Using WIFI Direct to Sync

Alexandra_Fallon · November 13, 2017, 8:35am

Hi all!

We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and have
searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems odd
(see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions for
how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when they
are out of network area?

Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed for this
to work?

Thanks so much!
Alex

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UiZaeRlyOdo/WglZVrsCWMI/AAAAAAAAAS8/vTGR1PXfDtQqLv2N5OZkxgdNZhWTgqJNgCLcBGAs/s1600/wifi%2Bdirect.png

Kai_Cowger · November 13, 2017, 6:56pm

Hi Alex,

We do not recommend using WiFi direct to transfer data between phones. This
feature is not completely safe for use, and we are still working to improve
this feature.

Can you outline what the particular scenario where you believe you need
Wifi Direct?

Thanks!
Kai

···

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:35:49 AM UTC-5, alex...@morethanme.org wrote: > > Hi all! > > We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and have > searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems odd > (see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions for > how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when they > are out of network area? > > Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed for this > to work? > > Thanks so much! > Alex > > > > > > > > >

Alexandra_Fallon · November 13, 2017, 9:49pm

Hi Kai,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We have principals taking daily student & teacher attendance in rural
schools that are far from cell coverage. Our field staff visit these
schools 2-3x per month and we want them to be able to collect the data from
the principal phones and then sync it to the network when they return to
cell coverage. We described this use case to our account rep and were
specifically told that Wifi direct would work for this particular scenario.

Do you have any recommendations on what else we might do?

thank you!
Alex

···

ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Kai Cowger kaicowger@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

We do not recommend using WiFi direct to transfer data between phones.
This feature is not completely safe for use, and we are still working to
improve this feature.

Can you outline what the particular scenario where you believe you need
Wifi Direct?

Thanks!
Kai

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:35:49 AM UTC-5, alex...@morethanme.org wrote:

Hi all!

We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and have
searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems odd
(see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions for
how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when they
are out of network area?

Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed for
this to work?

Thanks so much!
Alex

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UiZaeRlyOdo/WglZVrsCWMI/AAAAAAAAAS8/vTGR1PXfDtQqLv2N5OZkxgdNZhWTgqJNgCLcBGAs/s1600/wifi%2Bdirect.png

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Kai_Cowger · November 13, 2017, 11:58pm

Apologies if you got mixed messages -- we will try to make sure all our
teams are aligned on what is safe or not for our clients to use. If
possible, I would definitely steer toward having the teachers send the
forms themselves from their phones. Remember, it is OK to go weeks (or
longer) at a time without syncing the phones if needed.

If the teachers will *never *be in internet service, the last option I
would consider is doing an SD card dump. This is similar to the WiFi Direct
method of transferring forms from one phone to another, but it is manual
through the use of an SD card rather than using Wifi Direct.

The way this works is as follows:

In deployments with infrequent or weak general access to data networks it
might be necessary for a "supervisor" to manually collect forms from many
mobile workers and then send them to the server later from some home base
with reliable internet. This functionality enables that workflow.

Please note that this only works for CommCare Android devices that accept
external SD cards.

General Workflow Outline

Both the mobile worker and the supervisor must have phones running
CommCare version 2.6 or later on an Android device. The supervisor must
have an SD card.
The CHW completes a number of forms that have not been sent to the server
The supervisor brings an SD card to the mobile worker, and they insert
an external SD card in the phone
They complete the "SD Dump Process" below
The SD card is removed from the mobile worker's phone and returned to
the supervisor
The supervisor repeats this with as many mobile workers as necessary
The supervisor returns to the location with reliable internet, inserts
the SD card into her phone, and completes the "SD Send Process" below

SD Dump Process

The SD card is in the mobile worker's phone
Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen
Press the Menu/Settings button
Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option
Proceed past the warning prompt
(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd expect
to be on the phone
Press the "Dump Forms" button
When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

SD Send Process

The SD card is in the supervisor's Android device. The supervisor has
reliable data.
Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen
Press the Menu/Settings button
Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option
Proceed past the warning prompt
(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd expect
to be on the SD card
Press the "Send Forms" button. This part of the process could
potentially take a while depending on the connection strength and number of
forms on the SD card
When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

