Survey design
A survey type is the template for one kind of survey: an electrofishing run, a gillnet set, a disease sampling event. It defines the fields you collect, how each one validates, and how the form renders. Every record belongs to a survey type, and the same definition drives manual entry, file import, field collection, and validation, so your data is consistent no matter how it arrives.
If you are new to the builder, start with Build your first survey type. This section goes deeper.
What a survey type carries
Section titled “What a survey type carries”- A name (in English, and optionally French and Spanish) and a key, a short
snake_caseidentifier that is unique in your organization and cannot change once set. - A taxa group (fish, mammal, bird, herp, invertebrate, plant, or other), which tags the survey and helps filter species fields.
- Its fields, in order, optionally grouped into sections.
- A version, which ticks up every time you save.
Saving and versions
Section titled “Saving and versions”Each time you choose Save in the builder, the survey type’s version increases by one. Saving validates the whole design first: if something is wrong (a duplicate key, a select with no options), the builder lists what to fix and does not save until it is right.
Publishing
Section titled “Publishing”Publishing a survey type makes its approved records part of the public archive. Only records that have been approved in review are ever published; drafts and in-review records stay private. Publishing is permanent (it follows an archive model, like a published dataset), so you publish when the data is ready to stand as a public record. See Review and approval and the public data section for the full lifecycle.