIFI only tablets - so we only sync in the office.  GPS is separate so it works fine off wifi - many cheaper tablets have no GPS anymore so be careful. ... View more

I came up with a way to make PDF reports that are emailed overnight.  Little extra work but it also gives you the ability to control what the pdf looks like, add maps, etc.  You could use this code to email a csv copy also.  You have to sync at some point but you would have to have someway to get the pdf off the tablet anyway. See here for code Triggers in Collector/ArcGIS Online? ... View more

We do a similar thing since our area of interest is smallish but spread out over a very large area.  Collector is not very good with this and the main reason we use a 3rd party app. That said I think your option is to do a side loaded basemap (search for posts on how to do this - hopefully you have android since it is so much easier).  Build the basemap using the Manage Tile Cache tool using a AOI then package it up using Export Tile Package.  Do not count on the Export tool for AOI as it has 4 bugs in it.  My bugs are in this post along with a good post on how to - Create Cache and TPK without ArcGIS for Server - Workflows for Desktop users The issue here may be that Collector still will not like the huge area. I am not sure 1:1,800 is going to happen.  We go down to L17 (1:4,500) for out internal network caches and one of our areas that is 50,000 acres is about 1gb.  Again with the bugs if it is really spread out it may be more.  Then each level is 4x or so larger so 16gb?.  We do L16 on the tablets because after testing it does not really look much better using NAIP.  In the end the extra space needed was not worth it.  I would build a few small area tests and see.  I am also not sure if Collector can "overzoom" like our app and ArcMap can or if it goes to blank like AGO does (which is a bummer).  By overzoom I mean show the image but start to pixelate vs just going blank. We do a topo basemap that covers our entire area (the whole Pacific NW) down to L14 for use between areas and as a nav option (in our app you can turn off the imagery and see under to the topo).  The topo is 5gb on its own.  Our total mobile package is 29 gb so we use sd cards - which collector does still not allow. Hope that helps. ... View more

