In January this year we announced the launch of web collection - allowing data to be collected using any web browser (in addition to fieldworkers using the Android mobile app).
The uptake of this feature has been enormous and we are pleased to announce a host of further improvements to this feature (available to all subscribers to the Standard plan or above).
Allow respondents to resume incomplete web submissions
If you've ever had to respond to a form that took anything more than a few minutes to complete, you'll be able to relate to the frustration of not being able to save your progress and continue where you left off later. You can now spare your respondents this frustration by enabling "Save and resume" for any web form from the web collection settings.
If a respondent closes their browser before completing the form, the next time they open the form link, they'll be prompted to either resume where they left off, or discard and start over.
Alternatively, respondents can generate a unique link (which they can copy or email to themselves) to continue with the form at a later stage. This is handy if a respondent wants to continue completing the form from a different device.
If a respondent ever loses the link, you can retrieve it for them from the Analytics grid. And, as an added bonus, you can access their partially completed responses - even if they never end up completing the form.
Restrict web collection to fieldworkers only
Want to use web forms but only allow authenticated fieldworkers to capture data? This is now possible!
Simply assign the form to the fieldworkers who should have access in the normal way and then enable the web collection setting to "restrict access to assigned fieldworkers only".
Once enabled, fieldworkers will be required to enter their unique access code to open the form and the identity of the fieldworker will be recorded when the form is submitted - just as if they had used the mobile app.
Support non-sequential data entry
Some forms need to be completed from start to finish in a specific order. But other types of forms are non-linear. You can now cater for both scenarios.
By default, forms have to be completed sequentially (starting on page 1 and progressing page by page). A new setting is now available to override this behaviour and let respondents switch effortlessly between the pages and fields.
Validation still ensures that the form can't be submitted until all mandatory fields have been captured. When used in conjunction with form resumption, these features provide incredible flexibility for capturing long and complex forms.
Scan barcodes
Previously, if you needed to scan barcodes in a form, your only option was to use our Android mobile app. We've now added barcode scanning support to all web forms. You'll still need to use an Android device, and will need to have the free Android ZXing barcode scanner installed.