Latest Contributions by IsmaelChivite

[Last updated October 5 ,2019] A pretty common question, so we thought we would clarify this a bit. Lets start with a simple table: Survey123 for ArcGIS Collector for ArcGIS GeoForm Data collection style Form Centric Map Centric Form Centric Supports capturing new data Yes (points, lines, polygons) Yes (points, lines, polygons) Yes (points only) Supports editing existing data Yes Yes No Supports deleting existing data No Yes No Smart forms Yes (xForms) No No Supports reverse geocoding Yes No No Works offline Yes Yes Yes* Can work with versioned geodatabase layers No Yes Yes Can work with related records Yes Yes No Supports external GNSS receivers Yes Yes No Supports integration with Spike Yes No No Supports integration via webhooks Yes No No Supports anonymous access Yes No Yes Platforms iOS, Android, Windows (7,8,10), Mac, Linux, Web iOS, Android And Windows 10 with Classic Web Technical Support Esri & Community Esri & Community Esri & Community Developer opportunities Yes No Yes Lets get into the details: Form centric vs Map centric: Survey123 for ArcGIS is a form centric data collection app. Just like GeoForms it is all about questions! With Survey123 and GeoForms you can certainly capture geographic information, but geo is just one more question in the questionnaire, and not the center of everything. That is why we call them form-centric.  Collector for ArcGIS is a map centric app: it opens maps that you can use to capture geographic information. Of course, with Collector you can also capture attributes associated with those features, but the map comes first and that is where the app excels, the form capabilities are secondary. Supports editing: Survey123 and Collector can edit existing features. This is critical for inspection workflows were a particular asset is visited again and again. GeoForm is just about capturing new data. One relevant limitation in terms of editing is attachments. Collector is the only Esri mobile app that supports editing of attachments in GIS Features. Supports deleting existing data: Simple concept. Only Collector can do that. Smart Forms: Forms in Survey123 for ArcGIS can be quite sophisticated. In fact, if you need to convert a paper form into a digital one Survey123 brings the most features for you. Collector for ArcGIS and GeoForm allow you to edit attributes but the rules you can apply to a form are quite simple (choice lists and basic question types).  Skipping questions, applying expressions to pre-calculate and validate responses, presenting the form in different languages, gridded layouts, multiple pages, capturing signatures, etc. are some of these unique smart form features in Survey123.  Survey123 uses the XLSForm specification to bring forms to life. Supports reverse geocoding: Reverse geocoding automatically calculates the closes address or closest asset ID based on the current location of your device. Using reverse geocode you save users from having to type a ZIP Code, City or entire address if they already have defined a location in the map. Offline: Survey123 and Collector can work while disconnected from the network and sync any changes when online. Offline capabilities are also supported in GeoForm, as long as you never close your browser.  The offline capabilities in GeoForm work reasonably well when you have spotty connectivity, but Survey123 and Collector are much more reliable for offline use.  When working with Collector, you must explicitly enable your map projects for offline use. In the case of Survey123, all projects work offline by default (you do not need to do anything special), except for map questions, which need to be explicitly configured for offline use. Can work with versioned geodatabase layers: A no for Survey123. In the case of Collector and GeoForm, you can work on top of a versioned layer, although you cannot switch the version from the mobile app. Conflict resolution and version re-conciliation are also not exposed through the apps; they remain an ArcGIS Desktop workflow. Can work with related records: The geodatabase model supports a powerful model for relationships. You can use both Collector and Survey123 to work with related records. For example, you can add and update related records to an existing feature. In the case of Collector, you can also delete related records. Supports external GNSS receivers: Survey123 and Collector can be complemented with external GNSS receivers. This enables high accuracy collection for spatial data, even in 3D. Additionally, both Survey123 and Collector let you store GNSS metadata as attributes of your GIS features. In the case of Survey123, you can also leverage this GNSS metadata while in the field, to support data validation rules.  Collector is designed to work in different datums, whereas Survey123 is limited to WGS84.  