···

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 4:50:01 PM UTC-5, Alexandra Fallon wrote: > > Hi Kai, > > Thanks for getting back to us. > > We have principals taking daily student & teacher attendance in rural > schools that are far from cell coverage. Our field staff visit these > schools 2-3x per month and we want them to be able to collect the data from > the principal phones and then sync it to the network when they return to > cell coverage. We described this use case to our account rep and were > specifically told that Wifi direct would work for this particular scenario. > > Do you have any recommendations on what else we might do? > > thank you! > Alex > ᐧ > > On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Kai Cowger <kaic...@gmail.com > wrote: > >> Hi Alex, >> >> We do not recommend using WiFi direct to transfer data between phones. >> This feature is not completely safe for use, and we are still working to >> improve this feature. >> >> Can you outline what the particular scenario where you believe you need >> Wifi Direct? >> >> Thanks! >> Kai >> >> >> On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:35:49 AM UTC-5, alex...@morethanme.org wrote: >>> >>> Hi all! >>> >>> We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and have >>> searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems odd >>> (see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions for >>> how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when they >>> are out of network area? >>> >>> Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed for >>> this to work? >>> >>> Thanks so much! >>> Alex >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the >> Google Groups "commcare-users" group. >> To unsubscribe from this topic, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/topic/commcare-users/_zqELIAuJNA/unsubscribe. >> To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to >> commcare-user...@googlegroups.com . >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > >

Alexandra_Fallon · November 21, 2017, 4:10pm

Hi Kai,

Thanks for your help on this.

We've looked into the SD card transfer before and ran into issues because
our phones are have the OS Android 4.4 Lollipop which doesn't allow for the
SD transfer.

When you say that wifi transfer "isn't safe" what exactly do you mean? We
experimented with this a bit before and it seemed to go well so if we take
a risk and go for it again, I'm curious to know exactly what sort of issues
which should keep an eye out for. Is it data disappearing completely? Or
data getting swapped around?

thank you!!
Alex

···

ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 11:58 PM, Kai Cowger kaicowger@gmail.com wrote:

Apologies if you got mixed messages -- we will try to make sure all our
teams are aligned on what is safe or not for our clients to use. If
possible, I would definitely steer toward having the teachers send the
forms themselves from their phones. Remember, it is OK to go weeks (or
longer) at a time without syncing the phones if needed.

If the teachers will *never *be in internet service, the last option I
would consider is doing an SD card dump. This is similar to the WiFi Direct
method of transferring forms from one phone to another, but it is manual
through the use of an SD card rather than using Wifi Direct.

The way this works is as follows:

In deployments with infrequent or weak general access to data networks it
might be necessary for a "supervisor" to manually collect forms from many
mobile workers and then send them to the server later from some home base
with reliable internet. This functionality enables that workflow.

Please note that this only works for CommCare Android devices that accept
external SD cards.

General Workflow Outline

Both the mobile worker and the supervisor must have phones running
CommCare version 2.6 or later on an Android device. The supervisor must
have an SD card.

The CHW completes a number of forms that have not been sent to the
server

The supervisor brings an SD card to the mobile worker, and they insert
an external SD card in the phone

They complete the "SD Dump Process" below

The SD card is removed from the mobile worker's phone and returned to
the supervisor

The supervisor repeats this with as many mobile workers as necessary

The supervisor returns to the location with reliable internet, inserts
the SD card into her phone, and completes the "SD Send Process" below

SD Dump Process

The SD card is in the mobile worker's phone

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the phone

Press the "Dump Forms" button

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

SD Send Process

The SD card is in the supervisor's Android device. The supervisor has
reliable data.

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the SD card

Press the "Send Forms" button. This part of the process could
potentially take a while depending on the connection strength and number of
forms on the SD card

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 4:50:01 PM UTC-5, Alexandra Fallon wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We have principals taking daily student & teacher attendance in rural
schools that are far from cell coverage. Our field staff visit these
schools 2-3x per month and we want them to be able to collect the data from
the principal phones and then sync it to the network when they return to
cell coverage. We described this use case to our account rep and were
specifically told that Wifi direct would work for this particular scenario.

Do you have any recommendations on what else we might do?

thank you!
Alex
ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Kai Cowger kaic...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

We do not recommend using WiFi direct to transfer data between phones.
This feature is not completely safe for use, and we are still working to
improve this feature.

Can you outline what the particular scenario where you believe you need
Wifi Direct?

Thanks!
Kai

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:35:49 AM UTC-5, alex...@morethanme.org wrote:

Hi all!

We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and have
searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems odd
(see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions for
how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when they
are out of network area?

Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed for
this to work?

