Question Types

text

Use for questions that require a text response. It can also be used with the numbers appearance to get integer responses that are longer than the 9 character limit of the integer type.

Type

text

Parameters:

• rows: Set the number of rows of text shown in the form

Appearances:

• numbers: Shows the numeric keyboard
• thousands-sep: Inserts a separator between thousands when "numbers" is also used
• url: Allows the user to open a URL. Specify the url in the default column
• hidden: Hide the widget in fieldTask

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: yes

Example

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	parameters
text	comment	Any comments?	rows=5

Text widget in fieldTask with 5 rows

Text widget in webforms with 5 rows

Note

There is a limit of 4,000 characters on the amount of text that can be entered into a text question in webforms. However there is no corresponding limit in fieldTask.

note

Type

note

A read only note to the user.

Notes can be used to provide guidance to the user. This could some simple text that is specified in the survey template. For example:

The following questions are about health

However they can also be dynamically constructed to provide context sensitive help. To do this use the ${question_name} syntax within the label of the note. The question referred to can be a calculate that creates the text by combining answers from multiple questions.

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	calculation
text	name	What is your name?
calculate	calculate_guidance		concat('Tell ', ${name}, ' that they are doing well')
note	guidance	${calculate_guidance}

integer

Number questions that don't allow a decimal point and are not longer than 9 digits.

Type

integer

Appearances:

• thousands-sep: Inserts a separator between thousands
• hidden: Hide the widget in fieldTask

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: yes

Example

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
integer	age	What is your age?

decimal

Number question with a decimal point. Decimal questions are limited to 14 digits plus the decimal point. You can use a text question with the numbers appearance if you need more.

Type

decimal

Appearances:

• thousands-sep: (Optional) Inserts a separator between thousands

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: yes

Example

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
decimal	cost	How much did it cost?

bearing

A bearing widget captures the compass reading and stores it as a decimal type.

Type

decimal

Required Appearance:

• bearing

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: no

Example

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	appearance
decimal	orientation	Record the orientation	bearing

Bearing

barcode

Type

barcode

Appearances:

• front: (Optional) Use the front facing camera

Reads a barcode using the camera.

The following barcode formats are supported:

• UPC-A
• UPC-E
• EAN-8
• EAN-13
• Code 39
• Code 93
• Code 128
• Codabar
• ITF
• RSS-14
• RSS-Expanded
• QR Code
• Data Matrix
• Aztec (beta)
• PDF 417 (beta)
• MaxiCode

The flash can be used as a light source when scanning barcodes in a poorly lit environment.

survey

type	name	label
barcode	product	Scan the products barcode

barcode

nfc

Type

barcode

Required Appearances: nfc

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: yes

Reads the id on an NFC chip

survey

type	name	label	appearance
barcode	product	Scan the products NFC chip	nfc

nfc

date, time and datetime

default date type

Type

date

Availability:

FieldTask: yes Webforms: yes

Example

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
date	birthdate	When were you born?

Default date type

date widget with spinner input

A more compact date widget that makes it easy to select dates that are far from the current (or default) date.

Type

date

Appearance:

no-calendar

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	appearance
date	birthdate	When were you born?	no-calendar

Default Date type

month and year only

Only records the month and the year.

Type

date

Appearance:

month-year

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	appearance
date	birth_month	What month were you born?	month-year

year only

Only records the year.

Type

date

Appearance:

year

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	appearance
date	birth_year	What year were you born?	year

date widgets with non-Gregorian calendars

Note

The non-Gregorian calendar is used only on input. The dates are then converted and stored as standard Gregorian dates

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: no

Bikram Sambat calendar

Type

date

Appearance:

bikram-sambat

Coptic calendar

Type

date

Appearance:

coptic

Ethiopian calendar

Type

date

Appearance:

ethiopian

Islamic calendar

Type

date

Appearance:

islamic

Myanmar calendar

Type

date

Appearance:

myanmar

Persian calendar

Type

date

Appearance:

persian

time

Records the time of day.

Note

The time is stored along with the time zone. Hence a point in time is recorded. If you record a time of 10:00 am in London then the value is the same as 8pm in Sydney. If someone in Sydney generates a report using their local timezone then they will see the result as 8pm.

If you want to record a local time then you can use an integer type or decimal type or a select_one type that has a list of valid times. A question like "What time did the parcel arrive?" could be recorded with or without timezone depending on how you want to analyse the data.

