Batch application with Dropbox sync

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asheffel
Posts: 23
Joined: July 14th, 2014, 9:07 am

Batch application with Dropbox sync

Post by asheffel »

Hi!

I am conducting a survey and we are using the Dropbox sync functionality. We have a batch application that checks for completeness and correctness of the data and creates a report of errors. With the new Dropbox functionality, we have to download the entire dataset and then run the batch. Is there a way to download the data for one tablet so that we can run the batch on the data only for that tablet? At the moment, we are downloading the entire dataset, exporting based on the interviewer ID, then running the batch but this is quite time consuming as we have 80+ tablets in the field. Alternatively, is there a way to sort the report produced by the batch by key variables such as province, district, interviewer number so that we can easily send chunks of the report to the right teams?

Many thanks,
Ashley
josh
Posts: 2399
Joined: May 5th, 2014, 12:49 pm
Location: Washington DC

Re: Batch application with Dropbox sync

Post by josh »

There is no easy way to just download data for one tablet. However, you do not have to download the entire data set every time. If instead of using download in the DataViewer, you can open the data file you previously downloaded from the Dropbox and then use synchronize and set the direction to "get". This will update the data file with only the new data that has been uploaded from tablets since the last time you downloaded. This is usually a lot faster than downloading a new data file each time.

I would imagine that you could modify your batch program to sort the report but how to go about that would depend on how your batch program is written. Instead of using errmsg to write the errors to log file as you encounter them you could save them in an array and then at the end write out them in the order you want. Another alternative is to use the Sort Data tool to sort the data file before you run the batch program. Another option would be to use filewrite and setfile in your batch program to write out multiple reports. Lots of different ways to do it.
asheffel
Posts: 23
Joined: July 14th, 2014, 9:07 am

Re: Batch application with Dropbox sync

Post by asheffel »

Thanks Josh!

I'm attaching here the batch application we are using in case you have time to take a look and provide any suggestions. The team wants to be able to sort the reports to organize by date, province, district. In addition they would like to be able to print a report for a specific Province or for a specific period. Any suggestions for the best approaches for this would be much appreciated!
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