Settings
The settings page can be accessed from the Admin module. It has multiple tabs that allow you to configure various parts of the system. Apart from the Server tab, the settings apply to the organisation that you are currently in. Some tabs are only shown to users with a particular security group:
Server. Server owner.
Organisation. Organisational administrator.
Operations. Administrator.
Sensitive Data. Security manager.
Settings Tabs
Note
Each survey also has Settings which can be specified in the online editor or the settings tab of an XLSForm. Documentation on these can be found here, Survey Settings.
Appearance
From here you can set the appearance of server pages for the current organisation. Each organisation can have its own appearance.
You can:
Set an image to appear on the home page
Set the background colour of the menu bar
Set the text colour of the menu bar (New in version 21.01)
Set a custom style sheet to customise buttons, fonts etc
Custom Style Sheet
The Smap server from version 21.01 uses Bootstrap version 4.5. The buttons and other elements of the pages are styled using the default Bootstrap style sheet. However you can upload your own CSS file that will override these styles.
To add a customised stylesheet:
In the appearance tab click on "Upload a CSS style sheet"
Click on "Select a style sheet" and select the file you just uploaded
Click "Save"
Server
The server tab is only shown to users who have the server owner group. It can be used to set parameters for the entire server.
Map services
Mapbox key. This key can be obtained from https://mapbox.com and allows you to use maps from Mapbox as backgrounds.
Google maps key. A key can be obtained from https://developers.google.com and entered here. It allows you to use maps and satellite images from Google.
MapTiler key. A key can be obtained from https://www.maptiler.com and entered here.
Messaging
Messaging settings are grouped by channel. Leave a group blank if you do not use that channel. Secrets are masked once they have been saved.
Vonage - SMS and WhatsApp. Send and receive SMS and WhatsApp messages through Vonage. See Set up SMS Numbers.
Vonage application ID.
Vonage webhook secret.
WhatsApp - Meta Cloud API. Connect WhatsApp directly to Meta without Vonage. When the access token is set, WhatsApp messages are sent this way instead of through Vonage. Requires Smap Server version 26.10+. See Meta WhatsApp Cloud API.
WhatsApp Access Token.
WhatsApp App Secret. Used to check that inbound messages came from Meta.
WhatsApp Webhook Verify Token. Any value you choose. Enter the same value in Meta when you set up the webhook.
API Version. The Meta Graph API version. Defaults to v21.0 if left blank.
SMS URL. URL of a service to send SMS notifications, or just "aws" if the AWS SMS service is to be used.
Email Server
Email type. Select SMTP or AWS SES.
AWS region (AWS SES).
SMTP host.
Email domain.
Email user name.
Email password.
Email server port.
Load management
Maximum number of API requests per minute.
Maximum API records per request.
Note
Changes to these values can take up to a minute to take effect
Security
Minimum password strength.
Require security manager privilege to delete data. When set, only users with the security manager group can delete all the data for a survey or restore it, see Deleting and Restoring Data. Deleting individual records is not affected.
Turnstile Site Key
Turnstile Secret Key
If you specify the Turnstile keys and add your server domain to the domains protected by your Cloudflare account then Turnstile protection can be added to a public form. You will still need to specify the use of Turnstile in the form settings. This feature is available in version 26.03.09+. Turnstile provides protection against automated bots completing your public surveys and works in a similar way to CAPTCHA.
Server custom style sheet
This section sets a server wide custom style sheet. The approach is identical to that for the per organisation style sheet described in the appearance tab.
Organisation
Requires SmapServer v26.10+. In earlier versions these settings are in the organisation dialog on the Organisations tab of the users page.
The organisation tab is only shown to users who have the organisational administrator group. These settings apply to the organisation that you are currently in and cannot be changed by an administrator who does not also have the organisational administrator group. To change them for a different organisation, first move to that organisation.
