My research group at the Harvard School of Public Health is evaluating KoBo Toolbox as a potential replacement for Magpi, our current data collection tool. My first few hours with the software have been a bit rocky, and I have a couple of questions. Note that I used the latest version of the Chrome web browser, as per the recommendation on the KoBo website.
I created a small test survey using the online version of KoboForms. I installed KoBoCollect on my phone and copied the form to odk/forms, then filled it out on the phone twice. I connected my phone to my computer (Windows XP) and attempted to use the “Post Processing” button/KoBoSync feature to combine the two files, and ran into the following difficulties:
Although my phone was correctly mounted as an mtp device, KoBoSync did not see the device. Should it? This was not a big problem, as I simply copied the odk directory from my phone to the computer and set the Survey instances location to the directory on the computer, but I was under the impression that you should be able to to it directly from the phone.
Neither the aggregate note convert to csv buttons had the desired effect. That is, no files were created in either the “Aggregate To” or “Save CSV To” directories. In the “Status” box I see
Status
XML Sync Process Completed
Surveys Aggregated: 0
Surveys Converted to CSV: 0
after clicking the “Aggregate” button, and
Status
Csv Transcribe Process Completed
Surveys Aggregated: 0
Surveys Converted to CSV: 0
after clicking the “Convert to CSV” button. Any suggestions for debugging/troubleshooting this? FWIW, I also tried in Firefox with identical results.
I downloaded the off line version of KoBoForms and installed it on my windows XP computer. Opening the html file (“KoBoFormDesigner”) in Chrome resulted only in a progress bar with the message “Please wait while KoBo Form Designer loads”. I then opened the file in Firefox, and lo and behold it worked, indicating a problem with the Chrome browser. (I reported the issue on the google code project page.) Not only did the interface load correctly, but the KoBoSync feature (accessed through the “Post Processing” button) worked as well.
OK, so at the end of the day I was able to get it working, but I’m somewhat troubled by the number of things that didn’t work as expected. Is my experience typical, or do things usually work more smoothly? Is there a documented process for debugging/troubleshooting when things don’t work as expected? If I were the only one using the software I would be perfectly happy working around the difficulties I described above, but many of the people in my organization are not that technical, and I’m somewhat concerned that the level of stability might not quite be there for less technical users. Any thoughts or suggestions about these questions/issues will be much appreciated.
I would like to answer some of your queries. Ideally with any post processor you must map your phone properly to it e.g. changing a usb port will definately accord ur phone a different drive letter and thus wrong mapping. Just connecting via mtp does not sort it out. On the issue of 0 surveys aggregated what happens from experience is that the aggregation folder has files previously aggregated so if you have done no additional surveys then the processor cannot aggregate what has already been aggregated. At times when your browser (and not kobo) registers some things as cookies then this could happen. I recommend using a stand alone post processor running on java…it works miracles for us.
Sorry for the problems encountered with use of Kobo however I would like to vouch for the stability of the same considering the magnitude of surveys we currently rolling out in Kenya. The most unstable element was however (not within kobo precincts) but with the appspot for those using it. However we (Kenya) found a way to circumvent this and still establish data submission without need to plug in phone.
Considering my knowledge on Magpi I would recommend you accelerate your move towards Kobo probably pilot with your needs. I believe there are several Kobo nauts who would lend you a hand (me included) to see this through; if need be.
My research group at the Harvard School of Public Health is evaluating KoBo Toolbox as a potential replacement for Magpi, our current data collection tool. My first few hours with the software have been a bit rocky, and I have a couple of questions. Note that I used the latest version of the Chrome web browser, as per the recommendation on the KoBo website.
I created a small test survey using the online version of KoboForms. I installed KoBoCollect on my phone and copied the form to odk/forms, then filled it out on the phone twice. I connected my phone to my computer (Windows XP) and attempted to use the “Post Processing” button/KoBoSync feature to combine the two files, and ran into the following difficulties:
Although my phone was correctly mounted as an mtp device, KoBoSync did not see the device. Should it? This was not a big problem, as I simply copied the odk directory from my phone to the computer and set the Survey instances location to the directory on the computer, but I was under the impression that you should be able to to it directly from the phone.
Neither the aggregate note convert to csv buttons had the desired effect. That is, no files were created in either the “Aggregate To” or “Save CSV To” directories. In the “Status” box I see
Status
XML Sync Process Completed
Surveys Aggregated: 0
Surveys Converted to CSV: 0
after clicking the “Aggregate” button, and
Status
Csv Transcribe Process Completed
Surveys Aggregated: 0
Surveys Converted to CSV: 0
after clicking the “Convert to CSV” button. Any suggestions for debugging/troubleshooting this? FWIW, I also tried in Firefox with identical results.
