introduction to Collector for ArcGIS

introduction to Collector for ArcGIS

Kylie: So, thanks for joining us this afternoon for an introduction to Collector for ArcGIS. My name’s Kylie Donia. This is Carol Ghostine. We’re both product engineers on the Collector team, so what that means for those of you who don’t know is we do pretty much anything other than the production code. So, whether it’s testing or designing or working on the workflows and helping customers be successful through documentation, those are the kinds of roles we fill. So, we’re excited to look through this material with you guys today. We do ask that if you have questions, please hold them to the end [00:00:30] so that we can make sure we have time to get through the material and then give your questions the attention they deserve. We’re going to start out today looking at a quick look at what Collector is, a product overview, talking about why it’s important and why we think it’s such a great app. We’ll then look at some of the workflows in which Collector is commonly used and those include some of the things you’ll see here later on the slide. We’ll look at capturing assets using Collector. We’ll look at how you make a data collection map for use in Collector and also how you can perform inspections and work offline [00:01:00] with the app. We’ll look at the high-accuracy data collection workflows as well before giving you a look at what’s coming next and what to expect from Collector in the rest of this year. We’ll finish up with some Q&A to make sure if you have questions we haven’t answered during the presentation that we get a chance to answer those for you. So, Collector for ArcGIS is a map-centric data collection field app. And what that means is that it’s an app designed for doing data collection while in the field out at the [00:01:30] assets you’re actually working with and you can use the map while you’re doing this work. Collector works with web maps, so that means we’re going to leverage the investments you’ve made in web maps and the ArcGIS platform, whether that’s ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise and let you do your data collection work using those. Collector does work offline when there’s little to no connectivity and it even works with high-accuracy data so you can get highly accurate special locations that really get your data to be as stellar as you know it can be. [00:02:00] So, a couple of the common workflows in which we see Collector use are that of capturing assets and observation and also that of performing inspections or asset maintenance. Now, when we’re talking about capturing assets and observation, we’re talking about taking information that you have in the field and bringing it into your GIS or improving your GIS. For example, you might be building your asset inventory. You might have, for example, signposts around your [00:02:30] city that you’re responsible for and you want to make sure they’re accounted for in your GIS. And it can also be used to ground-truth data you already have in your GIS. Perhaps you already know where those signs are, but you’re not sure exactly how accurate they are. So, you could take Collector with you to the field to make sure that those are actually placed in the correct locations. Another example would be when you’re in a park and you’re replacing some bulbs in your light poles, you might want to make sure that all those light poles are actually accurate in your GIS accounted for so [00:03:00] that you know the assets that you have. Now, when you’re doing an asset inventory, as you can see here in the final picture of hydrant collection, you can use a high accuracy receiver and that’s going to improve the accuracy with which you can collect your data. In this case, with the setup, he has there, that hydrant that he’s collecting will have a position known to about two centimeters. Now, who here in the room thinks they’ll probably be using Collector in order to capture assets and observation? Okay, quite a number, probably [00:03:30] around half.

And the other main workflow that we do see in Collector is that of inspections. So, this is taking your assets and doing your asset maintenance or your management life cycle with them. There are two common ways in which inspections are done. The first of those is to update the asset itself. Perhaps you want to change the fields and make sure it’s correct and up to date. But the other one that we often see as needing to maintain historic records. So, perhaps you need to know every time that fire hydrant was inspected. And in that case, [00:04:00] you can use a related table and related records in order to have all your historic inspections attached to the feature itself. So, here again, like I mentioned earlier, you’re taking advantage of infrastructure that you already have in place for your GIS. And in this case, your investment you’ve made in the geodatabase. The geodatabase model that you’ve created is what you’re going to actually take with you to the field. So, for example, let’s look at hydrants again. You may have your hydrants managed as assets and a feature layer, and then you could have inspections in a one-to-many [00:04:30] relationship off of those hydrants. And all of that is supported in Collector and will work for you when you’re in the field. So, I’m going to turn it over to Carol now to do a demo showing how the app works and when you actually see Collector as well as looking at how you can create the maps that are going to support these fields workflows.

Carol: All right. Thank you, Kylie. So, today I’m going to give you a brief walkthrough of Collector and show you how easy it is to capture your assets. I’ll touch on some [00:05:00] enhancements that we’ve made to improve the user experience within the app and finally show you how you can create a map to use within Collector. All right. So, I’m going to switch over to my device. All right. So, I’m already signed in to Collector, and I have a series of maps here and I’ve access to them for data collection. Now, you’re probably wondering how I got those maps in there. And in order for a map to show up in Collector, it has to meet three requirements. It has to be a web map, has to have one or more editable [00:05:30] feature layers and has to be shared with a group. So, you need to make sure that the person signed in to Collector is a part of the group where you’re sharing those maps to. Now, today we’re going to capture some assets in one of the parks in downtown San Diego. So, I’m going to choose this San Diego parks assessment map. All right. So, let’s talk a little bit about this map. Now, this map is a vector basemap. And what that means to the user is that it renders much quicker. If you can see as I pan and zoom around this map, [00:06:00] the labels show up. The cartography is much crisper here. Now, the other thing that this map we now support in Collector is what we call map rotation. So, as you see me turning the map, the labels adjust with the way I’m rotating. And you’ll also notice that there’s a compass in the top right corner. So, if I tap on that compass, it orients me back to North. Now, the other nice thing that we’ve added to the new Collector is this compass support. So, say I need to go over here, but I don’t really know exactly how to get there. [00:06:30] So, if I click on this compass tool, it shows me my bearing and distance to that location. All right. So, some other ways you can interact with the map is through this tool in the top right corner in the overflow. So, you’ve got here your “Layers tool,” “Bookmarks,” “Basemap,” and “Measure.” So, if I tap on this “Layers tool,” I can toggle on and off my layers. So, you know, if I don’t need to see everything I can turn off only the important ones I need for my collection. So, my GIS admin has provided a [00:07:00] bookmark in the map that will orient me to the areas I need to do my work. So, I’m going to go to my “Bookmarks” here and tap on the waterfront park. So, you’ll notice I have some features here already on the map and they kind of really close to one another. So, I may need a bit of visual verification of what I’m collecting. So, I can switch over to a different basemap. And I’m going to choose “Imagery.” And this will help let me know where I am in relation to my other assets. Now, the other thing I just wanted to mention [00:07:30] here in the new Collector is we support labeling. So, when I collected this polygon feature here, the playground, when I submitted the feature, it automatically added that attribute for the playground as a labeling to this feature collection.