You have no info on your profile so I have to post it here. Note change the prt statements as that is a private library we use.  also need all the paths marked fixthis. must also install ArcRest '''------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Purpose:    Reads in all the form maps, creates PDFs for the forms, emails them out, then updates the FormEmailed field in the HFS.             The HFS MUST be the first layer in the map and MUST be part of a group layer (this is how it normally comes in).             The HFS MUST have a field called FormEmailed that is yes or no (in lowercase).             The form map mxd MUST have a form element with the name FormName.             The form map mxd MUST have a form element with the name PDFTitle and that should be a field from the HFS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------''' import arcpy, os, string , urllib, urllib2, json, contextlib, smtplib, mimetypes, datetime, sys, time, traceback from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart from email import encoders from email.message import Message from email.mime.audio import MIMEAudio from email.mime.base import MIMEBase from email.mime.image import MIMEImage from email.mime.text import MIMEText from arcrest.security import AGOLTokenSecurityHandler from arcrest.agol import FeatureLayer from arcrest.common.filters import LayerDefinitionFilter # Testing flags sendEmailsFlag = 1 markAsEmailed = 1 deleteTempPDF = 1 # login info AGOusername = "put here" AGOpassword = "put here" emailSMTP = "fixthis.smtp.com" #smtpusername = "" #smtppassword = "" # Temp area to store pdfs to email.  script then deletes them for cleanup.  could keep if wanted just set flag above pdfBase = r"fixthis" # Directory of DDP maps mapsDir = r"fixthis" prt("---Start of Daily Forms Email Log File---\n") prt("Forms Email Started: " + time.asctime()) prt ("\n====================================================================================================\n") try:     # Run for each Form map in the Dir     mapsList = os.listdir(mapsDir)     for mapToUse in mapsList:         if mapToUse.endswith(".mxd"):             # Get map and ddp links             mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(os.path.join(mapsDir, mapToUse))             prt("Running map " + os.path.join(mapsDir, mapToUse))             ddp = mxd.dataDrivenPages             # Kick out a pdf for each record in the HFS.  Note this assumes a definition query was set for formemailed=no             if ddp.pageCount > 0:                 for i in range(1, ddp.pageCount + 1):                     ddp.currentPageID = i                     row = ddp.pageRow                     elm = arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(mxd, "TEXT_ELEMENT", "FormName")                     formName = elm[0].text                     fixDate = row.CreationDate                     fixedDate = str(fixDate.month) + "-" + str(fixDate.day) + "-" + str(fixDate.year)                     # There is not always a JobName so had to make a form element called PDFTitle that is used to name forms and subject lines                     # This gives back                     elm2 = arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(mxd, "TEXT_ELEMENT", "PDFTitle")                     titleName = elm2[0].text                     fieldStart = titleName.find("field") + 7                     fieldEnd = titleName.find('"', fieldStart)                     findField = titleName[fieldStart:fieldEnd]                     nameToUse = row.getValue(findField)                     if nameToUse:                         baseName = formName + " " + nameToUse + " " + fixedDate                     else:                         baseName = formName + " " + "Blank Name Given" + " " + fixedDate                     pdfName = pdfBase + "\\" + baseName + ".pdf"                     ddp.exportToPDF(pdfName, "RANGE", str(i))                     if sendEmailsFlag == 1:                         # Email the pdf                         emailfrom = row.Creator                         # email a copy to the creator always plus the field they picked                         # Gets mad if a null, so check for empty field                         # Weird but the msg["To"] must be a string but the call to the smtp server must be a list                         emailto = row.Creator                         emailRecList = row.Creator                         if row.EmailCopyTo:                             emailto = row.Creator + "," + row.EmailCopyTo                             emailRecList = emailto.split(',')                         # this is full path to pdf to attach                         fileToSend = pdfName                         # this is just the name without path which becomes the actual name of the attached file                         justfileName = baseName + ".pdf"                         msg = MIMEMultipart()                         msg["From"] = emailfrom                         msg["To"] = emailto                         msg["Subject"] = baseName + " Attached"                         msg.preamble = "Where is this"                         ctype, encoding = mimetypes.guess_type(fileToSend)                         if ctype is None or encoding is not None:                             ctype = "application/octet-stream"                         maintype, subtype = ctype.split("/", 1)                         fp = open(fileToSend, "rb")                         attachment = MIMEBase(maintype, subtype)                         attachment.set_payload(fp.read())                         fp.close()                         encoders.encode_base64(attachment)                         attachment.add_header("Content-Disposition", "attachment", filename=justfileName)                         msg.attach(attachment)                         server = smtplib.SMTP(emailSMTP)                         #server.starttls()                         #server.login(smtpusername,smtppassword)   # password not needed for here                         server.sendmail(emailfrom, emailRecList, msg.as_string())                         server.quit()                         prt("Sent email " + baseName + " to " + emailto)                     # Delete the temp PDF for cleanup                     if deleteTempPDF == 1:                         os.remove(pdfName)                     if markAsEmailed == 1:                         # Update the formemailed flag to yes                         # Get url of HFS from the layer in the map.  Assumes first layer is group of HFS then second is HFS                         hfsLayer = arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd)[1]                         hfsURL = hfsLayer.dataSource + "/" + "updateFeatures"                         # Get token                         agolSH = AGOLTokenSecurityHandler(username=AGOusername,password=AGOpassword)                         updateAttr = [{"attributes" : {"objectid": row.objectid ,"formemailed" : "yes"}}]                         data = {'f': 'json', 'features': updateAttr, 'token' : agolSH.token}                         encodedData = urllib.urlencode(data)                         request = urllib2.Request(hfsURL, encodedData)                         response = urllib2.urlopen(request)                         readResponse = response.read()                         jsonResponse = json.loads(readResponse)                         if not jsonResponse['updateResults'][0]['success']:                             prt("FormEmailed field for form " + formName + " at ObjectID " + row.objectid + " was NOT updated successfully!")                             ScriptFailed=True             else:                 prt( "No recrods found in the Hosted Feature Service.  There are no forms to email or not signed in to AGO.\n\n")                 ScriptFailed=True         prt("\n")     prt("\n" + "Daily Forms Email Complete: " + time.asctime())     del mxd except:     PythonMessages("Daily Forms Email Failed")     prt(traceback.format_exc())     prt(arcpy.GetMessages(2))     ScriptFailed=True ... 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I have a page before that page that says Settings at the top.  Then at the bottom a file location ... View more

