Using ODK aggregate- stuck and confused!

Support
1

HI I have several questions- firstly about aggregate and secondly about how
to export the survey data once it has been completed.. lastly about the
form design.

  1. I saw that there was an urgent reminder to change the aggregate password
    by April 19th. I dont yet have an aggregate account as I am just starting
    with it today, but when I follow the instructions on the ODK website for
    using Aggregate it says "ODK Aggregate can be deployed on Google's App
    Engine https://code.google.com/appengine/," Is this still correct or
    should I create an account elsewhere? I dont really understand what I am
    doing.

  2. I am trying to install aggregate but it pops up that I dont have the
    correct Java 1.7. I am using Mac OS Snow Leopeard 10.6 and Java says that
    Java 7 is not supported with this old mac- is there an older version of
    aggregate that I can use with Java 6? If not so I will use my colleagues
    Windows PC to manage the survey with aggregate, but this is less desirable.

  3. In the meantime I had a look at the demo of Aggregate and am looking at
    Birds survey.. I am confused about the output format for the survey
    response- When I try to export a birds_results.CSV file and open it in
    Excel the repeated columns (i.e bird species name) are given just as a
    hyperlink to the aggregate website. I want to have the species names
    themselves listed in the spreadsheet-if necessary with each row as a new
    species and the plot ID and other non-repeated fields repeated in Excel
    for every species- otherwise how can I see/access/use the data for
    analysis?

  4. For my survey I am creating a list of species in a plant survey. I have
    24 sites. Each Site will have 12 samples and each sample will have multiple
    species. The form itself is pretty simple- Q1: Site_ID, Q2: sample_ID,
    Begin Repeat Q3: species_ID Q4: species_abundance, end repeat.

Eventually I want to assemble all the samples into one large database with
all the species found at each sample and their corresponding abundance. In
excel I work with Site_ID and sample _ID as rows and Species names as
columns, and then abundance in the data cells (with empty cells when
species is not present). Alternatively I can also work with the data laid
out in just four columns: Site_ID, sample_ID, Species_ID, Species Abundance
and repeat the site & sample ID's for every species found one the sample
(in which case every cell is filled).

Either way is fine but my question is then going back to question 3-
regarding how I export the data from Aggregate because I dont understand
how it works- If I design the form so that each SAMPLE is a separate form
submission, then I will end up with 24 X 12= 288 submitted forms, each with
between 0-45 species recorded. Do I need to export each sample survey
separately from aggregate?

Would I be better of designing a repeated form for each SITE_ID and then
sample_ID is repeated within each site?-that way I will only have 24 forms
to submit.. but can the speciesID then be nested repeats inside each
sampleID??

Thanks for your help.

Tania

2

(1) AppEngine still works. Up until April 20th, you would have been able to
use a gmail account to log onto an ODK Aggregate server. The upgrade notice
was to alert people that they need to upgrade to the latest ODK Aggregate
(now 1.4.6); during that install/upgrade process, you will be asked for a
username (not a gmail account). That username will be the 'super user' on
the server, and, once logged in using that username, you will be able to
manage access to the server and create other usernames with other access
rights.

(2) Not too familiar with Mac Java installs. There are links in step #1
here http://opendatakit.org/use/aggregate/#Installing_an_App_Engine_Instance
for Mac Java install instructions. I believe Apple stopped supporting Java
after Java 6, but you can still manually install Java 7. Refer to the
links in step #1 for details. I think you can still do this with older Mac
OS levels.

(3) To generate CSV files when your form has repeat groups, we recommend
using ODK Briefcase to download the data to your PC/Mac, then Export from
there to CSV files. This will produce CSV files for the top-level form, and
the repeating groups within the form. You then need to import the CSVs into
Excel as separate sheets, and link them using the KEY / PARENT_KEY columns
across the sheets.

Alternatively, and far easier, is to set up a publisher into Fusion Tables,
and work with the data there (and you can export to CSV from there as
well). With just one level of repeat groups, the app will create a view
of (site id, sample id, species id, count).

(4) The CSV contains all the data at the time it is generated. The
publishers are nice because you can set them up at the start of your
survey, and as results trickle in, they can publish into Fusion Tables
after only a few seconds delay.

Mitch

ยทยทยท On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 4:43 AM, taniabird wrote:

HI I have several questions- firstly about aggregate and secondly about
how to export the survey data once it has been completed.. lastly about the
form design.

  1. I saw that there was an urgent reminder to change the aggregate
    password by April 19th. I dont yet have an aggregate account as I am just
    starting with it today, but when I follow the instructions on the ODK
    website for using Aggregate it says "ODK Aggregate can be deployed on
    Google's App Engine https://code.google.com/appengine/," Is this still
    correct or should I create an account elsewhere? I dont really understand
    what I am doing.

  2. I am trying to install aggregate but it pops up that I dont have the
    correct Java 1.7. I am using Mac OS Snow Leopeard 10.6 and Java says that
    Java 7 is not supported with this old mac- is there an older version of
    aggregate that I can use with Java 6? If not so I will use my colleagues
    Windows PC to manage the survey with aggregate, but this is less desirable.

  3. In the meantime I had a look at the demo of Aggregate and am looking at
    Birds survey.. I am confused about the output format for the survey
    response- When I try to export a birds_results.CSV file and open it in
    Excel the repeated columns (i.e bird species name) are given just as a
    hyperlink to the aggregate website. I want to have the species names
    themselves listed in the spreadsheet-if necessary with each row as a new
    species and the plot ID and other non-repeated fields repeated in Excel
    for every species- otherwise how can I see/access/use the data for
    analysis?

  4. For my survey I am creating a list of species in a plant survey. I
    have 24 sites. Each Site will have 12 samples and each sample will have
    multiple species. The form itself is pretty simple- Q1: Site_ID, Q2:
    sample_ID, Begin Repeat Q3: species_ID Q4: species_abundance, end repeat.

Eventually I want to assemble all the samples into one large database with
all the species found at each sample and their corresponding abundance. In
excel I work with Site_ID and sample _ID as rows and Species names as
columns, and then abundance in the data cells (with empty cells when
species is not present). Alternatively I can also work with the data laid
out in just four columns: Site_ID, sample_ID, Species_ID, Species Abundance
and repeat the site & sample ID's for every species found one the sample
(in which case every cell is filled).

Either way is fine but my question is then going back to question 3-
regarding how I export the data from Aggregate because I dont understand
how it works- If I design the form so that each SAMPLE is a separate form
submission, then I will end up with 24 X 12= 288 submitted forms, each with
between 0-45 species recorded. Do I need to export each sample survey
separately from aggregate?

Would I be better of designing a repeated form for each SITE_ID and then
sample_ID is repeated within each site?-that way I will only have 24 forms
to submit.. but can the speciesID then be nested repeats inside each
sampleID??

Thanks for your help.

Tania

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Mitch Sundt
Software Engineer
University of Washington
mitchellsundt@gmail.com