Form designers

Support
21

Hi Sarah,

Sorry for the lack of enough documentation.

If you are running it from source, you need to checkout the 1.0.1 branch
which is not yet merged to trunk. It is the one that has that feature:
https://purcforms.googlecode.com/svn/branches/1.0.1

If you do not want to deal with the source, you can download the compiled
versions from
http://code.google.com/p/purcforms/downloads/list

The latest is: FormDesigner-2.0.1.zip
http://code.google.com/p/purcforms/downloads/detail?name=FormDesigner-2.0.1.zip&can=2&q=
Just unzip and double click the FormDesigner.html

··· On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 10:06 AM, Sarah Bird wrote:

Hi Daniel,

I can't make this work, can you elaborate.

I'm running from eclipse as those were the only instructions I could find
here (http://code.google.com/p/purcforms/wiki/DeveloperGettingStarted).

The URL I was using was:
http://127.0.0.1:8888/FormDesigner.html?gwt.codesvr=127.0.0.1:9997
I changed it to:
http://127.0.0.1:8888/FormDesigner.html?saveFormat=javarosa?gwt.codesvr=127.0.0.1:9997

I'm still getting the same result.

Cheers,

Bird

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 11:57 PM, Daniel Kayiwa kayiwadaniel@gmail.comwrote:

Sarah you are very correct on this.

If your destination is ODK when using purcforms, you need to set the
"saveFormat" flag's value to "javarosa"

This can be done in two ways:

  1. Just appending this to the url: ?saveFormat=javarosa
  2. Edit the saveFormat div in the "FormDesigner.html" file to look like
    this:
javarosa

That way purcforms will generate xforms that are JR/ODK compliant (GPS,
etc as expected by ODK)

The instance at http://purcforms.appspot.com/FormDesigner.html
already has that flag set.

On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 9:49 AM, Sarah Bird sbird@alum.mit.edu wrote:

Just FYI, if you're using purcforms to build a form, it doesn't seem set
the question type properly to prompt to get a location (it sets it to
type:xsd:string format: gps); ODK Build does (it sets it to type:geopoint)

best,

bird

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 11:04 PM, Yaw Anokwa yanokwa@gmail.com wrote:

hey chris,

gps already exists in build, it's the location widget.

build supports date, but not time. the time widget is a new feature in
collect 1.1.7. it's not hard to add, but it's behind some higher
priority functionality in build. track the bug at
http://code.google.com/p/opendatakit/issues/detail?id=280.

xls2xform is the only tool (besides hand coding) that allows you to
reference the large number of questions. you can find the source at
https://github.com/jbeorse/pyxform, but note that it's still getting
prepped for release, so caveat emptor.

yaw

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 08:07, Chris Wilson chris@aptivate.org wrote:

Hi all,

I'm evaluating ODK, openXdata and EpiSurveyor as potential
technologies
for a project, and I've run into some issues with ODK which I hope
someone
here will be kind enough to help me with.

The main one is around form designers. It seems that there are three
commonly-used GUI design tools (apart from xls2xforms), and I've had
problems with them all:

  • ODK Build seems easy to use, but doesn't seem to support the newer
    question types such as Date and Time, GPS, etc. Is that right? Are
    there
    plans to add such support?

  • PurcForms seems extremely difficult to use; clicking Preview hangs
    the
    app on "Refreshing Design Surface..." forever; I get random JavaScript
    errors while using it; I have to copy and paste the XForms XML into a
    text
    file to upload to ODK Aggregate, which refuses to accept it due to
    some
    validation error. Has anyone encountered similar errors, or got
    PurcForms
    to work well with ODK?

  • KoBo seems to be a good intermediate in complexity, but the forms it
    generates can't be uploaded into ODK Aggregate because they are
    missing a
    form ID; the FAQ question about this says that I can add an id
    attribute
    to the root element (<h:html>) but the error persists when I do. How
    do I
    actually add this ID in a way that works for ODK Aggregate?

Finally, since we have a large number of questions with the same set
of
three possible responses (No/Yes/Very Yes), do any of the designer
support
defining this list once and referencing it elsewhere?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers, Chris.

Aptivate | http://www.aptivate.org | Phone: +44 1223 760887
The Humanitarian Centre, Fenner's, Gresham Road, Cambridge CB1 2ES

Aptivate is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales
with company number 04980791.

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--
If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others, we
shall find it impossible to love them as Christ has loved us; but if our
thoughts dwell upon the wondrous love and pity of Christ for us, the same
spirit will flow out to others.

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--
If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others, we
shall find it impossible to love them as Christ has loved us; but if our
thoughts dwell upon the wondrous love and pity of Christ for us, the same
spirit will flow out to others.

22

Great discussion here, I'd like to weigh in as one of the KoBo developers.
There area couple questions that were raised here about the KoBo Form
Builder, which is intended to be a very full featured Xforms builder for use
with ODK Collect or KoBo Collect, and which works both offline and online.

