INTRODUCTION TO AGGREGATE SERVER

Presented by Davis David

April 25,
2019
 What is Aggregate Server
Setting Up Your Own Aggregate
Content Server
Using Aggregate Server
Data Submission in Aggregate
Server

Working with Submitted Data

Exporting Data From Aggregate

Server
Administering Aggregate
Server
1.What is Aggregate Server
Introduction to Aggregate Server
ODK Aggregate is an open source Java application that stores, analyzes and presents XForm survey data collected
using ODK Collect. It supports a wide range of data types, and is designed to work well in any hosting environment.

With Aggregate data collection team can:

➔ Host blank Xforms used by ODK collect

➔ Store and manage XForm submission data
➔ Visualize collected data using maps and simple graphs
➔ Exports and publish data in variety of formats

Aggregate can be hosted on Google App Engine, Amazon Web Services or your own local or cloud server.
Interface of Aggregate Server
Data Visualization in Aggregate Server
2.Setting Up Your Own
Aggregate Server
Planning Your Aggregate Deployment
ODK Aggregate can be deployed to any local or cloud server that runs Tomcat,Java8 and PostgreSQL (it also support
MySQL).

The following specific cloud providers have guidelines on how you can deploy ODK Aggregate in their platforms

1) Amazon Web Services (https://docs.opendatakit.org/aggregate-aws/)

2) Digital Ocean (https://docs.opendatakit.org/aggregate-do/)
3) Google App Engine (https://docs.opendatakit.org/aggregate-app-engine/)

NB:It is recommended to use ODK Briefcase if you will find out that ODK Aggregate is difficult to use.
Things to consider during your Deployment Decisions

★ Internet Access
If you decide to use Amazon web service, Google App Engine and Digital Ocean you need to make sure you
have consistent internet access. If internet access is a challenge, ODK Briefcase may be more appropriate.

★ Computer skills
In order to deploy aggregate server you need to have a good skills in computer especially in the following area.
(i) Network configuration
(ii) Selecting and using a website hosting service
(iii) Software installation
(iv) Skills Data-backup systems
Things to consider during your Deployment Decisions

★ Component Versions
ODK Aggregate should work with these minimum component versions. In most cases, newer versions should
also work .

Component Version

Java 8

Tomcat 8.0

PostgreSQL 9.4

MySQL 6.7
Things to consider during your Deployment Decisions

★ Dataset Size
You have to take into account the size of the data set you need to store, which grows not only with the number
of submissions but also with the structure of the forms. Forms with more media attachments will produce larger
data sets. If you are going to collect more data you need to consider a greater storage capacity .

★ Data Protection
If you need to prevent eavesdroppers from seeing your data as it is transmitted to your ODK Aggregate
instance, you need to do one of the following:
(i) Only connect to ODK Aggregate from within your organization’s network (when the submitting
devices are on your premises)
(ii) Obtain an SSL certificate and install it on your server (a certificate is required to secure
transmissions over https)
3. Using Aggregate Server
 1.Managing Form in Aggregate Server
You can add, download and delete forms, export data into useful formats, publish data into another service, manually
upload submissions and view the published data. ODK Aggregate provides all these options under the Form
Management tab.

In addition to the functional columns described below, the form list displays the following information about each
form

❖ Form Id is the unique name for the form

❖ Media Files is the count of media files associated with the form
❖ User is the user who uploaded the form
 2.Adding New Form in Aggregate Server
Under the Form list tab, you will see Add New Form button to upload a new form definition to
ODK Aggregate.

When you click on it a box will open asking for details of the form. Form Definition is required
and Media File(s) is optional. Choose the .xml file that will be used. You can also choose the
appropriate media files for the form
Form Management
★ View and downloading forms.
From the form list, click on form’s title to view the Xform (the actual XML file).You can then download the file
by clicking on Download XML in the Form XML Viewer.

★ Disabling or enabling downloading of a form

To disable or enable the ability of Collect or other clients to downloads forms, toggle the checkbox in the
Downloadable column of the blank forms list.

