Tool to convert ODK-style XLSForms into Django models and HTML templates for use with wq (https://wq.io/)
Project description
xlsform-converter (xlsconv)
xlsform-converter converts surveys defined via the XLSForm standard into Django models and HTML5 Mustache templates. This makes it possible to re-use the powerful form building tools provided by the Open Data Kit ecosystem, while leveraging Django's robust support for relational databases like PostgreSQL.
xlsform-converter is designed to facilitate the rapid development of offline-capable data collection apps via the wq framework. The ultimate goal is to provide full compatibility with the form authoring tools provided by ODK (and Enketo, etc.). Note that this is not the same as full XForm compatibility: the client and server components of wq (wq.app and wq.db) use a JSON-based REST API to exchange data and are not directly compatible with their ODK Analogues (ODK Collect and ODK Aggregate, respectively).
For the database itself, the key distinction from other XLSForm tools (including some powered by Django) is that xlsform-converter converts the xlsform fields directly into a Django model definition, rather than representing the entire XForm standard within Django. This means that each row in an XLSForm "survey" tab is mapped to (usually) a single column in a simple relational database table. Repeat questions are handled by creating a second model with a ForeignKey
to the parent survey model.
xlsform-converter also supports a couple of additional "constraints" that are not part of the XLSForm standard:
wq:ForeignKey('app.ModelName')
: Create a foreign key to an existing Django model (presumably not defined in the spreadsheet). This is effectively a more relational version ofselect_one_external
.wq:initial(3)
: Very similar torepeat_count
, but only set for new records.wq:length(5)
: Text field maximum length (similar to astring-length
constraint)
Included Templates
xlsform-converter uses the following templates to generate Django/wq project files from a given XLSForm.
Django App Templates
models.py
rest.py
(for use withwq.db.rest
)admin.py
(for use withdjango.contrib.admin
)serializers.py
(for use withwq.db.rest
)
Mustache Templates (for use with wq)
edit.html
detail.html
list.html
popup.html
(for use with wq/map.js)
Usage
If you are using wq, you may be interested in wq.start, which uses xlsconv internally for the wq addform
and wq maketemplates
commands. Otherwise, you can use xlsconv directly with the following command-line API:
# Recommended: create virtual environment
# python3 -m venv venv
# . venv/bin/activate
# Install xlsconv
pip install xlsconv
# Use the default models.py template
xls2django my-odk-survey.xls > myapp/models.py
# Use the rest.py template (or admin.py, or serializers.py)
xls2django my-odk-survey.xls rest > myapp/models.py
# Use a custom template
xls2django my-odk-survey.xls my_templates/models.py > myapp/models.py
# Use the default edit.html template
xls2html my-odk-survey.xls > templates/survey_edit.html
# Use the list.html template (or detail.html, or popup.html)
xls2html my-odk-survey.xls list > templates/survey_list.html
# Use a custom template
xls2html my-odk-survey.xls my_templates/edit.html > templates/survey_edit.html
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