How to Setup Dynamic Data Attachments in KoBoToolbox
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- Опубликовано: 6 мар 2023
- Hello Fellow Aid, Development & Social Data Practitioners!
Are you tired of manually downloading and attaching CSV files when linking data between forms in your data collection tools? Say hello to Dynamic Data Attachment - a powerful feature that allows users to easily link data between forms without any hassle.
Dynamic data attachment is an essential tool for humanitarian and development professionals that need to collect data from multiple sources and integrate them into a single dataset for analysis. And the best part? KoboToolbox now allows you to link and automatically include data collected across projects, so you can save time and avoid survey fatigue.
⬇️ You can download FREE XLSForm I use in the video here:
humanitariandatasolutions.ac-...
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🔗 Link to Documentation: Here’s a link to the ODK/KoBo Documentation on how to use this feature:
support.kobotoolbox.org/dynam...
🔗 Link to Forum Discussions: Here are a few Forum Discussion Topics that discuss ideas and challenges about setting up Dynamic Data Attachments in Kobotoolbox:
community.kobotoolbox.org/t/d...
community.kobotoolbox.org/t/d...
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So interesting
Great video - Fantastic clear explanation - much appreciated!!!!
Great and very helpful video. Many thank Janna!
Amazing, you just answered my question for so many years
Awesome - glad it was helpful!!
Thanks Janna, it's a great video
Thank you Janna! This is perfect!👍👍👍👍
You're very welcome! Glad it was useful!
Great, detailed video 👍
Glad it was helpful!☺️
it was great.
Great, advantageous tutorial
Oh that's great you liked it! Thank you!
Ahhh thank you so much for this video Janna!
I've been working on this for two months now and still haven't properly linked my two forms. I'm pretty sure after this video I will be able to link them. You just perfectly explained everything in 30 minutes! Thank you :)
Wonderful, I'm glad this video helped you out! Thank you for your comment!
Love you sooo much Janna!❤❤❤❤👌👌 you are an amazing lady, good heart inside & out. Thank you for all your post. hungry for more 😊😊
Aww, you're very sweet!! Glad you enjoyed!
very useful
Glad to hear that!
Thank you Janna for a great video. I have tried but have not been able to solve the synchronisation problem. I have to redeploy the child form every time there is new data on the server. Or I have to delete the form in the KOBO Collect and download it again - then it works perfectly for the existing data on the server. Would you like to comment?😀
Interesting...how long have you waited for synchronising to happen? In my own testing, I found it would sync before 1 hour. But how long did you wait? I'm curious to know...
I am so grateful for this video and the effort you put into it
I have two questions:
1- Before I start filling out the survey, can I know by the ID Nb whether this ID number has already filled out the survey previously? pull data from the same form
2 - Can I give each survey its own unique Qr code? Contains the ID number?
Hi!
1) Yes, you can link a form to itself as both the parent and the child form so you should be able to check whether the ID number has previously been entered.
2) Yes, that's a good idea to give each survey it's own unique QR code. You could use the ID number or you could use the uuid code I suppose if you were using a QR code (but tough if you'd have to enter it manually). What would be cool was if you could generate and print the QR code right from Kobo...I've never done that before, but I do wonder if it's possible. But you could generate them in Google Sheets, for example.
Thanks a lot, it's very helpful. is there any way to get values of repeat group from parent form?
Hi Janna,
Your videos have been so helpful for me to learn KoBoToolbox. I've tried this method to connect different forms so the data ca be linked to each other. However, I have problem when I tried to retrieve the 6th record from the parent form into the child form. It works perfectly only for the first 5 submitted records. Could you help me to resolve the problem?
Thank you so much for your attention.
Hi! Whoa, this is a strange problem, and sorry I didn't see it previously! Is it still like this for you? Can you give me some more details about how you're using it, what your form does, and how we could possibly troubleshoot it?
@@HumanitarianDataSolutions
Oh no worries if you didn’t see it. I think I’ve found the problem why that was happening to the data connection. I suspect that I’ve edited the parent form so many times then it will affected to the table field, and of course the next record might not inserted at the same field as the previous ones. I think the table field in the parent form should be in the consistent structure. Well, the problem solved, but sometimes the new record in the parent form took around 5-10 minutes to be retrieved in the child form.
