Extract and access external data using 'Pulldata' in XLSForm, Kobo Toolbox, and ODK

I'm creating a questionnaire for Kobo Toolbox and ODK Collect. If I select a Family ID Number, I want the Province they’re from to appear in my form.

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You can attach external data to a questionnaire and use a calculation in your questionnaire to “pull data” from a .csv file and display it inside your questionnaire.  You can use a “note” to tell the data collector what you extracted from the data table.

[amosaboy]

This video was really helpful in demonstrating how to access and extract external data in XLSForm, Kobo Toolbox, and ODK using the 'pulldata' command. The step-by-step instructions were simple to follow, and I like how the syntax for the "pulldata" function was explained in a straightforward and succinct manner. It was really helpful to learn how to use "pulldata" in a practical survey application from the examples given in the video. I feel very confident using "pulldata" in my own surveys now thanks to this video, and I strongly suggest it to anyone wishing to access and extract external data for their XLSForm surveys.

[emmanuelnwachukwu]

Wow!! 4 years later this has answered all my questions

[JoëlEKE-ci]

Hello! This is very helpful and simple to understand. But now, how to attach the csv file in ODK aggregate server? thanks!

[jeannemarie]

Quick question. It looks like you populated the .csv file listing Family ID and province offline? Is there a method for using one form to "register" a participant (or family) and then using the data from that register as a source to pull data from? I'm trying to design the end to end solution for field technicians from intake to follow up where baseline and follow up data is tracked by one beneficiary ID (if that makes sense?)

[anthonygikuri]

I surely I enjoy learning Kobo tool box through this channel. Thanks. Today I have a question. I have a created a survey. I want to administer to subjects of my choice over and over. How should I link data of the same subject collected over different periods. I tried following the pull data video but I still need your help.

[abdulkarimahmed]

This video made my day. Thank you so much for the explanation in clear manner.

[modicharlesvictor]

Thank for the video. I was not successful as the kobo could not recognize my csv file. i am wondering if i missed something

[MukkiBassist]

Please tell me, Pulldata is not work with select_one value??
If I choice 'A' from select_one and then I want to show what is corespondation value with 'A' on csv?

[ariful]

Thank you so much for this. I solved my pulling problem easily after watching your tutorial.

[victorpaisano]

Thank you very much, it worked very well for me.

Does this also work for Kobo collectect?

[alexandrableile]

Hi Janna, this video is great, thanks a lot! I just had an issue with the preview showing the pulled data, but it not showing on the tablets - do you have any advice how to solve that? thanks!

[AlazarBaharuGoogle]

Thanks for your brief tutorial. What if the there are more than one results returned based on the search? it only shows the first record it matches. Is there a way to display all matching results?

[maheshjayasekara]

Thank you very much for the video. Can we set a numeric answer of a question to be shown in somewhere else in the form as a default answer in number format question but not as a note.

[billowiti]

Hi Diana, thanks for this great tutorial. Is it possible to perform updates in the uploaded csv file i.e. by continually adding extra column data using the client side data collection?
Example: You are going to visit the each family every month and just want to capture the date of visit

[hassanzoeb]

Hi thanks for the tip. What if the you wanted to shows the pull data for a preceeding select one question and now you want to pull predefined categories using the pull data option.... e, g. Select health facility, then once selected it takes to a second page which pulled data show the type of the previous choice as a dispensary, health centres, clinic etccc. Thanks

[xinegz]

I am trying very hard to get this to work and just can't seem to do it. I have replicated exactly what you show and just can't get the 'province' to show up as you describe. I am anxious to figure this out for an upcoming project we have. Is there a chance you can help me sort this out?

[VanessaGuity]

Thank you so much, this tutorial was very helpful to built a form with this function!

[ghanshyamsingh]

Hi Janna,

In CSV file created unique id's, if I created drop-down list for that id's so my read only question can't filled as per CSV file they are just blank. Kindly let me know how to fix this issue.

[asipheketelo]

Hello. Thank you very much for this video. It really saved me. I just have one critical problem though, I can't seem to be able to see the pulled data when using Kobo-collect. I want my fieldworkers to be able to see the prepopulated data for each question and verify this with participants. Any idea how I can solve this?

[lesagengola]

Thanks Janna. I really appreciate this. It a verry important leçon.