Using FieldTask

Synchronising with the Server

Press the refresh button on the main screen to synchronise the device with the server. This will:

  1. Upload any completed instances
  2. Download any new or changed surveys / forms
  3. Download any new or changed tasks
Press refresh to synchronise

Refresh Button

Starting a Survey Form

Select the "Forms" tab, as shown circled below, and then tap the survey that you want to complete.

Tap on a survey form to launch

Launch Survey

Finding the Survey

If you have a lot of forms on your phone then it may be hard to find the one you want to open. However you can use "search" or "order by" to make the survey form easier to find. These buttone are circled in the image below.

Search. When you type some characters into the search bar, only those survey forms that contain that sequence of characters in their name are shown.

Use "order by" or "search" to find the form you want

Find a survey form

Order By. You can order survey forms by:

  • Name Ascending
  • Name Descending
  • Order Downloaded Ascending
  • Order Downloaded Descending
  • Project Name Ascending
  • Project Name Descending

Tasks instances can be ordered by:

  • Name Ascending
  • Name Descending
  • Order Downloaded Ascending
  • Order Downloaded Descending
  • Status, finalised first
  • Status, unfinalized first

Note

It is good practice to only have the single survey that an enumerator needs to complete on the phone. The fewer surveys that they have to choose from the less likely the wrong survey will be completed.

Adding notes

You can add free form notes to any question by selecting menu and then Add comment while completing a survey. Although the question name is included in the note automatically, a single note for the entire survey is actually created. All the notes you add for each question get combined. They can then be seen in the survey notes column when viewing results.

Changing the Language

You can change the survey language displayed by selecting menu and then change language while completing a survey.

FieldTask Settings

There are many settings that you can configure on the device using menu and general settings. Many of these can also be specified on the server (Mobile App Options). If specified on the server the settings will override those on the phone for all devices.

Playing Media Questions

If an audio or video file is added to a question (Questions with Media) then an icon will be shown that the user can seelect to play the media.

Playing media

Playing Media

If the media is set to auto play then the text of the question will show as blue and the icon will be grayed out while the file is playing.

Task Actions

Each task on the tasks tab includes a menu at the right which you can select to show a list of choice for that task.

Playing media

Selecting an action for a task

Locate

This choice will be enabled if the task has been specified to be completed at a location. Selecting it will show the location of the task on the map tab.

Directions

This choice will be enabled if the task has been specified to be completed at a location with coordinates. Selecting it will open Google maps in directions mode with the destination set to the location of the task.

Accept Task

If a task has been created with the "Self Assign" checkbox set, then a user can accept that task here.

Reject Task

An assigned task can be rejected by selecting this choice. A reason for rejecting the task must be specified. For a case the case will be unassigned.