ODK Collect v1.28 will be released in August and we will share another beta in late July or early August. We are doing an early beta for Collect v1.28 to communicate about and get feedback on two changes:
- changes to the way calculations are triggered when repeats are added and removed
- using other sensors in addition to GPS for location
Please try this beta out if your forms depend on many instances of repeats, nested repeats or geopoint in a rural/disconnected environment. You can read more about what to look for below.
Joining the beta program
To join the beta program, find ODK Collect in the Play Store on your device (not in the web browser) and scroll all the way down. Please don't join the beta with a device or account actively used for data collection! In particular, note that joining the beta is account-based. If you use the same Google account across multiple devices, do not join the beta with that account.
Leaving the beta program
You can leave the beta program from the bottom of the Play Store at any time. Once you leave, you will get the next production update when it is released. If you need to go back to the previous production release, uninstall and reinstall the app. Your settings will be reset but your forms will remain (though backups are always recommended).
What to check in this release
Adding or removing repeats with many calculations, especially if there are many repeat instances. We have updated how repeat instances are added and removed to fix calculations that weren't being updated, improve performance on repeat deletion, and make the code more maintainable. If you have a form with repeats and use functions such as position, sum, count which reference the repeat, please try this change out. Please share your complex forms so they can be added to our test suite. We have recently added more tests on real forms that help us identify unintentional changes to performance and functionality. If you have a complex form that you could share, please do.
geopoint in an environment without any mobile or WiFi access. We believe from our testing that using multiple sensors for location always provides more precise locations faster but we have not been able to try a highly disconnected environment. If you work in such an environment, you may want to try this. More about the change in this post.