All right. So, how do you collect in Collector? Well, it’s pretty simple. You tap on this plus button, right? And then it’ll show you a list to you of what we call feature types or feature templates. Now, the feature types is what the GIS admin creates and adds to the [00:08:00] map to optimize the mobile workers experience. The other thing that I want to mention here is Collector supports, points, lines, and polygons. All right. So, pretend we’re here in the park, and we need to collect a bench. So, I’m going to tap on this “Bench” feature. It’ll drop a point at my current location. Now, I can slide the panel all the way up and use that whole real estate to fill out the form, or I can slide it all the way down and focus on the map. And for [00:08:30] those of you who’ve used the old Collector, the classic Collector, you weren’t able to interact like that. Either you had the map, or you had to switch to the form. And here you can see that you can get to both at the same time, which is quite nice. All right. So, now we’re going to start our collection. So, I’m going to put some information into my form. I’m going to say I’m at waterfront park. And this is a coded value domain. The condition of the bench needs repair, and the inspection date is today’s date. And I’m going to put some notes in [00:09:00] here. “Paint is wearing” and tap “Done.” Okay. So, you may also want to add a photo, or you can add a video attachment, or you could record some audio and attach that to your collection. Now, today, I’m going to collect the park bench. So, Kylie’s going to play the role of the park bench today. All right. Beautiful. So, we’re going to use that picture. [00:09:30] All right. So, now I’ve specified my attributes that I want to collect associated with the bench, and I’ve attached the photo. And I’m going to submit that. All right. So, happens now? Where does all this data go? So, when you hit “Submit,” it’s sending that feature we just collected to a feature layer in either ArcGIS Online or Enterprise. And now that data is available to the rest of the organization to use in view. All right. So, that was the basic workflow for collecting a point. And I did mention before that we also support line and polygons. [00:10:00] And one of the ways you can collect a line is by [inaudible 00:10:04]. Tap on the feature, and then you can simply start walking, and as you keep walking, you tap “Add point,” and that adds your location. It will add a vertex at that location independently. Now, if I’m walking a trail or a sidewalk that has an irregular feature and I need to collect that, I can use what we call streaming. And streaming is found in this overflow menu here, in the right corner. And what that allows me to do [00:10:30] is it allows me to keep walking, and it records my positions automatically. So, I don’t need to be even looking at Collector. I could have that backgrounded, and it’ll just keep dropping a point based on either my time or my distance that I set up in my app settings. So, when I’m done, I’ve got my geometry, and then I can submit that. So, that’s a couple of ways that you can do more than just point collection in Collector. So, that was just a basic overview of the use of the app. Now, the other thing I wanted to show you is how you make a [00:11:00] map. So, let’s switch over to [inaudible 00:11:02].

Alright. So, this is the process of what a typical GIS admin may want to do to create a map for use in Collector. And this is like a quick way for you to get going. So, basically, two things are needed here. You have to add a feature layer to your map, and you have to share it with your group. And I mentioned that at the beginning. So, here I am an ArcGIS Online, and I’m [00:11:30] going to create a feature layer. And the same workflow applies to Enterprise. Now, of course, you can create one of these feature loads using a desktop Workflow from Pro on ArcMap, but we’re going to use this option here. All right. So, I’m going to select “Feature Layer.” And you’ll notice here on the left side is we have a wide variety of industries that have pre-configured templates. So, depending upon your organization or your industry, hopefully, you’ll be able to find something here that, you know, you can get started with. [00:12:00] So, I’m going to show you just the most basic template we have here under “Build Layer.” So, you can create a template with just lines polys or all three, and then you can build that and customize it depending upon your project needs. Now, we’ve just had an earthquake, two earthquakes actually, last week here in California, and hopefully you weren’t here when that happened. But anyway, so we need to create a damage assessment map. So, I’m going to go to the “Public safety” container and select the damage assessment template. [00:12:30] So, you’ll notice here it creates my layers. And then, for those of you using a high accuracy workflow, you can enable this option here. And If you’re capturing using the GPS, this will record all of your GPS metadata that’s coming in from the GPS, such as what’s your accuracy, what’s your fix type, etc. Okay. So, now I’m going to define my extent and [00:13:00] continue on. All right. So, I’ll give this feature layer a name. Just call it “damage” for now and select “Done.” Okay. How many of you have renamed it the same thing? Let’s call it “123.” All right. So, what’s happening now is a new feature layer is being generated. It’s not an empty feature layer. It has all the symbology predefined. It’s got all the attributes and all the configuration you need to do for doing a damage assessment. [00:13:30] All right. So, now that’s still generating. All right. All right. It’s created. Cool. All right. So, that’s our feature layer. So, what do I do now? I need to add that to a web map. Okay. So, you add that to a new map. And again, this is a pre-configured, and you can continue to augment [00:14:00] this as necessary. So, you can hopefully, if you’ve played around with the map, feel like you know how to do all this stuff so you can change your base map, you can change your extent, you can rename your layers, change your symbology, whatever you need to do to optimize this for your project needs. So, what I need to do now is save this map. So, we’ll save it. [00:14:30] Okay. Sorry. We need to put a tag. All right. So, now it’s saved. So, the last thing you need to do before you can send this out to your group of people who are going to go out to the field is to share it. And you’ll need to share it with a group that your work is going to be a part of. So, I’ll share it to this group, and he hit “Done.” And then, I’ll also update the sharing permission so that they can also [00:15:00] access and edit the data. So, that’s how simple it is to actually create a map and deploy it for use within Collector. Back to you, Kylie.