Spike: Spike is a laser-measurement solution that helps you measure lengths and areas all from a photo. At this point in time only Survey123 supports out of the box integration with Spike. Supports integration via webhooks: Webhooks are a powerful mechanism to integrate Survey123 within larger business workflows. Though a webhook can you can automate tasks after a record has been added or updated from the Survey123 apps. For example, you can automate an e-mail notification, instantly load your Survey123 records into an Office 365 spreadsheet or have your attachments be processed by Google Vision to enrich your GIS attributes with image labels.  Survey123 connectors are included with Microsoft Flow and Integromat. Anonymous access: GeoForms, Survey123 and Collector all can use your ArcGIS identity (named user account) in order to secure access to your data. Using named users also helps with QA/QC workflows because ArcGIS will help you understand what  gets submitted by who and when. GeoForm and Survey123, can also be accessed anonymously.  This means that people without an ArcGIS identity can submit data with them.  This is particularly useful for crowd-sourcing scenarios. To learn more about using public surveys with Survey123 you can read https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2016/11/10/getting-started-with-public-surveys  Developer opportunities: Survey123 supports developers in several ways. First of all, the source code of Survey123 is available as part of AppStudio for ArcGIS under the Apache 2.0 license. This allows developers to take the app and make it their own. You can simply white-label it, or extend it with custom functionality. Additionally, developers can automate certain Survey123 tasks such as Feature Report generation through the ArcGIS Python API.  In the case of web forms, JavaScript developers can also use the Survey123 web form API to embed and work with Survey123 web forms within their own web applications.   The source code of GeoForm is also available for download. Web/JavaScript developers can do wonders with it. Next lets move away from details and present some use cases: Say you want to setup a quick crowd-sourcing exercise so anyone in the city can submit to you the location of stuff that interests you. That is a good fit for GeoForms and Survey123 Web Forms. Keep the questionnaire simple, make it available in the web so anyone can quickly fill it out and submit interesting observations to you.  Nothing to download, quick to setup.   Say you want to capture assets in the field and you want people to be able to work while disconnected. Forget about GeoForms then, because working with it in true disconnected environments will get on your nerves. You should consider Collector or Survey123. Your decision will be driven by whether your workflow is map centric or form centric. If this is all about maps, then you should go with Collector, but if you need complex forms a better choice will be Survey123.  Think about the following: Damage Assessments: Typically a form with lots of questions capturing the location of the asset damaged. Most likely a form-centric workflow. Population Census: Fairly sophisticated forms during enumeration: Go Survey123. Pre-enumeration workflows: go Collector. Inspections: Inspection records are typically persisted in a table related to the asset you are inspecting.  This allows you to keep one feature for your asset, and then use a one to many relationship to keep track of inspections or activities on that asset over time. There are many inspection workflows where Collector is a great choice: You can look at all your assets in the map, then add extra rows into the inspections table.  If the inspection form is simple, and in many cases it is, Collector will do well. In cases where the inspection form is more complex, the smart form features of Survey123 will come handy. You can bring all your assets and their related records into Survey123 and handle inspections that way. Survey allows you to display all assets in a list or map so you can find your assets quickly before opening the inspection form. Map inventories: There are some specific workflows where a map-centric approach is ideal. Say for example you are mapping water infrastructure. Typically, you will want to map the meter, the lateral line and the elbow. That is three assets in three different layers... Collector and its map-centric approach is perfect.  Now say you are working on mapping trees, or hydrants... The simplicity of a form to capture attributes and location quickly may make you lean towards a form-centric approach. There are some cases that are no-brainers, and many others where one could go one way or the other.  In the end, for these cases in the middle it is a matter of personal preference. Collector and Survey give a choice. If you are of the opinion that choices are bad, flip a coin and go your best luck.  If you want the best, try both approaches and work closely with people who will do the job in the field to learn from them what they prefer. It is no coincidence that Esri is providing multiple mobile applications for field data capture: there are many different different field data collection scenarios and one size does not fit them all. By now you may be thinking... well I want it all: Something that runs anywhere, offline and with great tools to edit both maps, their attributes and smart forms.  