An API client for the ODK Central API. Use it to interact with your data and automate common tasks from Python.

This library aims to make common data analysis and workflow automation tasks as simple as possible by providing clear method names, types, and examples. It also provides convenient access to the full API using HTTP verb methods.

The currently supported Python version for pyodk is 3.8.

pip install pyodk

# Get a copy of the repository.
mkdir -P ~/repos/pyodk
cd ~/repos/pyodk
git clone https://github.com/getodk/pyodk.git repo

# Create and activate a virtual environment for the install.
/usr/local/bin/python3.8 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install pyodk and it's production dependencies.
cd ~/repos/pyodk/repo
pip install -e .

# Leave the virtualenv.
deactivate

The main configuration file uses the TOML format. The default file name is .pyodk_config.toml, and the default location is the user home directory. The file name and location can be customised by setting the environment variable PYODK_CONFIG_FILE to some other file path, or by passing the path at init with Client(config_path="my_config.toml"). The expected file structure is as follows:

[central]
base_url = "https://www.example.com"
username = "my_user"
password = "my_password"
default_project_id = 123

The session cache file uses the TOML format. The default file name is .pyodk_cache.toml, and the default location is the user home directory. The file name and location can be customised by setting the environment variable PYODK_CACHE_FILE to some other file path, or by passing the path at init with Client(config_path="my_cache.toml"). This file should not be pre-created as it is used to store a session token after login.

from pyodk.client import Client

with Client() as client:
    projects = client.projects.list()
    forms = client.forms.list()
    submissions = client.submissions.list(form_id=next(forms).xmlFormId)
    form_data = client.submissions.get_table(form_id="birds", project_id=8)

Find more examples here.

The Client is not specific to a project, but a default project_id can be set by:

• A default_project_id in the configuration file.
• An init argument: Client(project_id=1).
• A property on the client: client.project_id = 1.

The Client is specific to a configuration and cache file. These approximately correspond to the session which the Client represents; it also encourages segregating credentials. These paths can be set by:

• Setting environment variables PYODK_CONFIG_FILE and PYODK_CACHE_FILE
• Init arguments: Client(config_path="my_config.toml", cache_path="my_cache.toml").

Available methods on Client:

• Projects
  • get
  • list
• Forms
  • get
  • list
• Submissions
  • get
  • list
  • get_table
• for additional requests
  • get
  • post
  • put
  • patch
  • delete

See issues for additions to pyodk that are under consideration. Please file new issues for any functionality you are missing.

For interacting with parts of the ODK Central API (docs) that have not been implemented in pyodk, use HTTP verb methods exposed on the Client:

client.get("projects/8")
client.post("projects/7/app-users", json={"displayName": "Lab Tech"})

You can find a more detailed tutorial in the examples.

These methods provide convenient access to Client.session, which is a requests.Session object subclass. The Session has customised to prefix request URLs with the base_url from the pyodk config. For example with a base_url https://www.example.com, a call to client.session.get("projects/8") gets the details of project_id=8, using the full url https://www.example.com/v1/projects/8.

If Session behaviour needs to be customised, for example to set alternative timeouts or retry strategies, etc., then subclass the pyodk.session.Session and provide an instance to the Client constructor, e.g. Client(session=my_session).

Errors and other messages are logged to a standard library logging logger in the pyodk namespace / hierarchy (e.g pyodk.config, pyodk.endpoints.auth, etc.). The logs can be manipulated from an application as follows.

import logging


# Initialise an example basic logging config (writes to stdout/stderr).
logging.basicConfig()
logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

# Get a reference to the pyodk logger.
pyodk_log = logging.getLogger("pyodk")

# Receive everything DEBUG level and higher.
pyodk_log.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
pyodk_log.propagate = True

# Ignore everything below FATAL level.
pyodk_log.setLevel(logging.FATAL)
pyodk_log.propagate = False

Install the source files as described above, then:

pip install -r dev_requirements.pip

You can run tests with:

nosetests

On Windows, use:

nosetests -v -v --traverse-namespace ./tests

1. Run all linting and tests.
2. Draft a new GitHub release with the list of merged PRs.
3. Checkout a release branch from latest upstream master.
4. Update CHANGES.md with the text of the draft release.
5. Update pyodk/__init__.py with the new release version number.
6. Commit, push the branch, and initiate a pull request. Wait for tests to pass, then merge the PR.
7. Tag the release and it will automatically be published (see release.yml actions file).