Cascading Select and External File

[bird_rao]

I’m trying to create questions that ask for the state, district, and town. Since the number of towns is 6000, I want to upload an external file that will populate the answer choices for these three questions.

I’ve tried using the select_one_from_file option, but it doesn’t seem to be working (specifically this Select One or Many From External File Question Type — KoBoToolbox documentation). I specifically want this survey to be filled on the web browser and not the KoBoCollect App.

Further, is it possible to have a cascading select with an external file? I don’t want all 6000 towns to show if someone has already specified their state and district I’ve seen this Adding Cascading Select Questions — KoBoToolbox documentation, but it doesn’t help with external files unfortunately

[Kal_Lam]

Welcome to the community, @bird_rao! Please be informed that the select_one_from_file should work with both your Web Form as well as Collect android app. Maybe you should also be able to see a workaround discussed previously here:

Pre-loading csv files in KoBo to cascade select

Welcome to the community @isaacmugabo! You could do the same as outlined in the images shared below: In the survey tab of your xlsform: [Image 1] In the choices tab of your xlsform: [Image 2] In the csv file: state code [Image 3] In the csv file: district code [Image 4] In the csv file: village code [Image 5] Data entry screen as seen in Enketo: [Image 6] Reference xlsform: select_one_from_file.xlsx (15.7 KB) CSV file (state code): State_Code.csv (245 Bytes) CSV file (district cod…

As an alternate, you could also use the select_one_external to cascade your long list of choices as outlined in the post discussed previously:

Problem recognizing external choices command with today's system upgrade

@basualdo, kindly please be informed that I just checked the feature with the HHI server and it works. Please be informed that this feature at the moment only works with Collect android app while Enketo does not support it. You could design your xlsform as outlined in the image shared below: In the survey tab of your xlsform: [Image 1] In the choices tab of your xlsform: [Image 2] In the external_choices of your xlsform: [Image 3] Or, you could simply list out the unique list_name as show…

[sodeidelphonse]

Hi Community,

I am developing a survey form with Kobotoolbox where I have two select_one questions (donor and entity) and two select_multiple questions (region and country). Entities should be filtered by the selected donor while countries should be filtered by the selected regions like a cascading select described in previous post.

First of all, I have put each of choice list in csv file and used select_one_from_file or select_multiple_from_file question types without the choice filter option. The form has worked perfectly with Enketo.

Now, when trying to include choice_filter and use external csv files (with slect_one_from_file or select_multiple_from_file question types as decribed in previous posts) to achieve a cascading select, I can see only the parent lists (donor and region) but not the ones of entities and countries.

I have also tried the cascading select by putting all the choice lists in the survey form (see the attached excel file), even if it not the best way for me since the idea is to allow other users to update each choice list as media files witout downloading the survey form. But, I am still experiencing the same issue.

However, my cascading slect developed in attached file works correctly when testing on Mobile phone with KoboCollect but does not work with Enketo.

So, how to proceed so that my form works with Enketo since it is designed to be used online and not on mobile phone ?

Kind regards ?

Cascading select_survey sheet.xlsx (13.6 KB)

[sodeidelphonse]

Hi Community,

After forcing the form to open in “online-only” mode, the server sent an error message that reported an external file that no longer existed. Finally, the form worked successfully.

Kind regards,