Thanks so much!
Alex

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UiZaeRlyOdo/WglZVrsCWMI/AAAAAAAAAS8/vTGR1PXfDtQqLv2N5OZkxgdNZhWTgqJNgCLcBGAs/s1600/wifi%2Bdirect.png

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Kai_Cowger_Dimagi · November 21, 2017, 4:39pm

Hi Alex,

Thanks for following up. The way I described Wifi Direct
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+with+Wi-Fi+Direct
wasn't quite accurate or clear, and I apologize for that. What I should
have said is that we had a bug recently which led to unrecoverable data
loss while using this feature. We have continued to improve the feature in
the latest versions of CommCare, and that particular bug was patched in
CommCare 2.40. If you go with this option, we would recommend making
certain that your users are on the most updated CommCare versions at all
times.

Furthermore, because Wifi Direct involves moving around forms from user to
user, it complicates form ownership hierarchies and we would recommend
keeping ownership restrictions and case sharing as lax as possible.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!
-Kai

···

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 11:10 AM, Alexandra Fallon <alexandra@morethanme.org wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for your help on this.

We've looked into the SD card transfer before and ran into issues because
our phones are have the OS Android 4.4 Lollipop which doesn't allow for
the SD transfer.

When you say that wifi transfer "isn't safe" what exactly do you mean? We
experimented with this a bit before and it seemed to go well so if we take
a risk and go for it again, I'm curious to know exactly what sort of issues
which should keep an eye out for. Is it data disappearing completely? Or
data getting swapped around?

thank you!!
Alex

ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 11:58 PM, Kai Cowger kaicowger@gmail.com wrote:

Apologies if you got mixed messages -- we will try to make sure all our
teams are aligned on what is safe or not for our clients to use. If
possible, I would definitely steer toward having the teachers send the
forms themselves from their phones. Remember, it is OK to go weeks (or
longer) at a time without syncing the phones if needed.

If the teachers will *never *be in internet service, the last option I
would consider is doing an SD card dump. This is similar to the WiFi Direct
method of transferring forms from one phone to another, but it is manual
through the use of an SD card rather than using Wifi Direct.

The way this works is as follows:

In deployments with infrequent or weak general access to data networks
it might be necessary for a "supervisor" to manually collect forms from
many mobile workers and then send them to the server later from some home
base with reliable internet. This functionality enables that workflow.

Please note that this only works for CommCare Android devices that
accept external SD cards.

General Workflow Outline

Both the mobile worker and the supervisor must have phones running
CommCare version 2.6 or later on an Android device. The supervisor must
have an SD card.

The CHW completes a number of forms that have not been sent to the
server

The supervisor brings an SD card to the mobile worker, and they insert
an external SD card in the phone

They complete the "SD Dump Process" below

The SD card is removed from the mobile worker's phone and returned to
the supervisor

The supervisor repeats this with as many mobile workers as necessary

The supervisor returns to the location with reliable internet, inserts
the SD card into her phone, and completes the "SD Send Process" below

SD Dump Process

The SD card is in the mobile worker's phone

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the phone

Press the "Dump Forms" button

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

SD Send Process

The SD card is in the supervisor's Android device. The supervisor has
reliable data.

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the SD card

Press the "Send Forms" button. This part of the process could
potentially take a while depending on the connection strength and number of
forms on the SD card

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 4:50:01 PM UTC-5, Alexandra Fallon wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We have principals taking daily student & teacher attendance in rural
schools that are far from cell coverage. Our field staff visit these
schools 2-3x per month and we want them to be able to collect the data from
the principal phones and then sync it to the network when they return to
cell coverage. We described this use case to our account rep and were
specifically told that Wifi direct would work for this particular scenario.

Do you have any recommendations on what else we might do?

thank you!
Alex
ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Kai Cowger kaic...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

We do not recommend using WiFi direct to transfer data between phones.
This feature is not completely safe for use, and we are still working to
improve this feature.

Can you outline what the particular scenario where you believe you need
Wifi Direct?

Thanks!
Kai

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:35:49 AM UTC-5, alex...@morethanme.org wrote:

Hi all!

We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and
have searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems
odd (see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions
for how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when
they are out of network area?

Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed for
this to work?

