Mapping and GIS Solutions Community

Having just spent 10 days in the field using Terraflex with hundreds of volunteers, I have a series of suggested improvements. I'm not sure how to request enhancements or what the process is, so I'll post them here. 

1. Ability to disable location capture

Fixed assets don't move, and we use Terraflex forms for updating records where we don't want to capture a location. The ability to turn location capture off (as shown at the top of the form) and the associated error message would be helpful. This would mean that only the form is shown on screen. 

2. Mathematical operators in field rules

Rules today are rather simplistic. We need to enforce data quality at the point of capture, and to help with this simple mathematical operators such as "Cell A must be less than Cell B" would be very helpful. In the event that Cell A is greater or equal to Cell B the form cannot be saved or an error message is shown. 

3. Mandatory field flag is ignored for suppressed fields

Rules that hide fields under certain conditions are very useful, but they do not override the mandatory field flag. In essence this means that you cannot use both these features together. The desired behaviour is to allow the form to be saved where a mandatory field has not been entered if a rule suppresses it. 

4. Automatically advance to the next field

From a speed point of view, once a field is entered, the next field on the form should open automatically in data entry mode. This partially works, but if the prior field is a say single select field you still need to tap into the next field in order to enter data. This will speed productivity where large numbers of fields and / or records need to be captured

5. On save, automatically advance to the next form

In the same vein as (4), we should be able to configure a from so that when saving a record, the next form is automatically opened, with the first field already selected in data entry mode. This will speed productivity where large numbers of fields and / or records need to be captured

6. Ability to hide the 'scan with camera' button in a barcode field

If you have a device with a built in barcode scanner, the camera is a pretty useless alternative. We'd like the ability to hide this button on a barcode field. Providing two different ways to to scan barcodes causes training issues.  

7. Better error handing on sync

If a barcode has a corrupted read, sometime a special character can be introduced (think Win Dings). This will cause errors in the sync process which can only be fixed by manually inspecting all the captured forms and deleting the record. This is time consuming and a pain. 

8. Update the app on sync

On sync, minor changes to the app are reflected with the 'Project Updated' message. More significant changes require you to exit the app and reload it. Its not clear what types of changes require you to exit the app. Ideally all form changes are reflected on sync when ever the project is updated. 

Hopefully these are helpful and you can get these logged as formal enhancement requests. If anyone else wants to add more to this thread, please chime in!

Charles

I have been using Catalyst for 2 years now. It's taken us a little time to reconcile the fact that this is a new system, and one which is, I believe still in development mode.

In many ways it is infereior to its predecessors ( Pathfinder ), and I'm always concerned of the fragility of Cloud Based Data Management.

Number one of my wish would be the ability to filter a project to see what has been captured.

Currently the filter options only offer "Updated" to this end. "Updated" in this environment shows that a feature has been Altered, say a Photograph has been taken,

But I need to see if the Feature has been captured (coordinates).

The only way to determine what has been captured is to export the project and see, at the desktop what features have coordinates.

So If a feature has only been photographed, but no Coordiantes taken, I'm back out into the field to re-capture.

Need to filter this in the  field.

Having just spent 10 days in the field using Terraflex with hundreds of volunteers, I have a series of suggested improvements. I'm not sure how to request enhancements or what the process is, so I'll post them here. 

1. Ability to disable location capture

Fixed assets don't move, and we use Terraflex forms for updating records where we don't want to capture a location. The ability to turn location capture off (as shown at the top of the form) and the associated error message would be helpful. This would mean that only the form is shown on screen. 

2. Mathematical operators in field rules

Rules today are rather simplistic. We need to enforce data quality at the point of capture, and to help with this simple mathematical operators such as "Cell A must be less than Cell B" would be very helpful. In the event that Cell A is greater or equal to Cell B the form cannot be saved or an error message is shown. 

3. Mandatory field flag is ignored for suppressed fields

Rules that hide fields under certain conditions are very useful, but they do not override the mandatory field flag. In essence this means that you cannot use both these features together. The desired behaviour is to allow the form to be saved where a mandatory field has not been entered if a rule suppresses it. 

4. Automatically advance to the next field

From a speed point of view, once a field is entered, the next field on the form should open automatically in data entry mode. This partially works, but if the prior field is a say single select field you still need to tap into the next field in order to enter data. This will speed productivity where large numbers of fields and / or records need to be captured

5. On save, automatically advance to the next form

In the same vein as (4), we should be able to configure a from so that when saving a record, the next form is automatically opened, with the first field already selected in data entry mode. This will speed productivity where large numbers of fields and / or records need to be captured

6. Ability to hide the 'scan with camera' button in a barcode field

If you have a device with a built in barcode scanner, the camera is a pretty useless alternative. We'd like the ability to hide this button on a barcode field. Providing two different ways to to scan barcodes causes training issues.  

7. Better error handing on sync

If a barcode has a corrupted read, sometime a special character can be introduced (think Win Dings). This will cause errors in the sync process which can only be fixed by manually inspecting all the captured forms and deleting the record. This is time consuming and a pain. 

8. Update the app on sync

On sync, minor changes to the app are reflected with the 'Project Updated' message. More significant changes require you to exit the app and reload it. Its not clear what types of changes require you to exit the app. Ideally all form changes are reflected on sync when ever the project is updated. 

Hopefully these are helpful and you can get these logged as formal enhancement requests. If anyone else wants to add more to this thread, please chime in!

Charles

Hi Rod,

There is an option in the template editor 'Form geometry must be captured', this would stop forms being collected without a location. Would that help in this case?