★ Disabling or enabling submission of a form

To disable or enable the ability of Collect or other clients to submit completed instances of a form, toggle the
checkbox in the Accept Submissions column of the blank forms list.

★ Deleting a blank form

Click on the Delete button for the form in the blank forms list.
Form Management
★ Exporting form data
Click on Export option in the form list to export form into useful formats and choose the format in which you
want to export data. You can also choose a filter which you have saved for the form to export only a certain
subset of form.

★ Publishing form data

Click on Publish option in the form list to publish the form into another service. You can choose
where you want to publish data and which data you want to publish. More read here
(https://docs.opendatakit.org/aggregate-data-access/#publish-data ).

★ Managing submissions manually

You can manually upload submissions for a form and check incomplete submissions under the
Submission Admin tab
 Form Management
Note:
Submissions in the Collect app are located under the /odk/instances directory on the phone’s sdcard. This directory
will contain subdirectories with names of the form in the format “formID_yyyy-mm-dd_hh_MM-ss”.

★ Removing form submissions

To remove a form submission, select the form in the Form dropdown and click on Purge Submission Data.

★ Incomplete form submissions

To see a list of incomplete submissions for a particular form under the Incomplete Submissions list.
4.Data Submission in Aggregate
Server
Submit Data into the Aggregate Server
Steps:

1. Open general setting in your odk collect app and then click Server.
2. Server type select ODK Aggregate.
3. Add your ODK Aggregate server URL.
4. Add your username.
5. Add your password.
6. In the Main menu click “Send finalized form” button.
7. Select finalized form you want to send.
8. Click “send selected” button.
5.Working with Submitted Data
Working With Submitted Data
★ You can view the data submitted from ODK collect in your Aggregate Sever.

★ You can filter the submissions, visualize them using pie chart, bar graph or map, export the submissions
into useful formats and publish the submitted data into another service.

★ You can also view all the exported submissions. ODK Aggregate provides all these options under the
submissions tab.
 Filtering Submissions
Submissions from ODK collect can be filtered to view or hide a specific subset of data by creation of filters.
Filters give you the ability to see a subset of your data. You can create and apply filters by using the options
under the Filter Submissions tab.
 Visualizing Submissions
ODK Aggregate provides a quick means for basic data visualization. This visualize functionality is meant to
provide a quick means to view early data results in meaningful ways but is not meant to provide complex data
analysis functionality. You can view your data in bar graph, pie chart or on a map.
6.Exporting Data From
Aggregate Server.
 Exporting Submissions
Click on Export option to export submitted data into useful formats and choose the format in
which you want to export data.

Available Formats:

➔ CSV file
➔ KML file
➔ JSON file

You can also choose a filter which you have saved earlier to export only a certain subset of
data.
 Viewing Exported Submissions
You can view the list of exported files under the Exported Submissions tab. You will view file
type, status, time completed for each exported file, option to download and delete exported
file.
7.Administering Aggregate
Server
Configure Site Access
In this tab you can add, delete, edit users who can access your aggregate server as long as
you are the super admin.

NOTE:If you have not yet changed your super-user password to something other
than aggregate, the server will display this server and its data are not
secure! Please change the super-user’s password! At the Top on the web
page.

You can visit Permissions sub-tab under the Site Admin tab to change this User’s password
Configure Site Access
You can specify additional usernames with browser access to the server under Permissions subtab privileges are as
follows

★ Data Collector: able to download forms to ODK collect and submit data from ODK Collect to ODK
Aggregate.
★ Data Viewer: able to log onto the ODK Aggregate website, filter and view submissions and generate csv or
kml files for download
★ Form Manager: all the capabilities of a Data Viewer plus the abilities to upload a form definition, delete a
form and its data, and upload submissions manually through the ODK Aggregate website.
★ Site Administrator: all the capabilities of a Form Manager plus the ability to add users, set password, and
grant these capabilities to other users

Remembers to click Save Changes to make all changes take effect.

+255(0) 762 260 621 | d.david@parrotai.co.tz | www.parrotai.co.tz