Versions and form files

The form ID

A form is its form_id, from the workbook's settings sheet. It is fixed when the form is first deployed and never changes: phones, exports and the data on the server all know the form by it. Its title, questions and attachments can change from version to version.

The same form_id in two workspaces is two different forms, and on the phone two different forms too.

Version numbers

The settings sheet's version follows one rule: a single whole number, higher than the deployed one, with the same number of digits. Phones compare versions as text, so 1000 would sort before 999; a date-and-time stamp such as 2610241530 stays the same length for decades. A workbook with no version is given the next one, and the deploy message says which.

Publishing a new version

Use the form's own Upload button (not the top-level upload), with the revised workbook:

• its form_id must be the form's;
• its version must follow the rule above;
• Keep existing file attachments carries the previous version's files forward; untick it to ship only the files in this upload.

The new version is live at once. Phones see an update the next time they check; drafts already started stay on the version they were started on (see Filling, saving and sending). Submissions keep the version they were filled on (formdef_version), and exports merge the versions of a form into one dataset.

Every version is kept

Every deployed version is kept on the server exactly as uploaded: the workbook byte for byte and the compiled XForm, with the attachments and packages it shipped. Download on a form offers:

• the workbook (.xlsx) as you uploaded it, and the XForm (.xml) Joripo compiled from it, for the live version and every earlier one, with who deployed each and when;
• a printable version of the questionnaire;
• a questionnaire document (.docx) to share or print;
• the form's attachments.

The Stata import do-file for the form's data is under Export; see File formats.

Edit opens exactly the workbook you uploaded, not one regenerated from the compiled form.

A deployed form is a snapshot

The XForm compiled at deploy time is what phones keep receiving. An improvement to Joripo's compiler in a later release does not change forms that are already deployed; upload the workbook again (as a new version) to get a definition built by the current compiler. The server's maintainer can also rebuild one in place under its current version.

Duplicating a form

Duplicate (under a form's More) copies the form, with its attachments, under a new form ID and title. The copy counts against your plan's form limit like any new form.

Deleting and restoring a form

Delete moves a form, with all its versions and data, to the workspace's trash, and takes it out of every count and export in the same step. It still uses disk space (and counts toward storage) until the server's maintainer empties the trash. Deleted forms on Design lists them; Restore brings one back with its data and its reviewed quality findings. A form cannot be restored while a live form has the same ID, and a restore counts against the form limit like a new form.

Download a copy of a form's files before deleting it if you might need them elsewhere.