I downloaded the off line version of KoBoForms and installed it on my windows XP computer. Opening the html file (“KoBoFormDesigner”) in Chrome resulted only in a progress bar with the message “Please wait while KoBo Form Designer loads”. I then opened the file in Firefox, and lo and behold it worked, indicating a problem with the Chrome browser. (I reported the issue on the google code project page.) Not only did the interface load correctly, but the KoBoSync feature (accessed through the “Post Processing” button) worked as well.
OK, so at the end of the day I was able to get it working, but I’m somewhat troubled by the number of things that didn’t work as expected. Is my experience typical, or do things usually work more smoothly? Is there a documented process for debugging/troubleshooting when things don’t work as expected? If I were the only one using the software I would be perfectly happy working around the difficulties I described above, but many of the people in my organization are not that technical, and I’m somewhat concerned that the level of stability might not quite be there for less technical users. Any thoughts or suggestions about these questions/issues will be much appreciated.
Warm regards,
Ista
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Thank you very much for your reply! It does seem that the combination of on-line KoBoForms + KoBoCollect on Android + stand-alone off-line KoBoSyc works solidly, so I will continue my evaluation using that combination. I appreciate the vote of confidence in the stability of KoBo!
Best,
Ista
···
On Wednesday, May 22, 2013 12:13:56 PM UTC-4, Kenyan Aloo wrote:
Hello
I would like to answer some of your queries. Ideally with any post processor you must map your phone properly to it e.g. changing a usb port will definately accord ur phone a different drive letter and thus wrong mapping. Just connecting via mtp does not sort it out. On the issue of 0 surveys aggregated what happens from experience is that the aggregation folder has files previously aggregated so if you have done no additional surveys then the processor cannot aggregate what has already been aggregated. At times when your browser (and not kobo) registers some things as cookies then this could happen. I recommend using a stand alone post processor running on java…it works miracles for us.
Sorry for the problems encountered with use of Kobo however I would like to vouch for the stability of the same considering the magnitude of surveys we currently rolling out in Kenya. The most unstable element was however (not within kobo precincts) but with the appspot for those using it. However we (Kenya) found a way to circumvent this and still establish data submission without need to plug in phone.
Considering my knowledge on Magpi I would recommend you accelerate your move towards Kobo probably pilot with your needs. I believe there are several Kobo nauts who would lend you a hand (me included) to see this through; if need be.
My research group at the Harvard School of Public Health is evaluating KoBo Toolbox as a potential replacement for Magpi, our current data collection tool. My first few hours with the software have been a bit rocky, and I have a couple of questions. Note that I used the latest version of the Chrome web browser, as per the recommendation on the KoBo website.
I created a small test survey using the online version of KoboForms. I installed KoBoCollect on my phone and copied the form to odk/forms, then filled it out on the phone twice. I connected my phone to my computer (Windows XP) and attempted to use the “Post Processing” button/KoBoSync feature to combine the two files, and ran into the following difficulties:
Although my phone was correctly mounted as an mtp device, KoBoSync did not see the device. Should it? This was not a big problem, as I simply copied the odk directory from my phone to the computer and set the Survey instances location to the directory on the computer, but I was under the impression that you should be able to to it directly from the phone.
Neither the aggregate note convert to csv buttons had the desired effect. That is, no files were created in either the “Aggregate To” or “Save CSV To” directories. In the “Status” box I see
Status
XML Sync Process Completed
Surveys Aggregated: 0
Surveys Converted to CSV: 0
after clicking the “Aggregate” button, and
Status
Csv Transcribe Process Completed
Surveys Aggregated: 0
Surveys Converted to CSV: 0
after clicking the “Convert to CSV” button. Any suggestions for debugging/troubleshooting this? FWIW, I also tried in Firefox with identical results.
I downloaded the off line version of KoBoForms and installed it on my windows XP computer. Opening the html file (“KoBoFormDesigner”) in Chrome resulted only in a progress bar with the message “Please wait while KoBo Form Designer loads”. I then opened the file in Firefox, and lo and behold it worked, indicating a problem with the Chrome browser. (I reported the issue on the google code project page.) Not only did the interface load correctly, but the KoBoSync feature (accessed through the “Post Processing” button) worked as well.
OK, so at the end of the day I was able to get it working, but I’m somewhat troubled by the number of things that didn’t work as expected. Is my experience typical, or do things usually work more smoothly? Is there a documented process for debugging/troubleshooting when things don’t work as expected? If I were the only one using the software I would be perfectly happy working around the difficulties I described above, but many of the people in my organization are not that technical, and I’m somewhat concerned that the level of stability might not quite be there for less technical users. Any thoughts or suggestions about these questions/issues will be much appreciated.
Warm regards,
Ista
–
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