Editing Existing Records

Hello,

I’m fairly new to KoboToolbox and what a great service that’s being provided.

Could someone please verify that after a record has been collected using a deployed form and .CSV media files, the data must be exported and downloaded, formatted as necessary, replaced in the Media folder and redeployed in order for the fields’ data to be shown when the record gets edited.

It seems that even though the records’ columns have data in them (i.e. seen in the table) the data isn’t visible in the edit form.

Is that all correct? Thanks in advance

GR

Welcome to the community, @grmapper01! Could you kindly share with us a screenshot of your issue so that we could understand it pictorially? One more question, do you see the missing data when you download your data in XLS format?

Thanks for the request.

  1. The DataEntry pic shows the form filled out and just prior to clicking Submit. This is a new entry.

  1. The DataTable pic shows the info in the data table after hitting refresh in the browser.

  1. The DataTableEditForm pic shows the form that pops up when the pencil is clicked on the new record in the table.

If I export the table, produce a new Member.csv file and then reload it, when I click the edit pencil icon the fields are populated. The Club.csv file is also in the media folder and never changes and the possible selections are all stored in it so that part of the edit form is populated correctly.

Is this expected behavior and process to edit entries in the table?

Thanks,

Greg

So you mean the data is missing when you try to edit the submissions? Did I now get you correct?

Could you also let us know the server you are using? BTW, could you also let us know the entire process you followed to deploy, edit the form (questionnaire), and redeploy if you redeployed the project? Try to be as detailed as possible so that we could try to replicate the issue you are facing.

Sorry for taking so long to respond. The data IS NOT missing. I can see it in the table and if I export the table it is in the resulting CSV. The problem arises when I edit the record. The form opens but only the first field is populated. See the last pic in the series. If I export the table, then reload the CSV back into the Media folder and click the edit the form is populated. I wouldn’t think I’d need to do that. In fact once I loaded my data using the CSV I thought I could remove it from the Media file. Perhaps not.

The server I’m on is Global KoboToolbox Server.

The exact process is how I described it in the prior message.

Thanks.

Hi @grmapper01,

I believe i understood your problem, let me correct if i am wrong in somewhere.

So you have a csv file where it is uploaded as media file and you call people’s information though member ID right? If you write the matching member id, filled will fill automatically. lets assume this first part is correct. If there a person without a member id, you fill their member id and all the rest of the information manually and submit the form but when you would like to edit any information in this manually filled forms, the information is not appeared in the form. did i understand it correctly?

That is correct. If at that point I export the data, create a new .CSV and then replace the file in the media folder the data would be in the form the next time I did an edit.

Thank you.

Do you try to edit before uploading the csv file? If this is the case, it is totally normal for you to see a blank form

Yes. I just thought it interesting that the data table shows the data after a new form entry but until it’s actually in the CSV and in the media folder you can’t edit it. So it seems like what I’m experiencing is something working as designed. Thanks.

Yes, so each time you click the edit form, your form run the pull data function again and try to pull the value from the CSV file but there is no matching code, so there is no information to sow that’s why it shows you the empty form.

Ahhh. Perfect. That explains it. Thank you so much!!!