Sync data back to tablet

Discussions about syncing data via Bluetooth, Dropbox, FTP, and using CSWeb
Forum rules
New release: CSPro 8.0
Post Reply
Anne
Posts: 104
Joined: January 11th, 2012, 12:55 am

Sync data back to tablet

Post by Anne »

Hi,
I'm wondering if the following is possible and/or advisable:

Say that I have a regular survey going on collecting the same data every month (For instance price collection for CPI), and I want to compare this months data with last month, but only after they have been checked and maybe corrected by HQ. So I need to send the data back to the tablets after inspection (I would use 2 different dictionaries and use previous months data just for looking up).
Can I use "syncfile(get,..)" to get the csdb file from the server?

Also: I'm concerned about the amount of data on the tablets, so I want each tablet to fetch only the data relevant for the area it is in - based on the area code. So here is my plan after data has been collected:
  • each local office do the data correction and sends the result as a csdb file (I can accept tab separated file as well) to the Main office
  • The main office collects all the files in the hierarcy appName/lookupFiles/region/subregion/prices_MM_YY.csdb (MM is last month) And publishes
  • When the tablets syncs, from the lookupFiles folder, it only fetches the one csdb with the same region code (and month)
(I notice that on the CSweb server, the app is stored as a zip file: Is that going to be a problem?)

Anne
aaronw
Posts: 561
Joined: June 9th, 2016, 9:38 am
Location: Washington, DC

Re: Sync data back to tablet

Post by aaronw »

Syncfile is not meant to be used with a CSDB file (always use syncdata with them). Syncdata is smart in that it will only synchronization new/modified cases. Therefore, you don't have to worry about the size of the data on tablets as long as synchronizations are occurring regularly.

I would be hesitant to send clean data back to the field, because if a case is modified at both headquarters and in the field and then synchronized CSEntry won't know which is newer and a conflict will occur. In this scenario the server's data will overwrite the interviewer's work.

My recommendation would be to add a timestamp to your questionnaire, so each months data can be filtered on. I would upload all data to the server and work with a single CSDB file that I download from the server. Run your batch application to clean the data and then do your month vs month analysis. I would repeat the process each month and never commingle the edited and raw data.
Post Reply