Kylie: Great. Thanks, Carol. So, that was a lot of information, right? We got to see a whole bunch of information about not only how we use Collector, but how you can prepare your own data for use in Collector. So, what I want to do now is follow up on the things the demo touched [00:15:30] upon because there was a lot there. So, the first thing is this conceptual workflow of how you use Collector. So, the first thing you need to do is create a feature layer that you’re going to use to collect your data. That’s what you saw where Carol had all the types defined. That’s where that information will come from. You can do this using ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise. You’re going to then add your layer to a web map. Once you’ve added that, as Carol mentioned, you need to share that map and layers to a group, and then it will be available in [00:16:00] Collector. So, let’s look at that in a little bit more detail. So, Collector, as a configurable mobile app. It is brought to life by the layers that you put in it. The feature layer is almost like one of the main settings of the app. Collector, when you load in a damage assessment layer like Carol just made, becomes a damage assessment app. When you load a layer of hydrants, it’s going to become a hydrant inspection app. The layers that you put into your map alter the experience in the app and customize it for your users. [00:16:30] Now, the layers you include can be hosted feature layers in either ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise, or they can be ArcGIS Server feature services. So, the really interesting thing about using an ArcGIS Server feature service through an Enterprise geodatabase is that we’re going to support the Enterprise geodatabase transaction model. What this means is if you have assets where multiple people might be editing the same thing at the same time, you’re going to be able to take advantage of the geodatabase [00:17:00] model for versioning to reduce the conflicts that you experience. It’s also going to allow you to do reconciling and posting in order to choose which of those edits you want to carry forward and which of those you’re going to leave behind. Now, if you’re working in a hosted feature layer, the last edit in will win, just something to keep in mind there. Now, you can use these maps offline as well, and when they’re coming from an Enterprise geodatabase, a different version is going to be created per user, so that’s [00:17:30] always going to happen for you behind the scenes. You can create these layers ArcGIS Pro, and when you’re there, you’re going to create a new future class and use the share to share it as a feature layer through either ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise.

Your other option for creating these layers is to create them in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise using feature layer templates. And that’s the workflow that Carol was showing, right? And you get all these great industry-focused templates or even the one where you can start from scratch. And one of the things I really want to emphasize about [00:18:00] these templates is that they are completely customizable. So, once you’ve chosen one, don’t think of it as your final template, think of it as your starting template. You can go in, and you can add layer or add fields into that layer. You can rename, you can even add coded value domains, we call them lists in there, of choices that are going to show up as you saw in the app as a pick list where the user doesn’t have to type but can choose one of the things that you’ve put in place. Now, also, when you’re working with your future layer, you can set up some properties on it that are [00:18:30] going to further configure the experience for your users. We didn’t really look at it in the demo, but it’s also going to help get Collector to be used on your data the way you want it used. For example, you can configure the editing capabilities that are available. If you don’t want users to be able to delete features, don’t let them, if you want them to only be able to add a feature and not to change ones that are already there, that’s also up to you. In addition, you can set up some operations such as editor tracking [00:19:00], and what that’s going to do is going to record who created and who last edited each feature making use of who they are logged into Collector has. And you can do all of the display things that you’ve seen in the map viewer before. So, again, Collector is working with a web map. And so, what that means is when you’re authoring that web map, the experience you’ve used in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise before to create your web maps, those are the things you’re going to do to create that map for Collector. Okay. Once we have our layer created, [00:19:30] we’re going to add it to a web map. Carol mentioned this, but we want to make sure you know in order to use your map in Collector to get it to appear, you do need to have at least one editable feature layer. And that makes sense, right? It’s Collector, it’s for collecting data. If there’s nothing editable, you wouldn’t need to be using it in this particular app. As part of creating your map, you can also set up some settings on the map. For example, if your users need to be able to search and find particular assets or information in your map, they can do so. And the [00:20:00] form that you saw in Collector that Carol was filling out with the attribute information about the bench she was collecting, that’s configured by you configuring the pop-up. Form, pop-up, same concept. You configure, set up what you want included in those fields, and then Collector will honor that work that you’ve done through the web map.

Now, optionally, you can include reference data. For example, if when your field workers go out into the field, and they’re working in that park, there’s other data that you already have about it. You can have that loaded so they can see it. Even if [00:20:30] they can’t edit it, you can include additional data for them to reference while they do their work. Now, once you have your map ready, you need to share it with your mobile workers via groups. For that map to show up and Collector, it does need to have editable data and be shared with a group. And then you’re ready to use your map and Collector as you saw Carol do. You can go in, open your map, have your layers appear, and you just get to go start collecting. [00:21:00] But there’s more Collector can do, right? So, that’s the basic workflow and how to capture data. But some of the time when you’re a field worker, you’re working somewhere without a good data connection, and you’re offline. Collector can handle that for you. Your workers can take your data to the field, edit it, change it, and work with it, and then bring it back to you. And so, we’re going to do now is I’m going to turn it over to Carol again to look a little bit more into these offline workflows.

