On the heels of a major Collector release on the Android platform, we are back with an update on the iOS platform.
This release includes a few new feature enhancements as well as a number of stability and performance updates:
- Attach PDF, Excel and Word documents to assets or observations
- Reuse list entries between forms
- Capture additional metadata when collecting using GPS
- Use app links to update existing feature attributes
Attach documents to assets or observations
In addition to capturing photos, videos, and audio files, now you can browse for PDF, Excel or Word documents. Using browse, you can attach files stored on external devices or servers, such as USB drives and SD cards, file servers, and other cloud storage providers like Box and Dropbox, after you connect them to your iPhone.
Reuse list entries between forms
In January we introduced the concept of “recent values”. Recent values let you reuse values that you previously entered into your form to minimize repetitive data entry and spelling mistakes. This update adds support for recent values chosen in a list.
Capture additional metadata when collecting using GPS
You can record information about the GPS used when adding locations in Collector. This GPS metadata provides a footprint of how location data was captured in the field. We recently updated the fields used when capturing GPS receiver information across all data collection apps, and Collector is now capturing new information such as:
- Direction of travel
- Speed (km/h)
- Azimuth
- Position Source
For a complete list, please refer to the Supported GPS metadata topic.
Use app links to update existing feature attributes
App links are a great way to share the maps used within Collector. App links remotely control Collector and by applying a reference context, you can access a rich set of functionality within the app. Now you can update the attributes of existing features from an app link as well.
Learn how you can initiate updating a feature using an app link here.
User Experience Improvements and Bug Fixes
In addition to the new features listed above, a lot of bugs that you reported were squashed in this release and from your feedback we’ve made a couple of tweaks to the collect experience in Collector as well.
What’s coming next?
We are just about finished with another release on the Android platform. This update will bring key missing functionality that was available in Collector Classic such as GPS averaging, the 95% confidence interval and PKI support.
We are focusing next on some really big initiatives for field apps. Expect to see some announcements about major development efforts very soon.
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