Thanks so much!
Alex

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UiZaeRlyOdo/WglZVrsCWMI/AAAAAAAAAS8/vTGR1PXfDtQqLv2N5OZkxgdNZhWTgqJNgCLcBGAs/s1600/wifi%2Bdirect.png

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Dimagi, Inc | 585 Massachusetts Ave | Suite 3 | Cambridge, MA 02139
(857)-265-4193

Alexandra_Fallon · November 21, 2017, 4:45pm

Thanks Kai - super helpful. Two quick follows up. When was CC 2.4
released? Also, I can't seem to access the confluence Wifi Direct link you
shared. Is there a link on the https://wiki.commcarehq.org that you could
direct me to?

appreciate it!
Alex

···

ᐧ

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 4:39 PM, Kai Cowger kcowger@dimagi.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

Thanks for following up. The way I described Wifi Direct
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+with+Wi-Fi+Direct
wasn't quite accurate or clear, and I apologize for that. What I should
have said is that we had a bug recently which led to unrecoverable data
loss while using this feature. We have continued to improve the feature in
the latest versions of CommCare, and that particular bug was patched in
CommCare 2.40. If you go with this option, we would recommend making
certain that your users are on the most updated CommCare versions at all
times.

Furthermore, because Wifi Direct involves moving around forms from user to
user, it complicates form ownership hierarchies and we would recommend
keeping ownership restrictions and case sharing as lax as possible.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!
-Kai

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 11:10 AM, Alexandra Fallon < alexandra@morethanme.org> wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for your help on this.

We've looked into the SD card transfer before and ran into issues because
our phones are have the OS Android 4.4 Lollipop which doesn't allow for
the SD transfer.

When you say that wifi transfer "isn't safe" what exactly do you mean?
We experimented with this a bit before and it seemed to go well so if we
take a risk and go for it again, I'm curious to know exactly what sort of
issues which should keep an eye out for. Is it data disappearing
completely? Or data getting swapped around?

thank you!!
Alex

ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 11:58 PM, Kai Cowger kaicowger@gmail.com wrote:

Apologies if you got mixed messages -- we will try to make sure all our
teams are aligned on what is safe or not for our clients to use. If
possible, I would definitely steer toward having the teachers send the
forms themselves from their phones. Remember, it is OK to go weeks (or
longer) at a time without syncing the phones if needed.

If the teachers will *never *be in internet service, the last option I
would consider is doing an SD card dump. This is similar to the WiFi Direct
method of transferring forms from one phone to another, but it is manual
through the use of an SD card rather than using Wifi Direct.

The way this works is as follows:

In deployments with infrequent or weak general access to data networks
it might be necessary for a "supervisor" to manually collect forms from
many mobile workers and then send them to the server later from some home
base with reliable internet. This functionality enables that workflow.

Please note that this only works for CommCare Android devices that
accept external SD cards.

General Workflow Outline

Both the mobile worker and the supervisor must have phones running
CommCare version 2.6 or later on an Android device. The supervisor must
have an SD card.

The CHW completes a number of forms that have not been sent to the
server

The supervisor brings an SD card to the mobile worker, and they
insert an external SD card in the phone

They complete the "SD Dump Process" below

The SD card is removed from the mobile worker's phone and returned to
the supervisor

The supervisor repeats this with as many mobile workers as necessary

The supervisor returns to the location with reliable internet,
inserts the SD card into her phone, and completes the "SD Send Process"
below

SD Dump Process

The SD card is in the mobile worker's phone

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the phone

Press the "Dump Forms" button

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

SD Send Process

The SD card is in the supervisor's Android device. The supervisor has
reliable data.

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the SD card

Press the "Send Forms" button. This part of the process could
potentially take a while depending on the connection strength and number of
forms on the SD card

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 4:50:01 PM UTC-5, Alexandra Fallon wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We have principals taking daily student & teacher attendance in rural
schools that are far from cell coverage. Our field staff visit these
schools 2-3x per month and we want them to be able to collect the data from
the principal phones and then sync it to the network when they return to
cell coverage. We described this use case to our account rep and were
specifically told that Wifi direct would work for this particular scenario.

Do you have any recommendations on what else we might do?

thank you!
Alex
ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Kai Cowger kaic...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

We do not recommend using WiFi direct to transfer data between phones.
This feature is not completely safe for use, and we are still working to
improve this feature.

Can you outline what the particular scenario where you believe you
need Wifi Direct?

Thanks!
Kai

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:35:49 AM UTC-5, alex...@morethanme.org wrote:

Hi all!

We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and
have searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems
odd (see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions
for how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when
they are out of network area?

Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed for
this to work?