Is there any method to make the new inserted record in the parent form can be read in the child form immediately?, cause I need to add the data through child form immediately for not to make my respondents to wait too long. You know, they are kind bored being asked even for a few minutes.
Thank you.
Thank you Janna. But it seems detailed. I was wondering if the tutorial was broken down into short videos. Say part 1, part 2. Each part could be treated fully. Of course I value to time and commitment you put in these tutorials.
Hi! Yes, absolutely the easier way to do this is through short videos. I will have a short course on how to do this, which will be available soon, which will be broken down into bite-sized chunks. I'll let you know when that launches!
Hi Janna, great work and very helpful to my new project.
I am working on a project to update the services matrix we created last year using Kobo, and I have 2 questions:
1- can we update/rewrite on the previous (old) records?
2- How we can pull data that is not unique? EX: organization X has several services running all registered under Organization X
Thanks a lot for the video. How can I link two parent and one child project?
Hi there! You can add multiple 'parent' files, you would just need a separate 'instance' for each parent form in your child form XLSForm. Does that make sense?
Dear Janna, two quick questions....a) can we use jr:choice-name function while fetching data from parent form? and b) Can we also fetch 'calculated' fields from parent form? Thanks in advance.
Hi! Check out about 30:15 timestamp in the video regarding jr:choice-name! For calculated fields, yes, that shouldn't be a problem to pull in!
Janna Greeeeeeat Job
can we use select one instead of text for enter ID number(in other mean Can we pull ID number from the registration form so we can choose the ID instead of write it)
Great question...so, you can NOT pull the ID numbers from the parent form in a drop down style question, no...that would be soooo nice :)
This is wonderful! Would this work if you had something like a grant application form that you wanted to link to a grant review form? Essentially so individuals could submit their grant apps and then reviewers could read those apps and review them in the "child project? Thanks so much for any clarification you can provide.
Oh that's an interesting use case! Yes, that sounds like it could work! If I were you, I'd test "length"... Like, how many characters did someone write in the text response? And can the child form pull in the entire response if it's over a certain length?
Hello Janna, Thank you for this great piece. I've tried this function since its launch but with so much difficulty. I finally had it from this vidoe. However only one of my groups is populating from the parent form to the child form and i can't resolve this. I need some assistance. Most grateful.
Hi! I probably need some more info to help you here. It's great that one of the groups is populating!! Which means the child/parent connection is working in Kobo - awesome. But it seems you're having trouble connecting to a different group of questions within the same form? Can you diagnose the problem a bit more? What is the variable name of the question, what's the calculation formula you're using to connect?
Hi Janna,
Could you please let me know how concat more than 2 drop-down list values? It would be great help for our humanitarian project. Because due to id drop-down list not working for read only questions.
Thank you Janna. Your videos solved a lot of my issues related to Kobotoolbox. I want to ask one simple question. I want to dynamically attach three form (You already taught us in the video) but I want the third form to have all the information in the csv file which I download later. Is it possible?
It is, but you need to pull in each field separately, if you're pulling in data from your other two forms. So each field will need it's own row and formula in the XLSForm. Does that make sense? Or did I misunderstand your question?
@@HumanitarianDataSolutions Thank you for the reply. Yes, you are right, I did the same and got all the data from the previous two forms too. Bravo
can you please create a tutorial on how to pull data from repeat groups from a parent project to a child project
One of the limitations is that you can't pull from a repeat group into a child project.
Hi, great video, I have to question what happened on a offline form, the linked data is downloaded on the mobile or is not supported?
Hi! When you download the linked form to a mobile device, it will also download the linked data to the device, so if the device goes offline, it will still be able to pull data from the linked form even when offline. However, if new data is added to the parent form while the device is offline, it won't be able to know that there is 'new' data there, so it will only update to the 'new' data when it goes back online again. Hope this helps clarify - this is still possible offline, but 'new' data added while the device is offline won't be available.
Can you pull data from a repeat group in the parent form? and how?