Carol: Okay. All right. So, sorry. In the first demo, we showed [00:21:30] Collector working in a completely connected environment. So, what would talking about now is the concept of how we work offline. Now, Collector, for many years, has supported the ability to work offline, which we term as the on-demand mode. So, keep that term in your head. And that’s where the user is in charge of taking these maps offline on their device. Now, in the most recent release of Collector on iOS, we have support for what we call preplanned offline workflows. And the intent here is to take this data [00:22:00] back to the office and have the GIS admin define these offline areas, which simplifies the field workers’ lives because they don’t have to make those decisions. So, I’m going to walk you through how you configure out a preplanned area and then how you switch back to Collector and what your field worker would see when they have a preplanned area shared with them. So, here I am in my web map that I’m going to be using to create my preplanned areas. Now, I’m using ArcGIS Online, and this [00:22:30] workflow that we’re going to do is also supported in ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7. All right. So, there are some prerequisites for taking a map offline. So, first thing is all your feature layers in the web map need to be sync enabled. And the second thing is all your base maps or your [inaudible 00:22:49] services or vector tile or [inaudible 00:22:50] tiles need to support export. So, remember that layers need to be sync enabled, and base map has to be set it up for [00:23:00] export. So, if those requirements are met, then you can configure your map for offline use. So, I’m going to go to my settings here, and the other area I want you to look at here is under the offline section. So, that information, that can be exchanged when working in an offline map. There are times when you want to review the settings in the “Advanced Options” here and you’ll want to review what information you’re downloading to your device. So, for example, you may only want to [00:23:30] allow features but not attachments coming down for like an inspection workflow. Now, I’m going to go back to this area he called “Manage Areas.” And this is where the GIS admin would go to create what we call the preplanned offline areas. Okay. So, I’m going to go ahead and create a new area. Okay. So, you can change the name here. I’m just going to [00:24:00] leave it for now. I’m going to create my offline area, and that can be a rectangle, or I can create an irregular shape. Now, one thing you need to remember is these irregular areas are only supported with vector base maps. So, I’m going to draw my area right now, and that’s what it will look like. So, this is the area I’m actually taking offline. And the second thing I want to do is define my level of detail. And because I’m doing [inaudible 00:24:29] [00:24:30] inspection, I probably should be at street level. All right. And now I’m going to save this. All right. So, now it says, “Packaging.” And what that means is it’s extracting all the data and putting that into a SQLite mobile geodatabase. All right. So, let’s quickly look at one of the areas that I downloaded [00:25:00] previously. So, you’ll see here that this is the geodatabase, and this is the vector package.

So, I’m going to switch back to Collector and just show you what this looks like. All right. So, you can see here I have the San Diego fire hydrant inspection web map. And what differentiates the preplanned offline-enabled map from other web maps is that it’ll mention under the map name “Offline areas.” So, when I tap on this, you’re [00:25:30] going to see a list of preplanned areas that I had defined. So, you’ll see the one that I just created, the one that says “Inspection map area,” that’s the one we just created together, and it’s still generating. So, you can’t actually interact with it until it’s completed. So, one of the areas that I have here is this tuna Harbor park. So, if I want to download it, I just simply have to tap on this icon, and it’ll start downloading to my device. And once you’ve got it downloaded, you can start using the map. Now, we’re going to start an [00:26:00] inspection here, and I’m going to go to this gaslamp quarter preplanned area that I already have. So, what I’m going to do here now is try to find a hydrant. And I need to find hydrant 527804. And who can figure that one out just by looking at this map? I have no clue. But one cool thing that we have in Collector now is the ability to support the barcode inspection. So, hold on a second. So, one of the capabilities you can [00:26:30] set up in your web map is called “Feature Search.” And you can either use that to find a geo-coded address, or you can search for key characteristics in the feature. But like I mentioned, I’m going to use a barcode here to find that feature. So, I’ll tap on the barcode icon and see if we can scan this one successfully. All right. So, you’ll notice that it found the hydrant right here, down the bottom left-hand corner. Now, I can [00:27:00] see information about the hydrant, I can see when it was last inspected. And then if I want, I can go in now and either look at previous inspections, or I can add a new inspection. So, I’m going to tap “Add.” And you’ll notice this form is designed for inspection. I have some pre-configured values in here. I can say, “Needs paint.” I can change pressure and then I can put some notes [00:27:30] and then just hit “Submit.” So, this is a really simple workflow of inspecting, finding features. But what you need to remember is when you’ve finished your collection, and you’re offline, when you’re back in a connected area, you need to make sure you sync your data back. Otherwise, it’s not going to show up. Your people in the back office will not see anything you’ve done. And I had a lady come to me going, “Why didn’t I [00:28:00] see my data?” And I said, “Did you sync?” She’s like, “Oh, I didn’t know I had to do that.” So, that’s one simple thing that you just need to remember to be doing. All right. So, to sync, it’s simple. So, if you see these up and down arrows here that has a little dot, you just tap on that, and that will show you all your local edits, and you can review them before you sync or you can just tap “Sync,” and it’ll send everything back to the office.

