22 March 2026
Sometimes I feel I end up doing crash course on things that take others have months to work though while it ends up being last minute for me. In some cases, like current project, it is a little self inflicted....just a little
I stumbled across a really nice Survey 123 for for completing surveys similar to one of the bigger projects I work on. Thought utilizing something similar would make the data entry and end of season reports easier. Lots of perks for a digital survey:
- standardize data collection and format
- no legibility issues for trasncription
- output will be easier for reports
- automatic geolocation for mapping later
- one less data entry step
Season may start early this year by a couple weeks putting survey roll out to a couple weeks away....
Actually get the code for the exisiting survey I want to model after...two weeks ago. Gives me less than a month to have it functionally ready...
It's a bit old (has former names for several species) and in need of some updates. Also, very customized to the area it was deployed (i/e. a lot of out of range species options). Format is a bit older so isn't the same as current base files(read: trying to edit breaks things or has wrong file location associations).
Cool...cool...yeah, I'll be fine. Famous last words...
Start trying to adjust the survey to suit my needs. Begin to question why people format things they way they do. Come to the conclusion that many people that design these don't always come from a field data collection background or don't bother to fix known issues. It could be a time constraint thing, but still.
After all the issues and tweaks I needed to make came to light, I just decided to start with a blank form and pull from original. Even random copy/paste was breaking between forms.
On the plus side, after a few hours of work(not sure how I managed this so quickly; I expect it to be very broken after deploying), I have something more aligned with my needs and one of the issues pointed out from original form is fixed. Now I still have more to do but the framwork is there and it needs to be tested. Hopefully what comes out on the other side is actually what I am expecting.
Oddly enough, building a webiste has helped with these forms. Understanding tags and some simple HTML for formatting. Not sure how many bits of bold and color changes I put into current form but it'll look pretty.
I did not have making Survey 123 forms on my card for this year. But, new skills...yay? After years of complaining about Survey 123, maybe I will be enlightend after this..