My organization (a public transit system) will be conducting surveys on our existing infrastructure (bus stops).
My original plan was to send out the surveyors with a tablet with ArcGIS Collector and Survey123 installed, and a separate GPS unit. The surveyors would select the bus stop in Collector which would open and populate three questions in the Survey123 form, like the unique ID, using a url. The GPS unit will override the tablet's GPS capabilities using a bluetooth connection and the BluetoothGPS app.
The bump I have hit is with Collector.
Collector requires a constant online connection or an enterprise database set-up for offline use, neither of which are available. As of right now, the surveyors could complete the surveys without Collector, but it would be nice to have those pre-populated fields to cut down the rate of human error and save time and effort entering information in those fields for every stop. We have over 5,000 stops that need surveying.
What is an alternative to Collector in this workflow or is there a better workflow?
Note: At this time, I do not have the time or skill set to create a custom data collection app for this project.
Best Answer
I tested Collector for ArcGIS recently and was able to download my map for offline use on an iPad 3 (iOS 9.3.x) and collect fire hydrant locations. I used it with a Dual GPS receiver. No enterprise DB or constant connection was needed and was able to sync back to ArcGIS online once the iPad was back on a wifi connection.
Do be careful which basemap you use within ArcGIS Online, as you may not be presented with the Offline option. I initially tried to use OSM as my basemap but was not presented with the offline option with advanced menu options until I chose an ESRI basemap.