However, as a field worker, I might not be thinking about [00:28:30] syncing but more focused on going to my next task. So, we have support for what we call auto-sync, and you’ll see this little button here that I can toggle on and off. Now, auto-sync is designed for the field worker while they let Collector figure out, “Hey, do I have connectivity? Let’s send the data back up in a timely manner.” Now, auto-sync works on an interval basis, and the default is 15 minutes, and you can go into app settings and change that to 30 minutes or one hour. So, once the data is synced, it’s now available to the rest of your [00:29:00] organization. All right. So, you remember, I mentioned the term “on-demand.” So, we’re going to just quickly talk about that. All right. So, in the case you don’t have version 10.7of ArcGIS Enterprise, you can still take your map offline within Collector, and we call that the on-demand mode. And the way you go about doing that is you’ll find the map that you need to work with. So, I’m going to use the invasive pest inspection one. I’ll tap on this overflow and select “Add offline [00:29:30] area.” Now, the one thing you need to do here is define your level of detail. So, I could either zoom in to where I need to go, or I could use this list here and my level of detail. So, the higher the resolution means your download size will be bigger and vice versa. So, I’ll select “City” and hit “Download,” and it’ll start downloading. And once that’s downloaded, it’s stored on your device, and it’s the same workflow. Once you’re working in it and you’re [00:30:00] done, you’ll need to sync back. So, this is a quick overview of how we support offline in Collector and how we’ll use preplanned offline areas and on-demand scenarios. And we also support the manual and the auto-sync. And the benefit of auto-sync is that it takes the burden off the worker and just does it automatically and sends it to the office. So, that’s how you use offline and Collector. Thanks, Kylie.

Kylie: Great. Thanks, Carol. So, we’ve looked at how you can support mobile workers who [00:30:30] don’t have a data connection. Let’s go ahead and review that again. So, there are two approaches you can take when your workers are going to be offline. The first is preplanned map areas. That’s when the map author is defining these areas in the map itself. That creates the package and this database that they need before they are actually ready to take it offline. So, then in the device, they’re able to just download it. The opposite or the other option is the on-demand map area. The ones defined in the app. [00:31:00] In that case, the fieldworker themselves has to provide the extent and level of detail and then get those packages and take them offline, so it can take a little bit longer. Both are great workflows depending on your project. If you, as the map author know the areas where your field workers are going, great. Set up preplanned map areas for them. It makes their life easier. They don’t have to think about extents and levels of detail. It just all works for them. If, however, your field workers know better than you do where they’re going to be working, [00:31:30] great. Let them go ahead and set that up themselves because they’re the ones who have that information. Now, once you’ve downloaded your map area, whether it’s preplanned or on-demand, you’re going to be able to download and use it the same as you used your connected map. There isn’t functionality differences once you’ve downloaded. So you could do features search in your online map, you can do feature search in your offline map. You can add your points, lens, and polygons in both online and offline. The one thing to keep in mind, as Carol mentioned, when you are [00:32:00] working offline, that data is being created on your device. Now, the first demo, when Carol hit “Submit,” it sent that data back into the future service, and others in your organization could see it. Now, that’s not the case when you’re working offline. When you’re working offline, doing that same submit is submitting it locally on your own device. Once you’re back with connectivity, when you sync, that’s the moment when that data goes back to the feature service and becomes available to others within your organization. Now, sync is [00:32:30] not only sending your work to others but depending on how the map author set up the settings in the web map, it can also be getting updates made by others. So, that’s up to you. If you want your field workers to have the current state of the data, you need to make sure you’ve set it up so that when they sync, they’ll get the changes being made by others as well. And if they only need to know about the work they’re doing, that’s a step you can save so they don’t have to take the time to sync the data from the server onto their device again, but can just continue after sending their own edits. [00:33:00] Now, there’s another thing we didn’t talk about in the demo, and there’s a little bit more about the base map. So, Carol showed how you have a base map offline and how it worked, but you can also take your base map and copy it directly onto the device. So, when you’re downloading tiles from ArcGIS Online, there is a limit to how many you can download. It’s about one and a half gigs of data for a lot of our base maps, it’s 150,000 tiles, and that may not be what you need. You might have a bigger area or a great base map that you’ve authored that you [00:33:30] want all your fieldworkers using. So, you can do that. What you’re going to need to do is make a tile package containing that data. That can be a tpk or the newer tpkx. You can also use a vector tile package, a vtpk. You can take that content and copy it directly onto the device, and then your users will be able to use it without having to download it over wifi. And remember, you can optimize this download and the [00:34:00] sync based on the settings you’re choosing as you’re authoring the web map. Now, I do want to reemphasize one last time there was a tip Carol gave that’s a super important one. Fieldworkers are forgetful, just like all of us. They want to go do their next thing or go home at the end of the day. If you turn on auto-sync, you’re going to ensure that the data they’ve collected throughout their shift isn’t on a device in a desk or in their car when they’ve gone home. It’s going to actually get sent back to the server and be available to you as soon as possible.

