Selectively sending photos

Hi all --

Just wanted to mention a set of circumstances we are experiencing with one
of our CommCare deployments and hear any ideas anyone might have.

We are capturing photos of various things but have decided to ask our field
staff not to send these photos over the cell network due to concerns about
the time it might take to upload in certain areas. There are other
operational parameters that are captured at the same time -- these will be
uploaded over the cell network. So to achieve this we have setup two
separate forms, one for the operational data, and a second, very short form
that is just for photos. (Note that these photos might be used for reports
so we were asked not to reduce the resolution.)

So it's somewhat complicated to train the field staff to only save certain
forms on the phone and not send them -- we ask them to go to the end and
then untick the "mark as finalized" box. I guess it would be nice to
adjust the language on that final screen to indicate the consequence of
marking a form as "finalized," ie, that data will be submitted when it can.
Then again, this scenario seems kind of unique, you mostly would want to
submit forms immediately..

Anyway, curious to hear if others have faced something similar. Thanks!

Matt

Hi Matt -

When and how are the users going to submit the forms with photos; and then
who is consuming the photos (and how)? This is a tough case to support, as
you noted. Depending on your answers, it may actually be easier to just
jump out to another app to capture the photos and match based on timestamp.

  • J
··· On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 3:57 AM, Matt Ball wrote:

Hi all --

Just wanted to mention a set of circumstances we are experiencing with one
of our CommCare deployments and hear any ideas anyone might have.

We are capturing photos of various things but have decided to ask our
field staff not to send these photos over the cell network due to concerns
about the time it might take to upload in certain areas. There are other
operational parameters that are captured at the same time -- these will be
uploaded over the cell network. So to achieve this we have setup two
separate forms, one for the operational data, and a second, very short form
that is just for photos. (Note that these photos might be used for reports
so we were asked not to reduce the resolution.)

So it's somewhat complicated to train the field staff to only save certain
forms on the phone and not send them -- we ask them to go to the end and
then untick the "mark as finalized" box. I guess it would be nice to
adjust the language on that final screen to indicate the consequence of
marking a form as "finalized," ie, that data will be submitted when it can.
Then again, this scenario seems kind of unique, you mostly would want to
submit forms immediately..

Anyway, curious to hear if others have faced something similar. Thanks!

Matt

Matt,

I think that utilizing the "incomplete" functionality of the app is almost
certainly the best fit for what you're trying to do.

The mark completed checkbox at the end of the form is a bit confusing for
sure. We've experimented a bit with the best way to express what's going on
there and haven't found a great fit-all solution yet.

One thing you could try in the short term:
There are a few things you can do in form entry that result in an
Incomplete form. If you feel like people need a bit more prompting, you
could put in a prompt in the form as the last question that tells them to
press the "Back" button and press "Save Changes" if they don't want to send
the form right now. This is functionally the same as navigating all the way
to the end, but gives you a chance to guide the process a bit more clearly.

-Clayton

··· On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 7:07 AM, Jonathan Jackson wrote:

Hi Matt -

When and how are the users going to submit the forms with photos; and then
who is consuming the photos (and how)? This is a tough case to support, as
you noted. Depending on your answers, it may actually be easier to just
jump out to another app to capture the photos and match based on timestamp.

  • J

On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 3:57 AM, Matt Ball matt@aquaya.org wrote:

Hi all --

Just wanted to mention a set of circumstances we are experiencing with
one of our CommCare deployments and hear any ideas anyone might have.

We are capturing photos of various things but have decided to ask our
field staff not to send these photos over the cell network due to concerns
about the time it might take to upload in certain areas. There are other
operational parameters that are captured at the same time -- these will be
uploaded over the cell network. So to achieve this we have setup two
separate forms, one for the operational data, and a second, very short form
that is just for photos. (Note that these photos might be used for reports
so we were asked not to reduce the resolution.)

So it's somewhat complicated to train the field staff to only save
certain forms on the phone and not send them -- we ask them to go to the
end and then untick the "mark as finalized" box. I guess it would be nice
to adjust the language on that final screen to indicate the consequence of
marking a form as "finalized," ie, that data will be submitted when it can.
Then again, this scenario seems kind of unique, you mostly would want to
submit forms immediately..

Anyway, curious to hear if others have faced something similar. Thanks!

Matt