Access
These settings control what the organisation is allowed to do. If any of the "allow" settings are changed then an email is sent to the help email address set in the Email Options tab.
Allow submissions. Allow data to be submitted to this organisation.
Allow API access.
Allow notifications.
Allow sending of task emails.
Allow SMS. Allow SMS messages to be sent in notifications. Only shown if the server uses AWS to send SMS messages.
Analysis auto refresh interval. The interval in minutes at which charts and maps on the analysis dashboard are refreshed. Setting a value of zero disables automatic refresh.
Monthly usage limits
Limits on the use of chargeable services each month. The current usage for the month is shown next to each limit.
AWS Translate. Letters translated.
AWS Transcribe. Seconds of audio transcribed.
AWS Transcribe Medical. Seconds of audio transcribed.
AWS Rekognition. Images analysed.
AWS Comprehend. Sentiment analysis requests.
Submissions. A limit of zero means submissions are unlimited.
Mobile App Options
This tab allows setting of options for FieldTask. When the user presses refresh on FieldTask these settings will be applied on their device. Many of these settings include the option "set on phone" as they can also be set by the phone user. However if another setting is selected then the on-phone setting will be overridden. These settings apply to all FieldTask instances logged on as a user in the current organisation.
Security
Force the use of tokens for logon. Requires FieldTask to use the server-issued token rather than a stored password.
Password policy. How often the user needs to re-logon. By default the enumerator never has to logon to FieldTask. In this case as long as valid credentials have already been entered they can continue to use the device without knowing what those credentials are. Using this setting you can override that default behaviour and require the user to logon every time they use FieldTask. You can also require periodic logons, in which case set the Number of days before password expiry.
Disable exit menu. Hides the menu used to exit FieldTask and the tracking controls.
Prevent background audio from being disabled. Stops users turning off background audio recording on the device.
Offline Maps
Manage offline map layers on the server. When set, FieldTask downloads the offline map layers belonging to the projects a user has access to (Offline Maps). The user chooses which of those layers is displayed, and cannot delete one that came from the server, but they can still add their own layers on the phone. This setting applies to every user in the organisation, so leaving the manual option available means someone who needs a layer larger than the 500 MB upload limit is not blocked.
Form Completion
Allow finalised forms to be opened for review. If set the user will be able to view completed surveys in read only mode and add comments. They will not be able to change the answers to any questions.
Allow user to mark forms as not finalized. If enabled then a checkbox labelled Mark form as finalized, will be shown when the enumerator finishes a survey and gets to the save screen. By default this will always be checked. If the enumerator unchecks this option then the survey will be saved as an incomplete instance and the enumerator can open it to continue editing from the tasks tab. Note incomplete instances are not sent to the server. (Requires version 21.02+ of the server and 6.302+ of FieldTask)
Allow user to set instance name. Instance names can be set automatically using collected data. If you are combining multiple names use concat() or join(). For example concat(${name}, ' ', ${last_name})
Screen Navigation. Use horizontal swipes, forward/backward buttons, or both.
Guidance. Whether survey guidance is shown: no, always shown, or collapsed.
Backward navigation. The ability of the user to go back to a previous question can be blocked using this option.
Sync & Connectivity
Automatically Synchronise. If set the phone will refresh when a form changes on the server. The refresh can be specified to occur if connected to wifi only or when also connected via a cellular network. If the option set on phone is selected then the enumerator can enable or disable automatic synchronisation using the menus on the phone.
Delete submitted results from the phone. After a completed survey has been successfully submitted it can be automatically deleted from the device. This is recommended to improve security. If you do not select this option then you should manually delete completed forms when you are confident that you have the data.
Maximum number of tasks to download. The tasks are ordered by due date in ascending order.
Media
High Resolution Video. Allow or prevent the recording of high resolution videos.
