KoBo Form: Problems Saving Form Both Offline and Online

[Joshua Rodd]

Hello,

I've was putting together a form using KoBo Form, mostly by working offline on Firefox. I realized that for several questions the text I had written was not appearing; instead, only the automatically generated question number was appearing. I edited several times, and "Saved to File" and "Saved to Browser" but I never managed to get the form to save properly. When I reloaded the form, the text of the question had again disappeared, leaving only the question number. 

If I delete the old question and create a new one with the correct text, the form saves correctly. However, several of the questions I've already created are embedded in fairly elaborate SKIP patterns, and I'd hate to have to go back and re do all of them. 

I was able to find a rather cumbersome fix by doing the corrections by hand. I don't know XML, but I opened the text viewer and identified what seemed to be the relevant sections of code for the problem questions, then edited them to look like the code for the questions that were loading. E.g., I found the following XML code for my Question 259:

<text id="A259">

            <value>QuestionA259</value>

          </text>

And edited so it read:

 <text id="A259">

            <value>"Within the last six months, have you been involved in physical violence with someone from outside your household?"</value>

          </text>

Then, I pasted the corrected text in to the "Load from Text..." option, then "Saved to File" and "Saved to Browser". That worked, but it's honestly kind of a headache. Is there any reason why my edits using KoBo won't save properly, and if so, is there a way I can fix it?

I thought it might be a Java-browser-KoBo issue, so I've tried the following fixes, most based on advice from this users' group:

1. I deleted and updated Java, made sure all plugins were up to date and running. 

2. I switched to Chrome/offline. Couldn't get KoBo Form to load at all in Chrome when it was offline; just the "Load" screen for about 30 minutes. 

3. Started using Chrome online. Hit the same problems as before.

After reading some of the posts on this group, I noticed that I was running KoBo Form 1.0.22; I believe that there's a newer version. Is this true? If so, where can I find it? (The link on the KoBo Toolbox website is for version 1.0.22.)

I also turned on the Java Console while I was saving the form and got the following messages. Is this useful or relevant?

Java Plug-in 10.45.2.18

Using JRE version 1.7.0_45-b18 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM

User home directory = C:\Users\Owner

----------------------------------------------------

c:   clear console window

f:   finalize objects on finalization queue

g:   garbage collect

h:   display this help message

l:   dump classloader list

m:   print memory usage

o:   trigger logging

q:   hide console

r:   reload policy configuration

s:   dump system and deployment properties

t:   dump thread list

v:   dump thread stack

x:   clear classloader cache

0-5: set trace level to <n>

----------------------------------------------------

Resource http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar has future expires: Thu Nov 07 16:29:49 EAT 2013 update check skipped.

Missing Application-Name: manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Missing Permissions manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Missing Codebase manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Resource http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar has future expires: Thu Nov 07 16:29:49 EAT 2013 update check skipped.

Missing Application-Name: manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Missing Permissions manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Missing Codebase manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Missing Application-Name: manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Missing Permissions manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Missing Codebase manifest attribute for: http://www.kobotoolbox.org/koboform/fileioapplets/kobo_fileIOApplets.jar

Thanks for any advice you can offer! I love the program, I just hope I can get it to work right!

Thanks,

Josh

[Tino Kreutzer]

Hi Josh,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Some of these are known issues that we're working to fix (e.g. Offline version doesn't work with new Chrome versions; Drag and drop is unreliable).

For the latest version to be used offline, please download KoBoForm 1.0.26. If you replace the current content of your KoBoForm folder on your local disk with this one, it will retain the forms that you had saved to browser. That said, unless you have to, please use the online version for now as it has fewer issues around the browsers' permissions with regards to Java.

There have been issues with the latest versions of Java and we're looking into that. Please install this legacy version of Java that should work for sure. (Java will complain that it has to upgrade after you've installed this old version, but just ignore that). Note that if you have a 64 bit computer you should download and install both the x86 and x64 versions to be sure that one of your browsers isn't still using a different version of Java.

Now, for the original issue of some question labels not being saved properly: This is most likely due to a bug with the drag-and-drop feature that can be quite annoying. We're still looking into that. There is no real solution to this issue you've encountered there, except to work around it. Here is what I would recommend:

1. Whenever you create complex forms, export them regularly as XML files to your local disk, giving them sequential numbers (e.g. health survey_01.xml)

2. As soon as you see an error message pop up or realize that text or a property you entered aren't saved in the interface, export your form immediately to an XML file. Then reload this XML file (thereby discarding the version you still have in your browser). 

3. Find the question or answer choice you had edited last and continue with the modifications.

I hope this helps!

Let us know how it goes or if you have trouble with any of the above instructions.

Thanks,

Tino

--
Tino Kreutzer

Program Manager
KoBoToolbox | Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

Tel +1 416 879 3667 | Skype tinokreutzer
tino.k...@kobotoolbox.org

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[Carlos Rivas]

Dear Tino,

I had the problem with the drag and drop, I save xml versions, but when I try to use them, it won´t open, gives me an error of "null". I have a lot of changes lost, how to recover my form?

Regards!

Carlos Rivas S.

[Tino Kreutzer]

Hi Carlos,

Could you share the form with us? You can also send it to me privately. This way I can have a look at it and see what the problem might be.

Thanks

Tino

[Carlos Rivas]

I´ve just posted a question about that, but here is the file

Thanks Tino!

[Joshua Rodd]

Thanks, Tino. I'm installing the new KoBo Form and old Java now. 

A question--I do have a 64 bit PC. In addition to Java Runtime x64, there are three different x84s--Online, Offline and Kernel. Should I download one in particular? Or all three?

Thanks,

Josh

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[Joshua Rodd]

Hi TIno,

A follow up--Which legacy version of Java is best to install?

Thanks,

Josh

[Tino Kreutzer]

Hi Josh,

The versions you would have to install in your case are "Windows x86 Offline" and "Windows x64". Hope this helps. Let me know if that fixes your issue. 

We are planning to replace the Java applets with an HTML5 implementation that would solve both the current bugs as well as obviate having to deal with all the different Java versions to begin with. We'll post an update when that's done, of course. 

Tino

[Carlos Rivas]

That would be great Tino, I presented the workframe to my colleagues and they want to use it, now I will focus on the training material for them because we want to try the whole thing first, before it goes to the field.

Regards!

[Joshua Rodd]

Thanks, Tino. That's very helpful!

Josh

[Joshua Rodd]

Hi Tino,

Installed the two versions of Java 6/Update 33; unfortunately I still can't get the offline version to open in Chrome, and I can't load .xml files in to Firefox offline. Would you have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Josh

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[Tino Kreutzer]

Hi Josh,

The offline version only works in Firefox, not Chrome (due to Chrome having very high security settings for offline web applications).

In Firefox it should work, however. After you click on 'Open from file', do you see a small red symbol in the address bar, such as below? If yes, click on it and choose 'Allow and remember'. That's Firefox's extremely subtle way of warning you about using an old version of Java. 

If you're clicking on Open from File and not seeing the red symbol, please type in about:addons in the Firefox address bar and check if all the Java plugins listed are the 6.0.33 version (if there are other versions, uninstall them through the regular Remove software function on Windows). Also, check if you're using Firefox 24.0 (and if not, update it to the latest version). Let me know if that worked!

Tino

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[Joshua Rodd]

I see the red symbol--thanks, I was wondering what that was. It's working now!

Josh