Dear all,
as part of our M&E activities, we need to pull Kobo survey data into a Tableau dashboard, ideally live via an API. Despite quite some searching online, we have not been able to make this work.
Any pointers would be very welcome!
Thanks.
Johannes
Data should be made public by clicking in the settings:
I use this to query in Power BI, it should be the same for you:
GENERAL STRUCTURE ( assuming Humanitarian response instance):
Default Language:
https://kc.humanitarianresponse.info/ YOURUSERNAME /reports/ FORMNAMEINKOBOTOOLBOX /export.csv
EXAMPLE of FORM_ID_IN_KOBOTOOLBOX: a5n9jp9qryiKPfRNYq7KAt
If you have“english” as Language: https://kc.humanitarianresponse.info/ USERNAME /reports/ FORM_ID_IN_KOBOTOOLBOX /export.csv ?lang=english
This method is ok if your data is not sensitive…as you make data available to people with the link ( potentially anyone with the Query file)
Check Video Tutorial HERE on how I link PBI and KoboToolbox
Thanks so much fo this. This is indeed a pretty neat way of solving it!
Having spent another afternoon trying to figure out what to do if the data is more sensitive, I now also found a (Tableau specific) solution, using a Kobo Web Data Connector (https://kwdc.herokuapp.com/).
For this you need your account’s ‘secret’ API token (as opposed to the Developer Token) that you can get by sending an API GET request to https://kobo.humanitarianresponse.info/token/
(with basic authorization).
Took me a while to figure this out, so I hope this is useful to anyone in a similar situation.
Cheers,
Johannes
it seems that to get your API token (without having to send an API request), you can also use this link: https://kobo.humanitarianresponse.info/api-auth/login/?next=/token/
I wish to know about this token and other things, :-), but I have to admit that when it becomes to “IT-ish” I get scared.
Thanks thougth for the post as it may be usefull for others.
WHy not a video tutorial on who to do this?
Hi there.
Yes, took me a while as well to figure this stuff out (not really my field of expertise either).
Youtube tutorial: that’s a actually a neat idea - will try and do that when I some free time on my hands. In the meantime, let me know if you have any specific issues that I might have figured out already - happy to help if I can (you can connect through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jvonengelhardt/)
Thank you so much for being available to help. Is the video ready now?
I tried reaching out to you on linkedin, but, I can’t send you a request nor message.
Hi Tomisin,
Can you resend your LinkedIn request? It seems to not have come through.
(didn’t get around to making that video unfortunately).
Cheers,
Johannes
Let users embed credentials (or not)
you can decide to let users embed passwords (which are encrypted) in the workbooks and data sources that they publish to the server. In that case, when others use those workbooks or data sources, they can see the data without having to provide credentials.
To enable or disable embedded credentials, sign in to Tableau Server.
In the site menu, click Manage All Sites, and then click Settings, and then click the General tab.
Select or clear the Allow publishers to embed credentials in a workbook or data source option.
This source might helpful referConnecting to Datasource
Publishing data sources to Tableau Server lets people on your team provide centralized access to data. It enables data sharing among users, including those who don’t use Tableau Desktop but have permission to edit workbooks in the web editing environment. Users working with Tableau Desktop can publish data sources that contain extract or live connections. learn Tableau easily by partciptat tableu relevant communities and impliment by using trail and error method.
As the administrator, you determine which users have the right to publish data sources. These users must have a site role of at least Publisher for the site. In addition, non-administrator users must have View and Save permissions for the project that they want to publish to. (For a review of user permissions
Thanks so much for sharing this additional information. This is very helpful.
Hi, can anyone confirm if this is still a solution? I’ve been triying to create a conection but I only got a System Error message:
I got my Api token from the account settings pane, which is the same as getting a request from this: https://kf.kobotoolbox.org/token/?format=api
So I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or if this is not a solution anymore.
Thanks,
Jose
Welcome to the community, @ouot! Are you trying to connect your data with Tableau? Could you provide more details about your issue? This should be helpful for the community to troubleshoot.
Thanks @Kal_Lam, i was trying to use the KoboToolbox Api option, since mine is a researches account, but it wasn’t working, so I change to Custom Installation, providing the URL in the format suggested and it work.
So it was definitely something wrong on my end.
Thanks,
Hi Vonengelhardt,
I have tried to use Kobo Web Data Connector (https://kwdc.herokuapp.com/) but am stuck in the stage to get data. After providing the token and selecting the form, I have clicked on get data but did not get response. Can you explain What do I need to do next, please?
If your token key is correct, you should first click on ‘Get Form List’, then select the appropriate Kobo form in the list, and then click on ‘Get Data’ . Is that what you already tried?
Cheers,
Johannes
I have tried already
If your API type is set correctly (first drop-down), then I also don’t have a solution I’m afraid.
Hello Vonengelhardt,
I tried using the [https://kwdc.herokuapp.com] Though it connected and listed out all my kobo projects, the GET DATA button doesn’t seem to be working.
I have reviewed all the methods of connecting tableau to kobo mentioned on this thread, none of them seem to work for me.
Hello Joe,
Not sure what could be the cause here, especially if your projects are listed correctly and you are able to select one for connecting. Sorry that I can’t be of more help.
