Browser support and hints for KoBoToolbox

Dear KoBoToolbox team,
related to different answers in various threads concerning browser issues, some general question, please:

  • Which browsers are fully supported by KoBoToolbox, esp. Enketo? (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, Safari)
  • Which browser versions are supported (in the recent KoBoToolbox)?
  • Which browser configuration is needed (or recommended), like private mode enabled?
  • Are there further important guidelines for Browser usage for KoBo?
  • Against which browsers do you run tests for a new Enketo release?

This may help the community to better understand and follow the KoBo strategy. Also, an integrated support article on Browser usage would be great.
Thanks in advance.

Here some pieces from different threads

… we recommend upgrading to a recent version of one of the following excellent modern browsers Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera. Modern Browsers
… Enketo doesn’t support Internet Explorer anymore: see “Farewell Internet Explorer” on (https://blog.enketo.org/). Firefox or Chrome would be best, but if you’re not able to install anything new, Edge should work … (Forms won't load from bookmark...blue loading circle - #3 by jnm)
… prevent automatic updates of the browsers before you have made your submissions Forms won't load from bookmark...blue loading circle - #10 by stephanealoo

At the moment there are very few hints on the support pages
https://support.kobotoolbox.org/search.html?q=browser+chrome

… (Chrome preferred) on your mobile device… We recommend users to use Chrome as their browser while working with web forms.
Offline data collection works in any modern browser. … On iOS we only recommend Chrome or Safari

Hi @wroos,

Thank you for coming up with this extremely good query. The discussion that should happen in this post should help a lot of KoBoToolbox users collecting data through Enekto aka web-forms.

Responding to query 1:

As outlined by Enketo it supports modern browsers viz. Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Opera.

Additionally, kindly please be informed that Enketo does not support Internet Explorer anymore. FYI: (source)

I have personally used Firefox, Chrome and Edge and i see them function smoothly. However there are some points where the browsers slightly matter. An example could be seen here.

Responding to query 2:

Regarding the browser version, I would say the latest the best. In this case try upgrading your browser to the latest version to get the best possible experience of the features that Enketo keep updating with time. However, if you find any issue with the latest version kindly please feel free to come up and report the same. We would always help linking issues to appropriate channels so that users could experience the same smoothly.

Responding to query 3:

Could you explain this again. Sorry could not understand you well.

Responding to query 4:

We have two support article that should answer this issue at the moment. They are Collecting Data through Web Forms and Troubleshooting Enketo Web Forms. We shall try to update them in the upcoming days so that most of the user’s queries are answered by these support articles. Besides, we would appreciate to have feedback as to what is still missing from the support article so that we could update them with time.

Responding to query 5:

We generally run the test with the browsers that we had at our PCs. Initially when testing i would simply test the new release through chrome but shall now test them with the modern browsers listed by Enketo i.e. shall test them through Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Opera.

@stephanealoo please feel free to add on to the post if i have missed any.

Have a great day!

Hi @Kal_Lam
I think you have captured most if not all the queries and clarifications that had been sorted by @wroos. If there is any additional component we can be able to see and add onto this; or present this in a more summarized manner preferably tabular form.
Stephane

1 Like

Thanks!

Which browser configuration is needed (or recommended), like private mode enabled?

Question is: Are there important settings options for the used browser(s) which are recommended for optimising work with KoBoToolbox. E.g. cache/history issues like do not delete cookies and site data, remember search and form history, etc.

… points where the browsers slightly matter.
Would be great to have them (and update) them in the support article.

Kind regards

1 Like

Hi @wroos
Definitely this warrants proper documentation potentially on a support article either stand-alone or embedded. We will look internally and then advise on progress around the same.

Thank you so much for your continued dedication to supporting other users, and helping us identify issues that need our attention.

Stephane

2 Likes

+1 it would be great to have a thorough browser support article on the KoBo support site.

Tiny admin thing - I looked at the page refered to above https://support.kobotoolbox.org/troubleshooting_webforms.html but the “see here” link goes to an archived version of enketo github that’s no longer in use.
Suspect that link should now go to https://enketo.org/faq/#browsers (or possibly to the newer enketo github repo or to https://enketo.github.io/enketo-express/tutorial-70-browser-support.html ) Cheers

2 Likes

Thank you @nat for flagging this. Will update the same accordingly.

Hi @Kal_Lam it looks like the above page on the KoBo Support site still has the same dodgy link - and in fact the other link towards the bottom of the support article (“online-only version” link) is also broken. Given so much going on with Enketo at the moment it’d be great if the support article could please be fixed up - thanks a million!

2 Likes

Noted with thanks @nat! Will get to this soon!

1 Like

Hi @nat, kindly please be informed that we have updated the broken link for the support article Troubleshooting Enketo Web Forms.

@wroos, FYI we have also updated our support article What Are Enketo Web Forms? that should now inform about the modern browsers that have been discussed in this post.

Thank you once again for bringing this to our attention, and expecting the same in the upcoming days.

2 Likes