I put this together for a colleague, and figured I'd share if it was useful
for anyone else. Please correct if I got anything wrong or if something
could be explained more clearly.
Note: You can do either of the following to actions to get data onto or off
of an SD card (unless your SD card is not removable, as on the Nexus 7
tablets, in which case, I've only been able to use option 2)
Option A: : Place SD card with completed surveys into your computer
Option B: "Mount" your PDA to your computer by linking them with a USB cord
and then hitting whatever message pops up (should be along the lines of
"Mount Device" or "Allow USB debugging"-- not sure what determines which
message you see)
Getting an XML survey onto your PDA using ODK Collect
In short: Download ODK onto your phone; load the survey onto the SD card;
replace SD card into phone; Open ODK Collect and enter survey
In more detail:
- Download ODK Collect application onto the Android phone (instructions
here:http://opendatakit.org/use/collect/) -- make sure the phone has a
MicroSD card inside when you download this. (Shouldn't take more than 5
minutes) - Place the SD card into your computer (most likely using a microSD
adapter-- easy to buy at any electronics store) - Copy the XML version of the survey (saved here: Dropbox\Nerica\Nerica
Scale-Up Endline\ODK) onto the SD card in a folder named "forms" which
is in a folder named "odk." - Put the SD card back in the phone.
- Open ODK Collect application on the phone
- Click "Fill Blank Form"
- Wait while it scans the SD card for new forms (just the first time
you add it to a phone) - Once the survey form pops up, just click it and wait for it to load.
- The longer the survey, the longer the wait for this to load.This
took up to 20 minutes with the more basic PDA survey we piloted in the
field, so could take longer with the updates to the current survey - If you get an error message that says "ODK force close," hit "OK"
and close the application. I find restarting the phone in this instance can
help. Go back to Step 5
- The longer the survey, the longer the wait for this to load.This
- You'll know the survey has loaded when you see a page with 2 hands
and the following message: "You are at the start of 'SURVEY NAME.' - Swipe from right to left to begin the survey
To retrieve the data using ODK Briefcase is only somewhat trickier...
Looks like a lot of steps, but I just break it down so it's easier to
follow if you're new to it.
- Download ODK Briefcase
- Place SD card with completed surveys into your computer OR "mount"
your PDA to your computer (link with a USB cord and hit whatever button
pops up, which should be along the lines of "Mount Device" or "Allow USB
debugging" depending on the device or OS, not sure) - Create a folder to save survey data into (for my project, since we're
not using Aggregate which de-duplicates instances, I like to create a new
folder with date and name of surveyor each time I load data from a device) - Open ODK Briefcase
- On the tab "Pull," click on the bar to the right of "Pull data from:"
(top left) and choose "Mounted Android SD Card" - In the next row, choose the relevant SD Card
- In the main screen, find your survey and tick off the check box to
the left of it - Hit "Pull" button at bottom right of page
- Wait until you see the "SUCCESS!" message on the application. (Could
take up to a few minutes if you're loading a lot). - Now go to the "Export" tab
- Pull down the bar to the right of "Form:" (top left) and choose the
relevant survey - Hit the "Choose" button to the right of the 3rd row (Export Directory)
and choose the folder you created in step 3 above - Click "Export" button on the bottom-most right of the application
- This should load very quickly and will give you the same "SUCCESS!"
message - Now the data is all in the folder. Any repeat groups (loops) will be
in separately-named excel files in the folder (in the form
SurveyName_RepeatGroupName.csv), while the rest of the survey will be in a
folder with simply the name of the survey (SurveyName.csv)