Type

time

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
time	arrived	What time did the parcel arrive?

datetime

Records the date and time

Type

dateTime

Appearance:

no-calendar: Shows a spinner rather than the full calendar

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
dateTime	started	When did you start the project?

select

single select

Type

select_one

Appearance:

• minimal: Shows a modal dropdown that expands when selected by the user. Useful when showing multiple questions on one page.
• autoadvance: Immediately go to the next page after a choice is selected. Only use this appearance if it is immediately obvious to the user that the correct selection was made
• autocomplete: Adds a text box above the choices. If you type into this text box the choices are filtered. Use with large lists.
• likert: Show the choices in a likert scale
• compact: shows the choices in a compact grid. This is particularly useful when you have only images for the choices rather than text labels.
• compact-{x}: As per compact however replace {x} with the number of columns that you want.
• quickcompact: Combines compact and auto advance
• quickcompact-{x}: Combines compact with columns and auto advance

Parameters:

• randomize=true (Will randomly sort the choices each time the question is shown)
• seed={an integer} (Use this with random so that the same initially random order will be shown each time the question is shown in a given form)

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
select_one countries	country	Select a country

Choices Worksheet

list_name	name	label
countries	mali	Mali
countries	png	Papua New Guinea
countries	australia	Australia
countries	vanuatu	Vanuatu

multi select

Allows the user to select multiple answers from a choice list.

Type

select_multiple

Appearance:

• minimal: Shows a modal dropdown that expands when selected by the user. Useful when showing multiple questions on one page.
• autocomplete: Adds a text box above the choices. If you type into this text box the choices are filtered. Use with large lists.
• compact: shows the choices in a compact grid. This is particularly useful when you have only images for the choices rather than text labels.
• compact-{x}: As per compact however replace {x} with the number of columns that you want.

Parameters:

• randomize=true (Will randomly sort the choices each time the question is shown)
• seed={an integer} (Use this with random so that the same initially random order will be shown each time the question is shown in a given form)

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
select_multiple countries	country	Select some countries

Choices Worksheet

list_name	name	label
countries	mali	Mali
countries	png	Papua New Guinea
countries	australia	Australia
countries	vanuatu	Vanuatu

rank

This widget allows you to rank choices in order.

Type

rank

Parameters:

• randomize=true (Will randomly sort the choices each time the question is shown)
• seed={an integer} (Use this with random so that the same initially random order will be shown each time the question is shown in a given form)

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
rank importance	importance	Rank the issues in order of importance

Choices Worksheet

list_name	name	label
importance	food	Food
importance	shelter	Shelter
importance	water	Water
importance	security	Security

rank widget before re-ordering

rank widget after re-ordering

Viewing Recorded Rankings

When results are exported in the default spreadsheet format they will be shown in multiple columns. One for each choice. The column headings will be take from the question name with the addition of "1", "2", "3" etc. The first column will contain the choice that was ranked first and so on.

Spreadsheet report of rankings

In other view of the collected data, such as in the console, the rankings will be shown in compressed format where they are all placed in a single column, in rank order, with a space between each value.

image

Taking a Picture

Type

image

Captures an image either using the camera or by selecting from the device gallery.

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
image	picture_of_tree	Take a picture of the tree

image with annotation

Draw on an image after it has been captured. An additional button labelled "Markup Image" is shown that is enabled after the image is captured.

Type

image

Appearance:

annotate

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label
image	damage	Take a photo and circle the damage

Annotate Type

image as a drawing

Type

image

Appearance:

draw

This is similar to annotate except the user draws on a blank canvas.

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	appearance
image	draw_farm_layout	Draw a plan of the farm

image as a signature

Type

image

Appearance:

signature

Allows the user to draw a signature of their name.

table

type	name	label	appearance
image	hh_signature	Ask houeholder to sign the screen	signature

Other Image appearances and parameters

Require a new image

The default behavour is to include a button that allows the user to select an existing image rather than taking a new one. However by adding the appearance "new" the user is requried to capture a new image.

Self portrait (selfie) image

The back camera on the phone is used by default (although the user can change this). However by setting the appearance "new-front" the front camera is used by default to capture a selfie.

Note

selfie can also be used as the appearance.

Reducing the size of images

The size can be reduced by specifying the maximum length of the longest side of the image using max-pixels. For example if the default picture size is 1,000 by 500 and you specify the max-pixels to be 200, then the image will be resized to 200 by 100 pixels.

In the parameters column add max-pixels= followed by the maximum length of the long edge in pixels.