KoBo Form Builder can be found at:
http://formbuilder.koboproject.org/KoBoFormDesigner.html

*To your questions: *

  • KoBo seems to be a good intermediate in complexity, but the forms it
    generates can't be uploaded into ODK Aggregate because they are missing a
    form ID; the FAQ question about this says that I can add an id attribute
    to the root element (<h:html>) but the error persists when I do. How do I
    actually add this ID in a way that works for ODK Aggregate?
    *Does anyone know why KoBo doesn't give you a GUI way to change the form
    ID? Or if it does, where can I find it?

YES, you can change the name of the form, and it's ID. When you create a
new survey, you get a form called 'New Form' but you can click on it in the
left form tree, then you can edit it in the properties panel at the right.
So, if you change the name to 'gazoo', you will end up with XML that looks
like this:

  • <h:title>gazoo</h:title>*
  • *
  •  <instance id="gazoo">*

  •    <gazoo>*

  •      <deviceid/>*

  •      <start/>*

  •      <end/>*

  •      <A01/>*

  •    </gazoo>*

  •  </instance>  *

*...since we have a large number of questions with the same set of
three possible responses (No/Yes/Very Yes), do any of the designer support
defining this list once and referencing it elsewhere?

Not yet, but this is a feature we are working on for KFB. Users should be
able to create and save commonly used sets of answers or questions, things
like Yes/No, but also commonly used groups of options like scalars: very
bad, bad, neutral, good, very good.

*Another question if I may: this discussion
http://groups.google.com/group/opendatakit/browse_thread/thread/d5620...
asks if Boolean is supported by ODK, but the question is never answered. I
just tried it and a Boolean field created in KoBo is rendered as a text
field in ODK Collect. Is that expected behaviour?

There is no specific support for Boolean questions (True/False), but you can
create Trigger questions which will give you a 0/1 result, or a select 1
with the same type of options.

☞§※☼:airplane::open_umbrella::slight_smile:
~Neil

23

it's possible and it'd be easier. please file a feature request and
we'll get to it when we can. the alternative is to submit a patch.

··· On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 02:57, Chris Wilson wrote: > Wouldn't it be possible to have a nicer control in the boolean case, for > example a check box? And wouldn't it be easier to build forms with a bunch > of these options if you didn't have to add the options each time?
24

Chris,
In answer to your question about re-using common selections (Yes/No and
Scalars, for example) I should also mention that you can copy and
pasteblocks of options in the form tree panel. This allows you to
create a scalar
once, and use it many times. This is a common use case for survey forms, one
we use in our human rights research.

☞§※☼:airplane::open_umbrella::slight_smile:
~Neil

25

Hey all,

I'm also a developer on the KoBo From Builder project. I also wanted
to chime in regarding re-using common selections.

In the KoBo Form Builder I would recommend doing the following to
minimize retyping:

  1. Create a single select question with the selection options you
    want.
  2. Copy and paste the entire question, options and all, as many times
    as needed.
  3. Go back and type in the correct text for the questions that you
    just pasted.

KoBo form builder will automatically update the question IDs and all.

Hope that helps,

··· On Aug 4, 6:41 am, Neil Hendrick wrote: > Chris, > In answer to your question about re-using common selections (Yes/No and > Scalars, for example) I should also mention that you can *copy and > paste*blocks of options in the form tree panel. This allows you to > create a scalar > once, and use it many times. This is a common use case for survey forms, one > we use in our human rights research. > > ☞§※☼✈☂☻ > ~Neil
26

Got it - thanks!

··· On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 12:15 AM, Daniel Kayiwa wrote:

Hi Sarah,

Sorry for the lack of enough documentation.

If you are running it from source, you need to checkout the 1.0.1 branch
which is not yet merged to trunk. It is the one that has that feature:
https://purcforms.googlecode.com/svn/branches/1.0.1

If you do not want to deal with the source, you can download the compiled
versions from
http://code.google.com/p/purcforms/downloads/list

The latest is: FormDesigner-2.0.1.zip
http://code.google.com/p/purcforms/downloads/detail?name=FormDesigner-2.0.1.zip&can=2&q=
Just unzip and double click the FormDesigner.html

On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 10:06 AM, Sarah Bird sbird@alum.mit.edu wrote:

Hi Daniel,

I can't make this work, can you elaborate.

I'm running from eclipse as those were the only instructions I could find
here (http://code.google.com/p/purcforms/wiki/DeveloperGettingStarted).

The URL I was using was:
http://127.0.0.1:8888/FormDesigner.html?gwt.codesvr=127.0.0.1:9997
I changed it to:
http://127.0.0.1:8888/FormDesigner.html?saveFormat=javarosa?gwt.codesvr=127.0.0.1:9997

I'm still getting the same result.

Cheers,

Bird

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 11:57 PM, Daniel Kayiwa kayiwadaniel@gmail.comwrote:

Sarah you are very correct on this.

