The Center for GIS at Towson University recently partnered with a government agency to create forms in ArcGIS Survey123 for on-site environmental compliance inspections. While Survey123 can be used to quickly and easily set up a custom form or survey that captures the user’s location, this particular inspection form needed to fit into an existing workflow. To accommodate these needs, the Center for GIS explored some of the more advanced functionalities of Survey123.

Tips for leveraging complex workflows in Suvery123

For those anyone looking to potentially leverage Survey123 for a more complex workflow, here are some of the highlights.

  • While you can publish forms through the Survey123 browser-based app, we realized pretty quickly that we would need to use the Survey123 Connect app. Survey123 Connect allows users to publish their survey from an XLSForm, which allows for greater customization and the ability to incorporate more advanced logic. We used this to manipulate and reformat date and time information, concatenate values to create identifiers and set up picklists informed by previous selections.
  • Another specification of the existing workflow was that inspectors need to be able to record new findings in addition to revisiting findings that were captured during a previous inspection. We were able to accomplish this by utilizing the Survey123 Collect functionality for adding new findings as new survey responses, and the Inbox functionality for revisiting previously submitted findings.
  • We structured our data so that core pieces of information like type, category and spatial location were stored as a parent record in a feature class (i.e., they would not change and would not need to be re-entered for each inspection), while additional information specific to that month’s inspection — like inspection date, status, and photo — would be stored as records in a related table using a repeat. Repeats in Survey123 work by allowing for the creation of records that are stored in a related table to the parent feature class. In the form, the first set of questions capture core information and location, while the second set of questions (the monthly inspection log) feed into the related table and capture information specific to that inspection. When inspectors return the following month, they can navigate to that existing finding using the Survey123 Inbox and add a new entry to the inspection log.
  • Finally, we configured our form for offline use, as some of the inspection areas can have limited connectivity. This consisted of three main considerations.
    • As the detected location of the device is not always reliable or precise enough, we added floorplan and other contextual layers to the map question, allowing the Inspector to review and manually place their location on the map as needed.
    • We configured offline maps. Not only does this help in cases of limited connectivity, but it also speeds up the inspection process so that inspectors aren’t waiting for maps to load when they want to create a new entry.
    • Finally, we instructed inspectors to utilize the Draft option to save survey responses locally when necessary. Once an internet connection is re-established, draft non-compliances can be reviewed and submitted.

While creation of this inspection form was not without its challenges, we ultimately developed a form that meets the demands of an existing workflow and serves to enhance efficiency and data integrity for environmental compliance inspections.