We are looking into how to better support supervisors and data collectors when things go wrong in the field. To help us move toward a error-free experience, we would love to hear about your current workflows and challenges.
Troubleshooting Needs
Frequency & roles: How often do you troubleshoot issues with Collect in the field? Who typically handles these tasks (e.g., local supervisors, project manager)?
Data requirements: What information is essential for you to diagnose a problem?
Current process: How do you handle this today (e.g., screenshots, manual folder extraction), and what would make this easier?
Access: If we made it possible to send troubleshooting info from Collect, where would you want to access it from?
Risks: What, if any, are the primary concerns or risks regarding sharing diagnostic data from the device?
I think a lot of troubleshooting is done through pictures of error messages. One data collector will hold up their phone with an error screen, another will take a picture, and they'll email a project supervisor. If the supervisor can't figure it out, we hope they'll eventually post here or email us.
Sometimes there's just not enough information from an error message or the issue is something more subtle like an unexpected state. Historically we've had projects pull the whole Collect folder and send it to us. With newer Android features targeting security, this is becoming harder and harder to do.
We worked with a partner in a fork to do a quick implementation of sending a zip of the full Collect directory to Central. They’ve found it helpful but it would need further design work to bring to core. We've also considered whether an app-wide usage and error log maybe similar to the form-level audit log would be helpful.
Answers to @Aly_Blenkin's questions above would help us evaluate how big of a need there is around improving troubleshooting processes and what functionality we might introduce to help.
I don't have a huge number of enumerators like some so it's easier to triage issues. Most of the time an IM or call can resolve, if not a sent screenshot, else a screen share on a call (or hold up to camera) or me sharing my screen and demonstrating resolves things.
I've yet to encounter an issue that i couldn't fix (or at least identify/reproduce) these ways.
Frequency & roles: How often do you troubleshoot issues with Collect in the field? Who typically handles these tasks (e.g., local supervisors, project manager)?
Infrequently, usually due to a form setup error or early in a project when users are unfamiliar.
myself or project managers
Data requirements: What information is essential for you to diagnose a problem?
screenshots or video demonstration as description is often inaccurate
Current process: How do you handle this today (e.g., screenshots, manual folder extraction), and what would make this easier?
messaged screenshots or video call with screen share
a folder that could be pasted into a test device could certainly be helpful when the error is harder to handle. Probably need to include more than the draft as local entities, last saved, app configurationetc could all play a part
Access: If we made it possible to send troubleshooting info from Collect, where would you want to access it from?
the dream? Import problem device zip direct to Collect on another device
otherwise, i guess a tab in the project-form area of Central
Risks: What, if any, are the primary concerns or risks regarding sharing diagnostic data from the device?
No significant ones for me spring to mind right now as no PII etc concerns
Troubleshooting Needs