Note

The proportions of the image are maintained and if the length of the longest side was less than max-pixels the image will not be changed.

Acknowledge / Trigger

Type

trigger or acknowledge

You can use a type of either trigger or acknowlwdge, they work the same way. A single checkbox is shwown which the user can "acknowledge" by checking it. If they do this then the answer stored for the question is "OK".

You can use the above answer in relevance for following questions. For example:

${ack} = 'OK'

Commonly select_one questions with yes/no choices are used instead of Acknowledge

Survey Sheet

type	name	label	relevance
acknowledge	ack	Select to confirm participation
text	name	What is your name?	${ack} = 'OK'

Acknowledge widget in fieldTask

In WebForms a radio button is used instead of a checkbox.

Acknowledge widget in WebForms

Printer widget

Type

text

Required appearance

printer:org.opendatakit.sensors.ZebraPrinter

Connects to an external label printer, and prints labels that can contain a barcode, a QR code, or text.

Survey Sheet

type	name	label	appearance	calculation
text	printer_widget	Printer widget	printer:org.opendatakit.sensors.ZebraPrinter	concat('123456789','<br>’,'QR CODE','<br>','Text')

range

These widgets allow the user to select a numeric value within a range of numbers shown on a line.

Type

range

Parameters

start: The starting number end: The last number step: The increment between numbers

Range widget with integers

If all three parameter values are integers then input will also be stored as an integer.

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	parameters
range	eggs	number_of_eggs	How many eggs are there?	start=0;end=48;step=12

Integer Range widget in fieldTask

Integer Range widget in WebForms

Range widget with decimals

If one or more of the 3 parameters (start, end, step) are decimal then the answer will also be recorded as a decimal value.

Vertical range widget

Appearance

vertical

Vertical Range widget in fieldTask

Vertical Range widget in WebForms

Range widget with picker

Appearance

picker

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: no

When picker is added as an appearance the answer can be selected from a spinner rather than by clicking at a point on a line.

Vertical Range widget in WebForms

Range widget with rating

Appearance

rating

When rating is specified as the appearance then the range is shown as stars which the user can select. The number of stars is equal to the value of the end parameter. The start and step parameters are ignored. Hence the value set is equal to the number of the start selected counting from the left.

Survey Worksheet

type	name	label	appearance	parameters
range	rating	Rate your experience	rating	end=5

Rating Range widget in fieldTask

Chart

Type

chart

Shows a chart in the survey. Chart settings are specified in the question parameters. More details are available in Charts

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: no

Child Form / Parent Form

Type

child_form, parent_form

Launches another survey from within the current survey. The difference between these is in how the data from the two surveys are linked in the results database. If you don't care about linking the data between the two surveys then either type will do. Detailed information on using these question types is available in Launch a Survey from inside a Survey.

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: no

Locations

Location widgets capture one or more points as latitude, longitude, altitude in meters, and accuracy radius in meters. These data items are space separated. For example the following reading represents a lattitude of -18.27, a longitude of 27.32, an altitude of 25 meters and an accuracy of 5.6 meters: -18.27 27.32 25 5.6

Multiple points that form lines or shapes are separated by semicolons.

Availability:

• FieldTask: yes
• Webforms: yes

Multiple Locations in one Form

Prior to Smap server version 20.10 you could only put one location widget in each form of a survey. The reasoning behind this was that in GIS shape files the same restriction applies where each shape file consists of a single location and all the attributes associated with that location. Also the name of each location question was automatically set to "the_geom". I'm afraid to say this was just done to make the coding easier!

In version 20.10 this restriction has been lifted:

• You can add multiple location questions in any form as well as the location preload in the top level form.
• Location questions keep the name that you give them.
• When you export a survey as a shape file you can select the location to use. All other questions are assumed to be attributes of that location.
• When viewing a map of a survey on the analysis page you can select the question to use as the location.
• When creating a task from existing data the location of the task is determined automatically. Firstly it tries to get the first geopoint question in the source survey. If that does not exist it tries to use the location preload that might have been collected automatically. If that is not set then it will use the first geotrace or geoshape question that it finds.
• The map in the console currently uses the first location it finds in the survey. This will be fixed in a later release.

Warning

You may have an existing survey that you created using a spreadsheet and perhaps you have a geopoint question in that survey which you called "pump_location". Once your server is updated to 20.10 and you use the "replace" button to update the existing survey then a new column will be created in the database called "pump_location" to hold that location data. However any previously collected data will be stored in a column called "the_geom" and will no longer be accessible. You will see a warning in red if this happens when you do the replace.

