Change form version in ODK Build

Hello,

I was wondering whether there is another way to change set form version apart from manually adding a column Version in Excel or modifying the XML code. I looked at Build ODK but I could not seem to find this setting anywhere which made me wonder if there's a particular reason for omitting it.
Thank you in advance.

Hi! Right now, it's not possible, as versions are automatically generated on export to prevent conflicts. It can be added as an option, of course, but right now my focus is elsewhere. How strongly do you need the option?

1 Like

Hi @issa
Firstly, congratulations! I am looking forward to exploring ODK Central. In the next few days I am going to test the alpha.
Secondly, thank you for your response. It is just that the organization I am working for wants to keep forms with duplicated names on 1 instance but show and allow the user on the application side to see and download only the latest version. I have noticed that on loading the forms in the Download Forms Activity, there are several properties sent from the server: name, id, version, etc. My idea was to manually set the version codes for forms following the proposed format (yyyymmddrr) and then on the application side I can compare these to make a decision which forms to hide from the user. I don't think it is very important but I think of a case where there's a new form available which replaces an old one but by keeping both users can still submit their instances to the old one.

Ah—it sounds like you will need manual control over the form ID as well, then, which Build definitely doesn't do right now. Since it's meant to be a friendlier tool, we hide these sorts of concepts from the user to avoid overwhelming them with technical details.

When we get around to another pass at ODK Build, we will definitely keep this ask in mind, but for now I'm afraid the best answer will probably be to edit the XML.

Thanks for the feedback—it's quite helpful. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Central!

1 Like