Overview

Modern capacitive screen devices can be challenging to use in the rain because raindrops can mimic touch events from a finger or stylus. Water hitting or already on the screen can cause applications like MobileMap to think that a user is tapping on the screen, which can make it very hard to collect data in very wet conditions. Some devices provide ‘wet mode’ options in their configuration that helps to minimize the interference of water on the screen.

MobileMap includes a ‘Stylus Only’ mode that can greatly improve performance in wet conditions, especially for devices that don’t provide a ‘wet mode’ to help cope with this problem. Stylus Only mode is only compatible with devices that incorporate an ‘active’ stylus, such as Samsung Tab Active devices. These devices provide an active stylus (e.g., Samsung S Pen), which works with a special ‘digitizer’ layer built into the tablet. When an active stylus is used with a compatible tablet, the operating system know if a touch event was an intentional touch event from the stylus, versus an unintentional touch from a finger, raindrop or snowflake.

Enabling Stylus Only Mode

To take advantage of Stylus Only mode in MobileMap, ensure you have a compatible device (and stylus) then enable Stylus Only mode in Settings (Settings > General Preferences > Stylus Only Mode). Once enabled, all interfaces in MobileMap will ignore any touch events or gestures that do not come from the stylus. This means that the device will ignore unintended touch events. It also means that some actions must be slightly altered in order to use the stylus, rather than your finger.

Map Zoom

Zooming in and out in MobileMap typically uses the spread and pinch gestures in which two finders are used at the same time to indicate the zoom direction. In Stylus Only mode, an alternate approach is needed. To zoom in Stylus Only mode, tap the screen once then touch the screen quickly a second time and drag up (zoom out) or down (zoom in). This can take a little bit of practice to get used to this approach.

Keyboard Issues

Keyboards on Android Devices are separate keyboard apps that get opened when a user interacts with an editable text field in a user interface. While users can install and configure a range of keyboard apps, to our knowledge there are no keyboard apps available in Google Play store that include a Stylus Only mode. This means that MobileMap, when running in Stylus Only mode, can ignore most unintended non-stylus touch events, raindrops can interfere with the keyboard when it is open while collecting data. To minimize the impact of this, MobileMap includes Stylus Only Popups that provide an alternate data entry approach.

Configuring Stylus Only Popups

Starting in MobileMap 4.4.28, Stylus Only Popups provide a way to utilize Stylus Only mode in MobileMap and prevent unintended issues with the default keyboard app. To use Stylus Only Popups configure the following settings:

Stylus Only mode (Settings > General Preferences > Stylus Only Mode): Check this box to enable Stylus Only mode

Stylus Only Popup Mode (Settings > MobileMap Cruise > Trees > Stylus Only Tree and Log Popup Mode): Set this to Codes, Descriptions, or Both to enabled popups. This setting will only be applied when Stylus Only Mode is Enabled.

Stylus Only Popup Fields (Settings > MobileMap Cruise > Trees > Stylus Only Tree and Log Popup Fields): This setting needs to include a list of ALL fields that should display a popup, rather than the default keyboard, when using Stylus Only Mode. Typically this will be a semicolon separated list of ALL visible fields (using fieldnames, not aliases). It is possible to further configure this to subset the values to display for fields that use Coded Value Domains (CVD).

Using Stylus Only Popups

When Stylus Only Popups are configured, the following user interfaces will be displayed when in the Tree List, instead of the default keyboard.

Coded Value Domain Fields

Fields that use an Esri Coded Value Domain will be displayed using a popup that displays the Codes, Descriptions, or Both, depending on the option selected in the Stylus Only mode setting. The example below shows a popup for the Species field, using Codes as the option, in which each button shows the 2-letter FIA alpha code for the species.

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Text fields Without Coded Value Domains

Text fields that do not use a CVD will display the following keyboard to enable users to enter text data. The example below shows a popup for the Notes field, and displays a full alphanumeric keyboard. The ‘Aa’ button can be used to toggle between upper and lower case characters, as well as to access special characters. In the second image, upper case and special characters are displayed. Note that some special characters have been intentionally excluded to avoid conflicts when importing the data into some analysis software, such as FVS or TCruise.

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Numeric Fields Without Coded Value Domains

Numeric fields (short integer, long integer, single, double) that do not use a CVD will display a numeric keyboard to enable users to enter numeric data. Note that the decimal point key will only be active for floating point (single, double) fields. The example below shows a popup for the DBH field, which in this case is an integer (short) and thus the decimal point is disabled. If the data model included a DBH field that supported measurements to the tenth inch, the decimal point would be enabled.

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Disabling Stylus Only Mode

When you no longer wish to use Stylus Only Mode, simply disable it in Settings > General Preferences > Stylus Only Mode by unchecking the checkbox. Note that the Settings button (gear icon) is the ONLY button that is enabled without a stylus (e.g., with a finger tap) when in Stylus Only mode. In the event that you lose your stylus when in Stylus Only mode, simply use your finger to open settings and uncheck Stylus Only mode. They continue to collect data in standard mode until you find or replace your active stylus.