In this circumstance, if you still need to access the old location data, then edit your survey in excel and change the name of the geopoint to "the_geom" Then replace the survey on you can redo the replace action.

geopoint

records a single point

Type

geopoint

survey

type	name	label
geopoint	the_geom	Record Location

Results after requesting a geopoint

Geopoint with a background map

Type

geopoint

Appearance

maps

Geopoint with a user selected location

Type

geopoint

Appearance

placement-map

geotrace

Records a line

Type

geotrace

geoshape

Records a shape.

Type

geoshape

Matrix

The begin matrix type is a convenient way to show questions in a matrix structure using webforms.

Matrix Widget

To create the matrix, group the questions that will appear horizontally, however instead of using begin group/end group use begin matrix/end matrix. Because these questions are appearing horizontally there will be a limit to how many you can fit on the screen comfortably.

Then specify the rows of the matrix in a choice list in the choices worksheet. Put the name of the choice list used by the matrix in the "list name" column of the survey worsheet. As these choices create the rows of the matrix you can add as many as you like and the matrix will simply extend down the page.

Finally in the settings sheet, under "style" add "theme-grid".

When you load the survey onto the server additional questions will be created in groups. One group for each of the choices and a group for the header. Hence the matrix type is not a real type as it is converted into multiple other questions on upload.

Type

begin matrix, end matrix

Example

Survey Sheet:

type	name	label	list name
begin matrix	nutrition	items	food_groups
select_one yn	available	Available
integer	quantity	Quantity
text	comment	Comment
end matrix

Choices Sheet:

list_name	name	label
food_groups	vegetables	Vegetables
food_groups	protein	Protein
food_groups	fruit	Fruit
food_groups	dairy	Dairy
food_groups	sugar	Fats and sugar
yn	yes	yes
yn	no	no

Example Form

Availability:

• FieldTask: no
• Webforms: yes
• XLSForm: yes
• Online Editor: no

Literacy Test

Type

select_multiple

Appearance:

• literacy

body::kb:flash

• Set to the interval between the Start button being pressed and the screen flashing to indicate that reading progress (word reached) should be recorded.

The words to be read are listed in the choices worksheet.

XLSForm

survey

type	name	label	body::kb:flash
select_multiple word_list	literacy_question	Assess literacy proficiency	30

Availability:

• FieldTask: no
• Webforms: yes
• XLSForm: yes
• Online Editor: no

Literacy widget after the flash and before the user marks progress made at point flash occured

1. When the widget is first shown it appears with a list of the words to be read and a Start button. It is assumed that the interviewee has a list of the words to be read as well and the enumerator will be recording their reading performance in webForms.
2. After the enumerator presses the Start button, the timer is started. This will cause the screen to flash after the specified number of seconds or 60 seconds if no number is specified in body::kb:flash. During this period the enumerator can select words that the reader finds difficult.
3. After the screen flashes the enumerator will be able to select the word that the reader had reached. They can then continue to select words that the reader is having trouble with.
4. After starting a Finish button is shown. When the enumerator presses Finish the timer stops. They can then record the final word read.

Viewing Literacy Results

When you view the output in the console it appears in its raw format. That is a number of values spearated by spaces including:

• The index of the word being read when the screen flashed
• The time in seconds elapsed before the Finish button is pressed
• The index of the word being read when the Finish button was pressed
• The text "null null null null null null null"
• A space separated list of the words that were marked as being wrong or difficult for the reader.

Support for literacy widgets has been added to the default Excel export from the analysis page. This formats the output to make it easier to analyse. Four additional columns are automatically added to the export for each literacy widget. These record:

• The total time elapsed between pressing Start and Finish
• The index of the word being read when the screen flashed
• The index of the word being read when the finish button was pressed
• The count of words that were marked as being difficult or in error

The recording of which words the reader had trouble with then behaves like any other select question. If you specify "Compress select multiples" for the export then they will be shown as a comma separated list of choice values. Otherwise a column in the export will be added for each word choice and the value will be set to "1" if the word was a problem or "0" if it was not. This allows you to easily add up the number of times each word was marked as a problem.

Audio

Default audio widget

Type

audio

Records audio using the device's microphone or a connected external microphone. This default audio widget uses an wxternal audio recording application. Most androids come pre-installed with one however you can also install an application from the play store.

