Configuring the View Field Crew Task

When working as a group in the field, it is important to see where other field-workers are and be able to collaborate with them.

The View Field Crew task provides a list of all the field-workers assigned to your crew. You can view where your field crew members are located and contact members of the field crew using the ArcGIS Mobile application. In addition, you can log where field crew travel during their activities.

To use the task itself requires that you add feature classes with a well defined schema to your geodatabase, create a map document that contains those feature classes, serve them as a map service with mobile data access capabilities and then add that map service to your mobile project as an operational map layer.

The following sections describe the schema of the feature classes that must be in place to use the task and the process for adding the new data content to your project.

Field Crew Layers and Schema

The first step in preparing to use the View Field Crew task requires that you add two feature classes to your geodatabase. It is recommended that you do not use a file-based geodatabase as it can only support a single write lock. Using an ArcSDE geodatabase (SQL Server, Oracle, PostGres) is the best approach.

The list of field crew members is stored inside of a feature class named "AGM_FieldCrewMembers" and the track log that manages locations traveled is stored inside of a feature class named "AGM_FieldCrewLog".

The AGM_FieldCrewMembers feature class must contain the following fields:

• GlobalID field—Required for editing and storing the last known location.
• UserID Text field—Required and used to store the name of a field-worker. The field applications require that you sign-in using this value and will update last location using this value.
• Phone Text field—Used to store the phone number for a field user. Within the handheld field application, field workers can call contacts using this value.
• Note Text field—Used to enter details about location or status.
• TimeStamp Date field—Stores the date and time of the last posted position for a field crew member.
• Email Text field—Used to store the e-mail address for a field crew member. Within the field applications, field workers can email contacts using this value.

You can add additional fields to the feature class and they will appear in the application however the above fields are required.

The AGM_FieldCrewLog feature class must contain the following fields:

• GlobalID field—Required for editing and storing locations logged.
• UserID Text field—Required and used to store the name of a field-worker that is logging locations.
• TimeStamp Date field—Stores the date and time of all posted locations for a field crew member.

It is important to note that you should use the same spatial reference for the field crew map as the other maps that you plan to include in your project. The ArcGIS Mobile applications do not support project on the fly.

Authoring and Publishing Field Crew Map

Once you have created the feature classes in your geodatabase, you need to create a map document containing those feature classes and publish the map as a map service with mobile data access capabilities. It is recommended that you create a separate map just for the field crew members and field crew log. By separating the field crew map from other operational map layers, you have more flexibility with the projects that you create and manage.

Symbolizing the field crew members is important. When using the field crew task, it will organize how field crew members appear in lists but when locating them on the map it will draw locations using the symbology you define.

Once you create the map, publish it to your web server as a map service with mobile data access capabilities. The mobile service will be used as an operational map layer in your mobile project.

You can then add that specific map to projects as the mobile service will be used to post the current location of field crew members and create a trail of where they have been. The mobile service is also used to refresh the location of other field crew members when the task is used. So it is important that this mobile service be accessible to the field applications when they are connected in the field.

and publish that map as a map service with mobile data access capabilities,

Configuring Field Crew Settings

Using the Mobile Project Center you can now bring the field crew map you created to life.

First add the Field Crew map that you created as an operational map layer to your project. Doing so will enable the View Field Crew task as a task that can be added to your project. Note that the task is not added by default. If the task is not enabled after adding the map layer then you have not correctly defined the schema of the feature classes.

Once you add the task, you can change it's name and description. You can also set properties that define how often the list of field crew members will be refreshed when using the task (in seconds) and the time it takes to mark a crew member as "inactive". Field crew members have a state of "active" or "inactive" that is based upon the duration of time it takes to update their location.

Adding the task unlocks the additional capabilities in the application as well (click on the Capabilities tab for details). Added to the project is the ability to "Sign In". This is required when using the task and does not have any properties to configure. The sign in page will appear in the field applications when opening the task. It is used to identify the user so that it can log and collaborate accordingly. If the userid does not exist, the application provides an experience for creating the user. Note that there is no authentication associated with the sign in. You could mistakenly sign in as another user if not careful.

You can add "field crew logging" as an additional capability to the project. This capability will log the location of crew members using the properties that you configure in the project settings. You can choose to track/log locations either by time or distance and you can set the frequency by which locations logged are posted back to the server for others to see. It is important to consider the refresh and active state settings of the field crew task when determining the post frequency to ensure that posting happens at a rate that makes sense when looking at members using the task.