Field Activity Level

The Field Activity level permits editing of details and configuration for field activities. Organization Focal Points and Field Activity Focal Points can edit field activity details.

To access the Field Activity level of the administration console in the GTS Dashboard; click on the field activity name from within the Field Activity tab at the Organization level:

GTS Dashboard access to the Field Activity level

GTS Dashboard access to the Field Activity level

The Field Activity level offers four tabs “Tracking Rounds”, “Field Staff”, “ODK Forms” and “Base Layers”:

GTS Dashboard available tabs at the Field Activity level

GTS Dashboard available tabs at the Field Activity level


1. Tracking Rounds Tab

Tracking rounds are filtered sets of tracks collected by identified field staff over a defined time period for a specific field activity. They may have working hours and validation speeds assigned for dashboard map display and analysis purposes.

Note

Every field activity is automatically assigned a default tracking round named “All tracking data”, this tracking round has no date limits, defaults to the working hours and speed limits of the Field Activity and includes all field staff assigned to the field activity.

To create a new Tracking Round, navigate to the tracking rounds tab at the field activity level and click on the “New” button.

GTS Dashboard new tracking round form

GTS Dashboard new tracking round form

  • The start and end dates as well as the tracking round name are required fields and must be completed.

  • Field staff assigned to the field activity may be selected using the drop-down control

2. Field Staff Tab

The Field Staff tab lists all users that may be assigned mobile application access for the Field Activity, field staff may be nominative or generic. To create a new field staff account at the field activity level, navigate to the Field Staff tab at the field activity level and click on the “New” button.

GTS Dashboard Admin Field Staff tab at the field activity level

GTS Dashboard Admin Field Staff tab at the field activity level


To create field staff new to the GTS, follow these steps after pressing the “New” button on the Field Staff tab:

1) Select “Yes” or “No” to the
Question if you Know the field staff
individually

Yes => Nominative Field Staff

No => Generic Field Staff

FS_Type

2) Enter a Username, Email and
other details.

- If a Gmail account is used, the form
will default to Google authentication,
it is still possible to use a GTS
by selecting “Connect with a GTS
password?”

- Neither first nor last names are
collected for generic accounts

FS_Search4

3) Enter an optional logout code
if required.

The logout code prevents field staff
from inadvertently logging out from
the mobile application, stopping the
collection of tracks


FA_Logout

4) Select the Role(s) to grant to
the user.

This option only appears for
nominative accounts (selecting “Yes”
in step 3 above).

If the Field Staff user will not be
using the dashboard, they typically
will only need the “Member” role.

(See the Roles section.)

FS_Roles2

5) Select the Field Activities
that the field staff user will have
access to.

Click “Create” to complete the
operation.

FA_FAs

To edit existing field staff after they have been created click on the edit (pencil) icon that appears to the right when hovering over the account entry.

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GTS Field Staff edit form

The following values appear on the edit field staff form

Edit Field Staff Form Fields

Value

Description

Username

Cannot be changed once user is created

Email

Email addresses can be changed (Google authentication persists if an account with a Google email address as name receives a new email address)

Password

The Field Staff password can be changed (POSSIBLE SECURITY HOLE)

Last Name

The user’s sir name can be edited

First Name

The user’s given name can be edited

Nominative

The account type (Nominative or Generic) may be changed

Field Activities

Field activities may be assigned or withdrawn

Logout Code

A logout code may be added or removed

Roles

Roles for user access.

3. ODK Forms Tab

ODK forms may be associated with field activities, field staff will be able to use forms to capture contextual information from the Android device while performing a field activity. ODK forms uploaded to the Field Activity level will only be available for that field activity.

From the ODK tab, it is possible to view ODK forms that will be available for the field activity, either at the GTS, Organizational or Field Activity level. Click on the “New” button in the ODK tab at the field activity level, to add an ODK form that will be available to all tracking rounds in the field activity.

Drag and drop or browse to upload the .xml or .zip file that contains the ODK form. A name must be assigned to the form, the GTS automatically updates the popup form with the name of a field that collects geo-coordinates, this may be changed if there are more than one geo-location widget on the form.

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Adding an ODK form at the Field Activity level

Important

ODK forms may be uploaded either as XLSForm .xml files or as .zip archives that contain the .xml files and any associated itemsets.csv files and media directories for media files.

Once uploaded, ODK forms appear in the “ODK Forms Available” column, only forms uploaded at the Field Activity level may be edited from this tab. To edit an ODK form click on the pencil icon, Any forms that appear in the available column may be select of use during the field activity by clicking on the arrow and moving the form to the “ODK Forms Selected” column. A field activity may have more than one ODK from made avaiable.

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Editing ODK forms


4. Base Layers

Base layers are nested shapefiles used for aggregation and geographic investigation. Typically base layers represent administrative boundary levels (level 0 country, level 1 first sub-division etc.); however base layers may include any shapefiles that respond to field activity analysis needs such as health zones divisions, water sheds, and the like.

Click on “New” to upload a base layer. Base layers must be in ESRI Shapefile format within a .zip archive file.

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Uploading Base Layers at the Field Activity level

The Base Layer upload wizard will present the following forms for completion.

I) Enter a name and optionl description for the Base Layer

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II) Select fields as Unique ID (for eventual time trend analysis) and Label (for map display and search funtionality) then click on the “Save” button to uploaded base layer.

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III) Upon successful upload, the GTS will return a “Success” message and the base layer will appear in the list.

Once uploaded, Base layers may be edited or deleted as a function of their level and the role of the user editing the form. Base layers will be used in conjuncture with Targeted Areas layers to provide aggregated geographic analysis. For example the number and percentage of targeted areas visited at the state, local and ward levels.


5. Device Monitoring

The Field Activity Device Monitoring tab (previously Phone Monitoring) assists in the administration and analysis of Android devices uploading tracks for the field activity. It describes the state of the GTS mobile application when the device last uploaded tracks providing details as described in the table below:

Data provided for Device Monitoring

Data field name

description

Device ID (previously IMEI)

The unique identifier of the android device (International Mobile Equipment Identity) or NT· S/N (Serial number).

Device Version (previously APK Version)

Version of the GTS Mobile Tracker installed on the device.

Avg Track / track session

The average number of tracks included in a upload.

Doze mode issues

A check if the device is properly configured for batery optimization.

Suspicious Tracks

A check if tracks uploaded display anomalies that should be investigated.

GPS accuracy

The reported acuuracy of the last GPS signal in meters.

Last Upload date

Date at which the server last received tracks from the device.

Last used by user

The login that last uploaded tracks from the device.

Last used by team

The Team code that last uploaded tracks from the device.

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Doze mode is an Android operating system feature that is designed to prolong battery life by putting applications into a suspended state when they are not actively used. The GTS mobile application must not be optimized for battery life savings as this setting may result in pause in the collection of tracks. Select “Doze mode issues” from the dropdown to filter on phones that should have their settings corrected

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The GPS accuracy of a mobile phone will influence where tracks are displayed on the map in the GTS Dashboard. Select “GPS accuracy (more than 50 meters)” from the dropdown to filter on phones that have poor GPS accuracy values.

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When a new version of the mobile application is made available, users are requested but not obliged to update their phones. Depending on the functionality released in mobile application versions, using an older version of the Mobile application may have a negative effect on the data collected. Select the mobile application version to see which version a phone was using when it last uploaded data, the phone ID (IMEI) and last staff member logged in are indicated so that a follow-up can be performed and the phone updated.

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