Hello everyone!
I am new to Kobo world and this it the first time I am making a request, but the question is not simple. I operate a project that collects different data of beneficiaries of humanitarian support. The project about which I am making a request is a one-time support. And to detect duplicated beneficiaries we use ID codes that are used in our country. These codes consist of 10 digits. To prevent repeat entry of the code to the form we created such a constraint:
To do that we used “constraint” column in “survey” sheet in excel. We indicated such text in appropriate cell: . != ‘1000000004’ and . != ‘1000000005’ and . != ‘1000000006’ (these IDs are just examples).
It worked perfectly, but until the moment we reached a big number of beneficiaries. Surprisingly for us it occured that the cell in excel can contain not more that 32,767 characters. Using != ‘1000000004’ and … we managed to put in the cell 1425 IDs of different beneficiaries. But now we have to add to the constraint more than 1000 new IDs, and in future we will have to put there more. The problem is that the form works and detects 1425 IDs but no more IDs can be detected. So those who register beneficiaries for support cannot properly detect those who have not received this type of support.
My questions are:
Is it possible to expand the 32,767 character limit in Kobo Toolbox?
What other methods to detect duplicates can be used?
What other ways of solving this situation are possible?
Welcome to the community, @artem_hrytsyk! You could do this with the dynamic data attachment feature. This post discussed previously should help you solve your issue:
Hello @Kal_Lam ! Thank you for the suggestion. I searched for the information and guidlines on the Internet about the dynamic data attachment and understood that this method does not cover our needs and is not appliable for this type of project.
The thing is that we do not need to export any data about beneficiaries to the current project. We do not have to use a registration form to provide assistance to beneficiaries and we do not have such. Also, this is an one time activity for every participant, so none of them should repeat in the database/data export. We just need to somehow restrict repeated entry of people’s IDs.
But let’s say that we decided to use this method that you had adviced. Then I have a question how can I add more than 2000 ID codes to the external form from which we should axtract data and compare it in the current one. We receive new codes daily and cannot spend days putting all the codes manually to the external form.
Maybe I lack experience in Kobo but it seems like there is no solution for this question. Because constrain is a very good method but excel on its side has limits (32,767 characters in one cell) and using registration form is not appliable for this activity.
@artem_hrytsyk, please be informed that the DDA feature can link the parent project with the child project. In addition to this, this feature also allows a user to link the project to itself. Hence, using this approach, you can link your project to itself to prevent respondents from entering the same ID if they have already submitted it to the server.
Correct me if I misunderstood your requirement where a user, if once entered and ID say 2 is already submitted to the sever will not take another ID 2. But it can take any other ID other then 2.
Dear @Kal_Lam, I did not know that. Maybe it will help. But this is not an ideal solution because a lot of the codes were collected by other forms. And the same approch will be kept. That is, if I link the form to itself, it will only check those codes that were entered into it. Let’s imagine that there are 1000 of them recorded in the form at the moment. But in general, we have more codes that were collected a long time ago using other collection methods. I have an idea to put some of the codes in the constraint field and use the method that you recommend. Maybe such a mixed method will help. I will try, it will take some time to figure it out. When I do something, I will come back with a response on how everything worked. Thanks for the support
Is it possible to check and compare the codes from different forms?
