We have a form for classroom observations that we’ve been using for a few years, and that is mainly made up of statements to be rated, so the majority of answers are single-select, with the same responses:
Yes/ excellent
Good
Adequate
No/ poor
Not applicable.
Now there is only the ‘Not applicable’ option for the whole form! The only edit I’ve made to the form was to change the single-select list of staff names at the beginning of the form.
Is there any way to find out how this happened, so we can avoid it happening again? Or even a way to quickly recover the answer selections? NB the library item has also lost all the other options.
Welcome back to the community, @childrenontheedge! Sorry, I did not understand your issue quite well. Could you kindly share with us a screenshot of your issue so that we can understand it pictorially and help you troubleshoot?
I’m attaching 3 screenshots. the 1st is of how the answer options were set up for the whole form, the 2nd is how they are now (without us doing anything), and the 3rd is the item in the library which has also lost all but the ‘not applicable’ response…
As I said, it’s a form we’ve been using for ages with no problem, that had all the options for every metric. Suddenly all the options apart from ‘not applicable’ disappeared on the form and the library object. I can easily redo the form but I wanted to know if there’s a way to find out how this happened before I fix it, so we can avoid it happening in future. Can Kobo look at the back end and see what happened?
I don’t think I can use the online validator because it is not an xls form, it’s created on Kobo Toolbox..?
Which version(s) of the form have been used (when). - V6 was used in late 2024. V7 is the current version, after I changed the staff name selection list on 18th March. When staff tried to use the form on Saturday they found all the options were missing.
If the list_name is exactly the same for all these choice items. - do you mean the label given to each choice item? I think the answer is/ was yes, although in the only complete one (with all the options) that remains, it says ‘option-5’ instead of ‘not_applicable’. All the others that only have the not applicable option have ‘not_applicable’.
If you see more than one language (incl. default) in the language menu on top. - No there is only English (en) default.
If all choice names follow the syntax rules. - Sorry I don’t know what this means..?
You can (always) download as XLSForm from the form/projekt menu in KoboToolbox. And then upload an test it here ODK - XLSForm Online.
I would like to recommend to do this during development and before deployment.
The problem is: select_one xr05v25. This choice list only has one choice (Not applicable). rows 14 and rows 16 following, See choice sheet.
Different to this, in row 15 you use select_one su1cz58 which has several choices defined.
Yes I know, that is the problem that I’m reporting. That is the purpose of this topic. All the other options just disappeared from the form and the library object. I want to know how they disappeared. Can Kobo see when that happened and what caused it?
Probably, there has been a change/edit of your form. You could list and check previous versions (see history menu): You can clone a version, download it as XLSForm and review the choices sheet.
Thanks I did as suggested and found that the options were missing from the version of 14th January 2025 (but not the previous version from 19th March 2024). Is it possible to see who modified it? I don’t think I touched it until 18th March '25, when I changed something else and didn’t notice that the options were missing.
Also the library object was altered to only have the one ‘not applicable’ option. How could that have happened? It seems like a bug or something…? Can Kobo see from the back end what actually happened in the form and the library object?
