Latest Contributions by BrandonA_CDPH

I'm posting a reply to hopefully bring the back to the top and get some assistance.  I keep poking around online, in my xlsForm sheet, asking around my groups - I can't figure out what's going on. Any advice (no matter how obvious it seems) would be appreciated. ... View more

This would be very useful for me as well. Specifically, when using "grid" layouts for surveys, I sometimes design multiple surveys for different uses (mobile vs desktop vs dashboard). Another use case is significant updates. I have a group of users who can be "change averse". When publishing a major update/change in a form, I will copy the old form and use URL parameters to have it feed the same feature service as the new form. This allows for the old form to be used while training and troubleshooting happen with the new form. It would be better if I could hide one of the versions from the Download Surveys list and provide the QR or link to specific users. In both cases, the users for both version of the form are the same, so group controls don't solve the problem. ... View more

To add to what @abureaux was suggesting, if this question is "yes", does that mean they only need to fill in the second survey, or does the first one need to be filled in as well? I don't have a solution to automatically open the survey, but I do have a possible workaround. One thing I have done with my surveys is a "gateway" question. Below this question, I put the rest of the survey in a group. The answer to the gateway question(s) triggers the relevant for the group and (inversely) triggers a note with a link to the second survey. Then the only choice they have is to click the link and go to the second survey. For an example, let's say you have two surveys: Survey1 (the main one) and Survey 2 (the secondary one). Survey 1 has Question X that, if yes, requires the user to fill in Survey 2. - I think this is your scenario. The workflow goes like this: the survey goes along until Question X . After question X, there is a note with a link to Survey 2 (and some calculated URL parameters) - with a relevant statement [QuestionX='yes'] All questions after Question X are in a group. That group has a relevant statement that says [QuestionX="no"]. The answer to question X determines if they see the link to Survey 2 or the rest of Survey1. If the first survey still needs to be completed either way, then Question X could just trigger the note. You could then have a second "gateway" question that is simply "Did you fill in Survey 2?" - if yes, the rest of the form shows, if no it hides the rest of the form with a default of "no" and a relevant statement that only shows this queston if Question X = 'yes'. This would mean that if Question X is yes, they have to return to Survey1, verify that Survey2 was completed, then Survey 1 continues.  On a side note, I will sometimes have these "gateway" questions in fields with Bind::esri:FieldType = null. this way I don't clutter up my data with unnecessary fields, but that's a choice. I hope that all makes sense to someone beside me. 🤓 To hopefully help, I attached a simplified sample that does what I'm describing. Good luck and happy survey authoring! ... View more

I'm also interested to see what others think on this.  Sounds like we have had similar paths into the field. Once in a while I consider something like GISP or one of Esri's technical certifications. Then I wonder what it would actually do for me. I guess I haven't really found a good reason where I am to go through the process of a certification. ... View more

This would be great for my workflows as well.  We collect operating hours for licensed businesses. It would be great to have that as a single field per day, instead of 14 fields. I can also see this useful for things like a range of distances or measurements (numbers instead of time).  I'm thinking about our workflow where we have to take multiple temperature measurements and report the high and low temperatures. This is currently through a text box, but if it was a numeric range in one field, that would really enhance our dashboard and other charting. We could automatically flag and mark certain entries based on max, min, and range much easier than the text field currently used. ... View more

My experience with VDI has been less than optimal. I ran into issues with our IT not being able to allocate the graphics memory to the virtual machine. They kept increasing the amount of processing power I was allocated, but the software would lag, crash, and freeze any time I did anything with graphics (like try to modify a layout). After some research and trial and error, it was an issue of graphics processing power, and I was issued a laptop instead. This was a few years ago and things may have changed.  Also, I'm not an IT person, so I don't know if this is a limitation in all VDI systems or just ours (or even just our IT being unwilling). ... View more

@Courtney360 - First of all, if "everyone has the capability", why are there so many companies looking for GIS consultants? 😄But, besides that...   My wife is a handmade goods artist. Not sure if it provides the kind of coverage you need, but she uses ACT (Artist and Craft Show Liability Insurance | ACT Insurance). They have really reasonable rates for general liability insurance for "makers" (and, if you ever want to produce map art and show it - they provide additional insureds for shows). I have a gov job right now but have been exploring the consulting field. I am curious to hear more about what others,like yourself, have found in the insurance space. ... View more

Yes, as Jesse pointed out, I too had a "non-GIS" route to my GIS role.  In short, my schooling is in microbiology. I used maps but didn't really have a clue what GIS was in school.  I wandered through biotech and taught high school for a time. Then, I sort of fell into my current team in foodborne illness outbreaks (wait, where's the GIS?) We were using maps and there was some basic use of ArcMap, but nobody really dedicated to using and improving GIS skills. I saw the geospatial data we were collecting and realized it was really cool and we could be doing some powerful stuff with it. So, between field work and investigations, I taught (continue to teach) myself GIS. When the opportunity comes up, I take a class here and there, but largely self taught. It was total chance that I even got my first job in this Unit and even stranger that I found and have honed in on GIS. I look forward to hearing other "origin stories" of us unlikely GIS superheroes. 👨‍💻 ... View more

Really appreciate the help on this one. I am the item owner, so I don't think it's a permissions issue. I mean, I made the darn thing! (like most technology, I created it but it, in fact, owns me 😆) I pulled the table into Pro and it will let me add a field there, but the field never saves and doesn't show in the AGOL table.   ... View more

Thank you for the response. I realize my issue may not have been clear. To clarify, I now have the data in a Feature Service on ArcGIS Online with a related table. It's a long story, but I had a feature service from a Survey123 Form, needed to add a repeat (related table), so I downloaded it to a FGDB, added the table and relate in Pro, then published it to AGOL as a new Feature Service (per ESRI troubleshooting instructions). I got all the forms that use that Feature Layer directed to the new feature service and rebuilt a couple dashboards and some maps, and things are back in a good place. Now I'm just trying to add a simple string field to the related table (or even to the main feature table). I would rather not have to rebuild the Feature Service (and do all that rebuilding) again if I don't have to. ... View more

Thank you. That is the missing button/option. Some of my feature services have it there and as a standalone button on the fields view. 😊 ... View more

I see this is an older post, but any leads on this issue? I'm running into something similar and cannot get the attachments to append to an existing Feature Service. If nothing else, I'm here to commiserate. ... View more