Offline collection
Field teams rarely have a reliable connection. On the ground, offline collection runs in KoboCollect — the data reaches Zottle when the device gets back online.
How offline collection works
There is no separate Zottle mobile app: the field application is KoboCollect (or ODK Collect), the standard Android data collection client, configured to talk to your Zottle server. It is the device side that makes offline work:
- Forms are downloaded to the device once, while you are still connected.
- Filled forms are saved locally on the device — you keep working with no signal at all.
- Queued submissions are sent when connectivity comes back; until then, they exist only on the device.
When a submission is sent, Zottle stores it and puts it into the review flow, exactly like a submission filled in the browser.
Connect the app
- Install KoboCollect (or ODK Collect) on the device.
- Open the server settings and enter your Zottle address as the server URL:
https://<your-zottle>/api/mobile-collect- Use your Zottle account as the credentials: your email (or the username created for a managed surveyor) and your password. The password is requested on the first sync and stays on the device.
- Save the settings, then sync: the forms assigned to your account are downloaded the first time.
Keep the URL exactly as shown — no query string after it. An appended parameter ends up inside the app's /formList address and the sync loops on an authentication error. And a first-contact 401 is normal: the server challenges the app, which then replies with the account you saved. If the app reports a wrong username or password, check that the server settings were saved before retyping the password.
Collecting offline
- While connected, sync the app so the forms are downloaded and ready.
- Fill the forms on site — each one is saved on the device, connection or not.
- Back in coverage, send the queued forms; photos and other attachments travel with the submission.
- Check what remains on the device before putting it away: a form still there has not reached Zottle, and nothing about it is visible to your team yet.
- Validation workflow — what happens once a submission arrives.
Anonymous collection
A project — or a single form — can have an anonymous collection link. Point KoboCollect at that link and leave the username and password empty: submissions arrive without a surveyor account attached. The workspace must allow anonymous collection for those links. Use it only when the data does not need to be attributed to a person.
Attachments
Photos, audio and video recorded in the form are uploaded as part of the submission and appear with it in the review queue. The server advertises a maximum submission payload of 100 MB, attachments included, which KoboCollect reads before sending.