Latest Contributions by IsmaelChivite

Surveys are for the most part about questions, but often you need to provide some context before users can actually give you a good answer. And that is where notes come into play.   Notes allow you to insert text and images in between questions in your Survey123 smart form Here are the main three reasons why you may want to use notes in your form: Information: Notes are useful when you want to provide users with information that will help them capture data more appropriately. In an invasive species survey, for example, a note could warn the user that the inventory should be performed in a radius of 100 meters from a given sampling point. In a population census enumeration survey, notes can also include certain tips for the enumerator to introduce questions to respondents.  Warnings: Notes can be used to warn users about inconsistencies in the data captured, before it is  submitted. For example, if we do not want people to capture the location of an observation while on the move, we can make a warning note visible whenever we detect that the geopoint object has a speed larger than 0 meters per second. We could also use a warning note if we detect some  logical inconsistencies in the captured data.  Of course, we could use constraints in Survey123 to prevent all this bad  data to be submitted, but notes provide a nice way to bring the user's attention into these  problems early. Look&Feel: Finally, notes are a great way to display banners and logos into your form to make them look exactly as you want. The Basics   The use of notes is supported in both the Survey123’s web designer as well as Survey123 Connect. The easiest way to create a note is to use web designer, where you can easily format your text using custom font sizes, colors, bullets for your paragraphs and even embedded images and links. You can also control the alignment of your text in the notes: centered, right aligned and left aligned.   Here is how you can add notes to your survey in Web Designer:     Notes in XLSForms   In XLSForms, notes are modeled as a note type of question.  The most important rule when using notes is that they do not require any value in the name column of your XLSForm. That is right: unlike other types of questions in XLSForms, the name column is not mandatory. In fact, it is typically better that you leave it empty.     The reason for this is simple: When you publish a survey with Survey123 Connect, the values in the name column of the survey worksheet define the attribute columns in the feature layer where we will persist your data.  Since notes do not expect any user input, there is no need to  give them a name.   Other than the above, notes behave like most other XLSform questions:   HTML formatting is supported in notes. You can use  HTML formatting for way more than cosmetic reasons. You can for  example add links. In the next example, I added a link that will trigger a phone call to the Water Department.   type name label note   <center><a href="tel:9091234567">Call Water Department</a></center></p>   Media: You can associate media to a note question. Use the media:audio and media::image columns for this. In the next example, a note is used to allow the user to play an audio file from the survey.  Images and audio files referenced must be stored in the media folder of your survey.   type name label media::audio note   Play this audio before counting <i>Gubernatrix cristata</i> calls gcristata.mp3   Relevant: Relevant expressions can be used to make notes appear and hide. In the next example, A warning is shown to the user if the location is fixed while on the move. When adding warnings, I like to use HTML formatting to display the notes in red or other color.   type name label relevant calculation geopoint location Location     calculate speed Speed   pulldata("@geopoint", ${location}, "speed") note   Do not move while fixing location! 0.2 < ${speed}     Calculations: You can use calculations to display text in the main body of a note. In the following example, a note is used to indicate the number of choices selected in a select multiple question.   type name label calculation select_multiple violations violations Code Violations   note   Violations observed count-selected(${violations})   When calculating a note, you may want to have  your text all be shown in one single line, rather  than split in two like above. If that is the case, you can do something like the following:   type name label calculation select_multiple violations violations Code Violations   note   </b> concat("Violations: ", count-selected(${violations}))   The only reason I use </b> in the label is because the label column is mandatory for a note. <b> will not render any text, so the main body of the note will read a a single  line of text, which is what  I want. ... View more

NOTE: This functionality was released on February 27 with version 2.6.9   We are happy to announce that Esri and IkeGPS are streamlining how Spike devices and Survey123 work together.   What is Spike? Spike is a smart laser measurement solution for all kinds of industries and professional use that allows you to capture measurements and location of an object – all from a photo. From that photo you can capture real time measurements including height, width, area, length and target location.   Spike works with both Apple iOS and Google Android devices, and attaches to a smartphone with a quick-release clamp or to a tablet case with high-strength bonding tape. The Spike device pairs with your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth. Spike’s laser rangefinder works together with your smartphone or tablet’s camera, GPS and compass.   How do Spike and Survey123 work together? Watch them in action in the video!   How do I create a Survey123 smart form that integrates with my Spike device? Download the released version of the Survey123 for ArcGIS field app for iOS (Android is available in Beta in the Google Play store). Then follow these steps:   Open Survey123 Connect for ArcGIS version 2.5 (or newer) Login Click on Create New Survey and go to Samples Select the Spike sample, create the Survey and publish it Use the survey in your phone with your Spike device to familiarize yourself with the functionality Go  back into your XLSForm and change as appropriate   Basic tips when using Spike:   Download the Spike application from the store  and use it first to ensure that Spike is properly working. Make sure the Bluetooth  connection is working and that you can successfully make measurements using the Spike app alone. Ensure that Survey123 ha permissions to access your photo gallery in the device. You can do this by simply launching a survey with an image question and making sure you can capture a photo using the Survey123 camera. Once you have tested the Spike app and Survey123 camera on its own, test your Spike survey! To measure distances to remove objects, ensure that you capture the photo with Spike having the camera's bulleye pointing directly at the object of interest. If measuring areas or lengths on remote objects: The laser has to hit the surface you plan to measure on. You need to carefully define the alignment of the plane you will measure on or otherwise the measurements will be off. You can only measure  accurately on the plane that the laser hit and for which you did the alignment. For more info, check the Tips for Troubleshooting Measurement Accuracy issues from the ikeGPS website   Known issue: In some iOS11 devices we have observed that the Spike application shows an spinning icon when trying to return to Survey123. You can workaround this problem by going into the Settings of your iPhone/iPad, tapping on the Photos app and disabling all the settings (iCloud Photo Sharing, Summarize Photos) and set the Transfer to Mac or PC to 'Keep Originals'.  We are working towards resolving this issue.   What are the plans for release? We are aiming for February 27, 2018.   NOTE: This functionality was released on February 27 with version 2.6.9 ... View more