Excessive form upload times

[dwight]

I’m seeing excessive form upload times – 10+ minutes for a very short test form (image below) to the non-Humanitarion server (https://kf.kobotoolbox.org). In some cases it’s still spinning 25 minutes later and I just cancel it. This occurs for all uploads., whether for new or existing projects, and draft or deployed projects. The form successfully validates at ODK - XLSForm Online v2.x.

Am I doing something wrong or overly complex? I’m trying to mimic an id/password login as well as determine if a specific responent has already filled out a survey. I’m doing it this way because it would be too burdensome for respondents to create a KoboToolbox account, so the survey has to be deployed as publicly available.

The id/password is not really for security, but to ensure that the only people who access the survey are those who’ve received a letter/email from us. I’m using pulldata for simulating a login. Only one survey per respondent is allowed, and I’m using a self-linked dynamic data attachment to enforce that.

[Kal_Lam]

@dwight, it seems like you are using the dynamic data attachment feature. Could you test the same with the sample XLSForm from this article to see how long it takes? Kindly please let us know your test findings!

[dwight]

Apologies, but which article?

Yes, I am using dynamic data attachment, linking the survey to itself. This is to detect whether a respondent has already completed a survey.

[Kal_Lam]

@dwight, I meant this article (simply to check if the upload time is the same like you have seen with your XLSForm):

New Support Article: Dynamic Data Attachments [Case Management]

Dear All, We are glad to inform you that with the recent release of new feature Dynamic Data Attachments (Case management) in KoBoToolbox, we have added a new support article Dynamic Data Attachments to our support page. [image] Please visit our Help Center Page to learn more about other support articles. [image]

[dwight]

OK, thanks. Those files load and deploy within seconds. I am experimenting with my files to isolate the problem lines.

[dwight]

I have not been able to identify the problem lines. Sometimes the upload takes seconds, sometimes 10 or 20 minutes – though today most uploads are quick. Nothing seems to consistently cause the problem. It might be due to the XLS that LibreOffice Calc writes out, but I haven’t been able to get that to behave or misbehave consistently either.

I’ll post again if I’m able to figure this out.

[Kal_Lam]

@dwight, thank you for updating!