Thanks so much!
Alex

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UiZaeRlyOdo/WglZVrsCWMI/AAAAAAAAAS8/vTGR1PXfDtQqLv2N5OZkxgdNZhWTgqJNgCLcBGAs/s1600/wifi%2Bdirect.png

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Senior Support Analyst
Dimagi, Inc | 585 Massachusetts Ave | Suite 3 | Cambridge, MA 02139
https://maps.google.com/?q=585 Massachusetts+Ave |+Suite+3+|+Cambridge,+MA+02139&entry=gmail&source=g
(857)-265-4193 <(857)%20265-4193>
http://www.dimagi.com/

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Kai_Cowger_Dimagi · November 21, 2017, 4:59pm

Hey Alex,

2.40 was release in late October
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+Change+Log#,
and here is an updated link to our wiki page
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+with+Wi-Fi+Direct#.
Sorry about that!

Regards,
Kai

···

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 11:45 AM, Alexandra Fallon <alexandra@morethanme.org wrote:

Thanks Kai - super helpful. Two quick follows up. When was CC 2.4
released? Also, I can't seem to access the confluence Wifi Direct link you
shared. Is there a link on the https://wiki.commcarehq.org that you
could direct me to?

appreciate it!
Alex
ᐧ

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 4:39 PM, Kai Cowger kcowger@dimagi.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

Thanks for following up. The way I described Wifi Direct
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+with+Wi-Fi+Direct
wasn't quite accurate or clear, and I apologize for that. What I should
have said is that we had a bug recently which led to unrecoverable data
loss while using this feature. We have continued to improve the feature in
the latest versions of CommCare, and that particular bug was patched in
CommCare 2.40. If you go with this option, we would recommend making
certain that your users are on the most updated CommCare versions at all
times.

Furthermore, because Wifi Direct involves moving around forms from user
to user, it complicates form ownership hierarchies and we would recommend
keeping ownership restrictions and case sharing as lax as possible.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!
-Kai

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 11:10 AM, Alexandra Fallon < alexandra@morethanme.org> wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for your help on this.

We've looked into the SD card transfer before and ran into issues
because our phones are have the OS Android 4.4 Lollipop which doesn't
allow for the SD transfer.

When you say that wifi transfer "isn't safe" what exactly do you mean?
We experimented with this a bit before and it seemed to go well so if we
take a risk and go for it again, I'm curious to know exactly what sort of
issues which should keep an eye out for. Is it data disappearing
completely? Or data getting swapped around?

thank you!!
Alex

ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 11:58 PM, Kai Cowger kaicowger@gmail.com wrote:

Apologies if you got mixed messages -- we will try to make sure all our
teams are aligned on what is safe or not for our clients to use. If
possible, I would definitely steer toward having the teachers send the
forms themselves from their phones. Remember, it is OK to go weeks (or
longer) at a time without syncing the phones if needed.

If the teachers will *never *be in internet service, the last option I
would consider is doing an SD card dump. This is similar to the WiFi Direct
method of transferring forms from one phone to another, but it is manual
through the use of an SD card rather than using Wifi Direct.

The way this works is as follows:

In deployments with infrequent or weak general access to data networks
it might be necessary for a "supervisor" to manually collect forms from
many mobile workers and then send them to the server later from some home
base with reliable internet. This functionality enables that workflow.

Please note that this only works for CommCare Android devices that
accept external SD cards.

General Workflow Outline

Both the mobile worker and the supervisor must have phones running
CommCare version 2.6 or later on an Android device. The supervisor must
have an SD card.

The CHW completes a number of forms that have not been sent to the
server

The supervisor brings an SD card to the mobile worker, and they
insert an external SD card in the phone

They complete the "SD Dump Process" below

The SD card is removed from the mobile worker's phone and returned
to the supervisor

The supervisor repeats this with as many mobile workers as necessary

The supervisor returns to the location with reliable internet,
inserts the SD card into her phone, and completes the "SD Send Process"
below

SD Dump Process

The SD card is in the mobile worker's phone

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the phone

Press the "Dump Forms" button

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

SD Send Process

The SD card is in the supervisor's Android device. The supervisor
has reliable data.

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the SD card

Press the "Send Forms" button. This part of the process could
potentially take a while depending on the connection strength and number of
forms on the SD card

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 4:50:01 PM UTC-5, Alexandra Fallon wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We have principals taking daily student & teacher attendance in rural
schools that are far from cell coverage. Our field staff visit these
schools 2-3x per month and we want them to be able to collect the data from
the principal phones and then sync it to the network when they return to
cell coverage. We described this use case to our account rep and were
specifically told that Wifi direct would work for this particular scenario.

