Help with Project - Branches

Support - Online
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Hi Kate,

I’m working on branches in my project. Some work fine, other do not and I’m at a loss why they are not working. I seem to be going around in circles. I delete the branch and start over, but still no joy. Can you help? Can you look at the project and give advice?

I’ll try and explain the set up. I have a select list called Fauna Class. Here you select the Class of fauna; Invertebrate, Bird, Mammal etc. Based on selection it then branches off to that class. As the species lists I have for Reptiles, Birds and Mammals is long, I want to select the Order/Family of Reptile, Bird of Mammal. So if you click Bird, it goes to Bird Order and Family list. If them you click Parrots to goes to the Parrot species list; you select the species of parrot, then go to the main flow. Simple enough, but I can not get it working in the simulator.

Thanks,

Peter M

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Hi Peter
Easiest way for me to support you will be for you to invite me to your organisation (menu top right - Organisation/Members/Invite member) - use the email kate@alchemysoftware.co.za, and specify Editor access. This way I’ll be able to see your setup and advise. You can delete my access later. I won’t make any changes.
Alternatively you can send me your package file (Applications/Publish/Download) - to kate@alchemysoftware.co.za, this will be slightly harder for me to dig through, but can still work.
Kind regards, Kate

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Thanks Kate
I will add you sortly.

Peter

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Hi Peter, thanks for adding me.

Do you republish your project every time you want to test new changes on the simulator?
I notice that the last date you published was on 20230714, so any changes you have made since then will not take effect/show on the simulator.

In your online version, you have screens for amphibians, reptiles and birds, but these screens and their list items do not exist in the published version, I believe they may have been added since you last published?

Another comment I have is that so far, with the setup I have seen, you actually don’t need to create any branches. Branches only need to be used when you want to go into a whole set of screens (more than one) based on a certain choice, ie Mammals. But if from your Mammals choice on FAUNA CLASS you just need to go to one single screen (MAMMALS), you can just set a visibility condition on the MAMMALS screen. Anyway never mind that for now, you may be planning to add more screens for each branch later, and anyway what you have right now will work (just extra work for you).

Can you try republishing and see how you go?

Then we can deal with your bird groups (Parrots etc) if you still need help after that.

Kind regards, Kate

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Thanks Kate. Yes it looks like the simulator has not been updated. I clicked publish and then copy to clipboard, then open sumulator and sinc. with clipboard. Perhaps I’m missing a step. I’ll have a fresh look tomorrow morning.
I will keep the branches, as I want to open an order/family list for some of the classes that have long list of species. For example, reptiles, birds and mammals. So when data collectors select Mammal for example, they hava a list of mammal orders/families eg Monotremes, Macropods, etc. If they select Macropods, they see a list of macropod species, eg Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Red Kangaroo, Swamp Wallaby etc. Once they select the species, they get back to the main flow.

Thanks for your advice. I’ll get back into it tomorrow.

Peter M

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Hi Peter

If you click (re-) publish, you actually don’t need to copy the link to clipboard and put into the simulator. The simulator will detect that there is a new version and show you the update icon next to your project name - click that to update.

If you click publish and then immediately copy link, you may well be copying the old/last link - make sure you wait for it to tell you that the app has been republished (and you will see the version number update). But as mentioned, the simulator won’t accept a link for a project it already has installed - it will wait to detect updates on its own.

Let me know how it goes when you get back to it.

Kind regards, Kate

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Hi Kate. Back into it this morning. Re the simulator. I was not pressing the PUBLISH button , that’s why I was not seeing the simulator work as I thought it should. My oversight.

I have now been able to divide the huge BIRD species list into Order/Family groups and the flow works perfectly as I want it to. Now I need to divide the Reptile and Mammal lists, then I think I’m done for now and will go live with my colleagues.

If you have any suggestions on improvement I would be most grateful. Please take a look.

A question: I presume the data just keep appending to the cloud file. So when you download the Excel file, you will get all of the data that is being uploaded by data collectors. We work on many different projects. Is there a way to only download data for a project or by year of collection?

Should I set up Projects in Cybertracker online by year? eg., WCSI Fauna Data 2023; WCSI Fauna Data 2024 etc.

One thing perhaps to look at in future updates is the ability to change font, font size etc, as well as screen colors. Minor stuff but maybe a simple update.

Thanks for your help on this project.

Peter M

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Hi Peter

Awesome that it is working, and with a simple explanation.

Your app is looking great. Believe it or not, to get the functionality you want/have set up, you still didn’t need to create any branches! It would have worked just with the visibility conditions that you have set up. But the advantage is that now in your screen list you can close up a branch (say birds) and get them out of your way to focus on an overview of the app or another branch, so it’s a nice way of just managing the list.

The only thing I wondered about was whether it may be possible to pick two options on your Extra Information screen, in which case you could make it a multi-select list?

To your questions:

Yes, all observations that you submit to CyberTracker Online will just keep getting added, you will always be able to see all collected data from all data collectors to date.

Regarding viewing/exporting data from different projects and years:

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You only ever can view data for one project at a time (because each project may have different fields/columns), and there is a data range filter. So yes, you can filter on one project for one year and export that data.

If you set up a new project (for WCSI Fauna Data) for each year, then they will be treated as different projects, and you will not be able to view the data from both years on the same screen in CTO, or export a consolidated CSV of both years. But that might be fine for you.

If you change your app significantly in the second year, especially deleting screens or list items, then any data collected for those screens in the first year will no longer be visible (your table and export will always show the latest screens), so if this is the case and you want to retain the old data then yes it is worth creating a new app for the second year.

If you want detailed/advanced information on which type of app changes affect collected data and how, you can find it in the User Guide here: Applications: Extra Topics — CyberTracker Online User Guide documentation

Enjoy!

Kind regards, Kate

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PS: yes the changing of fonts/colours etc is on the roadmap :slight_smile: