Multi-stage trips (events)

Some field work is not one flat record. A crew deploys gear at a station, comes back hours later to read instruments, retrieves the gear, and assesses whether the work met protocol. In CensusIO that unit of work is an event: a survey record that fills in phases, carries a lifecycle state (a lane), and is numbered sequentially on the trip. Everything about it is your configuration: the form, the phases, the lanes, and the transitions between them.

What a stage is

A stage connects your trip workflow to a survey type:

• The survey type is the event’s form, built in the survey designer like any other. Its sections are the phases (deployment, instrument reading, retrieval, assessment in the starter).
• The status field (a select on that form) holds the event’s lane. The stage’s lifecycle declares the lanes: each has a label in your languages, a color tone, and a category (planned, in progress, done, abandoned). Rename them, add lanes, or change the allowed moves; it is all configuration.
• The event number field numbers events per trip, always counting up. A redo at the same station takes the next number; numbers are never reused.
• Later-phase fields use required when rules tied to the status field, so a half-done event always saves and completing it is what demands the retrieval and assessment answers.

Set it up

1. Open Trips, then Workflow settings (organization admins).
2. In the Stages panel choose Add stage. If your organization has the starter Station deployment event survey type, the stage arrives pre-filled and bound to it; otherwise pick any survey type that carries a Trip field. To build or adapt that form (phases, gating, alerts), see Design an event form.
3. The stage’s Lanes edit right on the panel: rename them, change colors and categories, pick the first lane, and shape the allowed moves. The panel lints the binding live: missing convention fields, a status select that does not cover your lanes, or a required field that would block starting an event at sea are all flagged before you save.
4. Save, then Sync each field device once so the workflow arrives with the forms.

Stages are opt-in. With none configured, trips and collection behave exactly as before.

On the vessel or in hand

With a trip active (Collect on this trip), the desktop and mobile apps lead with a stations and events panel, and web collection shows the same panel when you pick a trip. It lists the trip’s planned stations in visiting order, each with its latest event’s lane. Everything works offline; the panel reads only what is on the device.

• Start asks you to confirm, then creates the event immediately, already in your first active lane, with the trip, the station, and the next number filled. No form opens; the card appears at once and you open it when the work happens.
• Continue opens the event’s form to record the current phase. The form reads as its phases: sections collapse, the current phase opens, and the phone walks by phase chips.
• The lane buttons move the event along your configured transitions. If the target lane needs answers you have not recorded yet (completing demands the later phases), the form opens at that lane so you can fill what is missing and save the move with it.
• Two devices numbering while offline can take the same number. That is expected; the duplicate is flagged on the panel and at headquarters for review, and numbers are never silently changed.

Loud alerts

Any record check can be marked with an alert level. When it fires, the message escalates beyond the inline note: a full-width banner, and optionally an audible tone (the mobile app vibrates and reads the message aloud). Use it for must-not-miss conditions, like a sea state above your protocol’s limit. Configure it on the check in the survey designer; it is off unless you turn it on.

Automatic sync

Auto-sync when online is an organization setting. Once enabled, it reaches every device on its next connection, and from then on a device that regains connectivity pushes its pending records on its own, with retries backing off on a flaky link. The manual Sync button keeps working everywhere. Devices only try when there is something to send, and only while the app is in the foreground.

At headquarters

Open the trip’s page while a vessel is out. Below the route you will find Stations and events: the same lanes the crew sees, refreshed automatically about every half minute as devices sync. A station with no event yet reads as exactly that, which is your coverage view; each event links into the record review queue.

For the season’s rollup, the built-in Trip workflow summary report (in Reports) shows events per trip and lane, the abandonment rate, duplicate numbers, and how long each trip’s collection ran.

Good to know

• Lanes are grouped by their category everywhere code needs to reason about them, so renaming a lane never breaks boards or reports.
• An event whose stored lane is no longer declared in your lifecycle shows up visibly as unrecognized rather than disappearing.
• Events are ordinary records: review, conflict resolution, version history, attachments, and exports all apply to them unchanged.