ODK form submissions

When field teams fill ODK forms with GTS Collect (for example the MDG RI and stationary activity form), each submission is geolocated and attached to the team that sent it. You can download all submissions of a Tracking Round (TR) as Excel workbooks, or a single submission from the map.

Download all submissions

1. Open the map of the TR and click the download icon to open the Download options window (see Downloads and GPS tracks).

2. Choose the period: Cumulated until or Selected day only.

3. Tick Odk submissions.

4. Tick Download Medias if you also need the pictures and other files attached to the submissions. Media make the export much larger and slower: tick this option only when you need them.

5. Check the e-mail address and click Download.

Download options window with Odk submissions and Download Medias ticked

The submissions exported are those of the Field Activity sent during the selected period (from the start of the TR until the selected date, or on the selected day only). The date used is the time of the last GPS point recorded by the phone before the submission (UTC), or the time GTS processed the submission when no GPS point is available.

ODK Central forms

If the Field Activity also uses forms hosted on ODK Central, the window shows Excel format + ODK central and the warning You will export all submissions of this field activity from <date> to today. The ODK Central data is added to the ODK_submissions folder as odk_central_export_<form ID>.zip, the CSV export produced by ODK Central (with attachments when Download Medias is ticked).

Note

In the current version, the ODK Central part of the export has limits: only one ODK Central form of the Field Activity is exported, and the period may not be applied correctly (the file can contain submissions outside the period). On a phone, the window does not show the ODK Central label and warning, but the ODK Central data is still exported. Contact the GTS support if you need the other ODK Central forms.

Content of the export

The ODK_submissions folder of the ZIP file contains one Excel workbook per form, named <form name>_<form ID>.xlsx. Each row is one submission. Very large forms continue on a new sheet after 1,000,000 rows.

Columns of the ODK submissions workbook

Column	Description
id	Row number in the workbook.
<Base layer> id / <Base layer> label	Only when the TR has Targeted Areas: area of each base layer containing the submission, from the largest to the smallest layer.
outside <smallest base layer>	TRUE when the submission is outside every area of the smallest base layer. GTS then gives the closest area within 1 km, or leaves the area columns empty.
Targeted Area id / Targeted Area label	Only when the TR has Targeted Areas: Targeted Area containing the submission.
last_track_gps_timestamp_utc	Date and time (UTC) of the last GPS point recorded by the device before the submission.
submitted_at_localized	Date and time of the submission used by GTS, in UTC despite its name: the same value as the previous column, or the time GTS processed the submission when no GPS point is available.
last_track_gps_time_utc	Time only (UTC) of the last GPS point recorded before the submission.
imei	Identifier of the Android device.
user_id / user_username	GTS identifier and user name of the field staff account.
team_code	Team code entered in GTS Tracker.
form_id / form_name	Identifier and name of the ODK form in GTS.
long / lat	Longitude and latitude of the submission (WGS 84): the location question of the form when the form has one configured, otherwise the last GPS position of the device.
filename	Name of the submission file received by GTS.
uploaded_at_utc	Date and time (UTC) when the submission reached GTS.
<form questions>	One column per question of the form. Questions inside groups are named with the group path, for example group_question.

Repeat groups (questions that can be answered several times in the same submission, such as one row per child vaccinated) are exported in a separate workbook <form name>_<form ID>_<repeat group>.xlsx, with an id and a parent_id column to link each repeat to its submission.

When Download Medias is ticked, the media of each submission are added to the folder ODK_submissions/<form ID>_<form name>/.

Download one submission from the map

To check a single submission, show Data Collection in the Settings panel of the map, then click its triangle symbol. The pop-up shows the form and its answers (click Show more… to see all of them); media files can be opened by clicking their name. Click Download as zip to download the submission file with its media.

Pop-up of one ODK submission, with the Download as zip button

Compared with previous versions

ODK submissions were previously available as Excel, Shapefile and KML files. They are now exported in Excel only. Use the long and lat columns to display them in a GIS tool.