[00:34:30] I’m going to change gears a little bit now, and we’re going to talk about high-accuracy data collection. Now, when I talk about high-accuracy data collection, what that really means is defined by your project. It’s based on your project requirements. So, for example, I’m in the field, and I’m going to collect water valves. Have you ever looked under the little water valve covers in the street? I know some of you have, right? They’re clustered together. There’s not one valve and then five, 10 feet later another valve. [00:35:00] There could be three, four valves under that one cover. They can be really clustered. And so, when you’re collecting them, you need centimeter-level accuracy or you can’t know for sure which valve you’re at. So, in that case, you’ll need a receiver that supports that level of centimeter accuracy. Now, if I need to collect the corners of a building, I don’t need them to a centimeter-level in most cases. In that scenario, submeter may be plenty for my use, and that’s a different project, but project accuracy that’s required, but that’s [00:35:30] still high accuracy. You have an accuracy requirement, and you need to ensure that your setup is meeting it. Another thing that can affect your accuracy is the environment in which you’re doing your data collection. If you’re working around tall buildings or if you’re under a dense canopy, it’s a lot harder to get a good GPS signal. One thing you can use in order to mitigate some of that is to use a real-time connection service or RTK corrections. You can connect to that, and what it’s going to do is [00:36:00] give you back a fixed and better coordinate for Collector to actually record. Now, when you’re using a high accuracy GPS device with Collector, the first thing you need to do is connect that receiver to Collector. Collector then actually connects directly to the data stream coming from that receiver. If you’ve set up your data, you can have it record the metadata about from that receiver with each point that it’s collecting. For example, you can store the accuracy of the [inaudible 00:36:29], all those things [00:36:30] that you may want back in the office when you want to go geek out and analyze just how good your data really is. So, Collector will automatically record those for you and what you’re going to need to do to do that is as Carol showed him the templates, there was a checkbox, and that set it up for you. And if you’re not using the templates, it’s a matter of adding the right fields to your layer. And there are tools in Pro that will help you do that. Now, once you also have your data ready, another thing you’ll need to do in Collector and some case scenarios is to create a location profile. Now, I mentioned [00:37:00] using RTK already. So, one thing that matters when we’re doing GIS is your spatial reference, right? You guys all know that. So, when you’re using a GPS, it’s usually in WGS84, that’s just what it is. Many web maps in layers are also in WGS 84, but they might not be. RTK, on the other hand, well, at least in the U.S., is usually in NAD83 in the local zone. And we all know what happens when we have WGS and [00:37:30] NAD83, and we’re mapping them without paying attention. We’re going to get this high-accuracy data. Maybe it’s a two-centimeter-level data, and it’s going to be shifted a meter and a half. What do you think that does to your accuracy? Right? It’s gone. You’ve just taken it and moved it some random amount. So, you need to make sure that you use that location profile because it’s going to take this spatial network or the spatial reference of the corrections that you’re using or your map and your layers and then web map spatial reference, and it’s going to apply the appropriate datum transformations [00:38:00] that will keep your accuracy as high as it was when you collected it. That’s really important. If you’re bothering to do high-accuracy data collection, don’t let it go to waste because you didn’t bother to do the datum transformations correctly. Another thing you can do with high accuracy is you can use GPS averaging in order to get a higher precision. So, what that’s going to do is when you’re collecting a single point, it will take a number of readings for that one point which is configurable by you, and then it’ll do a calculation on [00:38:30] those in order to calculate an even better, more precise location for that point and use that.

This just gives you a quick look now at what some of the user experience is when you’re doing this accuracy work. Now, we call it “The high-accuracy user experience,” but if we’re being honest, it’s the same as if you’re using the device’s GPS, but it just becomes a little bit more important when you’re in high accuracy. For example, in the GPS details on the far side there, you can see that in this case, the fixed type is using RTK, and you can get [00:39:00] that information right there. Now, the first question we usually get after we talk about high accuracy in Collector is the question of what receiver should I buy? Right? There are a lot of them out there. They have different price points, they have different accuracies that they can meet. And so, the next thing I say when I’m given that question is, “Well, what are your project requirements? What’s your budget? What accuracy do you need?” We are not experts in those receivers, we know how they work with our product. But one of the great things about being at this conference is there are a [00:39:30] bunch of vendors downstairs who know all of those receivers way better than I ever will. And go talk to them. Our dock will list the ones that we support because on iOS, it is a finite list, but on Android and windows, it’s a little bit more open, and they’re a little bit more choices. Go talk to the vendors, find out what they have to offer and how it meets the requirements you have. Alright, so what’s next for Collector? You may have noticed that Carol said in the new Collector or in Collector Classic. [00:40:00] That’s because currently on iOS if you go to the App Store, there are two Collector apps in the store. One of those is called Collector. That’s our new generation app. That’s what Carol was showing today. The other one is called Collector Classic. And that’s going to show the UI that we previously had in the app as well as all the limitations with that UI. So, last month, we released a version of the new Collector 19.10, that got these two apps to parity. So, anything you can do in Collector Classic, you can now do in Collector as well. [00:40:30] However, they’re both going to live side by side in the store for now, and I’ll get into why in just a minute. That’s our story on iOS. On Android, things are a little bit different. There’s only one app in the store, and it’s called Collector, but that is the one on iOS is called Collector Classic. We haven’t updated that app yet. It’s coming at the end of this year. It will be final in Q4. Right now, however, there is a beta on that new generation app. So, for those of you who are Android users, we highly [00:41:00] recommend joining that beta program. There are no requirements to doing so, you just need to express your interest, and you’ll be given access to download, install it, and try using it. Now, you’ll see there is a QR code on the screen here. And what that’s going to do is there is a Collector Android holistic event coming up in August. What a holistic event means is that the Collector team dedicate those two days to working with users such as yourself and answering questions and helping you with the new app. So, we want you to spend those two days, [00:41:30], put your data in the app and put it through your workflows. Try it out, find what issues you can find, find what parts of the new UI aren’t working for you, give us your feedback because with that help when it launches, it can be an even stronger app. So, if you have any interest in Android, please go ahead and scan that or come by at the showcase, we can get you set up, and that’s for a two-day holistic event that’ll be happening in August. Now, what’s really cool about this new version of Collector is it’s going to bring a bunch of stuff you saw in Carol’s [00:42:00] demos to Android as well. For example, labeling, vector-based maps, a new Collector experience she talked about what that panel that moved up and down, those preplanned offline areas that let you as the map author take some of the work off of your fieldworkers. Those things are all coming in that.