Great question! Unfortunately, no, this is a current limitation of this method and you can't pull from repeat groups. Please see 31:17 (timestamp) where I review the limitations, including repeat group. ❤
Hi, Thank you so much for the clear explanation. I have a question, I want to link 7 survey together, would I be able to hideout the previous surveys from the new one? or can I make the new survey come first then the old survey under it.?
Hi @sababarri4645 you're very welcome! Can you explain a little bit more about what you mean about 'hiding' the previous surveys from the new one? Is it that you only want the data collectors to be able to see one survey in their Collect app? But you want the new form to still link to the data in the old form?
@@HumanitarianDataSolutions yes! thats exactly what I mean
Is possible to link two form and take date on the phone before synchronisation. Explain: If i link two form, the link is activated where the form are in phone or after synchronisation with server
Hi there,
I'm not sure if I 100% understand your question, but let me try to answer. When you download the child form to your device, then at that point, a copy of the data from the parent form should be available on your device. So then, even if you go offline, the child form should still be able to 'access' the data from the parent form locally on your device. It won't be able to get new/updated data from the parent form until you connect to the internet/server again.
So, you can enter data, take dates, etc, when you're offline, or you can take dates, etc, before submitting data to the server (e.g., before synchronisation with server).
If this is helpful, let me know, or if you had a different question or I didn't understand correctly, please just ask again.
Hi janna, can you explain how you come up with this part
Type. Name. Calculation.
calculate fup_id_nb. if($(fup_id_).
I reviewed your video but you haven't yet explained that part... thank you for helping 😊
Hi! Okay, for this up front, what I've done is create an option to scan an ID number from a barcode. But then I create an of statement that basically says... "if the scan ID is blank, then I'm going to enter an ID by hand". This allows a workaround for your enumerator if they are unable to scan for some reason.
Hello, you're videos have been of great help for us. Now we need to connect our kobo form to a spreadsheet in one of our servers instead of the kobo server. Also we are collecting some documents using our form and we want them to be saved in our server. Can you help us with this configuration if possible? Thanks
I see you've emailed us directly so will follow up with you there.
how can i limit the input of a value from column in another assessment in the same kobo account
for example in Assessment1 has Index : ID1 ID2 ID3 ID4 ID5 ID6
in Assessment2 i asked to enter a value ID: he must except only the values of index in Assessment2
This is a really good use case of this video - as you watch this video, assume that 'Assessment 1' is the registration or parent form. And assume 'Assessment 2' is the child form. Then in Assessment 2 you'll do the link looking for the ID number from Assessment 1, and put a constraint on the question to prevent moving forward unless they found that ID number in Assessment 1. Does that make sense?
Hi Janna. l followed through the tutorial and in my survey instead of displaying the linked data it writes false, and it doesn't show anything on select one and select multiple questions...what could l be doing wrong?
Hi, the process is so detailed that it could be any number of steps that could have a mistake in them. Can you go back through the tutorial, following along with your filled-out XLSForm and just make sure that each step is followed exactly? Little things like capitals, spaces, any extra letters/punctuation can all make a difference. The other thing to do is just to troubleshoot by getting a very simple version to work, so a form that only has a single question in it, and getting that to link. The example I give is a more complex example to show some more of the complexity, but in order to get it working the first time, try to just link a single question form. That will help you narrow down where any mistake might be!
I do have a question, how do i pull pictures/images from a previously collected form to a new form. Say i have already done an assessment and i want to do a verification, so i create a new form to pull some of the previous data to show on my verification form, but i noticed everything works except the pictures showing. I can pull previous data (text and numbers) but i cant pull pictures for it to show.
Yes Thai is correct. There are a few limitations of things you can't pull from previous data: pictures, any data in a repeat group. 🐧
Is it possible to make the data collectors to see one survey in their app and not all the questions from previews survey? and still link to parent data and other child data?
I think this should be possible, yes. Have you tested this? Any problems in implementation?
@@HumanitarianDataSolutions I have not test that. I was wondering if you know how to implement that
Hi.. This is wonderful tutorial to work with. Thanks a lot.
I have a question. Although I am facing a problem. I have created a long time back a "Parent Form" such as Registration Form where I created "Index_ID" question which is not under any group. So when I am trying to fetch data from Index Id, some how it is not working.
