I wonder if anyone who knows about collector knows of a workaround for this.

Right now, if you want to use Collector in an offline mode, Esri told me you have to allow all layers to be editable. The way it is, your field crews can accidentally (or intentionally) destroy data and bypass the normal QA/QC process and GIS editors. There needs to be the ability to only allow layers to be edited that we want to be edited, while leaving other layers for query purposes only.

This really seems like a reckless implementation to me… it short-circuts the GIS editor and leaves the data that we try so hard to get right open to get messed up.  Why would they do such a thing?

I added an entry to ArcGIS Ideas to add this feature. If you agree, would you please promote it? (just log in and hit the thumbs up). I’m not sure how to link to it, but it is called “Collector Offline - Control Editing by Layer.”

Is it possible to block editing on some layers when the user tries to sync edits back up to the server, while allowing edits in the Collector app just to satisfy it? I just want to have one layer for redlining, where the user will make notes and they can be synced back up with the server. Maybe something we can do on the SQL side of things or in ArcGIS Server or something? I’m open to any workaround, otherwise it looks like the app is a dealbreaker for us using mobile, because there really are no other good disconnected options.

 

Nicholas A. McNamara, GISP

GIS Coordinator

South Norwalk Electric and Water

Phone: (203) 866-4446 ext. 2035

Fax:       (203) 854-0609