Do you have any recommendations on what else we might do?

thank you!
Alex
ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Kai Cowger kaic...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

We do not recommend using WiFi direct to transfer data between
phones. This feature is not completely safe for use, and we are still
working to improve this feature.

Can you outline what the particular scenario where you believe you
need Wifi Direct?

Thanks!
Kai

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:35:49 AM UTC-5, alex...@morethanme.org wrote:

Hi all!

We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and
have searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems
odd (see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions
for how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when
they are out of network area?

Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed
for this to work?

Thanks so much!
Alex

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UiZaeRlyOdo/WglZVrsCWMI/AAAAAAAAAS8/vTGR1PXfDtQqLv2N5OZkxgdNZhWTgqJNgCLcBGAs/s1600/wifi%2Bdirect.png

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Dimagi, Inc | 585 Massachusetts Ave | Suite 3 | Cambridge, MA 02139
https://maps.google.com/?q=585 Massachusetts+Ave |+Suite+3+|+Cambridge,+MA+02139&entry=gmail&source=g
(857)-265-4193 <(857)%20265-4193>
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(857)-265-4193

Alexandra_Fallon · November 22, 2017, 6:24am

Thank you!!

···

ᐧ

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 4:59 PM, Kai Cowger kcowger@dimagi.com wrote:

Hey Alex,

2.40 was release in late October
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+Change+Log#,
and here is an updated link to our wiki page
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+with+Wi-Fi+Direct#.
Sorry about that!

Regards,
Kai

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 11:45 AM, Alexandra Fallon < alexandra@morethanme.org> wrote:

Thanks Kai - super helpful. Two quick follows up. When was CC 2.4
released? Also, I can't seem to access the confluence Wifi Direct link you
shared. Is there a link on the https://wiki.commcarehq.org that you
could direct me to?

appreciate it!
Alex
ᐧ

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 4:39 PM, Kai Cowger kcowger@dimagi.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

Thanks for following up. The way I described Wifi Direct
https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/CommCare+with+Wi-Fi+Direct
wasn't quite accurate or clear, and I apologize for that. What I should
have said is that we had a bug recently which led to unrecoverable data
loss while using this feature. We have continued to improve the feature in
the latest versions of CommCare, and that particular bug was patched in
CommCare 2.40. If you go with this option, we would recommend making
certain that your users are on the most updated CommCare versions at all
times.

Furthermore, because Wifi Direct involves moving around forms from user
to user, it complicates form ownership hierarchies and we would recommend
keeping ownership restrictions and case sharing as lax as possible.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!
-Kai

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 11:10 AM, Alexandra Fallon < alexandra@morethanme.org> wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for your help on this.

We've looked into the SD card transfer before and ran into issues
because our phones are have the OS Android 4.4 Lollipop which doesn't
allow for the SD transfer.

When you say that wifi transfer "isn't safe" what exactly do you mean?
We experimented with this a bit before and it seemed to go well so if we
take a risk and go for it again, I'm curious to know exactly what sort of
issues which should keep an eye out for. Is it data disappearing
completely? Or data getting swapped around?

thank you!!
Alex

ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 11:58 PM, Kai Cowger kaicowger@gmail.com wrote:

Apologies if you got mixed messages -- we will try to make sure all
our teams are aligned on what is safe or not for our clients to use. If
possible, I would definitely steer toward having the teachers send the
forms themselves from their phones. Remember, it is OK to go weeks (or
longer) at a time without syncing the phones if needed.

If the teachers will *never *be in internet service, the last option
I would consider is doing an SD card dump. This is similar to the WiFi
Direct method of transferring forms from one phone to another, but it is
manual through the use of an SD card rather than using Wifi Direct.

The way this works is as follows:

In deployments with infrequent or weak general access to data
networks it might be necessary for a "supervisor" to manually collect forms
from many mobile workers and then send them to the server later from some
home base with reliable internet. This functionality enables that workflow.

Please note that this only works for CommCare Android devices that
accept external SD cards.

General Workflow Outline

Both the mobile worker and the supervisor must have phones running
CommCare version 2.6 or later on an Android device. The supervisor must
have an SD card.

