How to: Upload a Form (.xlsx) to ODK?

Hi All,

Sorry in advance in case that question was already asked 100 times:
I have a questionnaire on .xlsx format that I want to upload on ODK.

I don't find the system very simple nor intuitive and I spent time reading through the instructions but I am really stuck.

Here is what I did:

  • Create an account on ODK
    o Tried “Load Form from File”: impossible to load an Excel file .xlsx
  • Downloaded the app “XLSForm Offline 1.4.0.exe” (in order to convert .xlsx into a file that is recognized by ODK (.xml is advised by the ODK in section https://opendatakit.org/use/build/ )
  • Convert .xlsx into .xml:
    o Funny trick: it’s impossible if the name of your xlsx file contains some spaces (e.g. "my questionnaire final.xlsx"). So I renamed it “my_questionnaire_final.xlsx” and the conversion seemed to work fine.
  • Tried again “Load Form from File”:
    o Clicking on File / Load Form from File / Choose File to load: “my_questionnaire_final.xlsx”
    o Clicked on “Load”
    o -> failed again: I get the message “You must choose an ODK Build form (.odkbuild) file!”
    o But I don’t see no instruction about converting a .xlsx to a .odkbuild

Many thanks for your support.

Best
Vincent

Dear Vincent,

Reading from the above steps taken. I have noticed that you are missing one important step of validating the form. Kindly download ODK validate from the following link https://opendatakit.org/downloads/download-category/validate/. Once you have validated your form, you should be able to upload the xml file to the server.

Hope this helps

··· On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 7:58:31 PM UTC+2, vince.t...@gmail.com wrote: > Hi All, > > Sorry in advance in case that question was already asked 100 times: > I have a questionnaire on .xlsx format that I want to upload on ODK. > > I don't find the system very simple nor intuitive and I spent time reading through the instructions but I am really stuck. > > Here is what I did: > - Create an account on ODK > o Tried “Load Form from File”: impossible to load an Excel file .xlsx > - Downloaded the app “XLSForm Offline 1.4.0.exe” (in order to convert .xlsx into a file that is recognized by ODK (.xml is advised by the ODK in section https://opendatakit.org/use/build/ ) > - Convert .xlsx into .xml: > o Funny trick: it’s impossible if the name of your xlsx file contains some spaces (e.g. "my questionnaire final.xlsx"). So I renamed it “my_questionnaire_final.xlsx” and the conversion seemed to work fine. > - Tried again “Load Form from File”: > o Clicking on File / Load Form from File / Choose File to load: “my_questionnaire_final.xlsx” > o Clicked on “Load” > o -> failed again: I get the message “You must choose an ODK Build form (.odkbuild) file!” > o But I don’t see no instruction about converting a .xlsx to a .odkbuild > > Many thanks for your support. > > Best > Vincent

Hello Vincent,

It sounds like you are trying to use ODK Build
(https://build.opendatakit.org). Build is a tool for creating new
forms with a visual interface. If you have already created your form
in Excel, you do not need to use Build.

The form import feature in Build only works to import other files that
were exported from Build and have a .odkbuild extension. I realize
that this is not currently very clear so I have filed an issue about
it: https://github.com/opendatakit/build/issues/147

The server component of ODK which lets organizations store their forms
and data is called ODK Aggregate. Does your organization have an ODK
Aggregate server set up? If so, that is where you'll want to upload
the XML form that you have converted with XLSForm Offline.

You can also use ODK Briefcase
(https://opendatakit.org/use/briefcase/) to put forms onto phones and
get data off them without needing an Internet connection.

Hélène.

··· On Wed, May 10, 2017 at 4:24 AM, wrote: > Hi All, > > Sorry in advance in case that question was already asked 100 times: > I have a questionnaire on .xlsx format that I want to upload on ODK. > > I don't find the system very simple nor intuitive and I spent time reading through the instructions but I am really stuck. > > Here is what I did: > - Create an account on ODK > o Tried “Load Form from File”: impossible to load an Excel file .xlsx > - Downloaded the app “XLSForm Offline 1.4.0.exe” (in order to convert .xlsx into a file that is recognized by ODK (.xml is advised by the ODK in section https://opendatakit.org/use/build/ ) > - Convert .xlsx into .xml: > o Funny trick: it’s impossible if the name of your xlsx file contains some spaces (e.g. "my questionnaire final.xlsx"). So I renamed it “my_questionnaire_final.xlsx” and the conversion seemed to work fine. > - Tried again “Load Form from File”: > o Clicking on File / Load Form from File / Choose File to load: “my_questionnaire_final.xlsx” > o Clicked on “Load” > o -> failed again: I get the message “You must choose an ODK Build form (.odkbuild) file!” > o But I don’t see no instruction about converting a .xlsx to a .odkbuild > > Many thanks for your support. > > Best > Vincent > > -- > -- > Post: opendatakit@googlegroups.com > Unsubscribe: opendatakit+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com > Options: http://groups.google.com/group/opendatakit?hl=en > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ODK Community" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to opendatakit+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.