All right. I just want to touch upon some of these sessions. Now, some of them have already passed. Have all of them already passed? I should have looked closer. All right. They might have already passed at this [00:42:30] point, but there were some Collector sessions, and the good news is sessions at this conference are recorded. So, you can get access to those recordings, and you can watch these sessions still. For example, if when Carol gave the tips on authoring the map for Collector, that was the part that really resonated with you. That was the part you found yourself taking the most notes. There are some sessions on authoring maps, one on for the field and one specific to offline work. Check those out. In addition, if you thought that idea of using relationships do inspection workflows was really cool, [00:43:00] there’s sessions for that. Check them out, learn about that, or come by the showcase downstairs and talk with us about it. I’ve also included some links on here to some more product information and resources, as well as some ArcGIS learn lessons, just ways that you can learn more about the app. So, you’ve gotten an introduction today, but if you go into those, it’ll take you through it, hands-on, let you try the app as well as make your own map and guide you through that process so you can see how it will work for you. And the final item on here, something I’m [00:43:30] particularly proud of is we’ve made a great video recently that talks about high-accuracy data in Collector and the value of it. It’s also a high-level overview, but it might give you some more insight into how that might apply to the projects that you’re working on. And it’s only a couple of minutes long. So, if you think high-accuracy is something that you may make use of, that’s another great thing to check out. All right. Next up, we did some reviews. So, I hope you’re paying attention because now there’s a quiz. So, we just wanted to emphasize some of these really key points [00:44:00] about Collector. And if we were, to sum up the key takeaways of this entire time together, these are the things we’d want you to remember. So, let’s start off. You can use Collector to capture assets and perform inspections. Good. All right. It’s afternoon, but you guys can beat the morning crew from yesterday. Come on, you can do this. All right. next one. I better hear everyone. You can collect points…

All: [inaudible 00:44:27]

Kylie: Good. That one’s always pretty successful, right? [00:44:30] We know works in ArcGIS. All right. In order to use Collector and collect data, you first need to create a. . .

All: [inaudible 00:44:37] feature.

Kylie: Feature layer and add it to a. . .

All: Web map.

Kylie: Web map. Good. A great way to start creating your layers and jumpstart the process of defining them that Carol showed is to use. . .

Participant: Templates.

Kylie: Templates. Good. I heard it at least once. All right. With Collector, there are two ways you can work offline. You can work offline using two different kinds of map areas. They are. . . [00:45:00]

Participant: [inaudible 00:45:01]

Kylie: Good. Preplanned and on-demand. Those are those two offline workflows. The preplanned being defined by the map author and the on-demand being defined by the field worker. Okay. And finally, you can use an external GPS receiver to get data with. . .

All: Accuracy.

Kylie: High accuracy. Great. You guys did awesome. All right. I wanted to thank all of you for joining us today. And before we close, just a reminder, there is an app where you can fill out surveys. We really appreciate that [00:45:30] feedback. Not only does it let us help improve our own presentation skills, but it’s also going to let us make sure that we’re tuning this content to meet the needs of you at future conferences. So, thanks again for coming. And I would like to open it now for any questions that you might have.

Participant: So, my question can I just [inaudible 00:45:53] the barcode feature [inaudible 00:45:55] maybe to actually produce those barcodes or [inaudible 00:45:58]

Kylie: Cool. [00:46:00] Sure. So, the question there is about barcodes and what exactly Collector can do with them because that’s kind of interesting, right? And that’s one of the newer things. So, what Collector can do with a barcode is you make it the way you make barcodes today, using whatever generator, QR code, or barcode that you want. Whatever information you embed in that barcode, Collector can use. So, it can use it in a couple of different ways. One is what Carol showed, you can use it in search in order to find a particular feature and asset. Another way that you can use it is [00:46:30] when you’re filling out the form, you can actually, there’ll be an option on those fields when there are strings that you can scan a barcode in order to populate your fields. Now, if you want to get really kind of crafty with it, you can use arcade expressions when you’re doing some of that and have that single scanning of a barcode populate a whole series of fields, so it can save your field workers a lot of time if your assets are something that has barcodes available on them.

Carol: Good. Farther in the back.

Participant: So, when you’re recording, like, [00:47:00] when they’re walking [inaudible 00:47:01] are you able record, like, crosssections and stuff like that or. . .

Kylie: Sorry. Say that one more time?

Participant: Sorry. I was [inaudible 00:47:07]. So, we have a lot railways and [crosstalk 00:47:11] . . .

Kylie: Railways. Okay.

Participant: We want to try and record the assets in segments [inaudible 00:47:16]. So, would you be able to [inaudible 00:47:18] maximum string of points that you have for, say, [inaudible 00:47:23] segment [inaudible 00:47:24]?

Kylie: Okay, so the question there was about when you’re streaming assets, can you do sections? [00:47:30] So, how that’s going to work as like any line that you’re collecting and Collector, you’re going to define the start and end. So, you can use streaming between any start and endpoint you want. What you would need to do if you wanted to collect in segments is start your collection with streaming, stream as long as you want it. Go in and stop that, submit that as a feature and immediately start again to start your next feature.

Participant: Is there way to get them to, like, the endpoints to snap together?

