ODK tables: case studies in deployment

Abstract

Open Data Kit (ODK) Tables is an Android application that allows users to enter and curate tabular data. Users can view the data through built-in or custom views using HTML/JavaScript. In this paper we discuss our lessons learned from real-world deployments of Tables. Specifically, our initial aim of providing a customized view of a table did not have a sufficient level of customizability. Rather than simply the views of the data tables, the entire application needed to be navigable using web-based tools that do not require recompilation to make presentation changes. We also discuss issues encountered with making the application scalable when faced with real-world datasets.