Absolutely having all of it may be a stretch, but you will see some of these features converge over time in Collector and Survey123.  You will see Collector incorporate some more intelligence in the attribute editor; and you will see Survey123 for ArcGIS enhance its mapping capabilities.  It is also very common for people to combine the two applications. This can render excellent results in some scenarios and here are some examples: Collector and Survey123 for ArcGIS. City of Rancho Cucamonga. https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2017/05/31/blog-high-accuracy-gps-data-collection-oh-my  https://resources.esri.ca/ann-stories/smart-digital-strategies-for-sustainable-forest-management  The above will give you some hints, but my recommendation is that you put some time into experiencing the different options. Only with first-hand experience you will be able to make the right choice.  At the end of the day, keep in mind that both Collector as well Survey123 and GeoForm are all great options and they have proven to be quite effective in many different situations. Very often, it is not about the tool, is more about you.  The more you know these tools in detail the more you can get out of them.  There are some workflows where the choice is a no brainer but for many that fall somewhere in the middle, whatever choice you make will be a good one. It will often all boil down to you getting the best of the tool you chose. ... View more

  Updated September 2021. New HTML style syntax and renewed screenshots.   Here are 6 quick tips to make your surveys look better using Survey123 Connect: Thumbnails, Titles, Images, Styles, Label HTML formatting and emojis.   1) USING A SURVEY THUMBNAIL The thumbnail is important to visually differentiate your surveysbin the Survey123 mobile app gallery.  This is particularly important if field crews download more than one survey.  You can change the thumbnail image of your survey from the Details tab of your survey in Connect. Alternatively, you can also change the thumbnail from the Survey123 website or directly in the item details page of the Form item in ArcGIS.   2) SETTING A SURVEY TITLE The name and the title of your survey are different things. The name is just the name of the Form item. The title is what users of your form will see in the Survey123 field and web apps.   In Survey123 Connect, the survey title is controlled through the form_title property in the Settings worksheet of your XLSForm.      3) USING IMAGES IN YOUR SURVEY It is not just a matter of making your surveys look good, which is important... images in your survey can help people make the right calls when filling out information. For example, say you are creating a Wolf Reporting survey. Well... you will want to make sure people can tell the difference between a wolf and a coyote. You may think you know the difference, but lots of people don't. Here is an example showing how an image, for informational purposes, has been embedded into a form.      To add an image into a form using Survey123 Connect, you first need to copy your image into the survey's media folder. Then, you reference it in XLSForm: In Survey123 Connect, while previewing your survey, click on the Files option in the side bar. This will open your survey's directory, where you will find the media folder. In your XLSForm, add the name of your image file, including the extension, into the media::image column. In the example below, I added an image to a note question with no label.     You can also use the media::audio column to associate audio files with questions, groups and notes in the survey worksheet. You can also associate them with choices in the choices worksheet!   4) USING STYLES Styles help you control the colors of basic elements in your survey. You can open the style dialog in Connect by clicking on the painter's palette icon in the right vertical bar.   In the example below I changed the background and text color in the form to create a dark theme.   5) LABEL HTML FORMATTING   You can use HTML formatting to highlight words in your questions, display warning notes as red and much more. Here is one example where we use a note to hint that values in questions above are not adding to 100. Note that we use HTML formatting to display the warning in red.  We also bold some words in the questions.   The complete list of HTML tags accepted is listed in our style your survey help topic. Some common things you may want to do: Center the label of a group or note: <div style="text-align:center">Centered label</div> Change color of text in a label: <div style="color:red">Label in red</div> Change the background color of a group: <div style="color:white; background-color:blue">Label with blue background</div> 6) Emojis   I bet you did not know about this one. You can use emojis in your forms. In the example below, I took weather emojis from EmojiMedia and pasted them into the Labels of choices in a select_one question. Fun!   ... View more

