encrypt XLS forms

[Biniam Berhanu]

Hello,

I try to encrypt my xls form and it was successful. But after encryption I can't submit finalised forms. I guess the problem is from the submission_url. Any idea???

Thanks

[Aloo Stephen]

Dear Biniam

What encryption are you using? Yes you may be right on the submission URL but if the submission URL is properly set, you must ensure that your encryption should be compatible with the "allowable encryption terms" for the place (defined URL) you are deploying to. To help you trouble shoot kindly do the following.

1. Did you change your URL or are you still on the default URL (sounds crazy to ask)?

2. If No, you may consider changing appropriately, there are many resources towards this

3. If Yes to 1 above check on encryption compatibility on your side.

At the moment if you could provide more information then I can be able to help you with the problem.

Regards

Aloo Stephen Onuong'a
Research and Data Specialist

Nairobi, Kenya

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[Biniam Berhanu]

Dear Stephen,

Yes I did change the submission URL to my URL. I manage to upload the form without problem. I can also get the blank form on my smartphone. But I can't submit the finalised forms.

The URL on my KoBocollect and my submission URL are the same. I don't know if that is the problem. 

Best Regards,

Biniam

[Aloo Stephen]

Dear Binam
Kindly send me the parameters you have put in your Kobo Collect. Follow my screen capture.

[Biniam Berhanu]

Dear Stephen,

The screen copy is attached. The problem starts after I encrypt the form before that it was working well. The error I am getting on my tablet when i am trying to submit the form is "Error: Invalid status code on Head request.  If you have a web proxy, you may need to login to your network.".

Best Regards,

Biniam

[Aloo Stephen]

Hi Binani

That error is normally caused under three scenarios, 

What version of ODK Collect and ODK Aggregate are you using? If you 
aren't using the latest versions please upgrade. Also, what happens if 
you go to your Aggregate server home page using the phone's browser? 

Does that work?one scenario is

1. Using an older version of Kobo Collect, if you are using an older version try updating. I can see that the version you have is however updated.

2. Your aggregate server may be having a problem in receiving communication with your phone(s); to know is try typing your aggregate server address home page with your phone browser and then send a screen shot through the group and we can see.

3. The third element which is a highly likely reason, is that your encryption is not compatible with your aggregate server. Ideally you should be able to see the following component within your form. Ensure that your URL is clearly spelt within the form.

<submission method="form-data-post"
                action="https://YOURURL/submission"
                base64RsaPublicKey="YOUR SUBMISSION" />

Lets see what 2 does, then we can look at your form as per 3. 

I only have an hour after that have to wait to tomorrow to respond  

Aloo Stephen Onuong'a
Research and Data Specialist

[Biniam Berhanu]

Dears,

My issue is still not resolved. If anyone out there used encryption in kobo successfully please share your experience. I tried everything but still facing the same problem. 

Best,

Biniam

[Biniam Berhanu]

Dear All and the group, 

For your information I didn't install my own instance in the local machine. I am just using the default one on Kobotoolbox server. The only thing I suspect is the encryption type i use. Can you please sahre with me a type of encryption methods that kobo support and how to use them. 

thank you

[Aloo Stephen]

Hi Binam
Can't seem to find a ready solution for your problem. You may need to work without the encryption or change the instance into your local machine. I seldom use Kobotoolbox server for submission.  Lets hope someone else will sort you on the same. I have copied Tino here in for further assistance. My apologies I have not been of much help.

Regards

Stephen Aloo

[Biniam Berhanu]

Dear Tino and the group, 

Could you kindly confirm kobo is capable of encryption on the online default instance without installing server on the local machine????

Best Regards,

Biniam

[Francis Vachon]

Hi all,

I also tried to do the same (submit an encrypted form to Kobo).

• Using Collect 1.4.5.
  
• Key generated with OpenSSL win32

The form uploads on Kobo, and Kobo does say the form is "Encrypted" - you can see a mention below the form under projects.

With the same phone, I was able to submit an un-encrypted form, with the same phone & Collect configuration.

The error message is the same as mentionned above, "Invalid status code on Head...."

• Tried generating multiple keys, with same result every time
• I did my best to ensure no pesky formatting /n got inserted because of formatting in Notepad ++ and/or Excel.
• For submission_url, I entered the very same thing that I entered on Collect (e.g. https://koboaddressthinghere/myAccount). Tried both https, http to no avail (both work for submission of unencrypted form actually).

I also checked that the headers elements are in place in the XML, all seemed right there as well. The public in both the XML for definition (on the phone)& XLS form matched.

There does seem to be some issue between Collect/Kobo, although Kobo seem to indicate they are supporting encryption (e.g. they recognize that I want to use encryption in my form).

[Tino Kreutzer]

Hi Francis,

We resolved Biniam's issue in a separate thread, so apologies for not writing back here. His issue was that the submission_url had a typo in it and that the public_key had an additional line break at the end. The 'encryption' symbol on the Projects list will show as soon as a value is detected in the public_key column, but unfortunately Collect is more stringent and only actually encrypts the submission if it finds no errors with either the public key or the submission URL.

We've added some more detailed documentation on this issue on this page: http://support.kobotoolbox.org/customer/portal/articles/1948428-encrypting-forms. So to confirm, encrypting form submissions with KoBoToolbox definitely works, but it requires detailed configuration at every step. 

In your case it seems like you did everything right and checked for common mistakes. For the record, both http and https will work fine.

One thing that seems to be wrong though is your submission_url: It's missing '/submission' at the end. Could you please confirm?

If you're still having issues please create a short test survey including your submission_url and public_key and share it with us so we can help find the issue in the form.

All the best,

Tino

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[Francis Vachon]

Thanks for the link Tino, the one I had found from Google search was actually from Formhub back in the days, and didn't mention the /submission in the submission_url. That was my problem. Glad it turns out to be that easy, and yes everything works fine now. I was worried as there had also been other threads mentionning problems with encryption (also on the collect-side of things on ODK groups). But then it might just be because encryption is not quite as often used and people messe it up easily....

Francis