Question using the default audio widget

XLSForm

survey

type	name	label
audio	summation	Record the issue summation

Using the built-in audio recorder

Type

audio

Parameters:

• quality: Refer to Audio quality

Added in FieldTask version 6.300

The built-in audio recorder makes it possible to record audio while filling out other questions and will continue recording even if the user switches to another app or if the phone screen is locked. To use the built-in audio recorder specify the audio quality for the audio question.

Question using the built in audio recorder

When built-in audio recording is enabled and recording is initiated, a recording control bar appears at the top of the screen. If the pause button is tapped, recording is temporarily suspended and the button icon changes to a microphone. When the microphone is tapped, recording is resumed. After the stop button is tapped, the recording is ended and can no longer be modified.

Tip

Short audio files can be quite small compared to video and high resolution images however a long recording can become large. If this is likely to be an issue then you can consider changing your audio quality settings.

Android devices can make many sounds during use and these will be included in recordings. We recommend turning off sounds from button presses, camera shutters and notifications before recording.

Other questions can be included on the same screen as a built-in recording question. This makes it possible to answer other questions while recording. To do this, put the questions in a group that has an appearance of field-list.

During recording, the user is prevented from leaving the current question screen. However, you can use other applications or lock the device screen.

To replace the audio captured, first delete the current file and then record again.

In some rare cases such as the device running out of space, the recording may complete successfully but not be attached to the form. If this happens, a dialog will be displayed explaining that the file is available but needs to be accessed manually. You can find these files in the recordings folder of the FieldTask directory. This folder is never cleared so you should delete these files once you have retrieved them.

Audio quality

The quality of audio recordings can be customized using the quality parameter. If a quality is specified, then the built-in recorder is used unless the quality is set to external. If no quality is specified then external or internal audio recorder is used based on the value set in the form managmenet settings.

Value	Extension	Encoding	Bit rate	Sample rate	File size
normal	.m4a	AAC	64kbps	32kHz	~30MB/hour
low	.m4a	AAC	24kbps	32kHz	~11MB/hour
voice-only	.amr	AMR	12.2kbps	8kHz	~5MB/hour

Tip

We recommend always using low or normal unless you have very tight bandwith concerns. These two quality settings produce audio that can be transcribed using Smap's powerful transcription capability.

XLSForm

In the parameters column, enter quality= followed by the desired quality. The online editor also supports setting the quality for audio questions.

survey

type	name	label	parameters
audio	interview	Start the recording before commencing the interview	quality=low

Getting audio from a custom external app

Type

audio

Appearance:

• ex: followed by the identifier of the application that you want to launch

Added in FieldTask version 6.300

Note

This external app can be different from the external application that is launched by default to record audio. You can specify exactly the application that you want rather than any application that responds to a request to record some audio.

See also

Launching Apps from a Survey

XLSForm

survey

type	name	label	appearance
audio	some_audio	Specific External Audio	ex:com.example.getaudio

Background Audio

If you want to automatically record audio while the survey is being completed then you need Meta Items.

Video widgets

Tip

Videos can be large. Be very careful before adding video questions and test that you have enough bandwidth and disk space on the Android devices. You can specify in the settings that only low resolution videos should be taken. This can also be done in the Mobile App Options for the organisation so that it applies to all devices automatically.

Default video widget

Type

video

Records video, using the device camera.

XLSForm

survey

type	name	label
video	vehicle_traffic	Please record a video of the traffic

Front facing camera video

Type

video

Appearance

new-front

Records video, using the front-facing camera. The Choose Video button is not displayed.

XLSForm

survey

type	name	label	appearance
video	front-video	Video yourself reading the question	new-front

External app video widget

Type

video

Appearance:

• ex: followed by the identifier of the application that you want to launch

Added in FieldTask version 6.300

See also

Launching Apps from a Survey

XLSForm

survey

type	name	label	appearance
video	some_video	Specific External Video	ex:com.example.getvideo

Files

Warning

Files can contain malware so make sure you use an antivirus scanner before opening any file uploaded to the server.

Default file upload

Type

file

XLSForm

survey

type	name	label
file	supporting_doc	Please select the supporting documentation

External app file widget

Type

file

Appearance:

• ex: followed by the identifier of the application that you want to launch

Added in FieldTask version 6.300

Calls an external application to get a file for upload. You can create your own custom apps to get verified binary files to include in a survey response. ` .. seealso:: Launching Apps from a Survey

XLSForm

survey

type	name	label	appearance
file	supporting_doc	Select the test results to include	ex:com.example.gettestresults