Create EDD From Collect Mobile Backup Using EQuIS Link

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Create EDD From Collect Mobile Backup Using EQuIS Link

This article provides instructions for generating an EDD from a Collect Mobile backup if a data form cannot be uploaded from Collect Mobile. When a data form is unable to be uploaded, the EDD can be generated manually utilizing the format used in the Collect template and a Collect Mobile backup using EQuIS Link in Professional EDP. An EQuIS Link license is available to users with a Professional Premier Data license and/or EQuIS Geotech, and is necessary for completing the steps below. See EQuIS Link License and Options for additional information.

 

Files Needed to be Extracted From the Collect Mobile Backup

FormsData.xml

1.Extract the contents of the Collect Mobile backup.

2.Navigate to Notepad++, or similar, and open the Find tool (Ctrl+F).

3.Navigate to the Find in Files tab.

4.In the Find what: field, enter the data form name.

5.In the Directory: field, enter the file path containing the Forms folder within the unzipped Collect Mobile backup.

6.Click Find All.

7.The Search Results will return the name and location of the folder which contains FormsData.xml. For example, FormsData.xml is in folder 40.

8.Navigate to the folder (e.g., folder 40), and copy the FormsData.xml to a folder in a known location.

FormsDef.xml

Note: The FormsDef.xml file can be found in the zipped file of the template, if available. The FormsDef.xml should then be copied to the same folder as the FormsData.xml (i.e., above in Step 8).

1.Extract the contents of the Collect Mobile backup, if not already completed in Step 1 under the FormsData.xml section.

2.Navigate to Notepad++, or similar, and open the Find tool (Ctrl+F).

3.Navigate to the Find in Files tab.

4.In the Find what: field, enter the name of the template provided by the client.

5.In the Directory: field, enter the file path of the Templates folder within the unzipped Collect Mobile backup.

6.Click Find All.

7.The Search Results will return the name and location of the folder which contains FormsDef.xml. For example, FormsDef.xml is in folder 9.

8.Navigate to the folder (e.g., folder 9), and copy the FormsDef.xml file to the same folder as the FormsData.xml file.

 

Generate the EDD

Using similar methodology to how Collect generates an EDD when a user pushes the data form from Collect Mobile to Collect Enterprise, EQuIS Link can generate an EDD using the EDD Format, FormsData.xml, and FormsDef.xml using the following steps.

1.Open Professional EDP.

2.Open the EDD format used in Collect.

3.Navigate to the Link tab in EDP.

4.Click the Open icon in the ribbon.

5.After the File Explorer window opens, change the file extension from Link Mapping Project (i.e., *.link) to Collect Template (*.xml).

6.Navigate to the known location folder, where the FormsData.xml and FormsDef.xml files were saved, and open the FormsDef.xml file.

7.When the Link Mapping Project window opens, click OK.

8.Click the Load icon in the ribbon.

9.When the File Explorer window opens, change the file extension from Excel (i.e., *.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm) to Collect Data (*.xml).

10.Navigate to the folder where the FormsDef.xml was saved and open the FormsDef.xml file.

11.The File Explorer will automatically reopen. This time, open the FormsData.xml file.

Link will then process the mappings defined in the FormsDef.xml file against the FormsData.xml file. The FormsDef.xml, which defines the Collect template containing all of the data mappings, acts as a Link Project File and the FormsData.xml acts as the Link source file. Once the processing is completed, the resulting EDD is ready be reviewed and submitted.

Note: For fields in the target format table where the "Value" parameter is #stamp_time or a Formula field type that calls #stamp_time in the Collect template, the EDD generated using EQuIS Link will record the local time, while the EDD generated in Collect Enterprise will record the UTC time.

 

 

EDDs with Files

 

When generating an EDD from a Collect Mobile backup using EQuIS Link, the FormsData.xml is the source file loaded into EQuIS Link. The FormsData.xml contains the records needed to create the file mappings but does not source the file itself. The following process will need to be completed to merge the file mapping in the resulting EDD generated by EQuIS Link and the file in the resulting record in DT_FILE.

 

Note: The below scenario is based on the EDGE format where Files_v1 is the table that maps to DT_FILE. This table name will differ in other EDD formats.

 

1.Create a ZIP file of all the photos/images/files from the Collect Mobile backup associated with the data form the EDD is being created from.
 

Note: The file names of the photos/images/files in the ZIP file need to match up with the file_name of the Files_v1 records generated in the resulting EDD. If you use a formula in the Files_v1.file_name field of your file data mapping, the file names in this ZIP file will not match the Files_v1.file_name in the EDD generated by EQuIS Link, and the file names in the ZIP should be manually renamed.

 

2.In EDP, right click on the Files_v1 table.

3.Click Load and Append Data File.

4.Select the ZIP created in step 1.

 

Confirm that the number of photos/images/files in the ZIP equals the number of records in Files_v1.

 

Note: If the above process is not completed, the resulting DT_FILE record will be null in the CONTENT field as the file does not exist.