ODeeKers,
I'm in Haiti working on a project with the Red Cross and I've been using Enketo
https://enketo.org/in conjunction with ODK Collect and ODK Aggregate and
thought I would share with the community how well it's going and what the
ups and downs are.
Haiti speaks French and Creole, and until I was here I didn't make the
connection that "Survey" in French is "Enquête". Thus, Enketo. (Martijn can
tell us why he didn't go with the Dutch translation "overzicht")
First off, Enketo Smart Paper is basically a way to run Xforms in a
browser, it is like ODK Collect for your computer. It runs entirely in the
browser, so there is no application to install. That means that you can
distribute a form to people just by sending them a link. It's put together
by the affable, ineffable, unstoppable Martijn van de Rijt...a Dutchman who
I think is based in Colorado, and if I recall correctly, Enketo is the
result of his Computer Science Master's Thesis.
Can I just say how long in coming this was? Why did it take so long for
there to be a workable solution for Xforms in the Browser? I feel like we
banged on this problem for years. I talked to Martijn about Enketo when it
was in a more embryonic stage and was excited about it then, and now I'm so
impressed by the utility and beauty of the product.
Enketo integrates with Formhub (or Formhub is running its own Enketo
server? I can't tell). It would be more accurate to say that it integrates
with ODK Aggregate http://blog.enketo.org/enketo-aggregate. On the form
management page of ODKAgg, you will see an Enketo button for each form
(there is a little set up http://blog.enketo.org/enketo-aggregate, I will
skip the details) and clicking that button will take you to your Enketo
version of that form. The same form that you run in ODK Collect on your
phone also runs in Enketo. You do not have to build a separate version.
What i see as the central benefit here is that if you are running a data
collection effort, you will be able to design the same form to be used on
phones, in browser, and even on paper. You can print an Enketo form on
paper, complete it, and use the Enketo webform for data entry. More
efficiently, users can enter data directly into the browser form and* save
the planet* by not printing our hundreds of versions of their 88 page
survey. Your collected data, regardless of how it was collected, will all
end up in the same database.
Pros
- You can set up a form to run across multiple
pageshttp://blog.enketo.org/pages/.
Collect sets of questions as a group, each group gets its own page. - There is a free version
http://blog.enketo.org/plan-prices-reduced/allowing up to 5 forms,
no branding, no email support, but effective
support through the Google Group. - There is a super cool API (which you reach through a too subtle link
on your Enketo account page) that allows you to interact with your account
in interesting ways. I would like to see more about how to make better use
of the API. - The Blog http://blog.enketo.org/ is a great resource for help with
features. - Email support from Martijn is fast and competent. I sometimes post my
questions to the Google
Grouphttps://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/enketo-users and
Martijn is very responsive there as well. - Hey, social science nerds, your select-one/select-multiples can be
displayed as Likert Scales http://blog.enketo.org/likert-widget/! - You can save a draft http://blog.enketo.org/draft-records/of a
survey, then open it later to complete it. - Enketo appears to work offline, though you have to be online to load
the survey and to submit results. Can you open a survey offline that you
have previously loaded? Not sure. I would go and check, but I am
downloading Orphan Black right now. - Integration with Aggregate and Formhub is easy and great.
Cons (correct me if I am wrong, and none of these are heartbreakers, some
of these are just a wishlist)
- If you include an image for your survey, you will see this image in
ODK Collect, but the same form in Enketo will not display the image. - Deleting a form is kind of a pain in the tuchus. You have to do it
through the API, and the form must be deleted from your Aggregate server
first. - The Enketo interface has no way to see a list of your forms with links
to them. You must get to your forms through your Aggregate server. (UPDATE:
Wrong! I found the way, it's just a little weird. Go to the Forms link at
the top, click the gear for settings, enter your Agg or Formhub server.) - There is not a lot of support material, other than the regular Blog
entries. Is there a Getting Started Guide somewhere? - The Free version is pretty great. I am using this in a business
context, so I though it fair to take a step up to the paid version. I only
need a few forms, but I do need branding. So, I got the
"Smallhttps://accounts.enketo.org/"
tier paid version. For $29/mo. you get to brand your forms with an image,
you can have 5 forms (same as free), and you get email support. I put this
in the Cons column because you can pay $19 a month for no branding, but
with twice as many forms. I feel like for $29 a month you should get the
same number of forms as someone who is paying $19 a month. Paying more, how
do I get less? I only really need 3 working forms, but i deploy a lot of
tests and experiments, so every time I get past five I have to go through
the delete process which is weird in itself. - Formhub also uses Enketo, and it includes the XLSform engine to create
your forms from a spreadsheet (crazy useful). Enketo doesn't have the
XLSform engine anywhere, so you have to go make your form at Formhub or ODK
and then upload it to Aggregate, then push it to Enketo. If I were
not a Hacky
Dude, this might be too clunky. I would have a hard time
recommending a *neophyte
*to go figure this out and put it all together. Enketo would be well
served, I think, to provide a built in Aggregate server and XLSform engine
in order to provide an all inclusive service. - Branding gives you a pretty small icon on your form. I would like to
be able to provide a larger, banner sized image for branding. - You can iFrame a form to present it on your website, instead of
linking to the Enketo website, but it's not easy. I was able to do it with
Martijn holding my hand (another Yay for good support), but the form is
hard to integrate into your site design. - In XLSform, there is a quickie way to add "other specify" follow up
questions to a Select question. This adds the option for "Other", the
follow up text entry question, and the Skip logic that makes it work.
However, Enketo does not seem to recognize this. Am I wrong? - There is a small glitch (i'm nitpicking now) that will allow text to
overlap when viewed in Internet Explorer (the preferred browser of
grandmothers and marketing consultants everywhere). Martijn has promised an
upcoming fix.
All said, this is a fantastic tool. I will never again run a survey without
an Enketo element. I nominate Martijn van der Rijt for *ODeeKer of the
Weeker. *If you go to the trouble of building an ODK form for any purpose,
do yourself a favor and load it into Enketo just to try it out and give it
a whirl. I have no idea how many users Enketo has, though the Google Group
enketo-users https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/enketo-users has a
positively shocking 18 users! Maybe that is a sign that the users don't
need much support, Enketo being fairly easy to use. Even if you are running
a fully digital data collection effort, the ability to print forms for
training and as backup methodology is priceless.
From Port au Prince, Haiti;
☞§※☼:airplane:
~Neil