Open Data Kit

From Wildsong
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This is starting to look like a component in my Full Geo Stack

See also GeoDataKit http://geodatakit.com/

I am trying to get ODK running to try it out for a volunteer project at Point Reyes.

We need to enable volunteers by letting them do data collection using their own phones/tablets, so the collector has to be easy enough to use that it does not take a Life Commitment in Learning to get up to speed. At the same time, it has to guide them to help us get the information we need to populate our database.

The appeal of ODK is that I might be able to set up forms with all the required fields. The dream is that it will be easy enough to use but deliver usable data.

I want to collect spatial data too, currently we can only collect point data so even a simple way to grab points would be useful. I am hoping that GeoDataKit is not a dead end. I will turn my attention to it once I have a working ODK set up.

Round 1: ODK Aggregate

Before I can start collecting field data I need to have a repository for it.

The normal way to do this is to run ODK Aggregate. ODK Aggregate is designed to work with Google App Engine. I'd like to get the alternative version running, which uses Tomcat and MySQL. I am currently stopped dead on this approach because the provided installer only supports GAE.

I can

  1. throw myself on the mercy of the ODK googlegroup to see if the MySQL version is viable (did that this morning 3/10/16)
  2. check out the Github code (did that today too) and build it (ick Java ick Eclipse ick ick maybe tomorrow)
  3. give up on a non-GAE approach and drink the tasty Google Cloud koolaid (ick to that too, waiting on 1 and 2)

What happens if I drop a First Draft GIS map in here?

<html> <iframe width="500" height="300" src="https://firstdraftgis.com/">A map should appear here.</iframe> </html>