Last updated July 24, 2018 When you create a new survey using Survey123 Connect, a new feature service is created on the fly on your behalf. Some of you wonder how the different XLSForm types of questions in your form are mapped into esri field types in the feature service.   In this post I will describe how XLSForm types are mapped into esri fields by default, but we will also describe how you can take control and tell Survey123 how to best do the mapping and even add fields in the database that are not shown as questions in your form. Default mappings: The type of XLSForm question is defined in the Type column in your Choices worksheet. Here are the default mappings to esri field types. XLSForm Question Esri Field Type (default mapping) integer esriFieldTypeInteger decimal esriFieldTypeDouble text esriFieldTypeString select_one esriFieldTypeString select_multiple esriFieldTypeString note Not applicable geopoint esriFieldTypeGeometry (point, WGS84, 4326) geotrace Not implemented geoshape Not implemented date esriFieldTypeDate time esriFieldTypeDate dateTime esriFieldTypeDate image Attachment audio Attachment barcode esriFieldTypeString video Not implemented calculate esriFieldTypeString acknowledge Not implemented Controlling mappings: Survey123 Connect v.1.0.1.135 and newer include support for the bind::esri:fieldType and bind:esri:fieldLength columns in the survey worksheet.  Adding values in these columns is optional, but extremely useful when you want to control exactly the type of field to be created in ArcGIS for your survey questions. Some question types are a no brainer. For example, if you have an integer or decimal question, Survey123 Connect will automatically translate them into esriFieldTypeInteger and esriFieldTypeDouble respectively.  You will probably not want to overwrite that behavior. However, select_one questions are trickier. Up until v 1.0.135 Connect would always map select_one questions as esriFieldTypeString. If you happen to use a choice list that stores integers then you will want to be explicit, and force your select_one to be mapped into a geodatabase column of type integer. The same applies to other questions such as select_multiple and calculates. So far Survey123 Connect would always map them to esriFieldTypeString columns, but now you can have more control. The list of values supported in the bind::esri.fieldType column are: esriFieldTypeString   esriFieldTypeDate     esriFieldTypeIntegerr esriFieldTypeSingle esriFieldTypeGUID esriFieldTypePointZ esriFieldTypeDouble null One important warning is that Survey123 Connect will not be able to validate your choices. For example, if you have a calculation expression that returns a string and you set the calculate question to esriFieldTypeInteger… well… things will not go well when the end user tries to submit the data.  The same applies to select_ones: say that among all your choices one of them is a string and you mapped the question to esriFieldTypeInteger… that is a perfect recipe for a disaster because ArcGIS will not be able to cast the selected string into an integer value. The null value was added in version 2.4 and allows you to add a question to your survey that has no representation in the feature service. There are multiple scenarios where this could be handy. For example, say you want to ask for the year in which a building was built (date type of question with a year appearance), but you want to actually store the age of the building. Well, then you set the yearbuilt question as null in the esriFieldType column, and then you use a hidden type of question with a calculation to persist in the feature service the age.  Check out https://community.esri.com/groups/survey123/blog/2017/10/26/the-power-of-nothing blog post for a more detailed discussion on the null type. The second column that Connect now supports is called bind::esri:fieldLength. This column is useful to restrict the length of fields as you can imagine.  It really has a double effect. First, it sets the maximum length of the field in the geodatabase, but additionally, it will limit the number of characters that the user will be able to input in the question. For example, say that you want people to input a US ZIP code. We know that ZIP codes are made out of 5 numeric values. So if you set the length of the field to 5, then users will not be able to input 6 or more characters in the app. You may also want to use bind::esri:fieldLength to expand the number of characters allowed in a text question. By default text fields are mapped into esriFieldString columns with 255 characters, but what it you want users to enter up to 1000? You would simply set the value in this column to 1000. The bind:esri.fieldLength column is optional as well and makes more sense to use when using questions that will be stored as esriFieldTypeInteger , esriFieldTypeString  or esriFieldTypeDouble. Adding columns without adding questions in the form: Say you want to add fields in your feature service, but not show them in the form. Say, even, that you want to add fields and put values in them without the user having to do anything. There are a few techniques for this: Calculate: You can use a calculate type of question. Calculate questions are never shown in the form, but we will create a field in the feature service for them. A calculate always requires you to set an expression in the Calculation column.  