The GPS Location tool allows the user to capture their current GPS map coordinate in a mobile form. Captured data includes latitude and longitude, and altitude and accuracy (on some mobile devices).
The following image shows a mobile form after capturing a GPS location:
After the form is submitted, the GPS coordinates can be viewed in the doForms portal:
Note that in low-connectivity situations it may not be possible to acquire a GPS signal. In this instance the Searching for Satellites message will display. If the message displays indefinitely, the mobile user will need to press Cancel and try again in a different location.
Note the following:
- The achievable GPS accuracy will depend on the mobile user's hardware, location, and surroundings. In most cases, the best achievable accuracy will be approximately 3 meters.
- doForms is programmed to automatically stop refining the GPS position when an accuracy of 5 meters has been achieved.
- Altitude readings are generally accurate to ±25 meters on most consumer devices.
- If the doForms app detects that GPS hardware is not available or is not enabled on the mobile device that is using the form, GPS Location questions will be skipped automatically. Please ensure that Location Services are enabled on your mobile device in order to use this tool.
There are two styles of GPS Location: Map & coordinates which displays a map and coordinates in the form, and Custom which populates destination fields.
Style: Map & coordinates
Maximum error (in meters): Lowering this number will improve position accuracy but may increase GPS acquisition time significantly. Please remember that accuracy is based on line of sight to the sky, so consider using a higher number if requesting GPS in areas with tall buildings and other obstructions.
Prompt user after: Upon attempting to capture GPS data, the mobile form will begin refining GPS position. In order to limit the amount of time spent refining GPS position, you may enter a number of seconds in the Prompt user after setting. If refinement has not reached at least the Maximum error after the set amount of seconds, then mobile form user will see the following message:
The user will then need to select one of these options:
- Cancel: Cancels the GPS capture process.
- Wait: Instructs the form to keep trying to refine GPS position for another set amount of seconds.
- Capture: Instructs the form to capture GPS position now, regardless of accuracy.
Auto-stamp: This option allows the form to automatically enter the GPS location into the field, based on a trigger. The trigger can be set to one of the following four options:
- When a specified question is answered for the first time: For example, you could instruct the form to enter the GPS location into the field immediately after the person signs their name (using the Signature field). Select this option, and then select the Question trigger (in our example, the question trigger would be the Signature field).
- When a specified page is displayed for the first time: For example, you could instruct the form to enter the GPS location into the field immediately after the Contact Info page is displayed for the first time. Select this option, and then select the Page trigger (in our example, the page trigger would be the Contact Info page).
- When the form is opened for the first time.
- When the form is saved as complete.
Allow edit: Allows a mobile user to re-capture the GPS data after they initially capture it in a form, or after it is auto-stamped (see above). Note that this option can not be changed after the form has been published. This ensures that the same Allow edit option was used for all the information collected.
Verify address: This setting allows users to verify a location by returning the distance from one location field to an "Expected location." For example, a user could have a text box for "Job Site Address" which has the expected address the user should be at. Then, using the verify setting the user can capture their location and the variance field will return the distance between the "Job Site Address" and the users location. To make a simply verify address you can use a calculation field to string together Address, City, State, and Zip if they are individual fields in your form. This setting also requires a variance field which must be a numeric to show the distance from the expected address and where the user actually is.
Format
Show additional GPS information: If you select this checkbox, the following check boxes will appear, allowing you to select which GPS data will appear in the user's mobile form upon capture (in the first image, above, all four of these data elements appear). If none are selected, then only the map will appear in the mobile form:
- Show latitude
- Show longitude
- Show accuracy
- Show altitude
Coordinates in decimals: Display the coordinates in decimal degrees instead of degrees, minutes and seconds.
Display map in mobile and web: Select to show a map to the end user. Uncheck if mobile users may have a poor internet connection when capturing location information.
Display map in standard PDF report: Select to include a map in standard PDF reports.
Zoom level: The zoom level of the map displayed. Ranges from 0 (zoomed completely out) to 20.
Appearance
Rules & Permissions
Actions & Logic
Style: Custom
Trigger
- Button: Start the GPS location capture when the button is tapped.
- Auto run: Start the GPS location capture based on a Trigger.
Type: Select the type of button to display. See Action button for more details.
GPS destination fields: Send the GPS location data to destination fields in the form.
- Latitude: Latitude in decimal format if sent to a Numeric (Decimal type) field and in degrees if sent to a Text field.
- Longitude: Longitude in decimal format if sent to a Numeric (Decimal type) field and in degrees if sent to a Text field.
- Altitude: Altitude in meters. Can be sent to Text or Numeric (Decimal type) fields.
- Accuracy: Accuracy in meters. Can be sent to Text or Numeric (Decimal type) fields.
- Date: The date/time the location was captured. Can be sent to Text or Date/Time fields.
- Map: A map of the location. Can be sent to Image fields.
Address destination fields: Get the street address of the captured location from the Google geocode service. The destination fields must be Text type fields. Requires Advanced.
- Complete address: The complete street address, city, state, and zip code as formatted by Google geocode service.
- Street: The street address.
- City: The city.
- State: The name of the state.
- Zip code: The postal code.