The CHW completes a number of forms that have not been sent to the
server

The supervisor brings an SD card to the mobile worker, and they
insert an external SD card in the phone

They complete the "SD Dump Process" below

The SD card is removed from the mobile worker's phone and returned
to the supervisor

The supervisor repeats this with as many mobile workers as necessary

The supervisor returns to the location with reliable internet,
inserts the SD card into her phone, and completes the "SD Send Process"
below

SD Dump Process

The SD card is in the mobile worker's phone

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the phone

Press the "Dump Forms" button

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

SD Send Process

The SD card is in the supervisor's Android device. The supervisor
has reliable data.

Navigate to the CommCare Home Screen

Press the Menu/Settings button

Select "Advanced" then the "Manage SD" option

Proceed past the warning prompt

(Optional) verify that the screen lists the number of forms you'd
expect to be on the SD card

Press the "Send Forms" button. This part of the process could
potentially take a while depending on the connection strength and number of
forms on the SD card

When this process completes successfully you can remove the SD card

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 4:50:01 PM UTC-5, Alexandra Fallon wrote:

Hi Kai,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We have principals taking daily student & teacher attendance in rural
schools that are far from cell coverage. Our field staff visit these
schools 2-3x per month and we want them to be able to collect the data from
the principal phones and then sync it to the network when they return to
cell coverage. We described this use case to our account rep and were
specifically told that Wifi direct would work for this particular scenario.

Do you have any recommendations on what else we might do?

thank you!
Alex
ᐧ

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Kai Cowger kaic...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

We do not recommend using WiFi direct to transfer data between
phones. This feature is not completely safe for use, and we are still
working to improve this feature.

Can you outline what the particular scenario where you believe you
need Wifi Direct?

Thanks!
Kai

On Monday, November 13, 2017 at 3:35:49 AM UTC-5, alex...@morethanme.org wrote:

Hi all!

We are looking for instructions on how to sync via Wifi Direct and
have searched the Help Site and not found anything relevant, which seems
odd (see below). Can anyone share or point me to step by step instructions
for how to use Wifi Direct to download data from one phone to another when
they are out of network area?

Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed
for this to work?

Thanks so much!
Alex

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UiZaeRlyOdo/WglZVrsCWMI/AAAAAAAAAS8/vTGR1PXfDtQqLv2N5OZkxgdNZhWTgqJNgCLcBGAs/s1600/wifi%2Bdirect.png

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Dimagi, Inc | 585 Massachusetts Ave | Suite 3 | Cambridge, MA 02139
https://maps.google.com/?q=585 Massachusetts+Ave |+Suite+3+|+Cambridge,+MA+02139&entry=gmail&source=g
(857)-265-4193 <(857)%20265-4193>
http://www.dimagi.com/

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Dimagi, Inc | 585 Massachusetts Ave | Suite 3 | Cambridge, MA 02139
https://maps.google.com/?q=585 Massachusetts+Ave |+Suite+3+|+Cambridge,+MA+02139&entry=gmail&source=g
(857)-265-4193 <(857)%20265-4193>
http://www.dimagi.com/

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lindwalk · December 10, 2019, 9:33am

Hi Alex and those who responded to Alex's question, was this part of the question answered:

"Also, do both phones need to have the same CommCare app installed for this
to work?"

My current situation could be helped by this answer.

Thank you,

Lindsay

Clayton_Sims · December 10, 2019, 4:32pm

Hi Lindsay,

This is a bit of a gray area.

I don't believe the phones have to be on exactly the same application, but the context about where the forms should be sent from the "receiving" phone isn't set by WI-FI Direct, so the two apps should be from the same Project Space. It's possible that the server may still have odd metadata about the forms, I'm not 100% sure how it'll map up once received, but it should still work.

-Clayton

lindwalk · February 4, 2020, 9:35am

This is helpful, thanks Clayton.

I'm dealing with an issue of trying to transfer data that is from a different project space and therefore a different app.
I believe I will just have to physically write down the data from one project space and re-enter it on the other project space and app.

Do you have any better, more efficient ideas?

Ethan_Soergel · February 4, 2020, 4:44pm

Replied on another thread - copying here for convenience

Form submissions can’t be copied from one project space to another. You could however, copy cases over. The easiest way to do that would be to do a data export of the cases you want to transfer, then import those cases into the new project space. You’ll want to be sure to assign the case owners correctly in this step, or using the “reassign cases” feature after, so the appropriate users have access to the cases on the new project space.