I use Android so it may be different.  On the main screen in Survey123 app there is a menu button at the top right.  In there use Settings.  Then at the bottom there is a section Map Library Folder. ... View more

I have uploaded TPKs up to 70GB to AGO.  You just need to use the Share Package tool. But no you do not have to upload anything if you have another way to get them on the tablet.  We use a 3rd party app that already had 30gb and 70+ tpk files sitting on our tablet SD Card.  All I did was give Survey123 the directory on the sd card and all my TPKs appeared. ... View more

My forms went from over 2 minutes to 20 seconds!  Thanks a lot. ... View more

I build my caches with ArcMap/scripts not with Server.  No need to even have server.  But yes they have been a life saver.  Esp in our 1 inch imagery.  I reduced the size 97% with no quality loss.  Getting 2 TB everywhere would have been a nightmare. Yes we have seen weird strings get into the mxd.  Even adding from the same connection file twice can result in 1 pointing to the file and 1 pointing to a weird long string. We have never found any rhyme or reason to this.  Not sure why you say you copy them to a local machine though.  We just leave them on the network where everyone can hit them - for example \\ad.you.com\office\connfiles (which is added as a folder connection in catalog) then we have a folder for Edits and for Default versions.  Also we point all our python scripts and toolboxes there.  That way if something changes we can change them in just one spot. (but of course the mxd will not change). I have also pointed to them in a python addin no problem.  Maybe you have issues because you are copying them over vs pointing to the network and the new machine can not see that path?  I would avoid copying anything ever since then you have a million copies all over the place.  We have been going to a single network spot for everything - even over a WAN.  So a user in another office actually points to a toolbox on the main office network - we have seen no speed issues with this at all.  We do this for add-ins also - point to one central main office network location for all 10 offices.  We do however have connection files local at each office since they point to the local office sql server. Hope that makes sense hard to explain it in text. ... View more

I am surprised so many people are storing the rasters in SDE vs building caches.  I brought our imagery catalog down from 600 gb to 60 gb with a 10x increase in speed and no quality loss.  Building the caches did take 100+ hours of processing time but it is only once a year.  Also caches are so much easier to distribute to the 10 remotes offices.  No changing paths just copy and paste.  Also easy upload to ArcGIS Online.  For updates the import tool can be used so hopefully no need to rebuild it all. We use Feature Datasets also but esri guys told us flat is better.  We run a default and edits version where edits is the current live set then each week i compare default to edits looking for any major mistakes (someone deleted 500 records for example).  I have an excel pivot table that shows me record counts for every db on every server so easy to check.  If it all looks good I run weekly rec, post, compress, rebuild analyze.  So a weekly mini QA. The main pain with a default and edits version is having to use Set Current version in sql all the time.  And some programs can not link to a version other than the default which causes issues. For access we store the sde connection files in a common network location (no need to install for each user as mentioned).  Also use layer files but they break a lot.  We also store our toolboxes on a network drive which has been a life changer in keeping everyone using the most current toolbox.  Note this can be done for python addins also. We also run backups out to a geodb which works well.  I also build a script to backup our Hosted FS to a local copy using ArcREST. (note there is a bug in this so no backup over 32,000 records). We are considering going to one or 2 big DBs versus the 10 we have and then just replicating based on office extent.  That way not too much is getting replicated out to the offices.  We have 10 dbs with 10 FDs in each with 5-7 in each of those FDs.  Speed is not great but also server is old. ... View more

Will any of the similar bugs I logged be fixed in 10.4?  Thanks [BUG-000086429: The Manage Tile Cache tool does not honor the area of interest parameter set when creating the cache.]  I have 2 out there now that say only 3.63% of the tiles published but it actually works just fine.  Case #01691221 and  #01642593 [BUG-000085241: Publishing tiles does not complete in ArcGIS Online. This may be due to incorrect extents, however this warning is never provided to the user when creating the tile package.] Unknown number - the extent is also wrong when using the Export Tile cache tool.  They listed BUG-000085241 but this is already above and different.  I had case  #01642593 and #01623834 because the export tool also bombs in scheduled scripts but works fine not scheduled. BUG-000084160 The Manage Tile Cache tool will fail when run in python.  I was trying to get around the bug above and found another one. ... View more