The advantage of calculates is that you can pre-populate values and these values can be dynamic depending on answers in the form. By default, all calculates are mapped as esriFieldTypeString columns, but you can use the bind::esri:fieldType column to use your own mappings. Hidden: Like calculates, it is a type of question. Hidden questions are in fact very close to calculates, except that they do not require you to fill the calculation column. You could for example leave the value of the field blank, or use a default.  Like with Calculates, Hidden questions are by default mapped to esriFieldTypeString, but you can overwrite that. Relevant: Use a relevant expression that always evaluates to false and your question will not show up in the form. However, Survey123 will always create the corresponding field in the feature service. This is easy to do, but has two disadvantages: you cannot pre-populate values in the field and it adds an overhead to the form because we need to evaluate the expression in the relevant column.  One unique use case that you can satisfy with relevant expression is when you want to create a new field and associate a coded value domain with it in ArcGIS. In this case, using a relevant is your only choice. Lets be clear, this is a hack. A bad hack! When using a Calculate or a Hidden question, the bind::esri:fieldType column described in this post will come very handy.  Even when using relevants, setting your own mapping may make sense when using Select_One questions. ... View more

Who is capturing data? Survey123 will always store the username used to capture data. This is achieved through Editor Tracking, which is enabled by default in every Survey you publish.  We use this information to generate the Participation charts in the survey123 web site, but you can also look at who created an individual entry by simply looking at the attribute table (Data Tab in the survey123 web site) If someone in your organization were to edit the data submitted after the fact, the Editor field will reflect the name of that person as well. You will know who captured the data in the field and who, if anyone, edited the data once submitted.  The Edit date field also comes automatically and refers to the time when the data was edited. If you are interesting in capturing the email of the person that submitted the data handy, you can also add in your form a question of type email as described in the metadata section of the XLSForm help. When is data captured?  This one is a bit tricky. When you enable Editor Tracking, ArcGIS will keep track of when the data is received. Although we hide the field in the Survey123 web site, you will be able to see that field if you load the survey data (the feature service) into ArcGIS Pro, or the ArcGIS Map Viewer in your browser. But do not get fooled: the Creator_Date field will not tell you when the data was captured… it simply tells you when it made it into ArcGIS… when it was written into the feature service. If you really want to know when the data was captured, you will need to add a new type of question into your survey spreadsheet. This question will actually not be visible to the end user. The XLSForm spec describes it as part of the Metadata section of your survey and is called ‘start’. It is actually quite simple: just add a start question as in the next screenshot: You can add this question at the beginning, the end or pretty much anywhere in between. Again, the question will actually not show up in your form… but the survey123 app will capture the time when the user started the survey and that bit of information will be persisted when submitted. If you use the question type ‘end’, we will always capture when the user finished the survey.  Having both can be useful if you want to measure how much time it took to fill out the form. When using the start and end type of questions, your feature service will immediately become time-aware. Simply take your survey data into the ArcGIS.com Map Viewer and a slider bar will show at the bottom so you can animate data over time. Where is data captured? By now you know that you can add geopoint questions to your survey. By default the Survey123 app tries to capture the location of your device. If your device in fact provides a location, it will be used as the default location. Typically, a user can overwrite that location by tapping on the map.   Sometimes you may not want the end user to be able to change the location and go with what the device provides.  If that is the case simply flag the question in your spreadsheet as readonly.  The map control will still show up, but the user will not be able to move the location.   Alternatively you may want to decide to hide the map control all together. That is possible too… simply create a survey with no geopoint questions at all.    Survey123 will still capture the location for you… if provided by the device. ... View more