Apologies if I have mis-understood your question

Thanks

I have been using Catalyst for 2 years now. It's taken us a little time to reconcile the fact that this is a new system, and one which is, I believe still in development mode.

In many ways it is infereior to its predecessors ( Pathfinder ), and I'm always concerned of the fragility of Cloud Based Data Management.

Number one of my wish would be the ability to filter a project to see what has been captured.

Currently the filter options only offer "Updated" to this end. "Updated" in this environment shows that a feature has been Altered, say a Photograph has been taken,

But I need to see if the Feature has been captured (coordinates).

The only way to determine what has been captured is to export the project and see, at the desktop what features have coordinates.

So If a feature has only been photographed, but no Coordiantes taken, I'm back out into the field to re-capture.

Need to filter this in the  field.

Having just spent 10 days in the field using Terraflex with hundreds of volunteers, I have a series of suggested improvements. I'm not sure how to request enhancements or what the process is, so I'll post them here. 

1. Ability to disable location capture

Fixed assets don't move, and we use Terraflex forms for updating records where we don't want to capture a location. The ability to turn location capture off (as shown at the top of the form) and the associated error message would be helpful. This would mean that only the form is shown on screen. 

2. Mathematical operators in field rules

Rules today are rather simplistic. We need to enforce data quality at the point of capture, and to help with this simple mathematical operators such as "Cell A must be less than Cell B" would be very helpful. In the event that Cell A is greater or equal to Cell B the form cannot be saved or an error message is shown. 

3. Mandatory field flag is ignored for suppressed fields

Rules that hide fields under certain conditions are very useful, but they do not override the mandatory field flag. In essence this means that you cannot use both these features together. The desired behaviour is to allow the form to be saved where a mandatory field has not been entered if a rule suppresses it. 

4. Automatically advance to the next field

From a speed point of view, once a field is entered, the next field on the form should open automatically in data entry mode. This partially works, but if the prior field is a say single select field you still need to tap into the next field in order to enter data. This will speed productivity where large numbers of fields and / or records need to be captured

5. On save, automatically advance to the next form

In the same vein as (4), we should be able to configure a from so that when saving a record, the next form is automatically opened, with the first field already selected in data entry mode. This will speed productivity where large numbers of fields and / or records need to be captured

6. Ability to hide the 'scan with camera' button in a barcode field

If you have a device with a built in barcode scanner, the camera is a pretty useless alternative. We'd like the ability to hide this button on a barcode field. Providing two different ways to to scan barcodes causes training issues.  

7. Better error handing on sync

If a barcode has a corrupted read, sometime a special character can be introduced (think Win Dings). This will cause errors in the sync process which can only be fixed by manually inspecting all the captured forms and deleting the record. This is time consuming and a pain. 

8. Update the app on sync

On sync, minor changes to the app are reflected with the 'Project Updated' message. More significant changes require you to exit the app and reload it. Its not clear what types of changes require you to exit the app. Ideally all form changes are reflected on sync when ever the project is updated. 

Hopefully these are helpful and you can get these logged as formal enhancement requests. If anyone else wants to add more to this thread, please chime in!

Charles

Having just spent 10 days in the field using Terraflex with hundreds of volunteers, I have a series of suggested improvements. I'm not sure how to request enhancements or what the process is, so I'll post them here. 

1. Ability to disable location capture

Fixed assets don't move, and we use Terraflex forms for updating records where we don't want to capture a location. The ability to turn location capture off (as shown at the top of the form) and the associated error message would be helpful. This would mean that only the form is shown on screen. 

2. Mathematical operators in field rules

Rules today are rather simplistic. We need to enforce data quality at the point of capture, and to help with this simple mathematical operators such as "Cell A must be less than Cell B" would be very helpful. In the event that Cell A is greater or equal to Cell B the form cannot be saved or an error message is shown. 

3. Mandatory field flag is ignored for suppressed fields

Rules that hide fields under certain conditions are very useful, but they do not override the mandatory field flag. In essence this means that you cannot use both these features together. The desired behaviour is to allow the form to be saved where a mandatory field has not been entered if a rule suppresses it. 

4. Automatically advance to the next field

From a speed point of view, once a field is entered, the next field on the form should open automatically in data entry mode. This partially works, but if the prior field is a say single select field you still need to tap into the next field in order to enter data. This will speed productivity where large numbers of fields and / or records need to be captured

5. On save, automatically advance to the next form

In the same vein as (4), we should be able to configure a from so that when saving a record, the next form is automatically opened, with the first field already selected in data entry mode. This will speed productivity where large numbers of fields and / or records need to be captured

6. Ability to hide the 'scan with camera' button in a barcode field

If you have a device with a built in barcode scanner, the camera is a pretty useless alternative. We'd like the ability to hide this button on a barcode field. Providing two different ways to to scan barcodes causes training issues.  

7. Better error handing on sync

If a barcode has a corrupted read, sometime a special character can be introduced (think Win Dings). This will cause errors in the sync process which can only be fixed by manually inspecting all the captured forms and deleting the record. This is time consuming and a pain. 

8. Update the app on sync

On sync, minor changes to the app are reflected with the 'Project Updated' message. More significant changes require you to exit the app and reload it. Its not clear what types of changes require you to exit the app. Ideally all form changes are reflected on sync when ever the project is updated. 

Hopefully these are helpful and you can get these logged as formal enhancement requests. If anyone else wants to add more to this thread, please chime in!

Charles