If your destination is ODK when using purcforms, you need to set the
"saveFormat" flag's value to "javarosa"

This can be done in two ways:

  1. Just appending this to the url: ?saveFormat=javarosa
  2. Edit the saveFormat div in the "FormDesigner.html" file to look like
    this:
javarosa

That way purcforms will generate xforms that are JR/ODK compliant (GPS,
etc as expected by ODK)

The instance at http://purcforms.appspot.com/FormDesigner.html
already has that flag set.

On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 9:49 AM, Sarah Bird sbird@alum.mit.edu wrote:

Just FYI, if you're using purcforms to build a form, it doesn't seem set
the question type properly to prompt to get a location (it sets it to
type:xsd:string format: gps); ODK Build does (it sets it to type:geopoint)

best,

bird

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 11:04 PM, Yaw Anokwa yanokwa@gmail.com wrote:

hey chris,

gps already exists in build, it's the location widget.

build supports date, but not time. the time widget is a new feature in
collect 1.1.7. it's not hard to add, but it's behind some higher
priority functionality in build. track the bug at
http://code.google.com/p/opendatakit/issues/detail?id=280.

xls2xform is the only tool (besides hand coding) that allows you to
reference the large number of questions. you can find the source at
https://github.com/jbeorse/pyxform, but note that it's still getting
prepped for release, so caveat emptor.

yaw

On Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 08:07, Chris Wilson chris@aptivate.org wrote:

Hi all,

I'm evaluating ODK, openXdata and EpiSurveyor as potential
technologies
for a project, and I've run into some issues with ODK which I hope
someone
here will be kind enough to help me with.

The main one is around form designers. It seems that there are three
commonly-used GUI design tools (apart from xls2xforms), and I've had
problems with them all:

  • ODK Build seems easy to use, but doesn't seem to support the newer
    question types such as Date and Time, GPS, etc. Is that right? Are
    there
    plans to add such support?

  • PurcForms seems extremely difficult to use; clicking Preview hangs
    the
    app on "Refreshing Design Surface..." forever; I get random
    JavaScript
    errors while using it; I have to copy and paste the XForms XML into a
    text
    file to upload to ODK Aggregate, which refuses to accept it due to
    some
    validation error. Has anyone encountered similar errors, or got
    PurcForms
    to work well with ODK?

  • KoBo seems to be a good intermediate in complexity, but the forms
    it
    generates can't be uploaded into ODK Aggregate because they are
    missing a
    form ID; the FAQ question about this says that I can add an id
    attribute
    to the root element (<h:html>) but the error persists when I do. How
    do I
    actually add this ID in a way that works for ODK Aggregate?

Finally, since we have a large number of questions with the same set
of
three possible responses (No/Yes/Very Yes), do any of the designer
support
defining this list once and referencing it elsewhere?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers, Chris.

Aptivate | http://www.aptivate.org | Phone: +44 1223 760887
The Humanitarian Centre, Fenner's, Gresham Road, Cambridge CB1 2ES

Aptivate is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales
with company number 04980791.

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--
If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others,
we shall find it impossible to love them as Christ has loved us; but if our
thoughts dwell upon the wondrous love and pity of Christ for us, the same
spirit will flow out to others.

--
Post: opendatakit@googlegroups.com
Unsubscribe: opendatakit+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
Options: http://groups.google.com/group/opendatakit?hl=en

--
Post: opendatakit@googlegroups.com
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Options: http://groups.google.com/group/opendatakit?hl=en

--
If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others, we
shall find it impossible to love them as Christ has loved us; but if our
thoughts dwell upon the wondrous love and pity of Christ for us, the same
spirit will flow out to others.

--
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27

Hi Neil,

YES, you can change the name of the form, and it's ID. When you create a
new survey, you get a form called 'New Form' but you can click on it in
the left form tree, then you can edit it in the properties panel at the
right.

Aha, yes that works. It's not at all obvious that the form has no ID by
default, but as soon as you change its name from the default New Form, it
gives the form an ID.

Not yet, but this is a feature we are working on for KFB. Users should
be able to create and save commonly used sets of answers or questions,
things like Yes/No, but also commonly used groups of options like
scalars: very bad, bad, neutral, good, very good.

Great.

*Another question if I may: this discussion
http://groups.google.com/group/opendatakit/browse_thread/thread/d5620...
asks if Boolean is supported by ODK, but the question is never answered.
I just tried it and a Boolean field created in KoBo is rendered as a
text field in ODK Collect. Is that expected behaviour?

There is no specific support for Boolean questions (True/False), but you
can create Trigger questions which will give you a 0/1 result, or a
select 1 with the same type of options.

OK. I thought I created a boolean field in KoBo, but I can't see the
option now so I guess not. (And in any case it's not supported by ODK
Collect?)

Cheers, Chris.

··· On Wed, 3 Aug 2011, Neil Hendrick wrote: -- Aptivate | http://www.aptivate.org | Phone: +44 1223 760887 The Humanitarian Centre, Fenner's, Gresham Road, Cambridge CB1 2ES

Aptivate is a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales
with company number 04980791.