Using Experience Builder and Survey123 to pass attributes and geometry from one layer to another

ArcGIS Experience Builder

As the dust settles upon the most recent releases of Survey123 and Experience Builder, I wanted to share a major feature enhancement that was born in their wake.

It is now possible to auto-populate a Survey123 form with not only the attributes of a selected feature, but also, with ALL geometry types. This means, with the simple selection of a point, line, or polygon feature within a web map, you can dynamically transfer any or all attributes (including the geometry!) to your survey. This is as close to a GIS magic trick as I’ve seen.

Let me give you an example of how this can revolutionize a workflow.

Scenario: The National Guard has been requested by the state to assist in responding to a wildfire. The Guard’s Geospatial Engineer needs to quickly enter the details related to the event into their own GIS.

Current Workflow: The Geospatial Engineer has been using a survey and the resources included with the Operations Management solution to enter information related to the fire. Although the solution is designed to streamline the entry and management of events, it requires the entry of information that may already be present in another GIS layer. For example, the location of the event requires the manual digitization of the area of interest.

Improved Workflow: The Geospatial Engineer can now use an Experience Builder app to simply select a polygon from an existing web map or reference dataset and auto populate attribute data and geometry into a survey widget and directly into the Guard’s GIS.

Auto populate a survey with the click of a button

In the simple Experience Builder app below, I have a web map containing several ArcGIS Living Atlas Layers. These layers contain frequently updated Extreme Weather Event datasets representing current weather events within the United States. In addition, I have a Survey123 survey that has been added using the Experience Builder survey widget.

How it works

Regardless of the fact that these are completely separate feature layers, Experience Builder allows you to dynamically “connect” them using the send data to this survey setting in the survey widget. Notice that when I click on one of the weather events in the web map, information within that layer AUTOMATICALLY transfers over to my survey. Not only does it transfer attributes, it transfers the polygon geometry as well.

Hopefully you see powerful ways that you can take advantage of this functionality in your workflows. Don’t forget to let us know how you do use it in GeoNet or in a response to this Blog!

About the author

Brandon Armstrong

Brandon Armstrong is a product engineer on the ArcGIS Solutions for Defense team and was formerly a product engineer on the ArcGIS Survey123 team. Interests include working with customers to understand their needs and utilizing the integration of mobile applications with GIS. In the non working hours, hobbies include exploring nature, discovering music, and watching sports.

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