What is the problem? Please be detailed.
We are supporting many partners who are collecting data with ODK Collect all over the world. Often there might be issues and in troubleshooting, I've noticed here on the discussion forums that there are sometimes issues with specific versions of ODK Collect. A recent forum post was about GPS. We had similar issues and it would be nice to know from form input what version they used. Often the partners aren't tech savvy and only communication is via sms or whatsapp. is it possible to either infer the version of ODK Collect from metadata or add either a metadata question or a calculated field to get that?
What ODK tool and version are you using? And on what device and operating system version?
ODK Collect - All versions
What steps can we take to reproduce the problem?
What you have you tried to fix the problem?
Anything else we should know or have? If you have a test form or screenshots or logs, attach here.
Not sure if this is a feature and if it is even possible.
AFAIK this isnt a supported feature (yet) although there's no reason why this isnt technically possible in a future release.
Your closest bet today would probably be to see if you can exploit any of the existing supported meta data - eg deviceID, simSerial, or phoneNumber - and keep track of what device has installed what version... Sorry, not quite what you want, I know.
I could certainly see version being a candidate for future meta data, although since there are now multiple ODK clients besides Collect capable of submitting forms, we'd need more than just a version number to identify the client. [Would you like me to move your post to 'Features' forum?]
Thanks for the swift reply. Yeah, sure you can move to the features forum. I can see a real need. We often can't keep track of what device has which version because our partners buy their own devices and could have never updated ODK Collect from the time it was downloaded - but they rely on us for tech support, so a feature like this, I think could have a lot of benefit, not just for me but generally in terms of troubleshooting.
@Craig_Savel it would be really helpful to understand what prevents users from reading off or typing out the version from the top of the main menu (e.g. ODK Collect v1.15.1). It has been left prominently there exactly for this kind of scenario.
I also understand wanting to have the information with the form submission so that the user doesn't have to be involved but you describe the problem as one of lack of tech savvy and I'd like to undrestand that better.
Either you or @Craig_Savel should be able to click on the edit pencil next to the topic title and then click on the dropdown that currently says "Support" to change the category.
Hi perhaps I didn't explain well. because users are often not tech-savvy and because we often realize there are problems with the data collected at headquarters after the fact, if there were a way that we could see what versions of ODK collect people are using so we can see if there are any issues with that version or ask that users upload. Sometimes because of how our partners work (semi-autonomously) and because my role is more limited to the tech side, it is often difficult to get in touch with an actual user to see what version they are using, so it is probably best to not characterize the issue of users less-tech savvy but more to characterize the wish as a way to pinpoint issues when we can't get in touch with the users.
Starting in ODK Central v1.4, the client User-Agent string is saved for each submission and visible from the Submission Details. It includes the Collect or Enketo version as well as details on the platform the submission was made from (e.g. Android version, browser version, etc).
[sorry, new moderator still learning the ropes.