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Help › Exporting data

Exporting data

The Export tab gives you each form's data ready to analyse. The default download is the WIDE CSV, in the SurveyCTO-compatible layout and with the same file names, so an existing Stata pipeline for WIDE files runs on Joripo's without changes.

Formats

Joripo writes .csv, .xlsx (Excel), .sav (SPSS) and .dta (Stata), and the Stata .do file for the CSV. It does not write R (.rds, .RData), SAS or JSON data files: R reads the CSV (read.csv) or the .dta (haven::read_dta), and Python reads either with pandas.

Quick downloads

Each form offers its WIDE .csv, the Stata import .do file for it, and a zip with the CSV, the do-file and the .dta the do-file makes. A form with several label languages also offers every language at once: the CSV once, and a do-file and .dta for each language.

Export files: choosing the layout

Export files opens the full set of options:

  • Repeat groups: wide (one row per submission; repeated questions become name_1, name_2, ...) or long (one file per repeat group, zipped).
  • Column layout: SurveyCTO-compatible WIDE, or Joripo, with quality-flag columns, which adds each submission's flags (n_flags) so that keep if n_flags == 0 drops flagged interviews.
  • Label language: the form's labels in one language, or every language.
  • Submissions to include: all of them, a random subset, or the last few days.
  • File format: .csv, .xlsx (Excel), .sav (SPSS) or .dta (Stata).
  • Also include: the Stata .do file for the CSV (labels, types, dates) and the quality-flag report (.xlsx).

What is in the file

  • Rows are in the order the server received them, oldest first, and KEY identifies each submission.
  • Dates and times are written in one time zone, SubmissionDate included: your computer's when you use Export files, the zone the submissions were collected in for a quick download.
  • A multiple-choice question gives the answer as recorded plus one 0/1 column per choice.
  • A submission whose stored file is damaged cannot be read into an export. It is left out, never quietly: the Data Exporter says how many were left out and gives their KEYs, the README.txt in each zip lists them, and a single file saved from Other downloads says so as it is saved. The server keeps the file as it arrived; ask your Joripo administrator to look at it.
  • Photos, recordings, signatures and audits are links. A link opens the file for a signed-in member of your organisation, and for nobody else; a photo shows and a recording plays in the browser, and anything a browser could run is downloaded instead.

Variable labels in Stata

The do-file labels every variable: after the standard WIDE import labels it labels what those leave bare — calculates and metadata, questions without a label in the chosen language, each 0/1 choice column as "question: choice", repeat counts — so there is no need to run odksplit afterwards. The standard labels, value labels and notes are kept as they are.

Long texts

A text answer longer than 2,045 bytes is cut short when Stata imports the CSV with the do-file; the .dta Joripo writes keeps the whole value (as a long string).

Exporting what you are looking at

On Monitor, a form's Data Explorer filters its submissions by enumerator, quality, the days received and a search. Export current data there downloads the same WIDE CSV with exactly those submissions, whichever page you are on.

Pulling data with a script

A script in R, Stata or Python can download the same files without a browser. Open Configure › API tokens and computers, choose Create token, give it a name and copy the token: it is shown only once. Send it with every request as Authorization: Bearer <token>, for example /api/projects (your workspaces), /api/projects/<workspace id>/forms (their forms) and /api/projects/<workspace id>/reports/surveycto_wide.csv?form=<form id> (the WIDE CSV; the do-file, .dta, .sav, long format and attachments are under the same /reports/). A token only reads, sees what you see, and stops when you revoke it, when someone resets your password, or when you change your password (unless you untick Also revoke my API tokens there).

A copy on your computer

To keep the data on a Windows computer and export it there without a connection, use Joripo Desktop: it downloads what is new, attachments included, and makes the same files as this tab.