Display Wxcel files or PDF files in Kobo

dears;
now I am building a survey for Monitoring activity, basically, this survey asks you to choose the beneficiary code, and once the code is entered the survey will pull all the data from the assessment survey along with the pictures of the household (thank to @stephanealoo for helping me out with pulldata functionality)
now, beside the assessment data and the pictures I also have a BOQs list for each beneficiary (BOQs is Bill Of Quantity which indicates what the househeold needs for rehabilitation, wood, electrisity, concrete …etc) the BOQs are excels files and contians alot of numbers and meurments, therfore, I can’t convert them into pictures and use pulldata() because I can’t zoom in to see the number clearly in kobo (cause kobo doesn’t support zoom in inside the survey)
my qustion is, can I display the excel file or PDF file in kobo ?( I will convert the excel to pdf)
meaning, once the beneficiary code is choosen, kobo will display the data pulled from the assessment and the picture and then the BOQ file (Excel or pdf)
is it posible to perform that in kobo? or at least link the BOQ file as a hyperlink and once the link in clicked it will bw opened using a third-party app (like microsoft for android or whatever).
please avice?
and thanks in advance .

Hi @Naeim,

Maybe you could upload a file that you could later on download it in your computer from the KoBoToolbox server. If this should be helpful for you, you could learn more by going through the post discussed here:

Have a great day!

thank you @Kal_Lam for your reply.
but I don’t think this discussion helped me.
what I am trying to do is the following:
I already have the files because they were prepared during the assessment phase of the project.
now in the monitoring phase, I ask about the beneficiary code, and once entered, I used pulldata() to pull all the information of the household (family composition and vulnerability critera…etc) and the picture, so now I want to display or hyperlink to quanitity document of the house hold (BOQs document which is excel or pdf)
so once the beneficiary code is entered I want to display or link the BOQs file so the team can see it (or download it )in the field. and verify the quantities assessed by the partners.

so basically I want to upload all the BOQs documents for all the beneficiaries beforehand and then pull the document associated with the beneficiary code.

so I am asking is there a way to pull the document from the server and display them in kobo ? or at least link them (hyperlink) and then the team can read the files in third-party app, if kobo can’t read pdf of excel file

thank you, and sorry for the long explination :slight_smile:

Hi @Naeim,

If you wish to add a hyperlink to your survey question, you could do it as outlined in the image below:

In the survey tab of your xlsform:

Image 1

Data entry screen as seen in Enketo:

Reference xlsform:

Hyperlink.xlsx (9.5 KB)

Have a great day!

Thank you @Kal_Lam
but this is a link to a website, can I link a file and once the link is clicked the file will be downloaded ?

thank you

Hi @Naeim,

[quote=“Naeim, post:5, topic:11039, full:true”]

Where would you wish to download your file?

Have a great day!

thank you @Kal_Lam for your quick response;

I want to upload the files to Kobo server (as I upload the images or the CSVs file), and then link them to the survey, so once the team can click on the link from inside kobo and the file will be downloaded to the phone

Hi @Naeim,

I don’t know if this works for you. But there is an option. To better understand please have a look at the support article ADDING MEDIA TO YOUR FORM.

Have a great day!

thank you @Kal_Lam
I know this article,
I don’t want to add media to my form because I already did
I want to add excel files and then use hyperlink to let the user download the excel file and read it on the mobile phone.

Hi @Naeim
Essentially what you are asking can actually be done, as I have mentioned in another post. However you should note that the saving of the dowloaded file will need to sit within the form’s specific folder on the phone for it to be picked.

Using the same analogy I had explained within the pull data for photos, you should be good.

Stephane

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thank you @stephanealoo
I tried to use pull data functionality but It didn’t work.
I mean the column should be media::file ? or media::image or what?
I ditn’t know how to make it happen
please advice
and sorry for the repeated mentioning and asking, but I have been trying for 2 days without any progressm, so I decided to seek an expert advice

Hi @Naeim
No, you must have misunderstood me. You cannot get the files the way you want to do it.

I am also struggling with the logic of pulling an excel file; why is this necessary? How is it supposed to be used?

Logic aside, you can still use the hyperlink approach that @Kal_Lam had indicated. The only thing is that your link must be a link that directly downloads the file if you place it in the browser.

Stephane

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