My question is, if I need to get data which is not within "begin_group", how can I get.
A data within group is ok. Data without group how can I fetch.
Pls. get me help in this regard.
Thank you in advance.
Hi! Can you copy here the calculation formula you've tried? Then I can take a look to see how you could modify it. You should be able to simply not include the group in the path, so just go straight to the variable name. But if you copy it here we can try to help get it working!
Hello, thanks for the video. I actually managed to do it, except that data collection is now restricted to working through a computer using internet, and not under the kobo mobile app (Tablet or phone). Can anyone who has encountered same situation help me with the solution, cos we work in areas with no internet, so offline submission is what would work for us. Thank You.
what is problem that is preventing you from using the tablet? What error is coming up? Using this method shouldn't prevent you from using the tablet/phone. However, to have a live connection to updated data uses the internet, so although you can do offline data collection, you won't be able to connect to newly connected data until it's been uploaded to the server. Perhaps explain a bit more about your situation, your forms, and your workflow and we can offer some help!
Actually, it was fixed later on (probably due to some internet issues). Thanks a bunch for your quick feedback,@@HumanitarianDataSolutions and well done!
Thanks a lot for this. At 29:02, you mention that this method does not correct data on the parent form.... is it possible though? And how? Thanks
Hi! To correct data on the parent form, you would need to login to the server (KoboToolbox), and simply 'edit' the information that's previously been submitted. You can't correct data through the child form to the parent form. You need to correct data from the server view. Hope that helps!
@@HumanitarianDataSolutions I see. Thanks for the response. Will it be corrected on the child form as well when I do on the Parent form, after I have made my submission on the child form?
@@omarmakki7025good question! if the child form has already been submitted, no, the data would not be updated if you changed it on the parent form.
@@HumanitarianDataSolutions Thanks again. Would this work on KoBoCollect or ODK Collect? Would field workers bel able to make use of dynamic data attachments if the form was used on one of these apps on a tablet?
@@omarmakki7025 It should work with both ODK Collect and KoboCollect (both), as long as they're both connected to the same project/server. 🙂
I created some project forms using Kobo tool. If I use a different devices to collect data, once I submit, the database is not being updated (data is not syncing) despite showing that submissions are being made. Kindly assist.
Can you please raise your question on the KoboToolbox community forum if this is still happening: community.kobotoolbox.org/
@@HumanitarianDataSolutions I figured it out and resolved the issue. Thanks very much
I'm trying to download the XLSForm but the link opens a new website but it does not have any other download link or button
Hi can you try at this link: humanitariandatasolutions.ac-page.com/dynamic-data-attachments
Hello I have a question how we can generate a code in KOBO.
Hi - sounds like it could be possible, especially using a 'calculate' question - but what kind of code do you want to generate?
I want to give each registration form a code to be used as a reference in my follow up form
@@nouraali9391 what format should it have? Numbers? Letters? How long? Should it include references to other questions on the form (for example, a short code for location)?
Letters and numbers
@@nouraali9391 what about using the uuid code generated with each response? That's letters and numbers. Is that the kind of code you're looking for?
Does this method work offline using kobocollect app?
This is a great question. I usually go with ODK Collect. But it's the same.
@@anonymous-user Thanks for your reply, but I mean that does can this Dynamic Data Attachments method be work offline?
@@ECDCmyanmargreat question! You'll need to be connected to the Internet in order to incorporate the newest data entries into your form, however, if you're offline it basically works by having a record of the last-known data from the parent form attached to the child form. While you're offline, it can't add any new entries (even if you collect those new entries on the same device), when you reconnect it will add new entries. You should check out ODK's newest feature called "entity based data collection"... Some of these offline issues will be handled by that feature, but it's still currently under development and being released over the course of the year.
@@HumanitarianDataSolutions Thank you for providing that reply quickly. Your support is so valuable.
Hie Janna can you please assist me with this error am receiving error- 500 when trying to access a report. below is the description ofthe error
This report cannot be loaded.
error: Server Error (500) Server Error (500)
Hi - where/when do you get this error message?
Milesker
it was great.