Maximum pixels of the long edge of an image. This is a very useful setting to reduce the size of images that have to be sent over the network and stored on the server. Select the original size from the camera or one of: Very small (640px), Small (1024px), Medium (2048px) or Large (3072px). The image is scaled so that its long edge is no larger than this, so if the image on the phone is 2,048 by 1,024 pixels and you select Very small (640px) then the submitted image will be 640 by 320 pixels.
Tracking & Geolocation
Prevent the disabling of location tracking. Locks tracking so it cannot be turned off on the device.
Enable Geo-fence. Enables the geo fence feature that can download or show tasks when the user is within a specified perimeter.
Send location data on path of user. Controls whether FieldTask records and sends the path of the user.
GeoShape and GeoTrace Input Method. How FieldTask records the points of a GeoShape or GeoTrace: placement by tapping, manual location recording or automatic location recording. If this is set on the server then a dialog is no longer shown to FieldTask users before they start recording points. This reduces the time required to start recording and allows a consistent approach to recording geo poly types.
Recording Interval. When the input method is automatic, the time in seconds between points.
Accuracy. When the input method is automatic, the accuracy threshold in meters.
Webform Options
This tab allows customisation of WebForm appearance:
Page background colour.
Paper background colour.
Footer position. The position of the "powered by" icon in the footer of the page.
Button colour.
Button text colour.
Heading text colour.
The WebForm banner logo.
Hiding the "save as draft" checkbox.
Email Options
Sets up the email server that this organisation will use. If these are not set then the email server specified in the Server tab is used.
Email to get help. The administrator email. This address is also sent an email when the access settings in the Organisation tab are changed.
SMTP host. The host name of the SMTP relay that will forward email messages from the Smap server.
Email domain.
Email user name.
Email password.
Email server port.
Content. Default content for emails.
Server identification.
DHIS2
Requires SmapServer v26.09
This tab holds the connection to a DHIS2 instance. One connection is held per organisation, so a test instance should be set up in its own organisation.
From here you can set the DHIS2 URL and personal access token, optionally pin the API version, and test the connection. The test reports the DHIS2 version, the user the token belongs to and how many organisation units that user can capture data for, so a connection that authenticates but cannot do anything useful is apparent before it is relied on.
For the full description, including how to prepare the token in DHIS2, see Setting up the connection.
Operations
Requires SmapServer v26.06. Thresholds used by the Operations Monitor page for the organisation that you are currently in.
Stale interval (days). Any open task or case older than this counts as stale.
Trend window (days). The period covered by the sparklines and backlog chart.
RAG amber threshold (overdue %). The overdue percentage at which a unit turns amber.
RAG red threshold (overdue %). The overdue percentage at which a unit turns red.
Sensitive Data
This tab is only shown to users with the security manager group. It sets restrictions on access to sensitive data for the organisation that you are currently in.
Signature Questions. No restrictions or Admin Only. If set to Admin Only then signature questions, that is image questions with the signature appearance, are hidden from users who do not have the administrator group. They are left out of the console, exports, analysis and the API. To restrict other questions, or to restrict signatures by role, use Role Based Access Control (RBAC).
Other Options
This tab allows you to set other organisation level settings for the organisation that you are currently in. Before SmapServer v26.10 only the minimum password strength was set here, and the other settings were in the organisation dialog on the Organisations tab of the users page.
Time zone. The default time zone for the organisation. Usually the time zone is obtained from a user's browser settings. However where reports are generated automatically this information may not be available and the time zone set here will be used.
Language. The default language for the organisation. As for time zone, normally the user's language is used.
Map source. The default source of background maps: Mapbox, Google or MapTiler. The keys for these services are set in the Server tab.
Allow editing of results. Allow results to be edited on the server.
Allow notifications to be sent from WebForms.
Enable opt in. Require the recipient of an email to opt in before they are sent emails.
Enable redactions. Allow personal data to be redacted, see Right to be Forgotten.
Minimum password strength. See Password Strength. Only a user with the security manager group can change this setting. Other administrators can see the value but not change it.