Question About Relational database functionality

Hi

As an introduction to my question:
I am doing a bit of research on various data-capture solutions for my wife who does entomological research.

I came across Kobo Toolbox after a fair amount of googling. I am trying to figure out if the following functionality is supported:

Say, I am trapping insects in various locations. I have 20 traps, and I wish to on a regular basis record details of each insect trapped. In that insect data-capture form, I would like the user to be able to select the trap number and have the rest of the trap details auto-populate from a table of traps, but retain the ability to add a trap transparently, or mark it as deleted (it isn’t a static list of traps).

As a developer this seems like it should be simple to me - two tables with a key field (trap number) linking them together. I could write a custom solution quite quickly, but that is undesirable (if I get hit by a bus, who maintains it?) .

Surprisingly I’m told solutions like Redcap don’t do this easily or well. It appears to be convoluted and involves multiple projects or arms, which really seems a little silly to me, given the nature of a relational database.

So, the question is, does Kobo Toolbox have this functionality? I went through a fair bit of documentation before asking, so if anyone can point me in the right direction, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks!

Kind Regards
Andrew

Hi Andrew,
This will be possible through a feature called pulldata() which we will be adding soon. It will allow you to upload a CSV table with all the information that can be pulled (and updated through new submissions). It’s not exactly a relational database in that sense but would serve the purpose you’re describing.

Best,

Tino

···

On Wed, Aug 10, 2016 at 12:37 PM Andrew Lobb masterc...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi

As an introduction to my question:
I am doing a bit of research on various data-capture solutions for my wife who does entomological research.

I came across Kobo Toolbox after a fair amount of googling. I am trying to figure out if the following functionality is supported:

Say, I am trapping insects in various locations. I have 20 traps, and I wish to on a regular basis record details of each insect trapped. In that insect data-capture form, I would like the user to be able to select the trap number and have the rest of the trap details auto-populate from a table of traps, but retain the ability to add a trap transparently, or mark it as deleted (it isn’t a static list of traps).

As a developer this seems like it should be simple to me - two tables with a key field (trap number) linking them together. I could write a custom solution quite quickly, but that is undesirable (if I get hit by a bus, who maintains it?) .

Surprisingly I’m told solutions like Redcap don’t do this easily or well. It appears to be convoluted and involves multiple projects or arms, which really seems a little silly to me, given the nature of a relational database.

So, the question is, does Kobo Toolbox have this functionality? I went through a fair bit of documentation before asking, so if anyone can point me in the right direction, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks!

Kind Regards
Andrew

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Hi Tino,

Thanks for the response. Any indication of a timeline on this feature? I understand that’s a hard question from a development point of view to answer.

Thanks again!
Andrew

···

On Sunday, 14 August 2016 00:02:52 UTC+2, Tino Kreutzer wrote:

Hi Andrew,
This will be possible through a feature called pulldata() which we will be adding soon. It will allow you to upload a CSV table with all the information that can be pulled (and updated through new submissions). It’s not exactly a relational database in that sense but would serve the purpose you’re describing.

Best,

Tino

On Wed, Aug 10, 2016 at 12:37 PM Andrew Lobb maste...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi

As an introduction to my question:
I am doing a bit of research on various data-capture solutions for my wife who does entomological research.

I came across Kobo Toolbox after a fair amount of googling. I am trying to figure out if the following functionality is supported:

Say, I am trapping insects in various locations. I have 20 traps, and I wish to on a regular basis record details of each insect trapped. In that insect data-capture form, I would like the user to be able to select the trap number and have the rest of the trap details auto-populate from a table of traps, but retain the ability to add a trap transparently, or mark it as deleted (it isn’t a static list of traps).

As a developer this seems like it should be simple to me - two tables with a key field (trap number) linking them together. I could write a custom solution quite quickly, but that is undesirable (if I get hit by a bus, who maintains it?) .

Surprisingly I’m told solutions like Redcap don’t do this easily or well. It appears to be convoluted and involves multiple projects or arms, which really seems a little silly to me, given the nature of a relational database.

So, the question is, does Kobo Toolbox have this functionality? I went through a fair bit of documentation before asking, so if anyone can point me in the right direction, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks!

Kind Regards
Andrew

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Kobo Users” group.

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