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How to connect Kobo to HXLDash

A guide of how to connect Kobo to HXLDash and setting up an automatically updating dashboard and workflow with no code

1. How it will work

HXLDash will be connected to Kobo via a tool called the HXLProxy.

  • Kobo collects and stores the data

  • HXLProxy moves the data (and can apply transforms and analysis) to HXLDash

  • HXLDash visualises the data

The data in this workflow will update every 4 hours

Kobo to HXLDash workflow

2. Prerequisites

Before starting, you will need the following:

3. Get your Kobo API key

Go to https://kobo.humanitarianresponse.info/#/account-settings. Click on the eye-shaped icon to make the API token visible. You need to do this only once: your API token will be the same for every survey associated with your account.

Getting you Kobo API key

4. Get the link to your survey

Browse to your survey in Kobo and copy the URL. It should be of a similar format to

https://kobo.humanitarianresponse.info/#/forms/445e3cd1032b85fa7ad15d/summary

5. Connect Kobo to HXLProxy

Paste your survey link into the HXL Proxy

.

Loading your survey into the HXLProxy

6. Enter your Kobo API key into the HXL Proxy

The HXL Proxy will detect that the link for Kobo and bring up the saved recipe screen. In the box labeled Authorisation Token enter your kobo API key. Please make sure your write it in the format TOKEN <API KEY> as seen in the image below.

You will also have to enter a recipe name and a password. The password is specific to the recipe, not to you, and there is no way to retrieve it if you lose it.

Loading your survey into the HXLProxy

7. Add filters

The next step is to use the HXL Proxy to apply filters to your data. This could be to aggregate your data to a level that is safe to share or you could filter out sensitive columns such as contact details. To see more ways the HXL proxy please see the HXL Proxy use case page.

HXL Proxy Example: A filter to aggregate data for Adm1

HXL Proxy Example: A filter to remove columns tagged #contact

8. Get the URL

Copy the URL for the data from the HXL Proxy.

How to get the URL from HXL Proxy

9. Load into HXLDash

Paste this link into HXLDash and then you are ready to create a dashboard in HXLDash with data automatically flowing from Kobo.

Loading your Kobo data into HXLDash