Kylie: Cool. So, that next question here was about is there way that when you do that, [00:48:00] could you get the endpoints of those lines to snap together? That is something we get a lot of requests on is to support snapping in the app. That’s not there yet, but it is something we’re working on. So, that is one of those features that we do want to see come to life because it’s so important, right? The GIS data, it needs to know relative position. So, yes, that’s something we’re working on, but it’s not there yet.

Participant: If you want the capture lines as a feature and you’re using point averaging for the individual vertices, [00:48:30] how does the app treat that to make sure that you stay in the location until it’s got it’s sufficient number of observations and [crosstalk 00:48:38]?

Kylie: So, the question there is when you’re collecting a line or a polygon, and you want to use GPS averaging, how does that work? What does the app do? So, what the app does is at the top it’s going to show you how many points it’s collected so far to contribute into that Vertex. We’re not going to control or force you to stay in place. If you want bad accuracy in your data or bad precision, [00:49:00] you can walk around while it’s doing that averaging, that’s on you. But it does let you know, “I’m collecting. I’m on number five of 10 or wherever I’m at.” And once it completes, that’s when it’s going to give you a final point. So, it works the same with points. It’s just a single one, and then you’re ready to submit, and it was a line or polygon, it’ll do that on the vertices.

Carol: And just to add, you can actually define how many points you want it to draw before it averages everything.

Kylie: Just to make sure you guys could hear that. Carol was also [00:49:30] adding that when you do GPS averaging, you get to define how many points are required to be captured and averaged into that final vertex. I saw one over here.

Participant: Your a future development is it going to follow the same thing where everything’s done for iOS and Android comes along, you know, have to [inaudible 00:49:48]?

Kylie: That’s a great question. The question is, is this going to be our pattern? Are we going to always be iOS first with Android trailing behind? I can tell you that is something that bothers us all the time, right? We are working on [00:50:00] making that better. It comes down to just the limitations of how development is being done on those platforms, and we’ve made some changes recently in our team and our structure to help mitigate that. Carol can speak to that a little bit more than I can by myself.

Carol: Yeah. So, I’ll go from now till the end of the years to make sure that we get Android in parity with iOS and that this never happens again, that iOS and Android are out of sync. So, our goal is to release them at the same time. So, if we put a new feature in iOS, [00:50:30] we are also working on Android at the same time. You’ll never see iOS until Android is done as well. So, they need to be in sync. And that’s the goal for the team, and we’re all striving towards that goal. So, hopefully, this disconnect that we have right now is not something that we will continue.

Kylie: And I’m going to make that a little bit stronger of a team goal, that is not something unique to Collector. We’re going to say that applies on Tracker, on WorkForce, on Explorer, on Navigator. Our team knows that we have not been good at that, and we’re trying to be [00:51:00] better. We’re aware. It’s embarrassing to us too, right? Android’s a harder platform to develop on, you know. It’s so many different form factors to develop with. You know, you’ve got two just for Apple. Yeah. Yeah, there is.

Participant: When streaming, you have a timeout, if your device, you know, in terms of your screen turns off and then the app closes, will continue streaming during that time or do you have to make sure it’s on?

Kylie: So, the question there is when you’re streaming, what kind of [00:51:30] timeouts are there? What happens if your screen goes to sleep or the app closes? Streaming does continue in the background. So, as long as the app is open, it’s going to continue streaming in the background.

Carol: Correct.

Kylie: But if the app crashes, obviously it can’t be streaming anymore. Bt the screen timing out, not a problem. That’s the same as kind of backgrounding, so the data will keep being collected during that time. Any more questions?

Participant: So, if you are using ArcGIS [00:52:00] Online and you want to download vector packages or [inaudible 00:52:05] is that going to cost credits [inaudible 00:52:08]?

Kylie: Okay. So, the question there was about when you’re using ArcGIS Online, and you want to download a vector tile package, how that works on credits. You know, I’m the wrong person to ask on that. We can find that answer for you. I believe how it works is that credits are used in generation and storage of those, not by [00:52:30] download of them, but let’s verify that down at the showcase. We’ll walk over with you and take a look after. All right. One more here.

Participant: What’s the WorkFlow methodology for removing those offline map packages that are stored on your device?

Kylie: Okay, so the question there was, once you have offline map areas, how do you remove them on the device? Do you want to go ahead and show that, Carol?

Carol: [00:53:00] Okay. So, the user can’t remove them [crosstalk 00:53:03].

Kylie: We’re not seeing you there.

Carol: Where are we [inaudible 00:53:04]. Oh sorry. Hold on.

Kylie: That’s all right.

Carol: So, the short answer is it’s in the app while you’re still signed it.

Kylie: Okay. The user can actually remove these. So, the preplanned areas, your user cannot remove them off the device. They can remove the area, but yeah, that’s true. You can just remove the area and then if they re they [00:53:30] need to redownload it, they can, if you don’t want these to show up at all on the device, you need to go to where I was before here. . .

Carol: You unplugged [inaudible 00:53:40].

Kylie: So, basically when. . .

Participant: [inaudible 00:53:43].

Kylie: Yeah. Right. Yes. This removes it off the phone, but it’s still visible to the user to download again. But if you actually don’t want it to show up anymore, then you need to go in and manage those areas in your web map, right? So, the user can control what’s on their device, but you, as the map author, [00:54:00] controls what’s available through the map. All right. Thanks again, everyone, for coming. If you have additional questions, please feel free to come on up, and we’ll take a couple of minutes and chat with you. Have a great rest of your conference.