BLM Observations toolbox

UPDATED: 6/24/2025 to fix a bug!

The BLM Observations toolbox and documentation is attached. 

The script within the toolbox does the following: 

• Creates the Observations.gdb according to:
  • Zip file: provide the manually downloaded geodatabase from the Observations survey created in Survey123; 
  • AGOL credentials: automatically downloaded from ArcGIS Online based on an ArcGIS Online user’s credentials, the feature layer service ID and survey form ID. NOTE: the survey form and feature layer must be shared to the User or Group to whom the user belongs;
  • Logged in ArcGIS Pro user: automatically downloaded from ArcGIS Online based on the logged in (to ArcGIS Pro) user’s credentials, the feature layer service ID and survey form ID. NOTE: the survey form and feature layer must be shared to the User or Group to whom the user belongs;
  • Profile (previously created): automatically downloaded from ArcGIS Online based on the profile previously created when AGOL credentials were provided, the feature layer service ID and survey form ID. The profile provides a secure way to save the credential data via a ‘profile’. NOTE: the survey form and feature layer must be shared to the User or Group to whom the user belongs.
• Filters data according Create/Edit dates, as indicated. This enables prevention of downloading data which has previously been downloaded. ONLY use Date, not Date option - do not include Time as it doesn't work for some reason.
• Calculates and populates the County_Municipality and State_Province fields, where empty.
• State for data download:
  • Deletes records where State_Province is not equal state selected. All is an option should you wish to download data from all states (i.e. not exclude data based on state).
• If ONLY include records that have Passed QC  is indicated:
• Deletes records where qc_status is NULL or <> ‘Passed’
• For records with the Voucher Specimen Collected? field indicated:
  • the QRCode field is populated with the direct URL to the survey record
  • Exports records with the Voucher Specimen Collected? field indicated to the specimens_collected.csv file to enable auto-generation of specimen labels via the Microsoft Word template. See Print Specimen Labels for instructions on generating the specimen labels.
• Downloads image, audio, and file attachment (as applicable to your survey) files to the specified locations (subfolders within C:\Temp\Observations). 
• Writes a file (Observations_config.csv) to the Working Directory (C:\Temp, by default) reflecting the user inputs for future reference.