Hello, I'm not sure if I'll be able to explain this well, but we're looking to replace our paper recording system with something digital and were hoping that Survey123 might work. Working on archaeological excavations we work with a number of indexes that all revolve around a central context number (our primary key). We'll have a Context index, so that we can check which is the next number to take, and to give a summary of that context. We'll then have another bigger form for context detail. This is just a 1:1 relationship. There are also additional indexes for photographs, samples taken, and many more, all linked by context number but with a 1:M relationship (one context can have many photos, etc). These are then all usually typed up into spreadsheets, then linked in ArcGIS Pro to a polygon that represents each context, which is either surveyed by GPS, or scanned from a paper plan and digitised.
We've had no problem replicating the main detailed context form in Survey123, and I think we can link it to a Trimble Catalyst GPS using either a geoshape in Survey123, or with Collector (though I'm not sure of the best workflow here). However, we're a bit flummoxed to work out the best solution for the indexes. We need to be able to see which numbers have already been used so as not to duplicate (autonumbers are not an option as they are not always sequential). We would be using mobile devices and so ideally we would have the indexes easily accessible alongside the Survey123 app (all integrated into a complete app would be nice, but I imagine tricky).
I've been looking into all sorts of things, like AppStudio, Integromat, etc, but I just can't work out whether we're better off just having shortcuts to a bog standard Google Sheet for the different indexes, and just using Survey123 for the main form. It would be much nicer, though, if these indexes (or at least the 1:1 context one if nothing else) could be automatically generated from the main form to save on multiple data entry, so perhaps a summary function of some sort, that we could run from a button to allow us to see these as a list, even if it's just a temporary display?
As an aside, could repeats be the way to go for the 1:M indexes? Though certainly for our on-site workflow for the photographs it would easier to fill in the index and it feed back to the main form rather than the other way round, which I suspect s a step too far!
I realise there's lots of questions here, and probably not a lot of clarity, but any pointers would be really appreciated!
Many thanks,
Hen