The field app
Short guides to follow in the wood — each takes a few minutes to read and covers one job on the Android field app.
How the field app works
- Offline first. Sync once with signal; then woodlands, stands, plots, methods and targets are on the phone, and everything you record is saved there until the next sync.
- It records; the desk decides. Methods, targets and plots are set up on the web. The phone shows them, records against them and shows a live result.
- Assisted values are proposals. Voice notes, the camera and Bluetooth instruments propose values; nothing counts until you accept it.
Most visits follow the order below. If you are new, read Get ready and Run a visit first; the others are for when you need them. Each method’s own form is explained under Measurements.
The guides
Get ready for the fieldSign in on the phone, sync your woodlands, save the map and data for offline use, and know what the sync card is telling you.Run a visitStart a visit, pick what to record, go plot by plot, check the live result, and finish — all offline.Find your plotsWalk to a permanent plot with the arrow and distance, re-find its centre from the marker, witness trees and traverse, and set up a new plot with an averaged GPS position.Photos: fixed photo points and camera diameterRepeat a fixed-point photo exactly with the earlier photo faded over the camera, and measure a stem diameter from a photo with a reference card — as a proposal you confirm.Voice notes and proposals in the fieldSpeak a plot as you measure it; the server transcribes it and proposes records, which come back to the phone and the web to accept, edit or reject.Bluetooth instruments and glove modePair a Haglöf Vertex or a keyboard-mode caliper so readings arrive as proposals in the field you are on, and set the phone up for rain and gloves.Visit and time logKeep a log of each visit — when you were on site, who came, travel time and purpose — for the payment-evidence report and your own records.Sync, conflicts and working offlineWhat is on the phone, what has gone to the server, and what to do when two people changed the same thing or the server rejects a change.