Allow downloading media for subset of records (instead of all at once)

What is the general goal of the feature?
To select a subset of records for download rather than always having to export ALL media Downloading bulk photos - #11 by ebaptista

What are the most likely user stories for how and when this would be used by someone on your team?
*when there are multiple “rounds” of a survey, with interim analysis - e.g. in the case of a Pacific Island Nation one island is surveyed in October, a different island is surveyed in November etc. and results from each island are analysed at the end of each “round” (followed by a full analysis after all islands are complete).
*when on an unstable/slow internet connection so needing to work offline rather than viewing media files online via URL.

Can you sketch out graphically how you think this should look/work in practice?
There is already the ability to filter/select specific records on the “data” screen of a survey in Kobo Toolbox. The only option that is then available is “Update selected”. Suggest adding an “Export selected” option that then takes you through to the Export screen

How useful would this feature be to other users or organizations?
I believe it would be useful to anyone who collects photos/videos/media as part of their survey - looking through the forums there have been several recent questions about media.

What can you contribute to making this feature a reality?
Analysis and test support - apologies I can’t (yet) write proper code!

That feature would be incredible useful .Especially in the use case of massive survey collection. WE have a lot of submission receiving during survey period.
Each and every day, the file size became bigger and bigger .
Eventually, it became a challenge to handle the dataset.

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I’m in agreement with this feature request - it is an excellent idea!

An operation we are currently supporting has (unfortunately :frowning: ) no set timescale or geographic constraint.

Those deployed to the field are finding it increasingly difficult to complete the required daily analysis of data collected, due to the vagaries of internet connectivity and having to download all the data collected over the lifespan of the operation.

If they are able to only select and download “today’s data” or “records between date X and date Y”, that would be tremendously helpful.

Can this feature be added?

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I really like this feature idea. I see two use cases:

  • allow user to download media for specific records (similar to @nat’s mockup)
  • download media based on a filter criteria (e.g., submitted before Feb 8, 2019)

This option could also be a solution to dealing with extremely large ZIP files that either can’t be generated by the server or can’t be downloaded by the user. Thoughts @jnm?

Has any progress been made on this feature? I am also getting more and more bulky zip files and it would be really helpful to download only newly added pictures, instead of having to download the whole set again.

It costs a lot of internet data and time at the moment!
Thank you!

Hey everyone,

I also think this feature could be very useful. Is there any timeline set?

Looking forward about some news, thank you!
All the best,
Chloé :slight_smile:

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I can see an enhancement for this has been logged in Github - https://github.com/kobotoolbox/kpi/issues/2522 - not sure of timeframe for this ticket to be addressed but fingers crossed it will be soon! A number of colleagues are also looking forward to it.

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hi. there is a workarounf for now :
after getting the global data in Excel, it is easy to create a link for each picture like this : https://kc.kob4.ifrc.org/attachment/original?media_file=yourifrckoboaccount/attachments/thenameofyourpicture and then use TabSave on Chrome that allows to open a list from Excel and then download all your picture in one batch. It is also a good way to only select the Picture you want to download (as Kobo only propose to download it all), especially if you face some internet issues… It also work with downloadthemall (extension for Firefox), but your list can’t be in excel, it has to be a text file.

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Please! I need this!

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@ralphthompson, I have moved your post here so you could VOTE for this feature request. If you have the budget for this feature, please feel free to reach us through info@kobotoolbox.org, where we could discuss the possibility of integrating this feature within KoboToolbox. cc: @nat, @NC_Chan, @Mr_Callaghan, @gerrianne_pennings, @chloelaborde, @brice.goedert, @analucia_espinoza

Sponsoring this small feature could benefit the entire KoboToolbox user!

@Kal_Lam I am again in a location where internet access is constrained, so the ability to filter media before exporting would be super-useful. I personally can use plugins such as DownThemAll to select only certain items for download, but other colleagues who are less technical would find it much easier to just have that option in the UI.

@esario be great if this could be on your wishlist to support also :slight_smile: Thanks!

I also see Josh has created a Python script to download only a subset of files - Downloading media files (filtering by questions) - #3 by Josh - this is great for technical users, but the UI-based solution is still needed for the general users! Thanks

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